"I Trust the American Voter"

If you hear a politician of any stripe utter those words, know them to be a rogue. A lying liar.

I'm not even sure that they are premeditated liars. Worse! They lie to themselves. As in, they belief their own bullshit. Rare to the human condition. Right?

Here's how I get that. From my vantage I've been seeing an ongoing concerted and multi-fronted campaign to frame our thinking about what's what. By politicians and the news media. Nothing new. Social-political leaders have been doing that since day one. Keep the folks happy and in line.

I believe from the kinds of things I've been hearing that the bar has been set real low. Innuendo, supposition, speculation, opinion, hypotheticals, they're are passed off as facts. People and events are no longer stated as just what they are, they're cloaked with negative modifiers based on inferred motives. This or that hasn't just happened, it happened because I think this is what the no-good SOB is up to, or understood from where we think their coming from.

It's so full of obvious bias and slant. It really looks to me like the purveyors of all that bullshit hold us, the hoi polloi, as dumb fucks to be manipulated with outrageous and trickily crafted propagandizing.

I'm not so sure they're not right about that the American public is not that swift and can indeed be herded into pens of manufactured opinions. From the kinds of things going on in the news with all the rioting and cockamamie ideas about abolishing the police and reconstructing history to eliminate past errors I'm not all that impressed with the perspicacity of my fellow citizens.

So, here's the deal. If anyone says they trust the people who they have so brazenly and cynically been pumping up with self-serving propaganda, doesn't that strike you as hypocritical? It does me. Downright dishonest.

Pay attention.

The Cave is Getting Very Smokey

The Cave is Getting Very Smokey

You know that curse: May you live in interesting times. Well, here we are. We live in interesting times. And, the cave is getting pretty, pretty smokey. 

It's the height of the political season with the November 2020 Presidential election just around the corner. Plenty of smoke being blown into our collective arses. Still the sharp black and white divide: each side attempting to frame the case for the opponent(s) being the worst ever. Even Noam Chomsky has weighed in to the effect that this will be the most important election ever and the stakes are nothing less than the survival of the human race.

Which brings me to the point of doership. Those who Truly know say that you are not the doer. The Philosopher said that the only true thing we can rightly say is that we don't know. Yet, look at all the flapping jaws vying for credibility. I'm really surprised there aren't a lot of literally exploding heads with all the complexities our so called leaders are juggling in between their ears. I know, it would be political suicide to say, "I don't know". But, who's even saying that to themselves? 

The world is suffering. It's a problem not meant to be solved. Those who try to sell you on solving it, there's a book title you may want to look up: "Priests and politicians: The Mafia of the Soul." The really good news is that the seeds of our enlightenment and liberation are sown into the very fabric of creation. Grist to form and polish the pearl of the soul.

Even in his own time Bertrand Russell observed: "The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts."

I wonder if the human condition really advances. The progress in technology notwithstanding. We know more, but understand less. We're "connected", but more dissociated. Have more, are less satisfied.

In The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats: 

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

That cave. You know. Plato's Cave. It's smoke filled these days. As it should be. Attempts to clear the air only make more smoke. Note to all you do-gooders: first make sure you are yourself beyond the need for help before you go about trying the fix the world. Otherwise you're just make things worse.


THE SUFFERING OF NOT GETTING WHAT ONE WANTS

Longchenpa says ...

You would like to stay with family and loved ones
Forever, but you are certain to leave them.

You would like to keep your beautiful home
Forever, but you are certain to leave it behind.

You would like to enjoy happiness, wealth and comfort forever, but you are certain to lose them.

You would like to keep this excellent human life with its freedoms and advantages forever, but you are certain to die.

You would like to study Dharma with your wonderful teacher forever, but you are certain to part.

You would like to be with your good spiritual friends
Forever, but you are certain to separate.

Oh my friends who feel deep disillusionment with samsara, I, the Dharmaless beggar, exhort you:
From today put on the armour of effort, for the time has come to cross to the land of great bliss whence there is no separation.

Politics 2020

WTF?

Attorney General William Barr at House Judiciary Hearing July 28, 2020

Yesterday I watched the House Judiciary Committee in what looked like a raking of Attorney General William Barr. The context of the hearing concerned the committee's oversight of the Department of Justice. It wouldn't have surprised me in the least if they asked him to bend over and spread 'em. It was that nasty. Drubbing is a work that fits. Kangaroo-style court, also.

Someone afterward observed that the questioning members on the Democratic side were more interested in hearing themselves, than from Mr. Barr.

I attempt to look at things impartially. Yet, it is so fascinating how depending which side of the political spectrum you reside, the hearing was either a clown show with the Democrats there making fools of themselves; or, a complete open and shut case against, as the New York Times so objectively called him, Trump's "crony" [Barr]. The committee members making him out to be a villainous, constitution defiling, democracy hating white supremacist, racist, misanthrope SOB ... and that's putting it mildly. Representative Jerry Nadler went so far as to give Barr a "... shame on you" to frame his and his Democrat colleagues' disapproval.

I come out on the assessment that the Dems are sly mofo's, maybe even evil. They gave Barr questions that were slathered with negative comment, opinion, conjecture — you may recall the impeachment proceedings —  as if feeding him from the wide mouth of a funnel, then insisting that he give a thimbleful of response. Yes, or No, sir! No, you may not elaborate! It takes away from my time! 

When I attempted to give my sassy little daughters advice their smart-A answer was often, "Whatever you say goes back to you!" Democrats — does that group even qualify for that title? — are pots calling the kettle black. IMHO.

Also, oh so cynical of them. I've made the point before. I think they hold the electorate so easy to manipulate and play to their voting base's strongly held preconceptions and general dislike of the current Potus. Then they turn around and say that they trust the American people — yeah, the one's they've propagandized incessantly against The Donald. Like someone observed, say it often enough it becomes the truth. 

Time to get woke folks.

You decide. Let me know in the comments, please, what is your take?

Here's a taste from Chairman Nadler's remarks/questions at the beginning of the hearing:

Here in its entirety are the televised proceedings:

Welcome to The Chronicles of Gravity Ace ...

Gravity Ace is acknowledged for expertise in the field of Human Design Ecology. With special focus on balancing the arrangement of the human body to the kind of vertical, level and even stance dictated by Gravity.

As you can tell, he likes to do it with a sense of humor. 

In the design and building trades this is understood as the fundamental design requirement which must be at the core of any structure if it is to be stable and enduring: Plumb & Square.

Yellow Journalism Today

YELLOW JOURNALISM
or, is it ...
CHICKENSHIT COMMENTARY

Here's an online article recently shared by a staunch anti-Trumper ... 

Lately I've been seeing a kind of journalism and commentary which takes facts and lards them with any and all kinds of usages to put shade on the Trump Presidency. More sly, and possibly worse, the way pundits will pose a hypothetical then go on at length to castigate such people/behavior; leaving the "what if" original proposition long time in the dust, and leaving us with a rather poor image of someone or something. [In the world of advertising it is well known that the last thing presented is the most likely to be remembered.]

I have attempted in vain to get this across. My guess is there are many who don't give what's being fed to them by the media and pols any critical thought — assuming they can make such distinctions in the first place. Just take it as fact whatever is offered that fits their position or prejudice.

DISCLAIMER #1: This is not a defense of DT or his party. It is my attempt to support us being able to think for ourselves.

DISCLAIMER #2: The article cited is labelled as "commentary". Whatever you call it, my point is that it's full of facts heavily weighted to the negative. I'm not even quibbling about whether those opinions are correct or not; just pointing out that they are there. So much so there so often and from so many andles that it's noteworthy ... to me. That's my opinion.

So ... to make my point I've highlighted the points of fact in green and the points of opinion, inferred motives, assertions, implications, conjecture, supposition, hypotheticals, hyperbole and other negative characterizations in red [as in red flag]. Where the comment is biased but seems to be in a factual context, it is treated thusly. 

The statements of fact as I see them presented as such have not been fact checked, but assumed to be so as stated. 


Trump’s storm troopers crush 
liberty on the streets of Portland

By David Cay Johnston, DC Report @ Raw Story — July 20, 2020. 

Original Article: CLICK to read online.

Corrective Article: CLICK to read online. 
Wherein we read: "... Democrats are exploiting a violent crime crisis — one largely wrought by their own policies — to hone a political message: Trump is a dictator who is militarizing federal agencies to suppress peaceful protest."

Now, the original article under scrutiny: 

Pay close attention, very close attention, to Portland, Ore., where Donald Trump’s tin-horn-dictator moves against demonstrators threaten us all.

Sending armed federal law enforcement dressed in combat fatigues to grab people off the streets is an intentionally provocative strategy. Some of those arrested, and one shot with a rubber bullet that fractured his skull, appear in videos to have been acting lawfully when they were attacked by what amount to Trump’s secret police.


The attacks ordered by the wannabe dictator in the Oval Office – and overseen by his consigliere, Robert Barr – come with unlimited potential to provoke more violence. Widespread use of these tactics, especially as Election Day nears, could even create a pretext for attempting to overthrow our republic and the peaceful transition of power to a new president should Trump lose the popular vote and the Electoral College.

Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
Such actions could provoke a civil war by emboldening the armed anti-Semites, fascists, nativists, racists and haters of liberty for people they dislike.

That risk is remote, at least today, but that could change quickly.

Those are strong words, and the worst may not come to pass. But given the threat of Trump’s malevolent nature and mental illness pose, it would be foolish not to warn about the potential in his egregious abuse of power in Portland.

Tepid Reactions

Sadly, the actions of local officials in Portland, its two U.S. senators and other elected officials have been milquetoast. Writing letters and making phone calls asking Trump officials to please stop is like holding a hand up to a tsunami.

While it would itself be provocative, Mayor Ted Wheeler could order Portland police to arrest anyone grabbing people off the street who is not in uniform. Wheeler is also the city’s police commissioner.

Trump is a friend to enemies of law and order. Not only has he called neo-Nazis, Confederacy romanticizers and anti-Semites “very fine people,” he has pardoned and commuted the sentences of criminals whose felonies he thinks were proper conduct, as with Roger Stone and former Phoenix-area sheriff Joe Arpaio.

In 2018, Trump pardoned two ranchers involved in the seizure of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon, part of a 41-day standoff by people who claim, like Trump, that they are above the law.


High-Level Lawlessness

And it’s not just private citizens who think violence is the answer to policies they dislike. Last summer State Sen. Brian Boquist, a Republican state senator in Oregon, threatened during a television interview to shoot any police the state’s Democratic governor might send to force GOP legislators to meet at the Capitol. The Republicans had fled the Capitol to avoid a vote on a climate change bill.

In these circumstances, who knows if those grabbing people off Portland streets – sometimes covering their heads as if they were battlefield prisoners and tossing them into unmarked rented vehicles – are indeed federal cops or just opportunistic and politically motivated kidnappers?

Law enforcement, used legitimately, has a duty to protect demonstrators and reduce the risk of violence. We see this all the time during heated protests, where local police often segregate opponents and confer with protest leaders to minimize risks to the safety of people and property.

So why arrest Trump’s insignia-lacking agents? Better to act in the name of safety and let it all be sorted out in court than to endanger the Portland citizenry by creating opportunities for private militias to exploit such situations. Better, too, to get a clear court ruling on whether Trump is abusing his powers or we need new federal laws to prevent such dangerous actions.

Contempt for the Constitution

The Portland abuses should be viewed in the context of Trump’s utter disregard for our Constitution. He has falsely claimed that Article II lets him do anything he wants. George Consovoy, one of his lawyers, told a federal judge last October that were Trump to actually shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, the New York police could not investigate, even if the victim was killed.

At every turn, Trump emphasizes his view that he is above the law, even after all nine Supreme Court justices explicitly told him otherwise. (The two dissenters in the Manhattan grand jury case both agreed with that principle, just not Chief Justice John Roberts’s majority opinion in full.)

Trump said Sunday he may not accept the election results if he loses.

Chris Wallace of Fox asked, “can you give a direct answer—you will accept the election?” Trump replied, “I have to see. Look, you – I have to see. No, I’m not going to just say yes. I’m not going to say no, and I didn’t last time, either.”

We’ve reported in the past about what will happen if Trump refuses to leave the White House. The moment his successor is sworn in, the Secret Service’s duty will shift to the new president. They would frog march a recalcitrant Trump out of the building.

But that assumes we are not in the midst of nationwide violence fomented by Trump’s agents provocateurs and that he has not fired senior Secret Service agents who refuse to swear allegiance to him—as he tried to get James Comey to do when he was FBI director—and replaced them with loyalists.

Facts Don’t Matter

Trump appeals to his slowly shrinking base by conflating protestors and anarchists, with little evidence of the latter. But those who only get their news from Fox, Breitbart and the like evidently believe Trump is their savior and those who criticize him are – take your pick – anarchists, corrupt, communists, fools, idiots or, worst of all, liberals. For many Trumpers, empirical facts don’t matter.

On Sunday, Trump told Wallace on Fox, “You know, if you look at what’s gone on in Portland, those are anarchists and we’ve taken a very tough stand. If we didn’t take a stand in Portland, you know we’ve arrested many of these leaders. If we didn’t take that stand, right now you would have a problem like you, you—they were going to lose Portland. So, let’s see…”

Lose Portland? The locals are laughing.

More Protests, not Fewer

Trump is the principal reason protests in Portland have persisted and grown larger, as the smart newspaper Willamette Week reported this morning:

“Trump deployed federal police to Portland to quell six weeks of protests. He has achieved the opposite effect. The crowds gathering outside downtown courthouses on July 18 and 19 were as large as any Portland has seen in the past month. The crowd also appeared significantly older than at any previous demonstration.

“That’s in no small part because reports of aggressive tactics by federal officers — including shooting a protester in the face with a munition, detaining people in rental vans, and tear-gassing a county commissioner — have galvanized residents of this city to confront what they see as a military occupation.”

Homeland Security Chief in Town

The Portland Oregonian, in a Sunday editorial, mocked a Trump minion for turning annoying protests into an attack on our nation and also called out Trump’s self-serving trouble making:

“It’s a good thing there was photographic evidence establishing that acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf actually visited Portland last week. Because based on his florid statement about our city “under siege,” a reasonable person would assume the entire city is in flames and no one can go outside safely at night.

“In Wolf’s Portland, a mob that “escalates violence day after day” has been terrorizing the city. He paints a picture of the Wild West or a future dystopia where lawlessness abounds, and local authorities sanction criminality. And in go-for-broke hyperbole, Wolf equates vandalism of the federal courthouse with an attack on America itself.

“Yes, parts of downtown have been trashed. Many public and private buildings have been shuttered to protect them from further damage. But let’s call Wolf’s visit what it is: A political play ­by a Trump appointee using Portland as the backdrop. He is seizing the opportunity to create a false narrative of the federal government saving the day.

In truth, federal intervention has only made things worse.”

Disappearing People

This kind of provocative behavior by the Trump administration is not all that far from disappearing people Argentina-style. That Customs and Border Patrol and other federal law enforcement agents are willing to shoot a man for holding up a portable music player should remind us that bureaucrats, including those who should be in uniform, do as they are told. That’s why we saw babies and small children ripped from their mothers and fathers and put in cages, some of whom have quite literally disappeared.

If ever there was a slippery slope argument to be made, it is over Trump’s egregious abuse of power in using specialized federal law enforcement – or what we at least hope and assume is federal law enforcement – to grab protesters off the streets and spirit them away.

Republican Collaborators

These actions come as Trump is losing his bullying grip on Republicans. Since he won the Republican nomination four years ago this month only one Republican in Congress has had the fortitude to reject his antics, Justin Amash of Michigan. He quit the GOP. The rest act as collaborators, instead of officials charged with defending our Constitution against all enemies, including Donald Trump.

Even Mitt Romney and the now-former senator Jeff Flake have acted in inconsistent ways as they fear Trump in varying degrees.

After sometime-Trump-supporter John McCain died in 2018, the once vocally anti-Trump Lindsay Graham of South Carolina went all-in for Trump, a profile in cowardice.

That elected Republican officials and some Democrats so fear Trump that they will enable his attack on our Constitution, or at least look the other way, tells us that we are not safe so long as Trump holds office. If he gets away with his dictatorial moves in Portland now, we may all soon discover that our liberties are but a memory.

Where Do I Stand Socio-Politics 2020

Where do I stand? 

[As if anybody cared. (As if I should even care!)]

In this year of our Lord 2020, after what's coming on to be the first full term of the now President Donald J. Trump, for me — in a survey of one, I can't speak for others — I have completely and utterly lost confidence, faith, and trust in the voices of the so-called left. Including that once party of the people, the democrats. Notice I have not given that party name the honor of initial capitalization. A bunch of petty, self serving, virtue signalling, empty gesturing, political propagandists they are. Deserving no credibility.

Since Mr. Trump was sworn in we've seen a constant and multi-front 24/7/12/365 barrage of negative criticisms, complaints, overwhelmingly impeachable evidence, assertions, conjectures, opinions, suppositions, dire predictions, hypotheticals, innuendo ... all negative. For what? To remove him from his high post to replace him with the party of the opposition, which we can assume has only the best intentions and patriotic zeal to make things right as rain. We can all move Jesus to the side ... What Would Hillary Do? Let's all get behind Maxine Waters. Avuncular Joe. Adam Schiff, the exemplar of unimpeachability. That's the ticket. Even Kanye our last best hope has folded — or has he?.

If I ever hear a politician invoke the pandering "I trust the American people", I dismiss them outright. Doesn't matter who is making that claim; from either side. Fake. Fake. Fake. After all the propagandizing to the public as if we are a bunch of idiots to be manipulated with crafty wording and just barely factual reporting, now you want to turn around and say that those who you've duped are to be trusted? Really! Shame on you! Don't you ever trust one who utters that "noble" phrase. Can I trust you to do that?

Concerning it is how making that point and criticizing the critics makes me a supporter of the current President. Not necessarily. Now the logic is that giving him any credit makes me a racist. Least worst, that by criticizing the critics I'm advancing support for The Donald and his ilk by virtue of taking the focus off the dastardly, dastard himself.

Per Chelsea Handler — who is a celebrity so she should unequivocally know what's she's talking about — "If you want your beans without a side of racism, try other brands. I am."

Talk about idiots. I challenged the notion that the CEO of Goya Foods is racist for praising the President. Just don't get the connection. I drew the logic out and posited that Ben Carson works for Trump and has praised him ... what should we do with him? Can you be Black and a racist at the same time? A friend on Facebook just threw up her hands at my analogy. As if I am beyond redemption. Oh, to stand on such righteous high ground that anyone with an opposite view can just be dismissed. Social media. Ugh! Don't look for truth or light there.

All this doesn't make me want to vote a second term for Mr. Trump. I does make me want to vote for the opposite candidate less.  Some choice ... who's the less worst.

In response to some of comments I've made on social media about my observations on the political zeitgeist I have been accused to be a Trump supporter. At least that's how it was put to me. [This just in, now I'm hearing just the opposite from a Trump supporter.] I don't know if "accused" [to be a supporter] would be the word the millions who voted for 45 would choose. 

We seem to be living in times when there is a loud and intolerant gaggle on the left who take anything critical of them as proof of support of the opposition; in this case Donald the Potus and his Republican cronies. Excuse me if it doesn't bother me to hold a more than a few contradictory ideas in my head at the same time.

Up until recently I've been a lifelong Democrat. Actually, better to say, liberal and progressive. 

As a kid I was enlisted to pass out flyers on election day near a poling site for a Democratic candidate for State Representative. He sent me a Christmas card every year since. Politically astute. He got my vote.

In my first English class in college I wrote an extensive essay entitled, "The Inevitability of Democratic Socialism". My sense of it then, and still now, is that its the right thing to do to keep the playing field level, root out/prevent corruption in government, and to make sure everyone gets a reasonable portion of the pie. By that I mean some assured base line standard of living no matter what. You shouldn't be denied health care for not being able to afford it. Or, are you one of those who see success in material terms as evidence of God's favor for your hard work and smarts? God rewards hard work and smarts. My problem with God is that the Almighty doesn't seem to prevent the smart ones from duping and outwitting the less so. Smart is just another word for tricky. That God seems to reward the tricksters. Suck on that you God-is-on-our-side proto-Calvinists. 

The dems of late seem to have gone off the rails. Policy wise [I'd mention some, but then all the Kool Aid drinkers would pile on and accuse me of colluding with the enemy.], and the constant 24/7/12/365 onslaught of  attacks on the current Potus no matter what he does or says. Nothing good about the man. 

I'm just a little more that fed up with the rather commonly seen practice of seeing assumptions and opinions presented as facts. Might as well include the broadcast news media since that bunch seems to have dug in opposing trenches each favoring and even promoting their preferred candidate or proposal. And, as I've previously wrote on it, how a thin "we've heard" becomes the foundation of make a case against someone or some or other thing. Oh, yes, there's the tried and true "as if". If it's true then let me go on at length about how dastardly he is, and go on and on so long that you'll forget that I'm just laying out a conjecture, but you'll take is fact.

How many times have we heard the Mr. Trump is a racist. So many times I believe that many have taken it as a fact for the sheer repetition. Oh, there's plenty of argument to support that judgement. The Donald has a way of speaking which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. My point is not to prove or disprove the racist thing, just that people seem to hold to things like that simply because it's been repeated so much. 

Trust the American people, the American voter? With what. Swallowing your propaganda and following you in lockstep toward you own winning goals?  

YANGTHANG RINPOCHE'S HEART ADVISE

Let's just stop and consider realistically. With all the hubbub in the news over demonstrations, riots, protests, cancel culture, electioneering drawn out into the most dire predictions [if the opponent wins], Kanye dropping out of contention (!?) ... it is certainly very tempting to wonder and comment. And, argue. I have. 

Let's, however, remember who we are and what's not only important, but essential. 

Read here advise which never gets old and goes to the heart of it all ...

YANGTHANG RINPOCHE'S HEART ADVISE

H.H. Yangthang left a letter to his niece’s daughter before he passed into nirvana. This letter was found in his personal bag after his parinirvana. We believe that this letter is also the last teaching he bestowed to all of us. We are very grateful to Sangye Khandro, who translated this letter into English for all of us. — Thubten Kway on Facebook

Although you are still young, this is the time when your mind is fresh and clear. Now is the time to carefully consider your present human life and what will follow this. The wise ones of the past have said, “If you plan ahead, it is smart. If you regret later it is dumb.” So, that means you must carefully consider finding the correct direction to take that will benefit this life and the future. Once you have found this then it is extremely important to pursue that path whole heartedly. Once inadvertently entering the wrong direction it is difficult to turn around and reenter the right way even if you want to. You won’t be able to instantly turn around so from the onset it is best to get this right.

In short there are two paths to take, the worldly and the spiritual path. If you take the worldly path both this and the future life will be involved with suffering. This direction is very challenging because it involves the path of negativity and non-virtue. The spiritual path is the direction that illuminates fully endowed happiness and well being both temporarily and ultimately. Even though that is the case, these days there are very few who chose to enter this illuminating path.

Among the seven point three billion inhabitants of this planet, there are only several hundred thousand who are following the path of dharma. Everyone else is pursuing the worldly path. By only establishing non-virtue, then due to the power of negativity they must powerlessly pursue a misguided direction that leads to suffering. Having attained this precious human life just this once, they are distracted by meaningless activities on the path of cyclic existence and without even noticing their life is wasted. One day when death arrives they must leave behind this world, their loving parents, relatives, abundance and even their cherished body and enter their future life with eyes full of tears. Having spent their life only accumulating non-virtue they can only take rebirth in the three lower realms. Revolving within the three lower realms repeatedly, after some hundreds and thousands of human years they may take rebirth just once in a higher place. Experiencing continuous suffering for such a long time, by circling throughout the six realms, there will be no chance to achieve freedom from this.

This kind of worldly direction is a vast heap of suffering. Since it endures for so long it is actually a very frightening path. Due to the power of negative karma all humans will powerlessly proceed down this undesirable direction. That is why you, young girl, must make prayers that you can avoid this direction! If due to your karma you end up having to go there, please keep this advice strongly in your heart: Don’t react with frustration and try to make decisions by yourself; listen to the advice of your parents and elders who have good intentions; respect the advice of those with knowledge and learn to trust the Triple Gem and divinations concerning your future. Always look within yourself with careful consideration and walk with firm steps in the positive direction without mindlessly engaging in chaotic activities.

If you wish to choose the path of the sublime dharma, that would be the best! That is the correct illuminating path and it is the unmistaken way to go! First it is important to single pointedly trust in the Triple Gem and firmly cherish the advice of parents and elders, and listen and guard the teachings given to you from compassionate masters, monks and excellent practitioners. Keep your own mind stable and focused and without wavering enter this luminous path. First purely accomplish your own purpose and then work to benefit others.

Meditation with Universe

If you, young girl can enter this path of the Buddha then in order to practice dharma you must study and learn the Tibetan language. This is very important. You must be diligent in studying Tibetan. Although it may be challenging, it will allow you to accomplish a greater purpose. Right now your focus is on worldly subjects in ordinary school. Through this knowledge you will only learn that which benefits the practical aspects of survival for this life alone. For example, you will learn how to get food, wealth, name, fame reputation and status. All those philosophers who are learned in western subjects such as science are able to identify that which is invisible to ordinary people.

Nevertheless, although they see and extract that which is precious among the external four elements, have made medical discoveries that cure diseases, are able to benefit and protect their own direction and deliver that which is harmful to others, are expert in discovering substances that bring both benefit and harm into this world; their capacity to be omniscient is still extremely limited.
If we compare that to the omniscience of the Buddha, then from a spiritual perspective the capacity of the Buddha is equal to space. There is not even a hair’s worth of anything that cannot and is not known. That is called being fully and completely omniscient.

If you come to understand the dharma that is taught by such an omniscient Buddha then your own mind will become like the sky and will never be rigid. Your entire being will be open and free. Since the teachings of the Buddha are full of such temporary and ultimate benefit to yourself and all others if you can learn even a little bit of this dharma that will bring tremendous achievement.

Please hold this advice deep within your heart.

Mango Candidate 2020

Now that Kanye has dropped out of contention after a whirlwind 10 day campaign, we're looking for a viable candidate over the two guys who are vying for the job based on winning the battle over who's the less worst.

Mango! "You can't have the Mango!" Well, not that way. But, as Potus? ...

Yes, Mango. He checks ALL the boxes. Ethnic. Minority. Queer. Trans*. 

And, let's not forget his ancestral cross-over appeal owning to the backlash to how the Hispanic food purveyor Goya Foods has now come under fire for its CEO praising the current Prez. It's all so deplorable. Heavens to Hillary! 

  

* Don't know for sure, but the fit of the short shorts suggests so.

Confused

Now I'm really confused ...

Per Ms. Chelsea Handler, "If you want your beans without a side of racism, try other brands. I am."

Perhaps you've heard the CEO of Goya Foods recently praised the President of the United States. Now, the Potus is not popular with a lot of folks. So much so that anything he does or anyone who supports him are deemed deplorable. Of course, Mr. Trump's casual use of the lingua franca which can be interpreted as one wishes, has given his, ahem, "loyal" opposition grounds to 24/7/12/365 keep the drum beat going that he is racist. To many who have partaken of that Kool Aid, that he's a racist is chiseled in stone.

I challenged the notion that it is justified boycotting the products of the one praising this President. Or, that he is racist for doing so. Or, you are are racist for buying those products. Maybe let's just settle on this: if you're white, you're racist.

Here's the comeback I got: "No, it [praising Trump] doesn’t make him a racist. His support of Donald Trump is at least suggestive, and more likely indicative, that he is racist." Let's have it both ways, why don't we. Here's the news you need to hear: If it quacks like a duck, it just might also be a plain ol' stinky fart!

To the foregoing I replied: "Then, what to do about Ben Carson?" 

[You may remember the Borscht Belt comedian Myron Cohen appearing many times on the Ed Sullivan Show. Over a remark he made [the Jewish joke was his oeuvre] someone called him anti-Semitic. 'Anti-Semitic? I am Semitic!'.]"

I then added the ultimate imponderable: "I must confess, I once rode the escalator in Trump Tower. And, I liked it. What'ya gonna do with me?"

Seems like "racism" is the slur de jure for anything anybody finds offensive? Where does one draw the line. Who draws that line? Are we on the cusp of mob rule? The majority gets to frame the reality? Well, yeah. When the majority happens to be right. Not right, as in politically right. But right, as in we know the truth and God is on our side sort of right. 

Autocracy soon coming. This time, though, from the righteous left. Right?

Cousin Stash

Cousin Stash

Let me tell you a little about Cousin Stash. One Stanislav Sexoszcievich Machonatchikevitch Wronski. 

He not only embodies the legendary and unparalleled Wronski kavorka, he is the poster boy within the clan itself for such powers of attraction. I don't know how it's said in the native tongue, but "Chick Magnet" pretty much sums him up. His Dad once had the bright idea to make some money if he could just find a way to bottle that sexual essence for mass consumption. Alas, it was just his own thing. Probably for the better. 

Well, not just one sexy dude. He had a brief but brilliant career as a Tadeusz Kościuszko impersonator. And, an even more brief time on the charts with his eponymously titled best seller album, "Stash ...I'm All That!" The photo above is scant testimony to his attraction as a singer, and ... as a man. And, by scant, yes we're making full use of the double meaning there. 

Of course, the big hit was the title song, I'm all That! Perhaps it still rings in your head that line, "You want me to be your sweetie pie? Sure, I'll be your sweet pie ... eat me!" Straight ahead unambiguous sexual references were his oeuvre d'art. 

Other tunes, the tear inducing "Take it! Take another piece of my Pierogi, baby!" The chart topping "I got your Kielbasa." "I'd like to shred that fine ass of yours into a fine Kapusta." To name just a few. But, I know, who hasn't heard those beauties. Oh yeah, then there's the hauntingly unforgettable, "You're the salt in my Beer. [And BTW I'll have a pickled Egg with that!]"

His songs could be rather racy, as you already know. Once he had a gig booked at a nightclub. The manager was eager to book the popular entertainer, but was not up for the lyrics. He insisted, "I love your music, but just don't say the titles or sing the lyrics. Too much for our patrons." Well, he agreed to the condition. So there he is at the harpsichord — did I mention he was a virtuoso on that little box. Suck it Wanda Lewandowska — playing his heart out to an enthralled audience. On a break he's coming out from the men's room and a fellow notices it, and says, "Hey, mister, do you know your fly is down and your dick is hanging out?" Oh, that Stash ... "Know it, I wrote it!"

Alas, his album is now out of print. Very sought after among the vinyl collector bunch. You play that album over a night cap back at your pad and you are guaranteed to get lucky. And, by "lucky", we're referring to gettin' it on in the sack. And, by "gettin' it on" we're referring to ... well, you get the picture.

That's enough about Stash. We don't want our readers to get all hot and bothered with the steamy details. It's all there in his song book anyway. Public property. Check it out.

Also check out the complete set of All My [Wronski] Relations with this link.

Is it me ... or what?

It's been four decades now since I got woke to holistic health. [So much so then that I changed careers from the business world to what's commonly referred to as holistic health. In my case, Rolfing. It's telling on just what is creativity when I left advertising as an Ad Biggie on Madison Avenue how going into something truly creative was received. Not so much. There's applied creativity; as in, let's be clever about selling you something. Then there's what I would call pure creativity. Let's call it art. I'm sure there were other factors, buy my sense was that many in the "creative" world wouldn't know from creative if it bit them in the nose.]

Anyhow my focus is about a how essential points get lost in certain shuffles.

Take the ongoing, many years’ discussion on health care. Here I am all enthusiastic about how the ideas embodied in the holistic approach to health could transform the system and make it more effective and sustainable. What do I see instead? All the talk is about how to pay for what we're already doing.

Very little, if any, coverage on the obvious [to me] issue of assessing the effectiveness of the services and products being delivered. As I recall one physician saying, "The American health care system is very good at keeping sick people alive". It's so interesting to be standing outside a prevailing paradigm and seeing how the box is sealed tight for most people. Or, paraphrasing Chris Rock, "Ain't no money in the cure. The money's in the medicine." Chew on that bit of wise observation from the funny man.

Then, most currently, it's all about the Corona virus. Probably the biggest tragedy of our lifetime in terms of impacts to society and the economy. One wonders when the masks will come off. All the news is about the statistics of cases reported and deaths. And, of course, the back and forth about wearing protective products, and when and how to get back to doing things and going places.

The elephant in the room however is this ... death. As in, everybody wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. On this subject too, nada. Zip ... zilch. Death itself ... crickets.

The question of what is death is pretty much settled at that it's when you stop living. It's bad for you. It certainly looks that way the way we treat it. We punish serious criminal offenses with the death sentence, don't we? It's an ingrained assumption in the Covid 19 conversations. But, what is it really, and what's it for, and why is it? ... Those questions don't arise.

I don't have the chops to spell that one out. Even if I did, if you're not asking the question, WTF good would it be to illuminate you on the subject? I'm done with offering an answer to a question that's not being asked.

Lastly, something from my professional expertise. Rolf Structural Integration is essentially about balancing the human body with Gravity. Not keeping one's balance, but in how the segments of the body stack up and relate in respect to the architectural demands of Earth's Gravitational pull. Being out of balance — "at war with Gravity" as the originator of Rolfing, Dr. Ida P. Rolf put it — is so commonplace it goes unnoticed.

We're talking once again about some things being so obvious they are not noticed, as such or for what they are. Take your average, random fish, for instance. See what it answers to the question, "How's the water?". ["Duh! What water?"]

Tao And Dzogchen

Who the fuck are you???

Who the fuck am I?! Who the fuck are you???

Who the fuck ARE you???

I'm the guy who's gonna tell you how it is!

Tao And Dzogchen

Compilation by Jackson Peterson 

Facebook Group: Dzogchen and the Emptiness Teachings

Thought is a Deviation from the Clarity and Natural Bliss of the Natural State.



The Buddha taught in his Pali sermons:

Conceiving is a disease, conceiving is a cancer, conceiving is a sharp weapon.  By going beyond all conceiving, monk, he is said to be a sage at peace.”
Conceiving or conceptualizing is the inner enemy, like a virus that produces the worst of mental illnesses.  Thinking is the mental engagement with these viral names and labels which manifest as the pandemic of samsara’s dimension of illusory identity and suffering.

Thought, thinking and conceptualizing are forms of daydreaming and are always delusional.  Engaging in thought is engaging in delusion.  Without thought, the Natural State “knows” due to its Natural Clarity of Awareness.
As a Buddha already, you delude yourself through conceiving, thinking and then believing in the reality of the names, labels and descriptions conceived."

What is Liberation in Buddhism, Dzogchen and Advaita?

— Tulku Urgyen wrote in Rainbow Painting:  "When there are no thoughts whatsoever, then you are a Buddha".

— Chokyi Nyima wrote:
“Being free of thought is liberation.”

— A student asked Ramana when is one finally enlightened?
Ramana replied “When there are no more thoughts.”

— The Buddha:  [MN 140 Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta] " ‘He has been stilled where the currents of conceiving (thinking) do not flow. And when the currents of conceiving do not flow, he is said to be a sage at peace.’ Thus was it said. With reference to what was it said?

    Monk, “I am” is a conceiving. “I am this” is a conceiving. “I shall be” is a conceiving. “I shall not be” ... “I shall be possessed of form” ... “I shall be formless” ... “I shall be perceiving ” ... “I shall be non-perceiving” ... “I shall be neither-perceiving-nor-non-perceiving” is a conceiving.

“Conceiving is a disease, conceiving is a cancer, conceiving is an arrow. By going beyond all conceiving, monk, he is said to be a sage at peace.

“Furthermore, a sage at peace is not born, does not age, does not die. He is unagitated, and is free from longing. He has nothing whereby he would be born. Not being born, how could he age? Not aging, how could he die? Not dying, how could he be agitated? Not being agitated, for what will he long?”
“So it was in reference to this that it was said, ‘He has been stilled where the currents of conceiving do not flow. And when the currents of conceiving do not flow, he is said to be a sage at peace.’"

— Nagarjuna: "What language describes is non-existent. What thought describes is non-existent. Things neither arise nor dissolve, just as in Nirvana."

—  Ramana Maharishi: “Questioner: How can I tell if I am making progress with my enquiry?"  "The degree of the absence of thoughts is the measure of your progress towards Self-Realization. But Self-Realization itself does not admit of progress, it is ever the same.”

Here is what many other great Masters have shared with us regarding the obscuring nature of our thought constructs:

— Dzogchen Teacher, Chokyi Nyima:
“The most subtle type of obscuration is to simply conceive of something – like simply thinking, “It is.” Any notion we may hold is still a way of conceptualizing the three spheres: subject, object and action. Whenever there is a thought which conceives the three spheres, karma is created. People ask, ‘What is karma? I don’t get it! Where is karma?” In fact, karma is our mind conceiving something. Karma is the doings of conceptual mind. This subtle forming of a notion of anything is like a web, a haze that obscures our innate suchness just as mist obscures the sun from being vividly seen.

— The great Master Nagarjuna said, “There is no samsara apart from your own thoughts.” Samsara is based on thought; samsara is made by thought.”
“A thought includes attachment and aversion. A thought by its very nature involves an attitude of selecting and excluding. Every thought is hope and fear. Hope and fear is painful, in the sense of making you uneasy. Implicit in hope is the idea that “I have not yet achieved.” That is painful, isn’t it? Likewise, fear is accompanied by the thought, “It may happen and I don’t want it.” That is also painful; that is also suffering. Whenever there is involvement in thought, whenever a thought is formed, there is disturbing emotion. There is hope and fear, and therefore there is suffering.”

— Dzogchen Master, Vairocana wrote as an instruction in the 800’s AD:
“So the state in which we don’t think at all is the supreme heart-essence of equanimity. We set ourselves down where we have no thoughts, and just stay there, without getting lost in the forces of depression or wildness.”
"Thinking only begins after marigpa (ignorance) sets in, at the loss of rigpa. During the nondistraction of rigpa, no thought can begin. I cannot emphasize this enough — there is no thought during the state of rigpa!"

— Tulku Urgyen:
"Honestly, there is nothing more amazing than this recognition of rigpa in which no thought can remain."

— Bon Dzogchen Master, Lopon Tenzin Namdak wrote:
"Buddhas do not have any discursive thoughts (rnam-rtog); they have primal awareness or gnosis (ye-shes). Thoughts are always mixed up with negativities and obscurations. Thoughts represent obscuration. Thus we keep in a thoughtless state (mi rtog-pa). When we keep in the Natural State and everything dissolves, then we do not need to do or change anything. We just let things be, just let thoughts go. We let everything remain just as it is."

— Dzogchen Master, Chokyi Nyima:
“Thought is samsara. Being free of thought is liberation."

— Bhante Gunaratana (contemporary Theravada Master):
“Once your mind is free from thought, it becomes clearly wakeful and at rest in an utterly simple awareness.  This awareness cannot be described adequately."

— Dogen Zenji, 13th century Japanese Zen Buddhist founder of  Soto Zen:
“Be without thoughts, this is the secret of meditation."

— Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of the “Sudden Enlightenment” school of Zen, states:
"Therefore ‘no-thought’ is established as the doctrine."
“Good Knowing Advisors, why is no-thought (wu nien) established as the doctrine? Because there are confused people who speak of seeing their own nature, and yet they produce thought with regard to states. Their thoughts cause deviant views to arise, and from that all defilement and false thinking are created. Originally, not one single dharma (thing attained) can be obtained in the self-nature. If there is something to attain....that is just defilement and deviant views (thoughts). Therefore, this Dharma-door establishes “no-thought” as its doctrine."

— Nisargadatta:
“To remain without thought in the waking state is the greatest worship."

— Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche from his book “Present , Fresh Wakefulness”:
"Basically and fundamentally, our mind is utterly empty, sheer bliss, totally naked. We do not need to make it like this; we do not need to cultivate it by meditating, to create this state by meditating.”
“Give up thinking of anything at all, about the past, the future or the present. Remain thought-free, like an infant.”
“Innate suchness is unobscured the moment you are not caught up in present thinking.”
“That which prevents us from being face to face with the real Buddha, the natural state of mind, is our own thinking. It seems to block the natural state.”
“Rigpa, the Natural State, is not cultivated in meditation. The awakened state is not an object of the intellect. Rigpa is beyond intellect, and concepts.”
“This is the real Buddhadharma, not to do a thing. Not to think of anything, like Saraha said, "Having totally abandoned thinker and what is thought of, remain as a thought-free child."
“Thinking is delusion.”
“When caught up in thinking we are deluded. To be free of thinking is to be free.”
“That freedom consists in how to be free from our thinking.”
“As long as the web of thinking has not dissolved, there will repeatedly be rebirth in and the experiences of the six realms.”
“The method: But if you want to be totally free of conceptual thinking there is only one way: through training in thought-free wakefulness. (rigpa).”
“Strip awareness to its naked state.”
“If you want to attain liberation and omniscient enlightenment, you need to be free of conceptual thinking.”
“This is not some state that is far away from us: thought-free wakefulness actually exists together with every thought, inseparable from it... but the thinking obscures or hides this innate actuality. Thought free wakefulness (the natural state) is immediately present the very moment the thinking dissolves, the moment it vanishes, fades away, falls apart.”
“Simply suspend your thinking within the non-clinging state of wakefulness: that is the correct view."

— From one of the earliest Dzogchen Masters, Vairocana:
“The absence of ideas is a lucidity. This lucidity is also an absence of ideas. It is the basis for a true essence that is not a designation. We remain within a river of awareness, just as it is.
It is primordially pervaded by luminosity, just as it is.
It has no thought.
It has no memory.
It has no motion.
The dhyāna meditation of greatest virtue is to use your dhyāna to an absence of thought...”

— Vairocana: From Secret Sky: The Ancient Tantras on Vajrasattva's Magnificent Sky by Christopher Wilkinson 
The main point here is to initially recognize the difference between the context and the content.  The “context” is your changeless sphere of awareness, the host in which all “content” appears and disappears.   You as the  crystal clear, cognitive sphere remain unchanged as various reflections (thought constructions, identities and daydreams)  appear and disappear within your changeless, empty awareness.
Thought is a dynamic linking of dependently originated, mental or conceptual constructs that continue far into the past as the karmic chain.  Your current karmic (samsaric) identity is the active, upper most “link” (thought) at the top of that ancient chain. It is your current mental construct, the thought of “me”.  Thoughts define us as an imagined self, false identity, body and doer; as a summary of all prior conditioning and beliefs.
Rigpa (Buddha Awareness) is not dependently originated, is simply aware and is always changelessly present.

— Shardza Rinpoche wrote regarding rigpa:
“The Body of Perfect Rapture has a support that rests within one's head. Its sanctuary is in the center of the Conch Mansion (skull) and Its Clarity (rigpa) shines as a pure, transparent crystal sphere.”
"Buddha’s ushnisha, the protuberance on the top of his head, is not made of flesh and blood, but represents the opening of the space chakra. It is also known as the “crown chakra of great bliss.” Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche
“In a crystal palace of totally clear light (behind the eyes and forehead) beyond the ways of measurement and enumeration, without our thinking of it or doing anything, there is the supreme self-evidence of a pure embodiment of unchanging awareness.”

— From the early Semde Tantra of Dzogchen, “The Great Tantra of Vajrasattva”, translated by Chris Wilkinson
“The reason for this is that the ushnisha (upper crown chakra) has no size, but pervades the ultimate expanse. WHEN ALL THE THOUGHT CONSTRUCTS DISSOLVE into the chakra of the ushnisha (upper crown chakra), buddhahood is attained."

— Jigme Lingpa:
If all thoughts and concepts are absent, what remains?
“You are awareness. Awareness is another name for you. Since you are awareness there is no need to attain or cultivate it.”
Ramana Maharishi

— Longchenpa:
“Awareness abides as the aspect which is aware under any and all circumstances, and so occurs naturally, without transition or change."

— Karma Lingpa:
“Since there is only this pure observing, there will be found a lucid clarity without anyone being there who is the observer, only a naked manifest awareness is present.”
“It always was and always will be. It is unchanging, whereas mind and consciousness are changing and evolving all the time. They exist in time and are conditioned, but the Natural State is like space; it does not change. Discursive thoughts pass through it like birds passing across the sky leaving no trace behind. Whether these thoughts are good or bad, beautiful or ugly, they do not change the Nature of the Mind and, when they dissolve, they leave no trace behind.”

— Bon Lopon Tenzin Namdak:
"Thought is bondage; the immeasurable openness of Empty Awareness (rigpa) is freedom."

— Dzogchen Master Nyoshul Khenpo:
Beyond all thoughts, this is clearly seen!