Today's World: February 2013

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Awareness

The phrase"Be Here Now" was a book I read in 1971 by Ram Dass who left Harvard(friend of Tim Leary) to study and live in India.I took from it some elements that has shaped my thinking but until yesterday didn't fully understand the significance of that simple statement."Be Here Now" simple means to be aware of the present without letting your mind wander to thoughts that are created by you.Stay with what you experience ...or as much as you can without reverting to old habits.Our thoughts are created by our mind that tells(fabricates) stories about who we are and what we want.We often want a lot of things and the ego part of the mind wants it all without any pain.It discriminates all the time.It takes us down avenues that is secure and pleasurable,avoiding anything that is designated by the mind as unpleasant.We avoid half our present experiences because they have a negative designation.Ram Dass and Ajahn Sumedho(The Sound of Silence) and every book I've read on Buddhism wants us to accept our experiences without movement to the pleasant or unpleasant.In their psychology,we are letting our egos dictate and limit our joy by having duality in our thinking.Accepting the present "as it is",without designating and identifying,embraces all of life with both extremes represented and honored.

Awareness of the present is a difficult task to follow for someone who has let the mind wander and seek pleasure at every turn.One has to practice it as if they are practicing foul shots.You get better at it if you put the time in.By being aware,one can be present for others and listen to them more closely.Listening to another and putting them first before yourself reinforces awareness because your focus(mindfulness) is off your own thoughts and desires which deflates the ego and brings an openness to all experience without aversion.From practicing awareness, one fully accepts,dispassionately, all experience as joyful because it is part of nature and admired as it appears to us. Discernment of experiences provides the foundation for wisdom that comes from being aware in each moment and reacting with metta(loving-kindness) whenever it calls.The first noble truth in Buddhism is all life is suffering(stress,anxiety,dissatisfaction).Awareness interferes in that process because you are no longer creating suffering by listening to your thoughts that has become dualistic and lives in the extremes of pleasure and aversion.

Wisconsin Public Unions

As we witness the members of the public unions of Wisconsin and their supporters in the streets,one must remember their fight for democracy in the workplace helps all Americans(90% non-union workers) who work for smiling,insensitive dictatorships that would cast workers out into the cold for voicing their opinions and standing up to injustice.The corporate,conservative mindset hates real democracy because it gives ownership to the powerless and respect to the oppressed. Our fathers and mothers had ownership when one third of the American workforce was unionized.Work councils(in fifty percent of Germany's companies)provide equality and democracy between management and labor while making all the decisions for a productive,profitable company.Germany is one of the leading exporters of the world.This new form of capitalism must be replicated on our shores.

William Goonan

From "The Wrecking Crew" by Thomas Frank

The longing for permanent victory over liberlism is not unique to the Anglo-Saxon world.In country after country,business elites have come up with ingenious ways to limit the public's political choices.One of the most effective of these has been massive public debt.Milton Friedman,dean of free-market economists, stated that deficits were a way to smash a liberal state that voters could not be persuaded to part with otherwise.The famous "supply-side" theory that states less tax will unleash economic growth has been used by Republicans to increase the deficit.Reagan and Bush#1 increased the national debt from 914 billion to 4 trillion by 1992.Geroge W Bush,with tax cuts, unpaid wars and bank bailouts,increased the deficit by another 6 billion.Reducing the public's faith in government is the final goal of the Republicans.

Corporate Watch Blog

One of the most glaring examples of this continues to be the ability of corporations to cheat the public out of tens of billions of dollars a year by using offshore tax havens. Indeed, it's estimated that companies and wealthy individuals funneling money through offshore tax havens are evading around $100 billion a year in taxes -- leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab. And with cash-strapped states all across the country cutting vital services to the bone, it's not like we don't need the money

Democratic Socialist USA Statement

WE OPPOSE TOTALITARIANISM IN ITS SECULAR AND RELIGIOUS FORMS. Communism is a horrible, destructive parody of socialism. "Communism" is the most dangerous enemy of democracy and free Labor in the world. We rejoice in its collapse of the Soviet Union with formerly enslaved nations now joining the society of democracy. SD,USA proudly opposes Communist totalitarianism and opposes religious extremism arising in many religious traditions, especially in the Islamic world.
WE AFFIRM THAT IN THE 21ST CENTURY THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC/DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST MOVEMENT SHALL ALSO BE A ENVIRONMENTALIST MOVEMENT DEDICATED TO PRESERVING THE FRAGILE ECOLOGY OF THIS PLANET. We commit ourselves to working with labor and environmental coalitions like the Blue Green Alliance, begun by the unionists and environmentalists to preserve our planet and create new jobs in renewable energy and mass transit.

Today's World

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Wes Montgomery - Round Midnight

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Awareness

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