Two thousand dead.
Two thousand dead, and,
they might as well have put a bullet in my own head.
I look up the sky and cry.
I look down at the ground and frown.
I look all around and there is no one to blame,
...to the people who should care,
it all is a big game.
They are getting the contracts,
reaping the chaos,
and only the moldering dead
are gathering moss.
These men gave their lives for a cause,
They did it for the honor of comrades,
for the sake of their friends,
They told no lies, they fought with honor.
They did their best, they tried to do right.
No matter the lies that sent them,
these are the fundamental truths that guided them,
Loyalty, honor, dreams of peace.
Freedom, Democracy, dreams of harmony.
Look you on the dead as I see them:
their bodies lined up as they are.
In standing ranks, young old,
cut off at the stem,
all with unfinished business,
Look at them I say!
They stand up from their graves on this day,
and ask you to look at them.
Focus your eyes, see them!!!
They deserve no shame,
But we who sent them do.
We don't watch them,
we don't see them,
for us there is no war.
We have turned our backs while they've been betrayed.
Those who spoke truth, were lied about, or betrayed.
Those who warned truthfully, were ignored.
Those who protested, were put in jail.
Those who fought bravely, were undermined by civilians.
They cry to us:
"When we were sent, it was without armor.
When we were hurt, we came to a country that didn't care.
We put up buildings, they tore them down.
We built bridges they blew them up.
We defeated Saddam Hussein, they raised up a worse enemy.
And they call us traitors for feeling shame.
They who will accept no blame, have no sense of shame,
blame us for falling for their game."
"They profiteer from our deaths,
They refuse to look at our caskets.
We give their money to Halliburton,
While saving the Armor for their own cars.
They paid contractors,
While leaving us hungry and near naked.
They passed out, and pocketed, uncountable millions in bribes,
While turning the old police and troops into enemies,
They left the people unclothed, penniless,
without power or water, fuel or shelter.
They used shock and awe, and cluster bombs, to destroy a country,
and then stir in enough chaos to set brother against brother.
And when the people rose, they said "bring it on!"
Mission accomplished."
We looked the other way while our leaders lie and cheat
Maybe you feel no shame,
But this man is looking in the mirror in shame,
and can only say, what have we done?
I believed them. They are We.
These men, and these women, gave their lives for a cause,
No matter the war-profiteering that sent them.
No matter the lies decided on in committee,
that sent them to their deaths;
If others profit, that is to their shame,
but not that of the honored dead,
They may steal flags from the dead to wrap themselves in.
They may steal honor from the men on the ground, to win elections.
They may give profits to cronies and buddies;
but they will not enjoy the profits of their deceit;
An Army of dead will haunt them to their graves.
Answer you! the mothers cries.
Answer you! Why did you lie?
Answer you! Could there have been another way,
to make peace than killing by the hundred thousand?
Is Total War the answer to the mothers tears?
If somehow we manage to win,
despite all the snafus, the lies, the squalor;
It will be because of the honored dead,
both our own, and those we killed for profit,
It won't be our victory,
But that of these martyrs to a higher cause.
Not because of the clever and cynical strategists,
But because of the engineering of the unsung uncounted.
Somewhere in all people is good sense.
Somewhere sometimes buried deep down,
Even the profiteers feel it somewhere,
Even those lost deep in lies.
There is a common felt need for rights and freedom.
And this will prevail despite our "shock and awe."
Jefferson's words are truer than he knew.
Those truths are self evident.
And the walking wounded, they should bear no shame,
We owe you our lives!
We owe you for redeeming our honor.
They stole and you kept giving,
until they could steal no more.
If the military promises help,
and sends the wounded home hurting,
while cutting medical services,
why we'll have to pitch in to heal them.
If the military cuts services to veterans,
to pay for contractor stock options,
we'll find a way to help them.
They deserve at least this.
The honor is with them.
And we have to redeem our dishonor.
We owe a debt that will be repaid one way or another.
Better to repay it right.
I pray that the thieves fail.
And that those who have earned gain by theft end up in jail.
But even if they get away with their theft,
This is a debt we are all bound to repay.
Chris
Note: The military and Veterans are cutting medical services such as
psychiatric help -- even as soldiers are starting to show an
epidemic of post traumatic stress syndrome.
In the Front Seat.
Bye bye Rosa Parks,
I'm sure there is a seat up front for you.
You no longer have to sit in the back,
Or stand on hurt feet;
While young folks sit and ignore you.
You really earned your due.
Thank your Rosa,
You reached your "enough is enough" moment
Your "Popeye eats his spinach" day, that day in Atlanta.
And you weren't alone, we were with you;
you made the rest of us see that what you said was true:
We folks who want to call ourselves gentlemen,
should tip our hats and give up our seats for you.
You were a class act.
And you deserve the respect you are due.
There is a front row seat in heaven for you.
Chris
Chris
http://www.fraughtwithperil.com/blogs/holte/archives/2005_10.html
Buddhism has always focused a logical arrow on Religion. It has aimed that arrow of logic, concentrated meditative thought, and enlightenment, at the heart of the existential questions that lie at the heart of our existence. That kind of thought is known as "sod" in Hebrew. It is the Sod of the PaRDeS accronym. If one considers for a moment. Wild nebbishes wandering in the desert are doing what? They are meditating. When Daniel, Ezequiel, Isaiah, or Jeremiah, had their insights. What was their source? Some kind of enlightenment. And where does enlightenment come from? Most Buddhists would say the Buddha. But the Buddha never claimed to be a God. He got his enlightenment by working for it, but only in the Lotus Sutra does he really say where he got it from. And in there he says he learned it from the Buddha "Ancient of Days" -- from the "eternal Buddha". Well if one were going to ascribe anything to such a source, it is indeed an ultimate reality.
So my own "sot" awareness is that rather than fighting the Judeo-Christian concept of "God" in my agnostic rational way. I've come to adopt that thought experiment by combining it with another. 'God' is Universe itself. Not just this major world system, but the totality of all of them. And not some "being" of imagination, but the totality behind both time and space itself. If God created the world, He created Time itself. Literalistic Christians are limiting themselves. God is a better fiction writer than they are. If God isn't enlightened -- he should be. If the world isn't enlightened -- it is our duty to transform it. If we transform ourselves, then maybe such an enlightened "God" will emerge. But then since "God" is a totality who creates time, perhaps such a being is already on it's way -- or even present. And we are just too limited to see the fruits of all this struggle we call life. Or perhaps this world is simply absurd -- in which case it won't hurt to at least try. It's on us, it's in us. We create the world we live in.
So to me, Buddhism is an approach to religion that can be perfectly compatible with any honest religion. Of course it's not going to do well with dishonest preachers, ministers, imams or con artists. Con artists actually are attracted to Buddhism because Buddhism by itself tends to be ammoral. I'm constantly reading of Buddhists whose own moral compass got lost while they wandered in the Deserts of Mongolia or enjoyed the fruits of tantra or Zen meditation. And I'm still scarred by the stories of Buddhist Japanese and World War II. But such people betray Buddhism they aren't it's true avatars. The truly religious recognize the truths of religion without freezing them into dogma and lies. And for them the insights of Buddhism are uplifting and awakening. That is a good start.
More to come.
The story "ParDeS" is set around the 1st century AD. This is around the same time as Christianity was getting started. At that time the teachers (rabbi means teacher) who guided at least most of the disparate communities of jewish people found themselves in a real pickle. There were two centers of gravity for Judaism; Jerusalem and Babylon. In Babylon Jews were in "diasporah" spread out among other people (the nations) and forced to accommodate them, but for the most part left alone in their religious beliefs and practices. In Jerusalem, in "Judah, Samaria and Gallilee" they were at home but living under an increasingly authoritarian and insane Roman thumb. The Romans were under rulers drunk with too much power like Augustus's successor Tiberious and Calligula. These emperors were unholy and profane people who nevertheless demanded that people worship them. They intentionally picked on the Jews because those people refused to go along with that effort. In 70 AD the Jews revolted. The central figure of this story, Rabbi Akiva was a periphrial figure in this 70AD revolt, but he was a main figure in another revolt which occured nearly 70 years (132-135 CE) after that called the Bar Kokhba revolt.
At the time of the first revolt, the same stories that binded them together were driving them apart as well. There were fanatic, warlike and determined groups who were certain that God would aid them in fighting their enemies. There were un-worldly, salvation as being outside this world types -- like the Christians, and there were people who withdrew from civilization and wandered the dezerts seeking ecstatic experiences. In all they were very much like the modern Christian world which has inherited many of these teachings. At the time we are talking about Christianity was still mostly a Jewish Sect. Paul had begun preaching to the "Nations" but the numbers were still no real threat to anybody. The Christians were certain that Rome was about to be destroyed, but refused to help in any secular manner. All in all the unity and faith required to have a successful revolt against the Romans was lacking. This meant that the prophesies such as Isaiah of a peaceful world weren't going to come true, but the other ugglier prophesies of wrack and ruin were.
It was in this context that the story about the men who entered the Garden (PaRDeS) was framed. These stories were collected into a tractate called "Forbidden lectures" -- Hagigah chapter 2 -- and passed down as a warning to future generations. To some people in those generations the deeper meaning of the word PaRDeS would be lost.
The chapter opens up with a list of things that one shouldn't even pursue; "What is above, what is below, what came before creation and what came after." Since most of the modern Kabbalists love to speculate or claim secret knowledge about precisely those things -- it shouldn't be any wonder that the popular texts I've seen on the internet don't discuss the story in the full context given in the talmud. But actually if one understands the PaRDeS story one can understand why someone could see it as opening up a door to mysticism.
I am thinking of this story now, because today is Yom Kippur. The day of atonement. Since I see things in terms of cause and effect, and since to me "sin" is the kinds of thoughts, words and deeds that are taking one off course and in alienation with one's own life (God). The story of the PaRDeS and what it really means is super relevent. Judeo-Christianity have inherited good and bad from those second temple times. Jews have only survived the consequences of that first and second revolt because of the good sense of their rabbis, who aren't perfect human beings, but have done sufficiently well to keep them alive despite being surrounded by two offspring religions who have learned garbled messages from their Jewish heritage. I believe they have done so because that "good sense" comes from institutional knowledge burried in stories like this one. I also think that the lessons of the PaRDeS need to be used to inform modern Christians, Moslems, Jews and Buddhists alike. As I said the story and the methods are related....
It comes from the tractate "Hagiga;" which contains a second chapter subtitled "forbidden lectures." But I was exposed to it by some Ecstatic (Kaballist) Rabbis teaching it out of that context. I sensed the original context based on my own critiques of esotericism and sure enough, the Rabbis had included in that chapter for a reason.
"The rabbis taught: Four men went up into the heavenly garden, 1 and they were: Ben Azzai and Ben Zoma, A'her and R. Aqiba. Ben Azzai gazed and died; 2 to him the scriptural passage may be applied [Ps. cxvi. 15]: "Grievous in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his pious ones." Ben Zoma gazed and went mad; to him the scriptural passage may be applied [Prov. xxv. 16] Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou consume too much of it, and have to vomit it forth." A'her cut the plants. 3 R. Aqiba departed in peace."
The meaning of this story is obscure unless one knows that the word "PaRDeS" is also an acronym for a powerful deliniation of the means of understanding religious stories, indeed any fiction. The acronym:
Letter |
Hebrew Term/ Literal Meaning |
Definition and limited explaination. |
|---|---|---|
P |
Peshat/ "Simple" |
Literal meaning. |
R |
Ramez(Remez)/"Hinted" |
"Hint:" Hinted meaning. Allegoric/Metaphorical meaning, or "meaning hinted at in the text". |
D |
Drash(derush) / "Search" |
Derush, or Homilitic meaning, (eisegis(?)/exegesis) "reading into" a text " |
S |
Sod / "Hidden" |
Secret, "mystical," or Esoteric meaning (anagogical to Latin teachers). |
Now, these methods of teaching are used explicitly in all the great religions. There is evidence the early Christians knew of them. Mohammed talks about them. The Lotus Sutra talks of them when it talks about "skillfulness" and both the the Skillfulness Chapter and the Juryo Chapter include deep exegises on the subject. Reading this story and contemplating its meaning was a revelation to me of what the Rabbis were talking about -- and also what the Enlightened One of Buddhism was talking about.
Once I understood this story I had a moment of real transcendence that I think is important to share.
This week was Rosh Hashanah. Among my adoptive people and according to the Jewish Calendar today is the third day of the year 5766. It's nice having so many new years to celebrate. I expecially like Rosh Hashanah because I like beginnings. It is kind of nice that it occurs around the same time as other important events, such as the time of the Atsuhara persecution among Nichirenists or the date when the Dai-Gohonzon was said to have been inscribed.
People can ask me "how can you be a Jew and a Buddhist?" Have you turned your back on Christianity? Have you turned your back on Nichiren? I can answer them, no I haven't turned my back on anyone, but ultimately there is only one vehicle. What is that vehicle?
The Rabbi told a story. It's a familiar one I've heard it from Buddhists too. This version is from the Talmud. Seems there were travellors at sea for a long time. They grew hungry, seasick and weary. They spied an island on the sea and anchored next to it with joy in their hearts. Here was a time for a picnic, to stretch the legs, to sleep on solid land under the stars, to rest. So they dropped anchor and went ashore. They were so happy to get off the ship.
They lit a fire and comforted themselves by it. And then an awful thing happened. The island moved. It seems it was a behemeth of the sea resting on the surface of the ocean, and smarting from their fire, it rolled over. They were, to a man tossed in the sea where they floundered until the ship came by and picked them up.
Are we not like those men? Don't we ache to get off of our ships? Yet, the "ship" is our "community", it's what can rescue us when things go wrong. Life seems solid, but is like this island. The Japanese once believed their entire country is such a place, resting on a giant behemeth. Thinking of the "solid things" of life as not so solid in the grand scheme of things is actually very smart. Hurricane Katrina was the "behemeth turning." Life has a way of turning on us. So we have to seek community where we can find it.
All those traditions, stories, fictions and truths, all are there to help us deal with life when it turns. Once you realize that and you detach from fixed views it becomes easier to both deal with the "behemeth turning" and to appreciate the teachers who have offered to lend us deck space on their decks, their boats, their ships, their homes...etceteras... and to see truth for what it is. We need not ever accept lies -- but we need to teach ourselves to recognize truth in all it's guises.
When I left the Gakkai, "the behemeth turned." Now I am sailing with what seems like a different ship. Yet there is in truth only one ship. That ship, the great vehicle, doesn't belong to any one nation, tribe, or religious group. And yet is the property of each of them.
Chris