Category: Buddhism

In August 11, 1966, the Beatles icon John Lennon, who had wrote a song about God, made an off-handed remarks before a huge crowd as cameras rolled from each of the three major American TV networks. Eventually his remark that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus” set off a wave of hysterical – and even threatening – protests against the group. “Christianity will go,” Lennon had said. “It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I know I’m right and I will be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now. I don’t know which will go first – rock & roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.” Lenon may be expressed an personal opinion about religion, but karma on his arrogance manifested its effect strongly the way his life was end in December 8th 1980.

Explained the issue on a similar situation, Pope Francis said, “One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people’s faith, one cannot make fun of faith,” he said. “There is a limit. Every religion has its dignity … in freedom of expression there are limits.” Under the name of Freedom of Speech, people are abusing their liberty, and thus underlime the very foundation of democracy. Pastor John McArthur summons on what does God want from us.

In 2016, Trump remarked at a campaign stop at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” “It’s, like, incredible.” Economist Robert Reich further renounced that Trump said he could kill and win – Covid and cheating may prove it. And after January 2021, ‘No regrets’: Evangelicals and other faith leaders still support Trump after deadly US Capitol attack.

Bellieving Donald Trump Is on the Wrong Side of the Religious Right, former Vice President Mike Pence step forward to tell the Hillsdale audience, “I came today to Christ Chapel simply to tell all of you that, even when it doesn’t look like it, be confident that God is still working, in your life, and in mine, and in the life of this nation.”

In the modern culture, there is a fallacy that runs rampant in popular culture including WSJ that “Repetition makes a fact seem more true, regardless of whether it is or not. ” For the purpose of propaganda, communication pundits from advertisers to politicians are taking advantage of this foible of human psychology. But voices of conscience like this article from The Times of India speaks from objective middle ground- Lies Repeated Hundred Times Will Not Become Truth. In the world’s oldest and most populous liberal democracies, the United States and India respectively, a populist, majoritarian vigilantism is slowly but steadily snuffing out the promise of multi-religious, multi-ethnic societies enjoying constitutional protections of civil liberties and equality before the law. White Christian nationalists in the United States and their Hindu counterparts in India are tearing apart the secular and democratic fabric of their societies. The difference, of course, is that in India, it is the state itself that supplies a steady diet of Hindu-First nationalism, while Christian nationalism (“take America back for Jesus”) is still mostly an underground current that dares not say its name openly.

Fake data is another problem with AI and computer technology dominance of our cognition and learning process. Why is academia so toxic? Six insider bombshells on Academia. The feedback from audience is, there is a rampant academia malaysis. Academia is toxic because the people at the top are not the thoughtful ones. The lying, conniving, treacherous ones climb over them. The system rewards bad behavior. Others commented that we tend to have fantasy of the most logical, mature, the most ‘scientific’ unbiased people in academia arena, but on the contrary, if anything it became far more toxic with more petty career jealousy than ever before. The only difference is that it was more sophisticated, clever, more elaborate.

Katy Milkman is one of the world’s leading behavioral scientists. In this youtube video by Pete Judo interviewing Katy milkman on the shocking event of Harvard Fake Data Scandal involving Francesca Gino, and also we talk about Megastudies which are a really exciting way to do better research. What the video trying to convey is that: Academia has HOPE! Behavioral Science has Hope! and the way research is published has hope.

Arguments over media bias, while a constant feature of politics, have recently burst into the limelight following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and his erratic policy-making and -unmaking regarding media labels, which blended, separated, then re-blended disparate outlets like the BBC, NPR, RT, Xinhua, and others. Confusion abounds and one question seems especially common – “who can we really trust?” Besides, media do not have to tell lies in order for it to be propaganda: selective reporting of one side/type of the story in line with its ideological values is enough to sway the popular opinion. This is ever more prevalent (and alarming) in an AI-driven algorithmic world, where you don’t get to dictate what you see anymore.

And I would add that I was heavily indoctrinated by the greatness of CCP and Chinese nationalism ideology, causing me to look at things with bias. If it is not with the helpping voices from many different culture and perspectives, I would still be in very froggy mind by all the media machines. Another event was Januay 6th Capital Hill storm, these experience taught me a good lesson that a healthy society can not just have one type of voice. We absolute need responsible journalsts and media outlets for the democracy and for keeping the standard of conducts. Of course, under the rips of the dualism, people can be over emphasize their view of an elephant as a tail or as a ear etc. A healthy society should allow for presentation of different perspective. That practice is totally different from purposely mispresentation or fraud in communication.

Underlying the Big and the Deep Lies is a shared political impulse, namely, to bend reality to fit political agendas and religious dogmas, and to feed the populist passions that these agendas arouse. If the spectre of Trump’s Big Lie haunts the United States, India is in the grip of the Deep Lie of myths turned into certified facts of history and science. It is twilight time for democracy.

One of the rare find this day is Spectacles News Project , which was established with the intention to uphold democracy, its values, its caretakers, and its ideas. It provides the transparency of source notes, citations and corrections, and the look of us series.

What could Buddhism shed the light on this situation? The fourth of the five precepts—Buddhist guidelines for an ethical life—is to refrain from false and harmful speech, often simplified as not lying. However, the fourth precept is more than a simple directive to tell the truth. It is often viewed in the context of the foundational Buddhist practice of Right Speech, a more thorough framework, contained in the eightfold path, for how best to thoughtfully and compassionately speak and listen.

Specifically in regard to communication, the Right speech, explained in negative terms, means avoiding four types of harmful speech: lies (words spoken with the intent of misrepresenting the truth); divisive speech (spoken with the intent of creating rifts between people); harsh speech (spoken with the intent of hurting another person’s feelings); and idle chatter (spoken with no purposeful intent at all). The Buddha also gave us five things to consider before speaking: Is what we’re about to say factual, helpful, kind (spoken with good-will), pleasant (“endearing”), and timely?

False speech includes any untrue statement as well as some factual ones. Straightforward lies clearly violate the precept but so do common behaviors like self-inflation, exaggeration, lying by omission, pretending to know something, and even some forms of humor, such as sarcasm, that may be hurtful. Gossip, true or not, is considered false speech, as is anything divisive or malicious, as well as idle chatter. 

The fourth precept covers all forms of communication—speaking, writing, even body language. As with the other precepts, violations are not evenly weighted. Telling a lie as part of a joke is not as serious as, say, lying to get a job or spreading harmful rumors. In Theravada Buddhism, there are four factors that lead to an infringement of the fourth precept. Intent is one, so saying something false that you believe to be true is not considered a violation. Whether or not the listener believes the falsehood is not a factor. 

Among all the contributions of Indian culture, the Buddha Dharma shines very brightly.  What is the Buddha Dharma: a religion, a spiritual path, a philosophy or a scientific method? It is all and none of these. Buddha Dharma has been influenced to many many countries for the last two thousand years, China, Japan, Vietname, Korea, Lao, Tailand, etc. It is so precious and powerful. But Indians have forgotten Buddhism a lot. And especially in the Himalaya region, Buddhism is being forgotten. This may not bother you right now, becuase you may be busy making money, just surviving. But down the road in 50 years, in 100 years, this will bother you. If you are really really care about your grandchildren, you should really preserve this heritage. The Perfection of Wisdom by Arya Nagarijuna, which are among the oldest sutras of the Mahāyāna Buddhist canon. For Mahayana practitioners, this sutra is the essence of the Buddha’s teachings.  Relating back to this article topic about freedom of speech, the sutra had many vivid stories on the effects of false communiction.

佛陀为什么要教我们不妄语，因为凡事都有因果，当我们在说谎时，就为自己种下了说谎要承担的苦果。世界上一切所产生的力就会相互作用的。当欺骗他人时，也就要承受这个曾欺骗他人的果。

在《大智度论》中讲到，妄语者要承受十种果报：“一、会生口臭，二、善神会远离，恶鬼等非人会得方便接近，三、就算说的是实话，人们也不信，四、常常听不得有智慧的人的言论，五、会得到他人的诽谤，名声变臭天下皆知，六、得不到人们的尊敬，虽然可以教他人，他人却不会听，七、内心常常忧郁忧愁，八、种下了诽谤的业因，九、此命终后会堕地狱，十、若生为人，常常受他人诽谤。”

Secularlism made modern people disconnect their speech with responsibility. Part of guarding against this illusion is the obligation it puts on us to stop repeating falsehoods. We live in a world where the facts matter, and should matter. If you repeat things without bothering to check if they are true, you are helping to make a world where lies and truth are easier to confuse. So, please, think before you speak.