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Showing posts from February, 2017

The Prisoner's Dilemna or What's The Point Of Being Good?

     You wake up with a start and realize that you aren't in your bedroom.  In fact, you have no idea where you are.  Your heart starts pounding in your chest, and you feel dizzy as you look around the room.  It's a prison cell.  You're lying on a bare mattress in the corner, and as you look out the bars of your cell you see other people walking around in a courtyard.  They are dressed in orange jump suits just like yours, and they seem confused.  You walk out into the courtyard and begin speaking with some of them.       You quickly realize that no one knows how they got here or what is waiting outside of the prison.  But everyone agrees that you need to escape!  You spend the next several months working to find a way out of the prison.  You test the doors, you try climbing over the walls, you take turns throwing furniture against the windows in the hopes that you can break them.  But it doesn't work.  You're trapped, and there's no... way... out.   

On First World Problems And The Loss Of Human Connection

     A few years ago, it was really common to see people complain about "first world problems".  For example, someone my post on social media, "My phone charger won't reach my bed.  So I can't check my messages in the morning without getting up. #firstworldproblems"  It was a way for people to complain about things while simultaneously admitting that they really didn't have anything to complain about.  It's a goofy saying.  It makes light of the fact that there are people in the world with legitimate problems like lack of food or unsafe living conditions.  And I hope people don't use it anymore.  But I'm not cool enough to keep track of things like that.  My point, however, is that as Americans we have an amazing life when compared to most of the world.      For example, have you ever thought about the miracle which is the flush toilet?  When I was deployed we had to use porta-potties like what you normally find at construction sites. 

Hell Is Empty And The Devils Are All Here

      The life of an activist can be very painful.  Often times you find yourself fighting battles that seem hopeless.  Other times you are arguing for things that should be common sense.  And at the end of the day, you lose more often than you win.  It's a rough life, but every day you dust yourself off and keeping fighting because you're an activist.  And giving up isn't what activists do.       That being said, the life of a Buddhist activist comes with its own set of challenges. Many of the environmental and human rights causes that I advocate for have taken some hits in the past few weeks.  It almost seems like humanity is trying to kill itself, and I don't understand why.  My equanimity is faltering as a result.  As a Zen practitioner, I'm supposed to see the Buddha nature that lives in all people.  I'm supposed to look at the chaos of the world and see perfection.  But sometimes I don't.  Sometimes, I look at people who disagree with me, and

Show Me Your Way Of The Buddha

One of my all-time favorite anime's growing up was Naruto .  It followed the adventures of a group of children who were training to become ninjas in order to protect their village from rival clans. For a kid's show, it dealt with some pretty adult themes like the importance of loyalty and the dangers of seeking revenge.  But my favorite part of the show was the way everyone manifested their ninja abilities in different ways. One ninja might be an expert in hand to hand combat (taijutsu) while another might be an expert in creating illusions (genjutsu).  Meanwhile, a different ninja might have the spirit of his dead mother living in the sand that he carries around in a giant gourd on his back (long-story). My point is that each of them showed their ninja-ness to the world in different ways.  Based on each person's personality and combat abilities they would develop their own "way of the ninja" and refer to it sometimes in the show; as in, "I won'