So I am pretty tired of writing about Buddhism for the moment. So instead I am going to ruminate some more about playing Dungeons and Dragons with my daughter - it is becoming a real learning experience for both of us.
One thing is that, as I mentioned before, D&D is primarily set up for imaginative adolescent boys so that they can kill things and take their stuff. Not that D&D needs to be confined to that kind of mentality. Not at all. But, if you look at the way characters are made and how they advance in skills and ability it is obvious what the game is primarily about.
All of the character classes with the possible exception of the thief (now more open endedly called the Rogue) are all about kicking ass and taking names. The fighters are your hand to hand combat guys, the wizards are your heavy artillery (esp. as they advance), the clerics are the medics but also the go-to guys for clearing away the undead and perhaps otherworldly beings like demons. Even the thieves are good for backstabbing and setting traps.
Characters get more powerful by advancing in levels and they advance in levels depending on how many experience points they get. Originally, D&D experience points (or XPs) were garnered by killing monsters and collecting loot. Each monster was worth a certain amount of points (kind of like shooting deer) and each gold piece worth of treasure was worth one XP. So naturally the game centred around killing and looting. Now the characters might nominally be the good guys, and the monsters might nominally be evil, but really it was all just a big search and destroy mission. So it is no wonder that a lot of Vietnam era (or maybe earlier) combat slogans would figure into the game like "Do unto others before they do unto you" (this is now national policy and is called "anticipatory self-defence).
At the age of 39 I now feel a little uncomfortable about some of the implications of the game, and the parody versions of old D&D adventures that I have been reading and trying to adapt make this even more obvious. To wit: Even though they are called orcs or goblins or whatever, these humanoid monsters are basically stand-ins for "indians" as in the old game of "cowboys and indians." They are basically savage demonized indigenous tribes that need to be cleared out if civilization is to prevail. So basically the game is all about a war of mutual genocide with the good civilized races like elves, humans, and dwarves and the evil savage races like goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs fighting to see who can wipe each other out and take their land and stuff. It's basically the same story you find in the Book of Joshua in the Bible - kill the Caananites (including women and children), take their land, take their stuff.
On the other hand one could say that the monsters represent exotic forms of evil bandits or outlaws. But even then, this makes the so-called heroes violent vigilantes because generally they are working on their own and not for any government (though occasionally a scenario might have them working for a king or duke or local baron or high priest). They are basically setting themselves up as judge, jury, and executioner of anyone they run across who doesn't look right or has done wrong in the eyes of the characters (if not the players). In fact, one character, the paladin, is a holy knight with the ability to detect evil. This has often been interpreted to mean that the paladin and his collegues can kill someone or something just for having a certain mindset even if they had not done anything. Kind of a cross between a 1984ish psychic thought police and rough and ready frontier justice.
Currently the D&D rules only give experience points for overcoming challenges and not just for killing things or getting gold. Still the challenges are primarily organized around how powerful the monsters and/or traps are which are between the characters and their goal. This is a little more open ended and one does not necessarily need to kill something or someone to achieve the goal and get XPs. But it is still primarily about conflict and violence. Fair enough, since D&D is an adventure game, but still too close to having the morality of those shoot em up video games.
Oh, one other thing I should point out. I don't at all think that D&D was created by or for moral reprobates. The simple fact is that D&D emerged out of tabletop wargaming and it originally was meant to reproduce the heroic fantasy novels of Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock and the even earlier literature that they based their stories on like Beowulf, the Norse Eddas, El Cid, La Morte De Arthur, and other such epics. But now that I am older I can see the deeper and disturbing implications of even those stories just as I do of the Bible. Again and again I see how these stories are about the demonization of the "other" and revolve around mutual attempts at ethnic cleansing and/or cultural imperialism. The current sectarian/ethnic warfare in Iraq and between Israel and its neighbors and in Afghanistan, and the goings on in North Korea don't make these kinds of conflicts seem like so much light hearted heroic fun anymore (well, not that the Battle of Helm's Deep or the Pellinor Fields in Tolkien's books were light hearted romps).
My point is that in trying to play D&D with my 9 year old daughter whose idea of elves comes from "The Elves and the Shoemaker" and not the grand bloody and tragic epic of Tolkien's "Silmarillion" and whose idea of dragons is from the cartoon Dragon Tales and not from Wagnerian operas, and who should not be learning Vietnam era slogans like "Kill them all and let God sort them out" (which was actually coined by a Catholic bishop during the Albigensian crusade in southern France during the middle ages) I have had to think of a different sensibility.
Fortunately D&D is an extremely flexible game with lots of options and alternative rules both official and available in gaming magazines and on the net. One option I found was to scrap the usual advancement system and to instead use a system whereby the players decide what types of activities will allow their characters to advance. So they could opt for killing things and taking stuff, or they could get points for different activities like protecting one's friends, or solving mysteries and so on. The system I found (called the Sweet20 Experience Point System or something like that) even provided a list of optional ways of garnering points and how many points could be gained from different activities. This was the perfect fix - a way to steer the game away from killing things and taking their stuff.
So I read Julie some of the things on the list (the one's appropriate for 9 year old girls anyway) to let her decide what her elf-princess would gain experience for. She chose to gain points for helping people who are in need and also to gain points for eventually finding, befriending, training, and then riding a pegasus (those are the winged horses from Greek mythology for those who haven't been reading Edith Wharton or who missed the movie "Clash of the Titans").
With that problem fixed, I then asked her to choose whether she wanted to stay in the wilderness hunting for monsters who are raiding caravans or to return to her character Ruby's elvish homeland to see what they are like and to search for pegasi (I think that is the plural) in the forests and hills. She chose the latter. So now I am going to set aside the old style gaming and try to come up with little vignettes and stories whereby I will test Julie's sense of what the right thing to do would be in different circumstances. I still have to brainstorm some situations and personalities and beings to confront her with. And thankfully some game supplements have given me lots of ideas about what more peaceful and friendly communties would be like. I even found a random generator online that will tell you the demographics of medieval communities based on actual research by medieval history buffs. With the generator I can find out if a village is big enough to have an inn or if you have to find a friendly farmer to stay with, or how many bakers a town might have, and so on.
I am also going to use the game to teach Julie about how life was different in the past. She already has some familiarity with medieval Japan from watching the bloody tragic samurai history epics with Yumi and I on Saturday nights (ch. 26 plays NHK history dramas), and she has gone to a couple Renaissance Fairs. In talking to her, however, I realized that she needs a little help imagining what it would be like to live in a world with no cars, or t.v.s, or computers, or electricity, or hospitals, or schools, or trains, or planes, or flush toilets, or baths/showers, or newspapers, or restaurants, or grocery stores. I have been trying to explain to her that people had to make up their own stories and play their own music. They had to walk everywhere or ride a horse. There were no hospitals or medicine so people often got sick and died. People were dirty a lot of the time and almost everyone was literally dirt poor. They could only shop at farmers markets and most people had to grow their own food. And so on and so forth. She then wondered why people didn't have any electricity or medicine and I had to explain how these things were invented over time. And so on and so forth.
So all of this is by way of saying that I am really happy to have discovered that D&D may have started out as primarily a way for adolescent boys (and escapist adults) to imagine how much fun it would be to band together and kill things and take their stuff but that it can also be about so much more. It can be a way of teaching kids what the past was like and trying to imagine what it would be like to not have the things we take for granted. It can be a way of introducing the idea of dealing with different cultures and how there can be conflict but also peace and understanding. It can be a way of presenting ethical situations and playing out the consequences of one's actions in a safe imaginative environment.
And then of course there are the thought experiments embedded in the game that those only looking for violent adventure don't normally take up. For instance, in the case of an "elvish civiliation", what would it be like if one could live for hundreds of years and never visibly age past 25 and if one's whole existence was just dancing and partying and doing arts and crafts and basically living like some kind of near-immortal medieval hippy in some tree-house ecologically perfect commune with no real responsibilities? Would that be one's idea of heaven? Or would it come to seem empty and hollow and frivolous? Would you give anything to live with them? Or would you want to cut down their trees and burn them out of spite? What kind of mindset would such people have? And would you want to have that kind of outlook or not? This is like the Buddhist teaching of the ten worlds - ten different perspectives on life and living, but in the game it takes a multiplicity of narrative forms that one can imagine oneself being in, playing out the implications.
So all in all in playing D&D with my 9 year old daughter I am also coming to see more adult ways of using the imagination and this material (which has its roots in medieval cultures and mythologies and folklores from around the world) as a way of appreciating, exploring, and thinking about life and how to teach a deeper appreciation of life, culture, diversity ethics, and alternate perspectives on living to discover their meaning and implications.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Hi everyone,
I am pleased to announce that NONA has given official recognition to my work in San Francisco. I am now an official Nichiren Shu missionary working in San Francisco and it is NONA's hope that I will be able to form a new Nichiren Buddhist Sangha in San Francisco which can someday be the basis of a new thriving San Francisco Temple.
At this time I am running a Sunday Meditation Program at the Faithful Fools Meditation Hall at 230 Hyde Street from 3pm to 5 pm. We begin with silent sitting for 40 minutes (framed by Odaimoku Sansho), we then have an informal discussion and question and answer session at which we investigate how to apply Buddha Dharma to our lives, and for the last half hour we do chanting meditation which is known to some of you as gongyo (we use the Sacred Services of Nichiren Shu format put out by the San Jose Temple).
It is my hope that in the next two years the Nichiren Buddhist Sangha of San Francisco can grow into a solid core of at least 10 consistent and committed practitioners of Nichiren Buddhism. Put another way, I would like to find at least 10 people in San Francisco who I would feel confident in bestowing Jukai (the Diamond Precept of upholding Odaimoku) and the Gohonzon upon and who would be able to show up consistently as dues paying members of Nichiren Shu. I am looking for people who are really committed to learning, practicing, and sharing Nichiren Shu Buddhism who would be committed to supporting each other in their practice under my guidance as a Nichiren Shu minister in San Francisco. Without this kind of committment and support there can be no San Francisco Nichiren Shu Temple - which would be a shame since otherwise San Francisco is one of the strongest Buddhist cities in the mainland USA. There is no reason why Nichiren Shu should not have a strong presence in San Francisco.
If any of you are in the San Francisco area and would like to help me build a Sangha or if you know anyone in the San Francisco area who would like to be part of this, please contact me at ryuei2000@yahoo.com.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
So a couple of years ago as a lark I had my daughter Julie make up a character for Dungeons and Dragons. She was really too young to play at the time but I was curious as to what she would want to be. I was not at all surprised that she wanted to be an elf-princess who can use magic. Even then she was a Harry Potter fan along with her classmates. She named her elven princess Ruby Rainbow.
So Julie is now almost 9 years old. Her birthday is this coming Thursday. We have actually begun playing the game with little cardboard cutouts with pictures of the various characters and monsters on them that I got at the game store and a dry erase board that I am using to draw the forests and monster infested mines that she is exploring. Julie really gets into imagining all the different things about her character Ruby: her pet cat "Ghost", her pet dog "Strawberry" her horse (I forget what she named the horse), her "sparkly dress" and golden jeweled tiara for parties at the palace (I made her roll the dice to see if her character would remember which fork to use - she succeeded). She asks me who Ruby's friends in the game are (the supporting characters I made to help her). I let her pick which spells Ruby would have - and was not surprised that her favorite spell is one called "Color Spray" wherein Ruby throws colored powder in the air and transforms it into a display of red, blue, and yellow swirling hypnotic colors that will make anyone looking at it get dizzy or even pass out. So Julie has this whole rainbow motif down for her Ruby Rainbow character.
So anyway, I have been using a campaign called "LIttle Keep on the Borderlands" as the basis for her adventures. "Little Keep on the Borderlands" is kind of a parody of an old AD&D adventure originally called the "Keep on the Borderlands." This one, however, was actually written for a game called Hackmaster, which is a parody of the old Advanced Dugeons and Dragons rule books. I've been adapting these parodies for Ruby's stories but sometimes it is difficult as they have been written with a very cynical take on human nature and how incongruous such things would be in a fantasy adventure setting, and it also plays up the machismo of the game and wannabe machismo of many gamers (or at least adolescent boys) and some other things that I find very funny but would be completely over Julie's head if not inappropriate. So I just leave that stuff out.
Still, the "Little Keep on the Borderlands" is filled with some interesting moral dilemmas that were not present in the rather naive original version of the "Keep on the Borderlands" that I remembered. One such dilemma is that in the original story the castle is filled with stalwart knights sent out to the frontier to defend the human towns and villages from goblins and hobgoblins hidden away in caves in the mountains. In this version, the castle is considered to be a "speed bump" to slow down invading armies of monsters so that the actual army will have time to rally - much like our soliders on the 38th parallel in Korea were set up for so many years to basically be a speed bump that would be annihilated in the course of perhaps slowing down a North Korean invasion. As such, the soldiers in this story are all very demoralized, self-serving, and mean spirited. Several of them even began secretly mining gold in the mountains without reporting it to the authorities, and then to cover it up and expand their wealth they began making counterfeiting gold coins mixed with copper and murdering anyone who might squeal on them. Even the commander of the castle got in the act in order to cover up his own embezzling of the castle's funds to buy luxuries for his girlfriend.
There are many ways this "adventure" could be played out. One of them is that the players will get sent out by the soldiers involved in the gold conspiracy to retake the secret gold mine from a band of orc bandits (for those of you who didn't see the Lord of the Rings movies, orcs are basically uber-goblins that Tolkien adapted from Anglo-Saxon myths and have since become standard footsoldiers of evil in fantasy role playing games). In the course of retaking the mines, the players are supposed to find a ledger with the names of all the conspirators. The idea is that the players will most likely blackmail the conspirators for a cut of the profits (the assumption being that the players of the game will be insecure bookish 13 year old boys with no morals who play D&D in order to satisfy their desire to grab wealth and power and bully everyone else for a change). However, since this game was being played between a 39 year old Buddhist minister and his innocent 8 year old daughter - things went a little differently.
One thing that happened differently is that Ruby and her friends did not end up slaughtering any of the orcs the way 13 year old boys playing the game would have. Instead, they ended up capturing all of them alive. I had no idea this would happen actually. My view has always been that magic users (esp. in the beginning) should hide in the back and only use their spells to back up the fighters. But as the game played out, Ruby kept charging in first and using her color spray to knock out all the orcs before any fighting could start. I had no idea that Julie had, with virtually no knowledge of the game, made for herself a really potent character. So in the end, Ruby ended up with a half-dozen orc prisoners and she discovered the secret ledger.
I then decided that the soldiers from the castle would have set up an ambush outside the mines in order to greet any surviving party members and get the ledger back. Ruby and Co. stepped outside and saw the two soldiers who suggested the investigate the mines and then spotted more soldiers with crossbows hiding (ineffectively according to the dice rolls) in the bushes. So here is what happened:
Me: So Julie, you see the two soldiers from the castle waving to you, but there are people with crossbows hiding and aiming their weapons at you. You remember that the names of these two soldiers are in the book you found which means they were secretly mining gold when they were not allowed to do that. Do you trust them?
Julie: Noooo!
Me: They are congratulating you on beating the orcs and asking you to come down out of the cave. Do you go to talk to them?
Julie: Noooo!
Me: So what are you going to do?
Julie:
Me: One of your friends suggests that you run back into the cave and find another way out. Does that sound like a good idea?
Julie: Yes, we do that.
Me: Ok, you run back into the cave and the soldiers fire their crossbows at you, but no one is hit. Now what are you going to do with the orc prisoners?
Julie: We kill them.
Wow! So obviously they do not teach the Geneva Convention in grade school. I was not at all expecting my 8 year old daughter to say something so rutheless. This really took me aback. So the following conversation happened:
Me: Uh, Julie, is your character good or evil.
Julie: She's good.
Me: Do good people kill helpless prisoners?
Julie: Uhh, no?
Me: Right, if Ruby is one of the good guys, she would not do something like that. Good guys always take care of their prisoners, don't treat them badly, and make sure that they get a fair trial.
So in the end, the orcs showed them the back way out in return for being freed once they promised not to hurt anyone anymore (yeah right) but Ruby did take their weapons away and throw them in a river.
After Ruby and her friends got away to a safe village we had another conversation about the secret ledger.
Me: So what do you do with the book that shows that the soldiers are mining gold when they are not allowed to?
Julie:
Me: Bremen (the lawful good cleric I made to help Ruby) says to Ruby that the book needs to be turned over to the police so the bad guys who mined the gold and then attacked you to get their book back will be arrested. (Yeah, I know there are not exactly police in a medieval setting, but I was trying to keep things simple for Julie).
Julie: But what will happen to them?
Me: They'll be arrested and thrown in prison.
Julie: But then their families will miss them.
Me: Uh, Julie, they tried to kill you and in any case they broke the law.
Julie: Yeah, but if they have children, they will miss their fathers.
Me: True, but if you break the law you have to go to jail, and esp. if you try to hurt other people.
Julie: That's sad.
Me: Yes, it is. That's why people should obey the law and not try to hurt other people.
And so that is how I ended up realizing that you can't assume that 8 year olds will spontaneously abide by the Geneva Convention. I also discovered that kids are very sentimental and don't quite understand that breaking the law has consequences no matter who you are - even if you have a family. Of course, that's part of what I remember from reading about children's psychological development - it takes a while to understand abstract things like law and order beyond the values of sentiment and family relations. It's still startling to realize how amoral 8 year olds are - their worldview is not governed by rights and laws but by sentiment: killing prisoners is ok if you don't like them, putting criminals in jail is not ok because their families will miss them. Hopefully, without being too preachy, I can use the D&D game as a kind of arena in which to explore and discuss basic morals and ethics, a job that is made easier by D&D use of alignments - wherein characters are governed by the polarities of good vs evil, and law vs. chaos.
Hi everyone,
So a few people (well, actually just one person) have criticized my rather in your face style of writing in my previous blog entry. The concern was that a Buddhist minister should maintain a certain level of decorum in order not to ruin his/her reputation and also to maintain a certain standard of conduct. There is something to that and so I want to address it and some other issues. But first, what is "right speech" according to Buddhism? This is actually very explicitly stated in the sutras. Negatively, right speech avoids falsehood, abusive speech, divisive speech, slander, gossip, and idle talk. Positively, it is truthful, helpful, conducive to good relations between people, and to the point. In one discourse the Buddha states that he does not say things that are untrue and does not even say things that are true but not helpful, and does not say things simply because they are pleasant or refrain from saying things simply because they are unpleasant. Rather, the Buddha says what is true and helpful at the right term, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant for others to hear.
In the T'ien-t'ai and Nichiren traditions of Buddhism there are two terms that are used to indicate certain teaching strategies. The first term is "shoju" which means "to accept and invite." Shoju is the teaching strategy used with friendly inquirers and with students who are eager and sincere and are not stuck in a limited view. "Shoju" is a way of speaking pleasantly and meeting people where they are. The second style is "shakubuku" and it means "to break and subdue." One does not "break and subdue" the other person, but rather one breaks and subdues false views and other fixations. This style is used when others are following a destructive path and need to be warned. It is also used with students in a relationship of mutual trust and respect. The teacher uses shocking words and techniques like harsh words, or shouts, or even some physical gesture, perhaps even blows (in Tibet and East Asia this happens in many stories) in order to jolt the student out of their complacence and/or to push them into a moment of clarity. To use shakubuku the teacher must be motivated by compassion and not anger, derision or frustration, and they must really be sure that their words and/or actions will actually help and not just anger or discourage the other person. Basically it is a form of shock therapy, and so the one using it must be a very good therapist or else shakubuku will backfire and/or be nothing more than a display of ego.
So for instance, in the Western tradition the Old Testament prophets were using the shakubuku technique to warn their societies of the impending destruction that their misconduct as a society was bringing down on them. When Jesus castigated the hypocritical religious leaders of his day as snakes and children of the devil, that was also shakubuku.
In the Zen tradition there is a story of a samurai who asked a Zen Master where the gateway to heaven and hell was. The Zen Master said, "Even if I told you, an idiot like you could never understand." The samurai was infuriated at this insult and drew his sword. The Zen Master said, "There is the gate to hell." The samurai then understood that the Zen Master's insult was a way of teaching and so he sheathed his sword and apologized. The Zen Master said, "There is the gate to heaven." That is shakubuku.
The Buddha also used such techniques and of course is considered the originator of them in terms of the Buddhist tradition. Very early on the Buddha visited a worshipper of the god Agni named Kashyapa. Kashyapa was very full of himself, and yet he was very impressed by the Buddha's supernatural powers and ability to know the minds of others, including himself. And yet Kashyapa continued to believe that he himself was a perfected saint who had nothing to learn from the Buddha. After weeks of living with Kashyapa and observing his arrogance, the Buddha finally directly said, "Kashyapa, you are not a saint, and there is nothing that you are doing that will lead you to sainthood." By that time, Kashyapa had a great respect for the Buddha, and these blunt words jolted him out of his complacency.
So there is a time for blunt speech, even shocking speech. And there is certainly a time for down to earth speech, speech straight from the heart. This is one of the reasons I am a big fan of Brad Warner, the Zen Master who has written the book Hardcore Zen and also the author of the following blog:
http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/
and website:
http://homepage.mac.com/doubtboy/
I really like Brad's straight talking, though sometimes over the top, way of expressing himself. I read him and I think - this guy's for real, he's not hiding himself or pretending to be any better than he is. He is not putting on airs or some kind of preconceived persona of the reserved spiritual master. He certainly isn't putting on the air of the pollyanna minister, around whom everyone must mind their Ps and Qs and refrain from telling any bawdy jokes. The fact is that I don't trust people who are like that, or else I tend to find them annoying. But someone like Brad inspires me with confidence - that here is someone who is for real, and Buddhism is about being for real. I should also mention Hakuin, the revered 18th century reformer of Rinzai Zen, whose sarcastic and blunt diatribes I also find very entertaining but also insightful. If anything, Hakuin is much harsher than Brad.
There is "but" here. Buddhism is not just about being real. The first noble truth is about facing the real world without illusions, but the first noble truth is not about just seeing ugliness and accepting it and perhaps mirroring that ugliness by way of acknowledgement and authenticity. That is not it. The first noble truth is not that everything is totally awful, but that there is nothing that will ever be ultimately satisfactory. The second, third, and fourth noble truths are about how to deal in a postive and wholesome way with the unsatisfactory nature of all conditioned things and to find the unconditioned bliss that is available when one follows the eightfold path of wholesome/holistic livinig (as in living with the whole picture instead of a partial view). So from a Buddhist perspective being really real is not about just taking on some blue collar hard nosed unsentimental and unrefined attitude to life (and I am not saying that Brad is doing that just to be clear). Plain speaking and plain living does not have to mean coarseness. But it does mean being grounded in reality, speaking the truth, and not trying to prettify things in order to avoid or disguise reality. Sometimes the kindest word is not a gentle word, but to sound a wake up call. But in sounding a wake up call, we don't need to be derisive or abusive.
Unfortunately, the level of discourse in the USA has become very coarse. Even for people like myself and Brad, using epithets like "f' you" that decades ago would have been taken as an unforgiveable insult, is now little more than a smart alecky remark. It certainly doesn't have the impact it once did. As a matter of fact, I must note that almost every CD I buy now has the "Explicit Lyrics" lable on it. I burned a CD of some songs the other day to listen to as I drove to LA and I noticed that every single song had at least one of what George Carlin called the "seven words you can't say on the radio" (which was a skit he actually performed on the radio and it led to a Supreme Court case back in the 70s). Now on the one hand, I appreciate the use of such blunt language when it is not gratuitous and it fits the circumstances. It isn't always used to make people feel bad (which would be abusive speech) but rather to express strong feelings and/or a level of blunt and plain language. But there can be way too much of this of course. It is a cheap shortcut in lieu of other ways of making a strong point, and plainness of language shouldn't necessarily have to require vulgarity. Watching the Osborns, for instance, is funny; but afterawhile one wonders why they can't say even a single sentence without an explicative. At home I watched the first season of the Osborns with the censoring on, and sometimes whole sentences would be bleeped out. Now on the one hand that strikes me as very funny, but on the other hand it is kind of sad when any attempt to articulate anything just becomes a solid stream of vulgarity. Anyway, my point to all this is that while I appreciate plain talk and the occasional explicative for emphasis, I am aware of the coarsening of language and culture and how it really does go too far sometimes.
What is worse though, is the meanspiritedness of public discourse these days. Ann Coulter is the most egregious example of this, but far from the only one. It seems as though if you do not have any extreme views and no derisive or even hurtful remarks to make about your opponents then you are too namby pamby to get any notice. Everyone is trying to be so edgy all the time that I think we are pushing each other off the edge. And I plead guilty to this too.
Many internet forums are noted for their mean spirited discourse, or rather it used to be that way. My own personal experience has been that in the mid-90s when I first got online, one had to have a very thick skin, and if one wanted to be a successful poster you had to have a razor wit and be ever ready to cut down one's rivals. But over time I learned that it is much more effective to keep one's cool, rise above the crassness, and basically conform to right speech as the Buddha taught it - only write what is true and helpful and to the point, and find the right time and place to say it, esp. if it may be unpleasant to hear or read. Many others discovered this as well, and more and more people gravitated towards moderated forums, where those who wished to indulge in insult, vulgarity, and meanness could be moderated and eventually shown the virtual door.
My conclusions so far, which I occasionally need to remind myself of, about right speech online or offline is this (in no particular order):
1. Say what is true and avoid falsehood and misrepresentation.
2. Speak what is helpful, because not everything that is true needs to be said.
3. Find the proper context. Sometimes praising someone is not helpful to them and may strike others as favoritism or currying favor. Often criticism, esp. when made public, will only cause bad feelings and polarize people. Remember to criticize views or actions and try not to attack the people themselves. If it can be done privately do so, if the record needs to be set straight publicly then be tactful when correcting someone.
4. Whether speaking pleasant or unpleasant things, try to make sure compassion and not derision or condescension is the motive. Best to be silent if one's motive anger, frustration, exasperation or otherwise putting down others and/or showing off one's own supposed superiority.
5. Know your audience.
6. Good Listening and/or reading is essential to good communication (actually this should be #1)
7. Use explicatives sparingly if at all. Sometimes they can be funny and/or drive home a point, but it can also be abusive and/or offensive to others. This is easier to do if you are not one of the Osborns and/or if you are not a singer. I also think a dispensation should be given to stand-up comedians and blunt Buddhist ministers, as long as it is not overdone.
8. Say what you mean and mean what you say. This is similar to 1, but with a little more interiority involved.
9. If you say you are going to do something follow through. Don't make big claims that you can't back up. I think this is what the Buddha meant when he said avoid idle talk.
10. Don't talk about others when they are not present (and that includes when they are not members of the internet forum you are posting in).
11. Don't just ramble on for the sake of rambling on. Oops!
So those are some of my reflections on right speech. I'm sure I have not said all there is to say about it, and perhaps I might have said to much. But that is what I have to say, and if you don't like it then F..... Oops!
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo,
Ryuei
Don't read the following if you don't want to see me at my more cantankerous.
The following is an article I pulled from yahoo news interspersed with my own quips and remarks which will be in bold:
Castro remains out of sight after surgery By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer
48 minutes ago
HAVANA - Fidel Castro, who has wielded absolute power in Cuba for nearly half a century, remained out of sight Tuesday after undergoing intestinal surgery and temporarily turning over power to his brother Raul.
The surprise announcement that Castro had been operated on to repair a "sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding" stunned Cubans on the island and in exile, and marked the first time that Castro, two weeks away from 80th birthday, had relinquished power in 47 years of rule.
On this island 90 miles south of Florida, people went about their business as normal on the streets of Havana early Tuesday, standing in line for buses to school and work, and jogging along the city's famous Malecon seawall.
Some government work centers called workers to participate in outdoor political gatherings later Tuesday to express their support for Fidel Castro. Dozens of workers at one gathering waved small Cuban flags and shouted: "Long live Fidel!"
"There is no one else like him," said Osmar Fernandez, 27, drinking rum at a cafe. "I want Fidel to live for 80 more years."
Right, and are you saying that because you are sucking up to your government's party line? Or do you usually go around saying meaningless drivel like "may so and so live to be 160 because he is such a cool frood about whom such inane remarks should be made"?
Government opponents said the move gave them hope for eventual openings in the island's political and economic systems.
"It's clear that this is the start of the transition," activist Manuel Cuesta Morua said. "This gives Cuba the opportunity to have a more rational leadership because ... the top leaders will be obligated to consult each other (rather than be ruled by one man)."
Bwahahahahaha! You think having a tight little oligarchy of competing elitist special interests is an improvement! Bwahahahahaha! Oh, these people are so quaint and charming.
The news came Monday night in a statement read on state television by his secretary, Carlos Valenciaga. The message said Castro's condition was apparently due to stress from a heavy work schedule during recent trips to Argentina and eastern Cuba. He did not appear on the broadcast.
Castro, dude, you are almost 80 years old. Communist dictator or not - it's time to retire!
Castro, who took control of Cuba in 1959, resisted repeated U.S. attempts to oust him and survived communism's demise elsewhere, also said in the statement that he was temporarily handing over leadership of the Communist Party to his younger brother.
Raul Castro, the defense minister who turned 75 in June, also did not appear on television and made no statement on his own. For decades the constitutional successor to his brother, Raul Castro has assumed a more public profile in recent weeks.
Of course, handing the reins of government over to someone else who should have long since retired is naturally the best course for long term stability.
Fidel Castro last appeared in public Wednesday as he marked the 53rd anniversary of his July 26 barracks assault that launched the revolution. The Cuban leader seemed thinner than usual and somewhat weary during a pair of long speeches in eastern Cuba.
"The operation obligates me to undertake several weeks of rest," Castro's letter read. Extreme stress "had provoked in me a sharp intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding that obligated me to undergo a complicated surgical procedure."
The calm delivery of the announcement appeared to signal that there would be an orderly succession should Fidel Castro become permanently incapacitated.
White House spokesman Peter Watkins said U.S. authorities were monitoring the situation: "We can't speculate on Castro's health, but we continue to work for the day of Cuba's freedom."
This is their tactful ways of saying "Alright! High fives all around! Die you old communist fart! Die! Die Die!" Following by ghoulish chortling and cackling.
On Monday, before Castro's illness was announced, President Bush was in Miami and spoke of the island's future.
"If Fidel Castro were to move on because of natural causes, we've got a plan in place to help the people of Cuba understand there's a better way than the system in which they've been living under," he told WAQI-AM Radio Mambi, a Spanish-language radio station. "No one knows when Fidel Castro will move on. In my judgment, that's the work of the Almighty."
Because, of course, God the Almighty is in the employ of the CIA.
Three weeks ago, a U.S. presidential commission called for an $80 million program to bolster non-governmental groups in Cuba for the purpose of hastening an end to the country's communist system.
It is official U.S. policy to "undermine" Cuba's planned succession to Raul Castro. At the time the commission report was released, Bush said, "We are actively working for change in Cuba, not simply waiting for change."
Because of course it is very neighborly to undermine one's neighbors. Didn't Jesus say, "Undermine your neighbor as you would undermine yourself"? Or was that "Do unto others before they do unto you"? What, Jesus didn't teach that way? Wow. I guess I have to crack open my Bible again.
Oh, and of course, the Cuban people are totally incapable of taking their destiny in their own hands for good or ill. They really need to look to Big Brother to tell them how to better their society. It's not like our streets aren't filled with homeless people, and our infrastructure isn't breaking down all around us with our public transportation systems operating haphardly at best and all our grocery stores closing and our power grids threatening to shut down, and our cities getting flooded because we can't bother to make them hurricane proof and so on. And of course our portfolio of reconstructing tryannical dictatorships into perfect pictures of democratic capitalist utopias is so awe inspiring that the Cuban's should be chomping at the bit to get some of the same action as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and so on. Yessirree, there is no way the Cubans should be left to their own devices because they just don't have good old American (as in the USA which is the only America that counts) know-how. Or is that no-how?
Castro has resisted U.S. demands for multiparty elections and an open economy and has insisted his socialist system would long outlive him.
Ok, this is not so much a smart-ass remark as my true feeling: I know of no reason that a successful socialist system should not be compatible with multiparty elections, and socialism does not have to totally preclude elements of the free market. In fact, real socialism is about the workers themselves owning and operating the means of production, not the government becoming one big monopoly - which is what Communism seems to be. Socialism does take sacrifices and planning and also flexibility. Western Europe has had fairly successful socialist democracies for decades, though granted the taxes are high but on the other hand when I was in Denmark the country seemed clean and well run and the people seemed fairly happy. In fact, Copenhagen was a lot nicer than any American city I have been to. I may not know all the ends and outs of politics and economics, but I don't buy that socialism has to preclude freedom of choice, or that it necessarily involves a monopolistic control of the economy by the government.
Cuban exiles celebrated in the streets of Miami, but Havana's streets were quiet overnight as Cubans awaited further word on Castro's condition.
And of course celebrating someone's death or impending demise really shows the maturity and sophistication of the community. And does anyone remember North Korea? Kim Il Sung's demise changed nothing. It seems people like to count their chickens before they hatch, but unfortunately more often than not the chickens come home to roost.
It was unknown when or where the surgery took place or where Castro was recovering.
A leftist Argentine lawmaker, Miguel Bonasso, said he called Castro aides Monday night and was told the surgery "was successful" and the leader was resting.
Ongoing intestinal bleeding can be serious and potentially life-threatening, said Dr. Stephen Hanauer, gastroenerology chief at the University of Chicago hospitals. He said it was difficult to deduce the cause of Castro's bleeding without knowing what part of the digestive tract was affected.
Ulcers are a common cause of bleeding in the stomach or upper intestine. Stress used to be blamed but is no longer believed to be a cause of ulcers, he said.
Right, because of course stress doesn't at all have a debilitating effect on our systems that might cause a cascade effect that would throw everyting else out of whack and leave one open to things like ulcers. We shouldn't at all consider that possibility.
A condition called diverticulosis also can provoke bleeding in the lower intestine, especially in people over age 60, Hanauer said. The condition involves weakened spots in the intestinal lining that form pouches, which can become inflamed and provoke bleeding.
Fidel Castro seemed optimistic of recovery, asking that celebrations scheduled for his 80th birthday on Aug. 13 be postponed until Dec. 2, the 50th anniversary of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.
With Havana's streets calm, an electronic news ticker at the U.S. diplomatic mission provided the only clue that something dramatic had occurred inside Cuba's government: "All Cubans, including those under the dictatorship, can count on our help and support. We respect the wishes of all Cubans."
As long as those wishes coincide with our own of course.
Waiters at a popular cafe in Old Havana were momentarily stunned by the news but quickly returned to work.
"He'll get better, without a doubt," said Agustin Lopez, 40. "There are really good doctors here, and he's extremely strong."
Oh of course. In fact, Castro is actually immortal. This illness is just a kind of divine play to make sure that no one takes him for granted. He will actually never really get sick and die and you will never have to think beyond him. He will always be present to watch over and protect you and think for you. And if it ever seems like he might pass away - just clap your hands and think happy thoughts and he will recover and rule your country in perpetuity.
You f'ing morons, get a clue why don't you.
But Martha Beatriz Roque, a leading Cuban government opponent in Havana, said she believed Castro must be gravely ill to have stepped aside — even temporarily.
"No one knows if he'll even be alive Dec. 2 when he's supposed to celebrate his birthday," she said.
She added that opposition members worried they could be targeted for repression during a government change — especially if authorities fear civil unrest.
What? Someone who's not a Castro flunky actually has the brains to observe that his death may not necessarily lead to sugar plums and gum drops? This is amazing!
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Castro's strongest international ally, expressed distress during a visit to Vietnam. He said he called the Cuban leader's office after hearing the news.
"We wish President Fidel Castro will recover rapidly. Viva Fidel Castro!"
Because of course Hugo Chavez won't know whose coat tails to ride if Castro dies.
Hey, maybe the CIA has some of those exploding cigars left over from the 50s. They could have Pat Roberston send Hugo Chavez a box as a "peace offering" and when he blows himself up he can meet up with Castro in the afterlife and suck up to him for eternity.
Chinese President Hu Jintao also sent a message of good wishes to Castro, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Because of course the Chinese care so deeply about Cuba. I wonder if they had any trouble locating it on a map? Because after all, most Americans probably couldn't find Taiwan on a map if their lives depended on it.
Across the Florida straits in Miami, exiles waved Cuban flags on Little Havana's Calle Ocho, shouting "Cuba! Cuba! Cuba!" as drivers honked their horns. Over nearly five decades, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have fled Castro's rule, many of them settling in Miami.
See, once Castro dies the evil spell will be broken. There will be a huge CGI lightshow like display as the Magickal Commie Shield over the whole island will finally come into view and then crack and disperse while Castro's skull shaped palace will explode in blue flames and get sucked into a abyssal vortex. With the spell broken, all the Cubans in Cuba will shake their heads in wonder and say, "Where are we? What's going on? What year is it?" They will then realize their folly and will invite all the children and grandchildren of the gangsters and robber-barons who fled to Miami to return and take up their rightful rule over the peons who had remained in Cuba under the Communist spell. This is why the Cubans in Miami are celebrating in anticipation.
Castro has been in power since the Jan. 1, 1959, triumph of the armed revolution that drove out dictator Fulgencio Batista. He has been the world's longest-ruling head of government and his ironclad rule has ensured Cuba's place among the world's five remaining communist countries, along with China, Vietnam, Laos and North Korea.
Just to be clear the only people I dislike more than religious fundamentalists are Communists. So I won't shed a tear when these regimes bite the dust. Unfortunately, I remember what happened when Yugoslavia crumbled, and sometimes chaos and ethnic strife is even worse. You trade in a regimented evil for a chaotic evil. What is needed is not naive dreams and plots of destablization and undermining or even invasion - but a more natural internally generated evolution of economics and society. This is something that is only forced with disastrous results, esp. if forced by outsiders who don't truly appreciate the internal dynamics of a given society. I am not saying we shouldn't keep Communist or Muslim Theocracies contained and do all we can to make their people aware that there are better ways to live. But I do not believe that campaigns of aggression or "undermining" are helpful to anyone.
The son of a prosperous plantation owner, Castro's official birthday is Aug. 13, 1926, although some say he was born a year later.
Talk of Castro's mortality was taboo until June 23, 2001, when he fainted during a speech in the sun. Although Castro quickly recovered, many Cubans understood for the first time that their leader would eventually die.
Because of course none of the Cuban's had ever left their palace gardens and so they never saw the old man, the sick man, and the funeral procession that Siddhartha saw. Hmmm, maybe if Castro dies, all the Cuban's will be so shocked by the reality of birth and death that they will all leave their homes, shave their heads, don saffron robes and sit in samadhi until they attain buddhahood. Then Cuba will become the new spiritual homeland of all mankind - and all because Fidel Castro in expediently passing away taught his subjects the truth that all that is born must someday die!
Castro shattered a kneecap and broke an arm when he fell after a speech on Oct. 20, 2004, but laughed off rumors about his health, most recently a 2005 report he had Parkinson's disease.
But the Cuban president also said he would not insist on remaining in power if he ever became too sick to lead: "I'll call the (Communist) Party and tell them I don't feel I'm in condition ... that please, someone take over the command."
"Please, please, I'm begging you. I have to stop, please let me retire, I beg of you. Haven't I sacrificed enough for you people!"
I think I have to restrain a tear, oh what a selfless martyr for the people! Bearing the burden for all these years because no one else could. He is like a Communist Atlas bearing up the world on his shoulders. Truly a hero like no other.
Pfeh, just another micromanaging control freak.
Anyway, the depths of stupidity in this article on the part of everyone involved just inspired me to let loose with all this bile. To see such childish observations and transparent nonsense and condescension and arrogance played out on the stage of global politics in such a blatant way really sickens me.
Well here is my final thought:
I wish the Cuban people well - particularly the one's in Cuba. I hope that they are able to feel free to speak their hearts and minds and to construct a society that is of their own choosing and not that of some demagogue or some gangsters in Miami or of some schemers in Washington D.C.
I hope that Fidel Castro recovers, retires, and has time to reflect on his life. I hope that his eventual demise is enlightening and peaceful. I wish the same for his brother. I wish that they realize and repent of their misdeeds. I wish that any they may have harmed also find peace and reconcilitation whether in this life or in a future birth.
I hope that the people or the USA (including the expatriot Cubans) are able to awaken to what it means to be a good neighbor and that when help is extended it is not done in an arrogant or condescending way, and that such help is humanitarian and not violent, and that such help is really help and not for the sake of self-serving ulterior motives, and finally that such help is to authentically build up and not to undermine or destabilize.
So those are my thoughts on this.