I'm going to be working for Obama's election as much as I can. It's not that I think he's the saint the way some of his followers do. It's just that the last 7 years have been such a nightmare that I can't handle another 4 years of it.
The Republicans finally shook off all pretenses of working with democrats, of "bi-partisan" actions for the sake of the general welfare -- and now all that Democrats can do is to crush them, fight for their agenda, and clean up the mess.
The republicans smell defeat. That is why they are fighting so tooth and claw. If they can wrestle a pretense of "bi-partisanship" or ship their own deeds and behaviors to paint on Democrats they will. The snakes who backed them are already scurrying into the grass. "I'm an independent now." Or a "libertarian."
Libertarian over the past 7 years has meant liberating public money and putting it in private hands. The Housing meltdown, the sheer level of corruption and impunity of this administration and the gang of kleptocrats who backed them from Congress has disgusted me more than all the cumulative (and traditional) sleaze of the Democratic party over the past 150 years. Because it was accompanied by fear tactics, terror tactics, hypocrisy, targeted partisan prosecutions, and kleptocracy on an unheard of scale. This party has been a party, and the party is over and someone needs to clean up the mess.
That is a job only the Democrats, and the progressive wing of the Democrats, can do.
Republicans like McCain showed they had no spine
when they had the opportunity to shine,
and now they must pay a price.
When they tortured prisoners they tortured me,
and now only throwing the rascals out,
can set my soul free.
When they set up a spy system,
to listen to me,
They told me all I needed to know,
about where we should be
-- free of them.
Throw the rascals out!
Chris
If the USA had behaved in a professional, legal, and humane manner when we invaded Afghanistan, and Iraq, we possibly might have rolled up Al Qaeda by now. By using torture techniques and detaining people on flimsy evidence and for propagandistic purposes, our highest level policy perverted and undermined its own stated goals; and also perverted and degraded the capabilities of what had been one of the most capable and professional Armies on Earth. Abu Gharaib wasn't just an "incident" it was an expression of policy -- and the experience contained in the following article culled from the Washington Post illustrates where that policy leads. It details the experiences of one of the so-called "terrorists" caught in the USA propaganda net....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081502985.htmlJosh White writes:
"I've covered the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2004 as military correspondent for The Post. Jumah al Dossari first caught my attention in October 2005, when I heard the story of his gruesome suicide attempt during a visit from his lawyer. Then known as Detainee #261, Dossari clearly was making a public plea for help. Though the U.S. military has said many times that all detainees at Guantanamo are treated humanely and that Dossari had been getting the help he needed, detention in Guantanamo apparently became more than he could bear. His wish to die humanized the desperation of many detainees held indefinitely at the facility."
"U.S. officials maintained for years that Dossari was a dangerous terrorist who had been arrested after going to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against U.S. forces. Dossari also spent some time in the United States and allegedly tried to recruit terrorists with fiery sermons, something that obviously raised concerns among his interrogators and jailers. Nevertheless, he was never charged with a crime, never admitted any connection to terrorism and was ultimately released to Saudi Arabia in July 2007."
"His return to freedom has been smooth. He is employed, married and doing well. When I talked to him by cellphone from Dammam late last year, he spoke of a hope and a peace and a forgiveness that arose from his "black days" behind bars at Guantanamo."
DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia
"It has been a little over a year since I left the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but I still have trouble sleeping sometimes. On a recent restless night, I found a DVD entitled "United 93" beside the family television set. I had no idea what it was about, but I started watching. When I realized that it was about the hijacked American plane that had crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, I began to cry. It reminded me of a very simple question I had asked myself countless times during my 5 1/2 years in Guantanamo: When will humans start treating each other with respect, whatever our religion or color?"
"I arrived in Guantanamo in January 2002 after Pakistani forces handed me over to the United States, probably, I suspect, for a bounty. I had been in Afghanistan to assess the progress of a mosque-building project there, funded by people in my native Saudi Arabia. I knew that Afghanistan was a dangerous place, but I was paid for the trip and I needed the money, so I went. It is a decision I will always regret. When the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan in November 2001, I fled to Pakistan. At a border checkpoint, I asked Pakistani guards for help getting to the Saudi embassy. Instead, they put me in a prison, where I was kept for days with shackles on my legs."
"After several weeks, I was blindfolded and flown with other detainees to a U.S. military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Upon our arrival there, we were thrown to the ground. Someone hit my head and forced his boot into my mouth. Despite the freezing Afghan winter, I spent several weeks in an open tent circled with barbed wire. I still have scars from my time in Kandahar. One is from a cigarette that was extinguished on my wrist and the other from the time I was pushed to a floor covered with broken glass."
"One night about two weeks after our arrival, some soldiers came and cut off my clothes and put me in an orange suit. They fitted me with very tight goggles so that I could not see and put something over my ears so that I could not hear. I was chained to the floor of a plane for several hours, then again to the floor of another for what seemed like an eternity. When they pulled us off the second plane, we had no idea where we were."
"It was Guantanamo."
"We were taken to Camp X-Ray, which consists of cages of the sort that would normally hold animals. Imprisoned in these cages, we were forbidden to move and sometimes forbidden to pray. Later, the guards allowed us to pray and even to turn around, but whenever new detainees arrived, we were again prohibited from doing anything but sitting still."
"Physical brutality was not uncommon during those first years at Guantanamo. In Camp X-Ray, several soldiers once beat me so badly that I spent three days in intensive care. My face and body were still swollen and covered in bruises when I left the hospital. During one interrogation, my questioner, apparently dissatisfied with my answers, slammed my head against the table. During others, I was shackled to the floor for hours."
"Only one of the allegations seemed to be directly related to what is called the "War on Terror." It said that I had been "present at Tora Bora." No other details were provided. I had never heard of Tora Bora (although I later learned that it was Osama bin Laden's suspected hiding place, where U.S. forces battled the Taliban in December 2001). Later, I learned that a Yemeni detainee had told interrogators that I had been there, along with many others, because he hoped to be released if he was seen as cooperating with the U.S. military."
"I know that there have been newspaper stories saying that I recruited people to go to al-Qaeda training camps. But the sheet of paper the military gave me said nothing about recruiting, which is not something I have ever done."
"There were many times in Guantanamo when I felt as though I was falling apart, like a sandcastle being washed out by the tide. I lost all hope and faith. The purpose of Guantanamo is to destroy people, and I was destroyed. I decided that I preferred death to life, and I attempted suicide several times."
"Once, during a break in a meeting with my attorney, I cut my arm with a razor and tried to hang myself. I do not remember it, but apparently my attorney returned earlier than I had told him to and found me suspended by my neck from the cell wall, unconscious and covered in blood. I broke a vertebra but survived with surgery."
"Between suicide attempts, I tried desperately to hold on to the few fleeting moments of light that presented themselves to me. I met every few months with my attorneys and felt better whenever they were in Guantanamo, but my despair would return within a day of their departure. On occasion, I was helped by compassionate guards. After the beating in Camp X-Ray, a young female guard appeared at my cage, looking to make sure that no other guards were watching. "I'm sorry for what happened to you," she whispered to me. "You're a human being just like us." These words were a temporary balm for my bruises and loneliness. Ultimately, though, I believe it was God who did not allow me to die."
"In July 2007, a colonel told me that I was going home. He did not explain why I was suddenly no longer too dangerous to live in freedom. Four days later, I was put on a Saudi government plane. When we landed in Riyadh and I saw my family, I was overwhelmed. We all cried and hugged. I said hello to someone I thought was my sister only to hear her say, "Daddy." I looked at her face again and saw that it was my daughter, who had grown from a 7-year-old child to a 13-year-old young woman while I'd been gone."
"In Guantanamo, I was very angry with the people who had decided to hold me thousands of miles from home without charging or trying me. I was very angry with the people who kept me in isolation even when I was at my most desperate. I was very angry about having no rights at all. I was not angry with Americans in general and I even drew comfort from some, such as my lawyers and the kind soldier. But I could scarcely comprehend how U.S. policy had allowed me to be treated as I had been."
"On the plane ride home, though, I decided that I would have to forgive to go on with my life. I also know that Sept. 11 was a great tragedy that caused some people to do dark things that they would not otherwise do. This knowledge helped me forget my miserable existence in Guantanamo and open my heart to life again, including to my recent re-marriage."
"When I was watching "United 93," I thought of the soldier who had offered me compassion in Guantanamo. Her words reminded me that we all share common values, and only by holding on to them can we ensure that there is mercy and brotherhood in the world. After more than five years in Guantanamo, I can think of nothing more important."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/15/AR2008081502985.htmlWe all are surfing this world.
One minute we think we are young,
and that everything is in front of us,
when suddenly things don't work as they used to,
We are old.
Morrison is with Elvis;
ZZTop is old.
Led Zepellin is old.
The Beatles are stone cold.
The Rolling stones are still rolling,
but their stones are full of moss.
But the ghosts of surfers still ride the waves.
Can't you see them in the sea?
Everything is twists and turns,
One day there is hope,
The next there is reality.
One day we are free,
the next we find new forms of slavery.
We are like swimmers in the sea.
Those old guys on the surf boards,
still seem cool because inside they are.
If the outside lols and drools,
it is the insides that shine and tell timeless stories.
The stories echo;
Of hopes and dreams,
failures and successes,
Victories and defeats.
Of waves seemingly too big to ever master,
Ridden to shore by determined masters.
Life is like a surfboard,
And we are surfers of reality.
That moment only lasts a moment.
Regain it moment by moment,
Eventually the wave will fail.
It will lose its energy.
And eventually we say goodbye to freinds.
Still alive in tales and memories.
One wave dies, but the waves live on.
What lasts is the inspiration, the lesson, the energy
not some bloated memory of an ego.
Some surfers were failed human beings;
But on the waves they were splendid!
Do we take guidance from a beach bum?
Do we admire a drunk? No...
But we can admire a master of the waves,
as he rides in so seemingly effortlessly
Someone can build on a master surfers technique.
Gandhi was felled by a bullet,
his spirit reincarnated in Martin Luther King.
Martin Luther was felled by a bullet.
Hopefully his spirit is still marching.
Nobody will ever ride a surfboard again,
the way that some master you have known.
But someone will ride it afresh,
inspired by that master,
in his own way.
Our surfers don't immitate.
They don't turn their teachers into dead Gods.
They honor them by surfing.
They work like olympic gymnasts to ready themselves.
They push their surboard fast enough to catch a wave.
They are masters by doing, not by talking.
And we learn by example, and by cultivating discipline
The way of Master and Disciple in Democracy.
Is many forms of inspirations, examples of discipline,
and a great many heroes.
The way of the Buddha is timeless.
Yet he leaves only footprints in the sand.
He is reincarnated as a dharma surfer in Malibu.
Leaving countless footprints,
Weaving patterns in the waves.
And dancing on the boards.
Chris
(Note I've never surfed with a surfboard except in my dreams)
Riding on the Tuskers
I doubt she was sad.
I believe she was born up to the Sun by wings
I see her marching round the treasure tower,
Transformed into Gold and Jewels;
I see her sitting on a lotus flower,
I see her riding on a tusker.
I see her listening to heavenly songs,
Accompanied by rumbling drums.
I see her taking her place with the Bodhisattvas of the Earth,
And reunited with loved ones and fellow Bodhisattvas.
And I see myself standing with her, bowing low in praise,
Saying: "Well done my Friend, Well Done!"
While the Buddha sings her praises.
For "Byrd," a voice of light
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/64ad536a6d
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2008/08/06/AR2008080600475.html
"Hey America, I'm Paris Hilton and I'm a celebrity, too. Only I'm not
from the olden days and I'm not promising change like that other guy.
I'm just hot," Hilton said, speaking as she reclined in a pool chair
in a revealing bathing suit and a pair of pumps. "But then that
wrinkly, white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess
means I'm running for president. So thanks for the endorsement white-
haired dude."
"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead," she
said.
She then discusses energy policy, and suggests a hybrid of McCain's
offshore oil drilling plan and Obama's incentives for new energy
technology.
"Energy crisis solved! I'll see you at the debates," she said,...
Esotericism is the teaching of secret understandings. Nichiren rightfully criticized esotericism in the form of Mikkyo Tendai and Shingon. In modern words that criticism boils down to its practice of substituting magical thinking and elitism for teaching comprehensive wisdom and sharing that wisdom for the sake of saving human beings from suffering.
I followed that criticism until I realized that Nichiren's own followers also practiced esotericism and esoteric thinking is part of Nichirens lineage and of Tendai even minus Mikkyo. I realized that there are secrets in religion that have nothing to do the feeble attempts of Buddhist poseurs and people with partial awakening to pretend they own them. Esotericism leads people astray because it pretends to hidden jewels buried somewhere hard to find, when the jewels are buried in plain sight.
What opened my eyes to more comprehensive understanding was a story that is part of the Talmud, but also part of the Zohar, or Jewish Mysticism. But it is also in the Lotus Sutra. The PaRDeS is the surface meaning, the "simile and parable" meaning. The teacher/preacher meaning (sermons) and the insight gained from meditating, embracing and waking up to a superior teaching. The Lotus Sutra and Buddhism embrace all these methods, and that is affirmed by both a deep reading of it, and also explicitly by its sister teaching the Nirvana Sutra which teaches the assurances.
The Jewel of enlightenment is like the story that Shakyamuni tells of the man who falls asleep. While he is asleep his friend sews a precious stone into his coat. Only the man is too drunk to hear him, and when he awakens goes on not realizing he has the jewel in his pocket. Thus the man works at menial jobs, and suffers long and hard days of manual labor, only to find out a time that he'd had a valuable jewel the whole time that could have spared him trouble.
The trouble is that when the Buddha compares "Hinayana" or lesser vehicle to "mahayana" greater vehicle. He's not saying that the effort is all in vain. Just that what seems a big secret is just a comprehensive understanding of reality that not all of us are ready to grasp. Moreover, once we do grasp it intellectually we aren't prepared to put it to practice. And when we put it to practice we aren't always prepared to do so in a selfless manner.
Esotericism goes astray because those who have "understanding" don't understand that enlightenment, "concept" are only worth gaining if the person comes down from the mountain and applies what he or she has learned to making the real world better. To me this is what was and is brilliant about Nichiren's Buddhism. The rest are just delusions.
If one sees the "expedient means in all things" one is starting down the road. But that is a provisional understanding. Those who see this often think they can rule the world with lies, because after all, the end justifies the means does it not?
Seeing the Lotus Sutra as "simile and parable" one is on the road to seeing what all the stories, insights, and images of the Lotus Sutra are really talking about. The treasure tower, the ceremony in the air, may be "real places" but they manifest in the human world through the world of dreams, and they can only manifest in the Saha world through the realm of action. That is the "transformation" of the world to a pure one may be already a reality in concept, but it takes effort to make it a reality in reality. We employ simile and parable to understand the world a little better and see different views.
Belief and Understanding follow grasping principle through analogy and allegory. With belief we act on the vision we've developed through description, through comparison, and through scenario building. Belief in the treasure tower is what drives us to believe that we can really truly attain enlightenment. Belief is powerful, but only belief founded on real, achievable concepts can cure us. Belief founded on delusion is simply delusional belief. Fantasy religions never bring people back to the real world or connect their ideas to daily life. True Esotericism does because it aims at revealing secrets not hiding them.
The view of the phantom city tells us to beware of dogmas, of fixed understandings, and of religious partisans. The people who most distort Nichiren Buddhism are those partisans most convinced that they, and only they, understand it; and that everyone else is ignorant, "heretical" and somehow wrong. Why? Not because the people can't understand, but because they have different understandings. The Phantom City chapter teaches us we need to keep moving or we find ourselves living in a deserted desert.
The Teacher of the Law is one who not only believes and practices the Lotus Sutra but embraces it, teaches it, gives alms to it, recites, copies and not just the words of the sutra but their spirit, their execution, and spread. In such people's hearts the Lotus Sutra will emerge naturally, as well as the benefits of being a Bodhisattva.
Chris