Saturday, January 27, 2018

We Live in a Les Misรฉrables World Now

I'm referring to how in public discourse — TV news and punditry, politics — when everything is evaluated by the letter of the law. And, out of context many times.

Les Mis ... like the guy who's family is starving. He steals a loaf of bread. Gets sent to jail for stealing. Legally, he is guilty. Yet, what would you do? Retrain for a new career, then get a high paying job? Law without justice is ... what? Tyranny. No heart. Ah, there it is. Heart.

And then, let's not even start on the subject of how so-called news journalists ask question with embedded implied biases. 

I watched the other day as a very well known TV journalist asked a former FBI official about whether the FBI could "recover" from the current onslaught of negativity coming from the White House. You know, the "Deep State" conspiracy to undo Trump. And, the collusion to manage Crooked Hillary. 

"Recover" as in, it's now a shambles, and needs to get its game back.

The official very presciently responded that the question had embedded the implication that the FBI was in disarray, or wounded in some way. Off course. He went on to say the FBI was strong. Then, the interviewer asked the question about how the FBI recovered from the J. Edgar Hoover period. Not exactly the same thing. But close enough to seem like he was doubling down on the "recover" point. Well, yes, there was some recovery to do for sure from Mr. Hoover's reign.

But, it occurred to me that the TV news man was not in fact aware of how he was introducing his unconscious bias on the matter. Probably explains a lot of what goes for news in the broadcast media around now. Just because someone is on television or on the silver screen, don't assume they have their sh#t together. In fact, recently, we've been made all too well aware that many don't. 

Excuse me, I have to go and watch my favorite liberal bigot, Rachel Maddow, with all her entertaining disparaging attitude displays, vocal inflections, body language. And, especially, the eye rolls.

Now, what was the topic? Oh, yes. Les Mis times.

If you still don't know what I'm talking about, carefully observe the news. Especially things related to what Mr. Trump may have said. He's not the kind of guy you should take literally when he's talking casually. And, he does have a way of using words which can be interpreted many ways. Slick. Not a fool. For sure.

If you still don't know what I'm talking about, see the movie Deliverance. Sometimes circumstances thrust one into a situation where doing the right thing, and doing the legal thing, may be at odds.

Just now that you are woke to the matter, keep an eye out for when everyone seems to be pouncing on the precise letter of the law. Don't be fooled. It's just a ploy to garner advantage. 

Here's one in the "When they're out to get you, you can't win' category. A fellow saves a young woman in a restaurant from choking with the Heimlich maneuver. Thankful at first. Then, she sues him for what? Inappropriate touching. 

Any comments. Please. I would prefer, however, that you keep them to yourself. I like being right just like the next guy.




Friday, January 26, 2018


One Jankuje Schlygielczheskolo Wronski. Aka, "Jake the Snake" Wronski. No one really knows what is — or even ever heard it — the correct pronunciation of that middle name.

Great Uncle Jake was himself a no good, down low, snikey snakey viper sort of a dude. "How low can you go?" was his calling card. Birds of a feather sort of thing, we figured.

"Them's good eatin' for sure." There it is! What he said. So, it's true. You are what you eat. Explains his whole deal.






Thursday, January 11, 2018

"Wing Man for the 21st Century"

Job Opening ...

Sexual Ombudsman

Job Description:

1. Be available to participate on behalf of employer in all male-female interactions.

2. Draft documents(s) of consent, with any and all particulars of what is and what is not permissible and appropriate.

3. Monitoring behavior(s) to validate conforming to said agreed upon conditions and/or prohibitions.

4. Sign affidavit attesting to proceedings and outcomes; both successful engagements, and claimed infractions.

5. Participate in any and all cases of contention, conflict resolution.

6. Must sign a no-contest agreement vis-a-vis any future claims against employer.

7. Must be skilled in audio-visual documentation.







Monday, January 08, 2018


"Now, here, so vivid, so alive, filled with joy, waiting for you to see it."

Roshi Sama:

There is a stone here in the graveyard upon which these words are carved: “We were once just as you are now, you will become as we are now.” How is that? The fact is: everyone passes on. Impermanence is swift. No matter how blessed you may feel in your present circumstances, how easygoing, how secure and pleased you are: you cannot hang on to that world. It will be jerked out from under you. Impermanence is swift. The lining of your present life is death. The problem of life and death is no one else’s problem. It is yours to deal with.

And than there are the many desires. You can’t get what you want, it never seems quite right, never enough. Dissatisfaction and frustration seem to surface. There are so very many people who worry about what would seem to be no problem at all. Liberation from suffering. The more you know of this world, the more you see it to be a giant exhibition of suffering. Everywhere you look, you see plenty of examples of misery.

What about you? Have you no pain, no suffering, no worries, no fears? If you honestly think: “Hey, not me. I can meet it as it comes, go with the flow, I am not afraid, I can always be at peace,” than you are fooling yourself, giving yourself license, seeing yourself for what you are not. You are caught up in a self-notion, clinging to an ego-idea. And lost in that self you cannot hear the cry or see the tears of others. If you can overlook those tears, you are not a person of great peace of mind.

The depth of Truth is bottomless. Your interconnection is bottomless. A single grass in the field is perfect Buddha. How utterly one are all things. The grasses, the trees, the great earth, the great sky, all being is born in relation to all things. This is the true self, the perfect self. No matter what: all is goodness. However, because of deluded perception beings fail to realize their inherent Buddha-nature. Truth is universal and complete. Can you receive and embrace thoroughly this one truth?

(…)

There is something urging you to look deeper, something which seeks to be known: don’t you see it yet? Isn’t it clear yet? You are sitting here because you cannot help but seek truth. The genuine seeks to know itself. Truth is seeking truth. That is why you are here, putting heart and mind into meditation. Your time of awakening will come. No one is hopeless. Life is not mean. No one is left out. There is no one who is more or less Buddha than any other. True nature is never lost, never hidden from you. It only seems that you have to go looking for it.

But you have long lifetimes of fooling yourself, protecting your self-cherishing. When you have come to life again, to awakening, it will be so clear that there is no “self” and other.” There is no opposition, just this one reality. What appears as opposition is simply the result of the self-centered view, which is of course the incorrect view. This bad habit and wrong view causes untold suffering, for yourself and for others. And you will continue to create suffering as you go on living in falsehood. You will continue to experience suffering, fear, a sense of lacking, and you’re not helping anybody.

What you think you are, who you think yourself to be is so entirely mistaken. Grasping “self” you obviously fail to see who you really are. You try to hold what cannot possibly be held, for where is there anything fixed? Change is swift. Because you try to hold on you feel so much anxiety, it’s inevitable. How could you know true satisfaction? Dissatisfied you look restlessly out here, out there. Your base-camp is “I, me, mine.” You grasp it, you seek to rely on it. You are relying upon a phantom. You grasp this phantom-self and ceaselessly try to satisfy it. What lengths do we go through to gratify the self. We get what we want for a time and then we lose it, up, down, up and down. We try to rely on our clever thinking. How could there be any true peace of mind? How could you even begin to give to the great universe as you receive? Your compassion could only remain half-baked, locked as you are in “I, me, mine.” You are doing your practice because you have determined to receive life as it is, to come home to Life. You will meet with true self.

(…) We human beings rely on our discriminating intellect. How arrogant we are. “This is mine, this is what I deserve, credit should come here, this is the way it should be.” We compare in contrast and in so doing we shrink our world so small. We get so down on ourselves. We feel so very sorry for ourselves. And, by turn, we are so proud of ourselves. We wonder why the world doesn’t turn as we think it should. We become so dark and down and than we joke to cover our insecurities. Lost in self we can’t help wondering “where is the value of this, what am I doing this for?” We wonder if there is any meaning in what we are doing. What about you? Are you clear, crystal-clear, about what you are doing? What are you living for? Birth, aging, illness and death come quick. Your world as you know it is pulled out from under you in a flash.

It seems no time ago at all that I first met my teacher Daiun Roshi for the first time. I could only judge the world by my own hard held beliefs. We have to break through this, to see the beauty. And here, some fifty-five years have flashed by. Now, here. All the universe is embraced in the One. I can assure you that all is well. All eternity is now, here. Bold, clear, dignified. Now, here, so vivid, so alive, filled with joy, waiting for you to see it. “I will do whatever I can to benefit another.” This is just life as it is, naturally.

Please, please see it: everything is alive. Great, great Alive. This is the happiness of all happiness. And this “now here” can never be destroyed. The light of your eternal life is shining brightly, now. What joy there is in this radiance. Please, take care of yourself, your shining Buddha-self. Become ever more able to appreciate your Buddha-self. That is not to say be arrogant. There is nowhere anyone to feel small, no one to be made small, no one to feel superior, no one toward whom you could feel superior. So who are you to feel vain and proud when your very source is all being? You are supported, you are nurtured, you are guarded by all being. Thanks to all being, together, one, is all the universe. This breath is breathed, so close, always one, always together. Please never forsake the limitless treasure which is you yourself. Be in touch, simply do not look away. Grasp nothing, hold nothing. There is just now, here, fresh, new, alive.

Now. Just do your practice with all good grace.

Harada Tangen Roshi




Friday, January 05, 2018


The Drobkin Fart

Dr. Drobkin is a world famous authority in a highly specialized field of cardiology. He had gotten his undergraduate degree, his medical degree, and his PhD in his hometown. After that he was practicing as a research doctor at the highest level in New York.

He wrote a significant paper and has been invited to deliver the paper at a conference, which by coincidence is in his hometown. He is called to the dais. The room is full of distinguished personages; the men wearing tuxedos, the women properly attired for such an august event. Dr. Dropkin approaches the dais and puts his papers on the lectern. As he’s about to give his talk, suddenly the papers all slide down to the floor. He bends over to pick them up, and as he does his tuckus is against the microphone. And at the very wrong moment, he lets one ride. It reverberates around the room, magnified by the microphone.

Somehow he regains his composure and delivers the paper. No sooner is he done but he grabs everything up and makes a quick exit through a rear door, vowing never to come back to the town again.

Many years pass, his mother is on in years and he has to go back to town to care for her. He does so under the name Dr. Cohen. He makes a reservation at the local Hyatt under that name and gets there under cover of darkness. As he checks into the hotel, a bright eyed and bushy tailed room clerk says, “Good evening Dr. Cohen, have you ever been in our town before?”

The doctor says, “Yes, as a matter of fact, young man, I grew up here and I got my education here; got my undergraduate, my doctorate, and my medical degrees at the university and I moved away.”

The young man asks, “So why haven’t you been here for so long?”

“Well, a number of years ago a very embarrassing thing happened here, and I just didn’t feel I could come back and face the people in the town.”

The young man says, “Doctor, far be it for me, a young stripling, to advise a distinguished older gentleman such as you. But, if I can give you anything from my experience in my young life, things that I thought were embarrassing and people noticed, I later found out that nobody even knew that they happened. And I’m sure that’s probably true about the thing you think is so embarrassing.”

The doctor says, “No, I doubt that anyone has forgotten what happened.”

The young man says, “Well, was it a long time ago?”

“Yes, it was a very long time ago.”


 “Was it before the Drobkin fart, or after?”

Wednesday, January 03, 2018


One day in the park ...

A pretty young girl is walking her doggy. 

A woman sitting on a park bench is so charmed by the sight, she exclaims, "Little girl, you look so pretty!"

The girl says, "Thank you ma'am. My Mommy did my hair extra special today."

The women: "And, that's such a cute dress!"

"Yes", says the girl. "My sweet Aunty sewed it especially for me!" 

"And, what a nice little doggy!" 

"Yes", the girl adds, "he's my best friend in the whole wide world!"

"What is your puppy's name?"

"His name is 'Porky'."

The woman remarks, "That's a interesting name for a dog. How come you call him 'Porky'?"

The most darling, pretty little girl responds, "We call him 'Porky' because he likes to fuck pigs!"

Monday, January 01, 2018


Woman #1: "My husband loves me so much. He gave me this beautiful Mink coat and a complete spa treatment at the Elizabeth Arden Red Door spa."

Woman #3: "That'sa nice."

Woman #2: "My husband loves me so much. He took me for an around the world cruise. First class. Shopping in Paris and Milan."

Woman #3: "That'sa nice."

"What did your husband give you?"

Woman #3: "My husband loves me so much. He gave me etiquette lessons. Now I say 'That'sa nice', instead of 'Bullshit!' ".