Category: karma
A Samuraiâs Creed
Anonymous, Circa 1300
I have no parents;
I have no divine power;
I have no means;
I have no magic secrets;
I have no body;
I have no eyes;
I have no ears;
I have no limbs;
I have no strategy;
I have no designs;
I have no miracles;
I have no principles;
I have no tactics;
I have no talents;
I have no friends;
I have no enemy;
I have no armor;
I have no castle;
I have no sword;
- Labels: action, enlightenment, experience, karma, perspective, philosophy
“The Fearless Vampire Killers”
starring Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski,
written and directed by Roman Polanski,
is one of the funniest vampire movies ever made.
Fast forward to present day,
Roman Polanski got arrested today,
I’m sure he’ll remember, never, never, never
drug and rape a thirteen year old girl.
September 15, 2009 — BBC — The Iraqi man who threw his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush, has been released from jail in Baghdad, his brother has told the BBC.
Journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi’s act of protest made him a hero in large parts of the Arab world and beyond.
Zaidi was convicted of assaulting a foreign leader.
The TV reporter’s three-year prison sentence was reduced to one because he had a clean record. He was released three months early for good behaviour.
Zaidi’s family has been preparing to hold a party for him and he has received offers of money, jobs and even marriages from sympathisers across the Arab world.
His brother, Dargham al-Zaidi, says the journalist was beaten while in prison, suffering a broken arm, broken ribs and internal bleeding. Those allegations have been rejected by the Iraqi military.
The previously little-known journalist worked for the private Cairo-based al-Baghdadia TV.
As he flung the shoes, Zaidi shouted: “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog. This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
His action was celebrated in internet games and on T-shirts and some people have offered him their daughters in marriage.
We were all thinking it, now here’s your chance.
19 Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
20 But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink. For, doing this, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.
21 Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.
- Labels: forgiveness, humility, karma, love, peace
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear.
Happy Xmas (War is Over)
John Lennon, Yoko Ono
So this is Christmas
and what have you done
another year over
a new one just begun
and so this is Christmas
i hope you have fun
the near and the dear ones
the old and the young
a very merry Christmas
and a happy new year
let’s hope it’s a good one
without any fear
and so this is Christmas
for weak and for strong
the rich and the poor ones
the road is so long
So happy Christmas
for black and for white
for the yellow and red ones
let’s all stop the fight
a very merry Christmas
and a happy new year
lets hope it’s a good one
without any fear.
War is over, if you want it
War is over now
The Church of All Worlds (CAW) is a neopagan religious group whose stated mission is to evolve a network of information, mythology, and experience that provides a context and stimulus for reawakening Gaia and reuniting her children through tribal community dedicated to responsible stewardship and evolving consciousness.
The key founder of CAW is Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, who serves the Church as “Primate”, later along with his wife, Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, designated High Priestess. CAW was formed in 1962, evolving from a group of friends and lovers who were in part inspired by a fictional religion of the same name in the science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein; the church’s mythology includes science fiction to this day. The headquarters are presently in Cotati, California.
CAW’s members, called Waterkin, espouse pantheism, but the Church is not a belief-based religion. Members experience Divinity and honor these experiences while also respecting the views of others. They recognize “Gaea,” the Earth Mother Goddess and the Father God, as well as the realm of Faeries and the deities of many other pantheons. Many of their ritual celebrations are centered on the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece. (read more)
A Samuraiâs Creed
Anonymous, Circa 1300
I have no parents;
I make the heaven and earth my mother and father.
I have no home;
I make awareness my dwelling.
I have no life and death;
I make the tides of breathing my life and death.
I have no divine power;
I make honesty my divine power.
I have no means;
I make understanding my means.
I have no magic secrets;
I make character my magic secret.
I have no body;
I make endurance my body.
I have no eyes;
I make the flash of lightning my eyes.
I have no ears;
I make sensibility my ears.
I have no limbs;
I make promptness my limbs.
I have no strategy;
I make âunshadowed by thoughtâ my strategy
I have no designs;
I make âseizing opportunity by the forelockâ my design.
I have no miracles;
I make right action my miracle.
I have no principles;
I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles.
I have no tactics;
I make emptiness and fullness my tactics.
I have no talents;
I make ready wit my talent.
I have no friends;
I make my mind my friend.
I have no enemy;
I make carelessness my enemy.
I have no armor;
I make benevolence and righteousness my armor.
I have no castle;
I make immovable mind my castle.
I have no sword;
I make absence of self my sword.
“Everything is burning.
What is burning?
The eyes are burning.
Everything seen by the eyes is burning.
The ears are burning.
What is burning?
Everything heard by the ears is burning.
The nose is burning.
Smells are ablaze.
The tongue is burning.
Tastes are ablaze.
The body is burning.
The mind is burning.”
Buddha
D. Max Moerman, scholar: “Weâre on fire; we may not know it but weâre on fire and we have to put that fire out. Weâre burning with desire, weâre burning with craving. Everything about us is out of control.”
W.S. Merwin, poet: “The Buddha goes on to talk about the three poisons: greed, and anger, and ignorance, and how the three poisons are what is making the fire, and the way out of doing this is not to deny the three poisons, but to recognize that if you turn them around, you come to their opposites.”
Instead of greed, you have generosity; instead of anger, you have compassion; and instead of ignorance, you have wisdom.
- Labels: buddhism, compassion, insight, karma, liberation, love
“morality”…
is the greatest evil
in the world today…
why?…
because we have forgotten
what is moral.
- Labels: acceptance, choice, karma, liberal, love, perspective
This years Nobel Peace Prize winner is Liu Xiaobo,
he is currently sitting in a Chinese prison.
Freedom of Speech in China
Among the many people campaigning for human rights in China, Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, has become the most visible symbol of the struggle. A long-term exponent of non-violent protest, he is currently serving an 11-year prison term. (read more)
Liu Xiaobo; born 28 December 1955, is a Chinese intellectual, writer, and human rights activist and a political prisoner in China.
He has served as President of the Independent Chinese PEN Center since 2003. On 8 December 2008, Liu was detained in response to his participation with Charter 08. He was formally arrested on 23 June 2009, on suspicion of “inciting subversion of state power.” He was tried on the same charges on 23 December 2009, and sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment and two years’ deprivation of political rights on 25 December 2009.
During his 4th prison term from 2009 to 2020, he won the Nobel Peace Prize on 8 October 2010, for “his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China.” (read more)
Mother and father dead from suicide…
Youngest brother dead from AIDS…
Other brother diagnosed with lung cancer…
Sister undergoing emergency spinal surgery…
Hey…could be worse.
- Labels: acceptance, karma, patience, perspective, philosophy
What you put out into the world
comes back to you
How you live your life
determines what kind of life you will have
The Buddha’s final words were, “All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence.”
At his death, the Buddha told his disciples to follow no leader, but to follow his teachings.
Some of the fundamentals of the teachings of Gautama Buddha are:
The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and annihilation, that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this.
The Noble Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.
Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.
Rejection of the infallibility of accepted scripture: Teachings should not be accepted unless they are borne out by our experience and are praised by the wise. See the Kalama Sutta for details.
Anicca (Sanskrit: anitya): That all things that come to be have an end.
Dukkha (Sanskrit: duḥkha): That nothing which comes to be is ultimately satisfying.
Anatta (Sanskrit: anatman): That nothing in the realm of experience can really be said to be “I” or “mine”.
Nibbana (Sanskrit: Nirvana): It is possible for sentient beings to realize a dimension of awareness which is totally unconstructed and peaceful, and end all suffering due to the mind’s interaction with the conditioned world.
According to tradition, the Buddha emphasized ethics and correct understanding. He questioned the average person’s notions of divinity and salvation. He stated that there is no intermediary between mankind and the divine; distant gods are subjected to karma themselves in decaying heavens; and the Buddha is solely a guide and teacher for the sentient beings who must tread the path of Nirvana themselves to attain the spiritual awakening called bodhi and see truth and reality as it is.
The Buddhist system of insight and meditation practice is not believed to have been revealed divinely, but by the understanding of the true nature of the mind, which must be discovered by personally treading a spiritual path guided by the Buddha’s teachings.
(read more)
Swords to ploughshares is a concept in which
military weapons or technologies are converted
for peaceful civilian applications.
The phrase originates from the Book of Isaiah,
who prophesies of a future Messianic Age where
there will be peace amongst all humankind:
They will beat their swords into plowshares and
their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not
take up sword against nation, nor will they
train for war anymore. Isaiah 2:4 & Micah 4:3
The ploughshare is often used to symbolize
creative tools that benefit mankind, as opposed
to destructive tools of war, symbolized by the
sword, a similar sharp metal tool with an
arguably opposite use.
In addition to the original Biblical Messianic
intent, the expression “beat swords into
ploughshares” has been used by disparate
social and political groups.
One of the greatest efforts in this vein has
been various peace movement goals. An example
might be the destruction of nuclear weapons
and the use of that technology in the development
of power sources. Nuclear fission has been
applied to many civilian purposes since its
use at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and nuclear
fusion requires further research before it
can become practical to the same degree.
(read more)
Frida Kahlo
The Broken Column (La columna rota), 1944
Frida Kahlo de Rivera (July 6, 1907 â July 13, 1954; born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderón) was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán. Perhaps best known for her self-portraits, Kahlo’s work is remembered for its “pain and passion”, and its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form.
Mexican culture and Amerindian cultural tradition figure prominently in her work, which has sometimes been characterized as Naïve art or folk art. Her work has also been described as “surrealist”, and in 1938 one surrealist described Kahlo herself as a “ribbon around a bomb”.
Kahlo had a stormy but passionate marriage with the prominent Mexican artist Diego Rivera. She suffered lifelong health problems, many of which stemmed from a traffic accident in her teenage years. These issues are reflected in her works, more than half of which are self-portraits of one sort or another. Kahlo suggested, “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.” (read more)
Happy Birthday Frida