The Pros and Cons of Globalization – Huge Problem in Wealth Resources Mis-allocation and Injustice

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I would prefer to be silent if I can. But the chaos we are in keep swirling bigger. Another young man being arrested because of so-called security document leak reminds me of Ruan Xiaohuan who was criminalized for nothing but political reason. On 10 February 2023, the Chinese Snowden was sentenced for 7 years for stating some facts about CCP on his blog Blob ‘ProgramThink’ and Project ‘zhao’, which initially only focused on computer technology and software development. Later, a massive wave of internet blockade was carried out in mainland China around the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen protest, this led Ruan to turn his blog to focus on political and methods to bypass the blockade. One of this is about three years of famine happened in 1961-1963. And Corruption of CCP《太子党关系网络》 .

【周孝正：党内有派系，什么叫反党？逼人说假话，身边全小人】/2020/10/16 #时事大家, 越是极权，越要注意 兼听则明，偏信则暗。要任人为贤 集思广益 。从刘亚洲被判死刑说起-【私藏視頻·首度公映】李肅挑戰周孝正：習近平卸磨殺驢 太子黨覆沒。 锵锵三人行 周孝正：让权力在阳光下运行，中国官员不敢让人民监督。

八股如何毁滅漢語？中共政治話語正在墮落，社會語言數字概念化，算不算一種新時代的黨八股？冠善名以恶行 (老楊到處說 楊錦麟論時政). 一直王志安节目确实比较中性，而且以事实为基础. 听众反映王局是中国最好的调查记者，当年《局面》系列也是之前很少见的让人们感到采访者是纯粹出于探知真相的目的，完全理性且不卑不亢地追问被采访者的好节目。如今再看国内一众采访节目才更怀念王局在的那个互联网时代。Wang Sir’s News Talk on Why he was banned? 周孝正：中国社会问题分析（完整版） 2003 网友评论，在2021年的大学校园里很难想象以前还能有这样的讲座，中国曾经居然有过这个高度的言论自由。要是能碰到周教授这样的老师我不得天天早起占教室第一排，看看现在那些划水的老师大学都失去了意义。

崔永元《东方眼》Eyes on East：小崔揭政协委员两会标配 周孝正畅谈公民参与权力【东方卫视官方高清版】20150302 扒一扒张维为 陈平 金灿荣 胡锡进及其子女的国籍和现状 著名崔永元在最近上传了一段视频：他说很多著名的公共知识分子的活法就是政治正确，挂着 “我热爱国家，我热爱祖国” 这般的 羊头，摆着政治正确的口号，在这个幌子之下，在这个外衣之下包裹着自己无恶不作， 目前网络上的现状就是这个德行。那个正能量简直就是不堪入目。他举了 胡錫進、金燦榮， 張維為， 陈平，司马南, 张召忠，戴旭 这些典型例子和狂热的民碎主义，呼吁如果这些人成了这个社会唯一的正确声音，这个社会就太不正常了。上有好者，下必甚焉，將毀國家前途， 这种声音我们当然要反对。周孝正：2019最新视频怒斥习近平默许王健林马云马化腾盗取中国99%人民财富！

袁腾飞怒怼金灿荣打台湾| 又比如金灿荣作为人民大学的教授，并没有起到教书育人的作用，整天在国内鼓吹战争。忽悠中国老百姓及战狼小粉红。鼓吹几个小时美军所有的东亚军事基地都会被摧毁。鼓吹中国导弹世界第一，没有慎重考虑任何防御，不把老百姓的命不当回事， 说台湾军队是肉长的，仿佛大陆的子弟兵不是肉长的。哪怕对方是真心希望中国变好而指出问题所在。 这些政治正确的公知立刻跳出来指责对方是反贼，汉奸，卖国贼。 这些人只有立场，没有是非。 仿佛只有有爱党爱国这张牌在就可以胡说八道，百毒不侵。 自己一边反美，一边把自己的孩子送美国去读书。反美是工作，赴美是生活。大跃进的教训：有计划的饿死， 三年饿死几千万人，没有自然灾害，全是人祸，大炼钢铁。 非常可恶，忽悠中国老百姓及战狼小粉红，胡说八道，说台湾问题是中国的百年国耻，打着爱国旗号，实际是在为资本运作。

真正的良知不敢随便讲话，否则轻则炸号，重则有大麻烦， 近十年，类似袁腾飞这样的实话实说的声音都被打压，有良知的中国知识分子在中国不断被打压，甚至没有发声的渠道，近十年中国是在进步吗？

Wang Sir’s News Talk | Why was Hu Chenfeng blocked? – The Tragedy of Chinese Peasants and Seniors in the Countryside. On March 14, Hu Chenfeng, a Bilibili blogger, shot a video in Chengdu about helping seniors and retirees to buy things. In the video, the 78-year-old woman only has a monthly pension of 107 RMB. His son is an unemployed engineer affected by last year’s COVID-19 pandemic, and without his support, she couldn’t afford meat for a long time. Touched by her story, Hu Chenfeng bought her 127 RMB worth of rice, eggs, and pork.

网友心酸地反映：我爷爷奶奶也是农民，70多岁了还得靠自己养活自己，辛苦了一辈子，这个国家从来没有给过他们任何一分好处、一分尊重，真的悲哀。所以我现在在努力，尽量让自己的下一代离开这个罪恶的政权之下，再也不要重蹈覆辙。这个话题引起巨大共鸣：另一个说： 我农村的舅舅们辛苦了一辈子，80多岁了， 还得干活养活自己，有病都硬扛着，不敢去医院， 象牲口一样卑微的在社会上活着。每看见身边的人对这些悲痛视而不见，总有种文明生在农耕的感觉，非常难过，甚至有时候让我感慨不知道良心到底应该用在哪里。台湾的农民退休后和公务员享受同等待遇，中国大陆的公务员退休每月几千一万，而农民才130元，这个视频中的老人碰巧也是南充人，是我的老乡，看得我热泪盈眶，我父母同样也是一样！

Chen Zhilong bristled with anger, China Labor Law Made a Fool of Itself。 Recently, there has been a circulating WeChat group chat record on the internet. The record shows that an employee named Chen Zhilong became angry when his boss demanded that he work overtime during the Qingming Festival. Chen Zhilong had a heated argument with his boss in the WeChat group, which caused his colleagues to cheer him on. Why did this internal company chat record resonate so much in society? Why can’t our labor laws protect the most basic rights of workers? What exactly is the problem here?

网友讨论根本問題不是貧窮，是政治制度，是共產黨對中國人的剝削壓榨。。四十年都實現不了養老醫保，你覺得問題出在哪？中國人還不夠勤勞嗎？窮人剛開始都是「死都不怕，沒有越不過的生的難和檻」，但最後，窮人也都會變成「再窮活，到不如求死得痛快」。那些權貴，每家的財富，都夠自己的子女後代吃喝一萬年，所以，參加人大會議和政協會議的那6千左右的代表們，他們從不會為百姓的利益說話。贫穷只是一种现象，而不是原因。 根据孔子的论断，每一个人的富有的生活和尊贵的地位是上天赋予的，因此人与生俱来地是富有的和尊贵的。当魔鬼或者撒旦把人类变成了统治的对象，贫穷和卑贱才与人类发生了关系。 因此我把贫穷区分为制度造成的制度性的贫穷，其次是作为制度造成的最可怕的结果的制度创伤性的贫穷。 制度造成的制度创作性的贫穷发生在：这种制度已经消亡了，由制度造成的人口已经极端地稀少了，但是人们对于人类本身已经极端地绝望了。这种制度造成的创伤性的贫穷出现在非洲，更出现在过去的美洲。在这种制度造成的创伤性的贫穷之中，人们不再欣赏和利用广大的富饶的大自然为人类提供的巨大无比的财富，而仍然习惯于相互的杀戮，而在杀戮之后就是无所事事——他们不愿意劳动，不愿意思考，整天坐着不动，并成为一种Sedentary的存在。 中国人永远不应该忘记郑永年对中国人犯下的罪行，他是极权暴政的鼓吹者，他是中国的杜金之一。

王志安根据一则非常轰动的微博群聊天记录，从微博到抖音，从快手到B站，就中国很多企业违反劳动法，探讨的是这个事件背后反映出来的可怕的社会现实. 其实这件事的真假已经不重要了，它能引起共鸣就已经能说明一定的问题了. 有网友反映以前很信任中国共产党政府，特别是读书时候。但是随着出来社会打拼并且独立思考，还通过翻墙上网才真正知道，我们的这个政府是多么的假。 这期真的感同身受，每天下班后要求开会，不加班就会被点名说不够努力。节假日有工作信息必须回复。多次996冲上热搜，各种公司裁员不按照要求赔偿，劳动法毫无作用。还有网友朔，国内加班真的非常非常非常严重，我周围很多人都没有双休，一年至少有300天在加班，还没加班费，被强迫被自愿，好多人精神状态都不好了。在私企上班真的太苦太累了，经济下行，工作不好找，根本不敢辞职，只能每天苟着，咬着牙在撑着，不讨厌工作，但是痛恨加班！最遵守中国劳动法的，不是国企，而是外企真的太优越了。

In fact the internet presents the leak everywhere in this information age. Let’s work on how we can brainstorm ideas on remedy problems. One reason of this discontent is stated by what Paul Craig Robert put it in the piece “Slavery in America Was Resurrected in 1913“: “The brutal fact is that in “free America” today, the bulk of the population owns less of their labor than did Medieval serfs, and higher earners until Reagan owned less of their labor than 19th century slaves on Southern plantations.”

But I can not totally go along with Robert’s argument. The problem is not just how much we earned, the problem is about how huge a disparity of social resources mis-allocation causing all the injustice, imbalance and the evils derived from there. Where is the no equal power in law, there is no genuine equality and harmony. 没有权利平等，就没有真实的和谐。 And this phenomenon exist everywhere, U.S or China, and most countries. Just look at the Gini coefficient index. And the article: Post-apartheid South Africa is world’s most unequal country. Today China so called “socialist country” is in fact more unequal, more exploitation and suppression than before 1981 when it start the open door policy. Even the middle and upper class who supposedly financially benefits from this change are suffering from a general environment that is deteriorate day by day （唇亡齿寒）because everything is interrelated.

The story of China, as delivered by its statisticians and propagandists, is a sunny tale of a country dispatching extreme poverty, steering the world’s economic growth and, earlier this year, adroitly depositing a rover on Mars. The article Why did the Chinese become less happy during their growth boom? describe a symptom of “paradox of unhappy growth”, not just in China, but a reality every where that materialism’s fail to deliver a healthy society and fairness in social contract. Look at China’s Forgotten Peasants: An Element of Unrest. Look at the tax rules unfairness reflected in One of China’s most debt-ridden provinces 贵州 asks Beijing for help in now. What about the approximately 69 million children in China that are left behind by one or both of their parents due to migration, which is equivalent to thirty percent of the children in rural area.

Can AI and chip industry fill the hole of that inadequacy ? Most of the US is dealing with a teaching shortage, but the data isn’t so simple More than three-quarters of U.S. states are experiencing a teacher shortage, highlighting a growing concern among public education and government officials about issues that were exacerbated during three years of the COVID-19 pandemic. From Kentucky and Idaho’s communications officers’ statements calling the teacher shortage a “crisis” to several Missouri school districts implementing four-day weeks as a recruitment and retention tool, some states, as the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) put it, are still facing “unprecedented” staffing challenges.

Carol Graham from Brook Institute argue in her paper Adaptation amidst Prosperity and Adversity: Insights from Happiness Studies from Around the World that the ability to adapt is indeed a good thing from an individual happiness and psychological perspective. But this same human defense mechanism may shed insights on how some societies stay stuck in bad equilibrium—such as high levels of corruption, bad governance, or bad health—for prolonged periods of time, while much more prosperous ones continue to go from good to better equilibrium. No one is an Island – Howard Thurman’s Meditation of the Heart.

Are we plundering our children’s future ?

Teachers of Buddhism in the West Share Their Wisdom to Liberation – Becoming the Ally of All Beings

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Buddha once said, “Develop a mind so filled with love that it resembles space, which cannot be painted, cannot be marred, cannot be ruined.” When we relax the divisions that we usually make, the mind becomes like space. This is not something that a fortunate few have the capacity to experience; it is the nature of the mind, which every one of us has the ability to know. In talking about practice, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher, said we practice in order to learn to trust ourselves more, to get confidence in what we know, to have faith rather than doubt. Loving kindness and compassion are innate capacities that we all have. This capacity to care, to be at one with, to connect, is something that isn’t destroyed, no matter what we may go through. No matter what our life experience may have been, no matter how many scars we bear, that ability remains intact. And so we practice meditation in order to return to that spaciousness and to learn to trust our ability to love.

As the Buddha said, “All beings everywhere want to be happy.” It is only due to ignorance that we do the things that create suffering or sorrow for ourselves and for others. If we take the time to slow down and see all the different forces coming together in any action, we will see this desire for happiness even in the midst of some terrible harmful action. That is why we use our mindfulness practice to notice our feelings and to understand them. Through that we can see very clearly that if we are immersed in tremendous anger, it is great suffering, it is a state of burning, of contraction and isolation, of separation and fear. We don’t have to reject the anger or reject or condemn ourselves for it, but rather we can feel compassion for the pain of it. This quality of empathy is also the basis of modern psychological thought on the development of morality. We learn not to hurt others because we understand how it feels to be hurt.

Howard Washington Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981) was an American author, philosopher, theologian, mystic, educator, and civil right leader. As a prominent religious figure, he played a leading role in many social justice movements and organizations of the twentieth century. Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an American writer and professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work covers many aspects of the human experience.

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One of the social psychology is the desire to fit in, one of the most powerful, least understood forces in society.  Author Todd Rose dwell into examples psychological distortions from toilet paper shortages to kidneys that get thrown away rather than used for transplants; from racial segregation to the perceived “electability” of women in politics; from bottled water to “cancel culture,” , we routinely copy others, lie about what we believe, cling to tribes, and silence people, author bring to light some new perspective about the root cause of collective wounds in Collective Illusions: Conformity, Complicity, and the Science of Why We Make Bad Decisions Hardcover – February 1, 2022 . Draw on cutting-edge neuroscience and social psychology research, this acclaimed author demonstrates how so much of our thinking is informed by false assumptions—making us dangerously mistrustful as a society and needlessly unhappy as individuals. 

Path of Parenting, Path of Education, Path of Awakening

Our country’s postindustrial culture has left us to raise our children apart from a community of neighbors and elders. There aren’t many grandparents around – they all live someplace else or they’re off, like most fathers and many mothers, at the office or the factory. There aren’t many uncles or aunts around to take care of the kids when parents become overwhelmed, or to initiate the teenagers (so that they don’t have to seek initiation on the streets), to help them discover what it is to be a man or a woman and a productive member of the community. there isn’t a community of elders from whom we can hear stories and learn practices that will keep us connected with our human heritage, with our instincts and our hearts.

Instead of village elders, American parents have turned to various “experts” and whatever fad or theory they have come up with. In the 1920s an influential school of child psychology actually taught parents that it was bad to touch their children. Several decades later, parents all across America read books that insisted we bottle-feed (not breast-feed) an infant every four hours and that we should not pick up a crying baby but just let it “cry itself out.”

Every wise culture in the world knows that when babies cry, they cry for a reason, and that you pick them up and feed them, or hold them and comfort them. You have to really fight against yourself not to pick up a sobbing infant. Among the less technologically developed cultures of Asia or Africa or Latin America, children are always being held, always in someone’s lap. Children are valued, are included in all family activities – in work, in ceremonies, in celebrations, there is always a place for them.

When children are valued in this way, the whole society benefits. In this spirit, there is a tribe in Africa that counts the birthday of a child from the day the child is a thought in its mother’s mind…. What a beautiful way for human beings to listen to and to comfort other human beings. This is the spirit of conscious parenting, to listen to the song of the child in front of you and to sing that child’s song to him or her. When a child is crying, we need to ask why this child is singing the crying song, what pain or frustration this child is feeling.

Yet the western culture seems to be telling people ignore their instincts, to distrust our intuition. The result is that many children growing up in our society are not bonded to an adult. One of the more painful statements about what we are collectively doing to our children came one year form a teacher named John Gatto who was voted New York City Teacher of the year. At the awards ceremony 1990 January 31, in front of the mayor and the school board and thousands of parents, he castigated his listeners for the “soul murder” of a million black and Latino children- Why School Don’t Education. He challenged the audience to consider the effects of American culture on our children: “Think of the things that are killing us as a nation: drugs and alcohol, brainless competition, recreational sex, the pornography of violence, gambling – and the worst pornography of all: lives devoted to buying things, accumulation as a philosophy, all addictions of dependent personalities, and that is what our brand of schooling will inevitably produce in the next generation.”

John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018): Remembering America’s Most Courageous Teacher. In a collection of essays and articles A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis of American Schooling Paperback – January 1, 2002 John Gatto exposes a system designed to promote economic and business interests and advocates a greater emphasis on teaching critical thinking skills. Gatto leaves behind a legacy that inspired thousands of people to challenge the premise on which our education system was built. Gatto’s writing, teaching, and approach to not just education but human flourishing in general inspired us to think critically about our own life and education. He’s one of the most important thinkers in American history—that’s becoming more obvious every day. He’ll be missed dearly.

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Paperback – July 17, 2018 Since its first publication in 1995, Lies My Teacher Told Me has become one of the most important―and successful―history books of our time. Having sold nearly two million copies, the book also won an American Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship and was heralded on the front page of the New York Times. Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book. It is both a refreshing antidote to what has passed for history in our educational system and a one-volume education in itself.

The author of Teaching with the HEART in Mind: A Complete Educator’s Guide to Social Emotional Learning , Dr. Lorea Martínez Pérez is the award-winning Founder of HEART in Mind Consulting, a company dedicated to helping schools and organizations integrate social emotional learning in their practices, products, and learning communities. An educator who has worked with children and adults internationally, Dr. Martínez is a faculty member at Columbia University Teachers College, educating aspiring principals in Emotional Intelligence. Previously, she was a special education teacher and administrator. Learn more at loreamartinez.com Dr. Perez argues that creating better outcomes for your students sometimes means you have to challenge the odds. Academics and standardized assessments aren’t the solution. You need to educate both their hearts and minds. Strengthen your students’ resilience, spark their curiosity for learning, and encourage future success in college, career, and life. Be the best teacher you can be and infuse social-emotional skills into your teaching of any subject.

The average American child watches eighteen thousand murders and violent acts and half a million advertisements. Violence and materialism. We are feeding the next generation of children the very suffering we’re trying to undo in our spiritual practice. with the highest rate of infant mortality of any industrialized nation and millions of “latch key kids,” we have given up caring for our children. An increasing number are raised by day care and TV and smart phones. We end up with a new generation of Americans more connected to TV or video games (often violent ones) than to other people. We will have more Gulf-style wars and violent crimes than successful marriages. Because these children were not held enough when they were young, were not valued enough and respect enough, were not listened to or sung to, they grow up with a hole inside, with no real sense of what it means to love, with no rel capacity for intimacy.

When the Dalai Lama spoke with a group of Western psychologists, he couldn’t understand why there was so much talk about self-hatred and unworthiness. he didn’t understand, because in Tibetan culture children are loved and held. he was so astonished that he went around the room and asked everyone, “Do you feel unworthiness and self-hatred sometimes?’ “Yes.” “Do you feel it?” “Yes.” Everyone in the room nodded yes. He couldn’t believe that this was a culture where people primarily talk about their difficulty with their parents instead of honoring them. Contrast this with the healthy childhoods of the Buddha’s time. The Buddha himself was raised by his mother’s sister (after his mother died) and given all the nurturance, natural respect, care, and attention that every child needs. later, when he left home to practice as a yogi, he had the inner strength and integrity to undertake six years of intensely ascetic practice. The Buddha had this vision of well-being from his childhood to draw upon in his practice.

Parenting is a labor of love. it is a path of service and surrender, and link the practice of a Buddha or a bodhisattva, it demands patience and understanding and tremendous sacrifice. it is also a way to reconnect with the mystery of life and to reconnect with ourselves. Along withe practice of mindfulness there are four other principles of conscious parenting; attentive listening, respect, integrity, and lovingkindness.

The principle of attentive listening means listening to the Tao of the seasons, to our human intuition and our instincts, to our children. do we hear what our children are trying to tell us? it’s like listening to the Tao. How long should we nurse our babies? how late should we allow our teenagers to stay out on dates? To answer those questions, we have to listen and pay attention to the rhythms of life. Just as we learn to be aware of breathing in and breathing out, we can learn to sense how deeply children want to grow.

A measure of respect comes in the setting of boundaries and limits appropriate to our child. As parents, we can set limits in a respectful way, with a compassionate “no” and an explanation of why something is out of bounds. Children learn by example, by who we are and what we do. They watch us what we communicate y the way we drive, the way we talk about others, and how we treat people on the street.v We teach them by our being.

Just as we learn in meditation to let go and trust, we can learn to develop a trust in our children so they can trust themselves. And we shall respect our children’s need for both dependency and independence. Most often instead of listening to them, we impatiently hurry them along. Dependency, insecurity and weakness are natural states for a child. They’re the natural states of all of us at times, but for children, especially young ones, they are predominant conditions and they are outgrown. In an article on dependency in Mothering magazine, Peggy O’Mara wrote:

We have a cultural bias against dependency, against any emotion of behavior that indicates weakness. This is nowhere more tragically evident than in the way we push our children beyond their limits an d timetables. We establish outside standards as more important than inner experience when we wean our children rather than trusting that they will wean themselves, when we insist that our children sit at the table and finish their meals rather than trusting that they will eat well if healthful food is provided on a regular basis, and when we toilet-train them at an early age rather than trusting that they will learn to use the toilet when they are ready to do so.

In the similar vein, Dorothy Law Nolte has written a poem, “Children learn What They Live”: 

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship.
He learns to find love in the world.

Service – Expressing Our Practice

Many people tend to think practicing spirituality is about going to a house of worship, a meditation hall, or a quiet spot in nature, and engaging in prayer, meditation, solitude and self-reflection. These spiritual pursuits seem to foster a simpler, more peaceful life in which we might experience greater intimacy and self-worth. But with the many responsibilities of life in the world, we often have precious little time to devote to such practice. When time does permit them, our spiritual yearning is momentarily satisfied and we feel aligned with the needs of our hearts; but generally our spiritual practice remains secondary to our more pressing daily activities.

Is it possible that we are defining our spiritual practice in too narrow a way? Perhaps we have become too attached to a particular form of spirituality – to a specific practice or set of circumstances. If we return to the intention behind our practices rather than adhering strictly to a form that supports the intention, we may discover a new approach to spirituality, one that truly feeds our hearts. Service work is a form that seems to be common to all the sacred traditions of the world. It cuts through all artificial divisions between “spirituality” and “life”.

Elisabeth Kubeler-Ross once said that she never meditated and never wanted to – she found it too dry. but when working with the dying, being intimately present with that person, listening fully and learning constantly, she was as focused as any mediator sitting on the floor and attending to the breath. She was in fact meditating, but her meditation arose naturally from her concern for the dying, not through formal sitting practice. For her, meditation was an expression of her service to the dying.

Spiritual teach Rodney Smith spent eight years in Buddhist monastic settings, both at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and several years as a Buddhist monk in Asia. He ordained with Mahasi Sayadaw in Burma then practiced for three years with Ajahn Buddhadassa in Thailand. He disrobed as a monk in 1983 and, after returning to the West, started working in hospice care and teaching vipassana meditation throughout the U.S. Smith’s many years as a monk in Asia, hospice worker, partnered householder and longtime vipassana teacher inform what he considers pivotal: that without Wise View, our pursuit of awakening will go nowhere.  He openhandedly shares his own struggle in Stepping Out of Self-Deception: The Buddha’s Liberating Teaching of No-Self.

After spending several years on retreat, including a few years in Asia as a forest monk, Rodney Smith began feeling that his practice was becoming dry. Then he discovered that service has a way of transforming our daily life into a spiritual practice. And that discovery has led to serving others as a practice of the heart. Often the shift from helping to serving is only an attitude deep. Service can actually be an expression of prayer, an ongoing engaged meditation. If service work is defined as breaking through the artificial barriers that seem to isolate us form the rest of life, then washing the dishes, dressing, cooking, eating, and showering are not separate from our prayer or meditation. When our daily activities teach us about our relationship to all things, our life becomes an unceasing prayer of the heart.We become less dependent upon specific practices because we are more aware of the interrelationship between who we are and the activity we are involved in. We may participate in prayer or meditation, but we no longer find that these are the only ways to access a spiritual dimension. Your heart becomes as available through a variety of contacts and relationships as it does through sitting meditation. We start being fed from life itself.

Rodney Smith further talked about service in light of waking up and becoming alive. Aliveness is our birthright. To come alive, we must align ourselves with our heart’s desire. We just have to rediscover how to do that. This observation solves the problem of how to practice and fully participate in our lives at the same time. It says that service is not a burden; rather, it defines service as that which feeds our aliveness. The word aliveness implies wakefulness, awareness, and a connected passion for life. We may notice that the essence of aliveness is a pure quality distinct from the actions that spring from it, such as following our desire or avoiding our fears. No matter where we start with our understanding of aliveness, however, through investigation we penetrate to new and deeper meanings of this word. We need to keep redefining the idea, allowing it to evolve beyond what we think it means. in this way, it will always be fresh and new, as our aliveness itself.

When we help someone, subliminally we pass on a message of inequality. In doing so, we diminish that person as a human being. We hold those we help in a fixed perspective and often refuse to allow them to grow. This is because if they grew out of their role, we would lose the contact we need to help. So the difference between serving and “helping” is the difference between being alive and being depleted. Helping is based on sacrifice, not strength. It is giving something to someone for a particular reason. Its intention is self-enhancement at the expense of someone whom we regard as underprivileged. The helper is rewarded by knowing that he or she is better off than the person being helped. We become as dependent upon them as they are on us. Our minds can force another into an unequal relationship, but not our hearts. Genuine warmth cannot exist unless there is equality. Within this profound connection, there is mutual appreciation. Our hearts naturally open in service work. A long time meditation teacher, Rodney Smith teaches program on “uprooting our false identity within our encased narrative and aligned ego structures.”  His approach is built on the The Buddha’s Four Foundations of Mindfulness:

  • First Foundation: Contemplation of the Body. …
  • Second Foundation: Contemplation of Feeling. …
  • Third Foundation: Contemplation of Mind. …
  • Fourth Foundation: Contemplation of Dhammas.

Sometimes at crucial moments in our lives we are presented with new paths, opportunities to grow in ways we never expected. If we have courage to take these new directions, we expand, becoming more than we ever dreamed we might become, discovering ways to live and to die with dignity, with grace. That is the story of Rodney Smith’s life journey. In an interview, Rodney spoke of how Buddhist working with the dying.

Urgency, Contentment, and the Edges of Love

Drawing from many spiritual paths including the Muslim-Sufi and Christian mystical traditions as well as Buddhism, Veteran Meditation teacher Gavein Harrison about transformation through suffering. In a detail personal account of his uphill battle with HIV virus and searching for truth: “What truly is the meaning of death?” “Is there an end to suffering?” He described his commitment to facing and standing up for truth—even when confronting abuse, AIDs and death, in Beyond the Grip of Fear.

Teachers of Buddhism in the West Share Their Wisdom to Liberation – Keeping Alive the Tradition in Our Own Time and Space

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From the time of the Buddha’s enlightenment in India twenty-five hundred years ago, the teachings known as Buddhism have spread throughout the world, adapting to the needs of different peoples and cultural settings. Wherever the universal human longing for for spiritual freedom has been felt, the Dharma – the Buddha’s Teaching – has found a home. When the Buddha sent off the first group of his disciples to teach “for the good of the many, for the welfare of the many …. out of compassion for all beings,” he instructed them to teach the people they came upon in an idiom that was most accessible and most meaningful. Meditation on the specific challenges and how the Dharma can help us overcome the difficulties from a specific circumstance is a wonderful and important step in making the Dharma our own. By retelling the ancient allegory of a spiritual journey in our own idiom, we are unfolding a tradition that speaks of our our inquiry, our own triumphs, and our unique lessons. We are discovering new metaphors – in our own time and place, in our own families and communities and institutions – that connect us to a reality and a teaching that is timeless and universal. It is a significant step in the transmission of a living truth. In the end, the crucial understanding is one’s own, while the tradition is kept alive through the awakening of more and more people and the commitment of follow the step of the Buddha by strive to become Bodhisattva.

In the Buddhism tradition, Bodhisattva are those who, aspirating to enlightenment, make a resolve, “I vow to attain full enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.” This means we recognize our own liberation is intertwined with the liberation of all beings without exception. Rather than seeing other beings as adversaries, we must see them as colleagues in this endeavor of freedom. Rather than viewing others with fear or contempt, which arises form a belief in separation, we see them as part of who we ourselves are. Seeing the truth of this fundamental interconnectedness is what is known in the Eight-fold Path as Right View. The Buddha said, “Just as the dawn is the forerunner and the first indication of the rising sun, so is Right view the forerunner and the first indication of wholesome states.” Seeing the truth of our interconnectedness leads to the mind-state of lovingkindness that characterizes the Bodhisattva.

True, the Bodhisattva aspiration does seem to be up against some insurmountable odds. It may seem impossible to genuinely care about all beings everywhere. But developing the heart of loving kindness is not about straining, not about gritting your teeth and, though seething with anger, somehow covering it over with a positive sentiment. Loving kindness is a capacity we all have. We don’t have to do something unnatural in order to be capable caring. We only have to see things as they actually are.

When we take the time to be quiet, to be still, we begin to see the web of conditions, which is the force of life itself, as it comes together to produce each moment. When we look deeply, we see constant change; we look into the face of impermanence, insubstantiality, lack of solidity. As the Buddha pointed out, given this truth, trying to control that which can never be controlled will not give us security of safety, will not give us final happiness. In fact, trying to control ever-changing and insubstantial phenomena is what gives rise to our sense of isolation and fragmentation. When we try to hold on to something that is crumbling or falling apart, and we see that not only is it crumbling but we are changing in just the same way, then there is fear, terror, separation, and a lot of suffering.

If we re-vision our world and our relationship to it so that we are no longer trying to fruitlessly control but rather are connecting deeply to things as they are, then we see through the insubstantiality of all things to our fundamental interconnectedness. Being fully connected to our own experience, excluding no aspect of it, guides us right through to our connectedness with all beings. There are no barriers; there is no separation. We are not standing apart from anything or anyone. We are never alone in our suffering, and we are not alone in our joy, because all of life is a swirl of conditions, a swirl of mutual influences coming together and coming apart. By going to the heart of any one thing, we see all things. We see the very nature of life.

Sharon Salzberg talked about balance in the mind being like walking on a tightrope. She described what a relief it was for her to discover ( after having permanent balance as a goal) the ease that comes with realizing that we stumble all the time, lose our balance and fall, and find there is another tightrope waiting – that mind based in equanimity has space enough to allow for a full range of emotions and space enough to see around them, or through them, so that everything becomes workable.

One the central teachings of the Buddha is that of a lawful cosmos, the truth that all conditioned things have causes and all actions have seqelae. Everything is happening for a reason. This understanding can be both calming and energizing. We are sustained, when things are difficult, by the awareness that whatever is happening is lawful and cannot be otherwise, and although our previous actions surely conditioned part of the current experience, everything in the past is part of current experience. No one is ever guilty and everyone is always responsible. What we do now matters, that our actions now condition the outcome of current circumstance. Even nonaction is an action. Everything and everyone matters.

Perfecting the Heart

In America, people tend to feel free to invent ‘salad’ religions, by mixing and matching. The first reason being it is a very American trait (at least Erik Erikson thought so) to be a ‘lone cowboy’ pioneering a new frontier. We can’t think of an other culture with such emphasis on Do-It-yourself.) The second reason is these private and singular attempts are part of a growing, widespread recognition of spiritual need. Consumerism and materialism doesn’t work as religions. When people don’t get a meaningful spirituality from their family or community – either no spirituality or one that doesn’t work – they need to invent a new one. This is have one possible pitfall and one potential shortcoming. In a solo practice, there is no one available for feedback, no one who can encourage us and no one to tell us that we’re deluding ourselves or that nothing is happening (no progress at all).

The practice of consciously cultivating character – of having morality as a goal – is fundamental to what the Buddha taught. The Ten Perfections in the Buddhist tradition are The ten qualities (paramis, the word parami is related to paramam which means “something of foremost importance.”  ) to help us focus on as inspiration for transformation. These ten qualities, the paramis, are our birthright, present in all of us at least in seed potential. The karma of our birth circumstance, physical and mental, social and cultural, is where we start. The parmis are listed sequentially below, although they are all reflections of each other and grow, simultaneously through practice.

  • Generosity;
  • Morality
  • Renunciation,
  • Wisdom,
  • Energy,
  • Patience,
  • Truthfulness,
  • Determination,
  • Loving kindness,
  • Equanimity

The transformation is the goal of our spiritual practice, is the purification of the heart, our conversion to benevolence and altruism. It is not enough to feel good or more relaxed, or even more connected to the experience. All of that is great, but it is only half the job. We relax, we connect deeply with our experience – then we see clearly and understand deeply the truth of suffering – universal suffering – and we are transformed by our wisdom from self-serving, trapped and limited by our own stories, to having compassion and kindness toward all beings.

The Five Precepts Supporting Our Relationship

When we bring a deeply caring and respectful awareness to the way we interact with one another we change our social relationships from a source of confusion and pain to a vehicle for personal and social transformation. Spiritual awakening, in every tradition, brings this transformation of our actions from limited self-interest to a joyful, open response to all of life, an inclusive love and appreciation. In the Buddhist tradition, this move is described as the Five Precepts. these precepts involve training our speech and action in order to serve our inner and outer harmony. The precepts speak to areas of life that are the source of our greatest pleasure, joy, and happiness as well as our greatest fear, pain, and confusion.

By paying careful attention to how we speak and act, we notice the effect such behavior has on ourselves as well as others. If we notice that our behavior causes pain, can we gracefully give it up, or will we remain caught in an old habitual way of reacting? This is the challenge of practicing the precepts.

We are not asked to submit to an authority or any “one ” of behavior, but rather we are asked to look as carefully as we can and see for ourselves. The workhorse of this practice is attentive awareness, or mindfulness. when we notice that pain results form something we have said or done, there is no threat of punishment or condemnation, but rather we acknowledge the unhappiness we have caused. it is then seen to be in our larger, more authentic self-interest to adjust our behavior so as to minimize the pain, confusion, or insecurity. This is not a grudging submission to an imagined authority. The restraint of our behavior is undertaken willingly, our of interest in the happiness of all.

1. A COMMITMENT TO NOT HARMING

Refraining from killing is an obvious place to start caring for other beings. The First precept asks us to look at how our behavior harms others. Can we acknowledge that we play a part in the chain of causation that leads to the death of other beings, animal as well as human? If we do not take an active interest in seek the truth, we may live our lives believing that this suffering is just someone else’s problem.

Do the war in the Middle East have anything to do with the miles per gallon of the car you prefer to drive? does the massive use of pesticides and herbicides now polluting our environment have anything to do with what you prefer on your table for dinner? Can we live our lives with care and consideration for the life around us. To the extent we do awaken to the vast web of life, we have the opportunity to contribute to less suffering in the world.

In some parts of United States, to learn how to use gun and enjoy the fun of hunting is the culture norm people raised in. In the Buddha’s teaching, there is a quality called hiri, defined as modesty or fear of doing wrong by causing harm to oneself or another. The Buddha identified this as a wholesome quality of heart to be developed on the path of awakening and as one of the necessary foundations for a harmonious communal life. Cultural conditioning may obscure hiri but cannot remove it from the heart. Modesty is refined attainment to what makes our heart contract and tighten, or remain open and aware. This quality of heart is innate within ourselves. We need not attribute the fear of doing wrong to some omniscient deity standing in judgment over us.

2. A COMMITMENT TO SHARING

We live in a culture and time awash in material goods promising to make us happy. the pressure to acquire the many items we are told we need is incessant. often we may be tempted to resort to less than noble or honest means to acquire them. This precept involves refraining from taking what is not freely offered. in its most elemental form it means not stealing or taking another person’s property without his or her informed consent. In order to break this precept, we must scheme to get something by deception, strength, or stealth. in the traditional texts of Buddhism this is called “having a thievish intent.”

Our legal system makes a distinction between petty theft and grand larceny. The sole distinction is the magnitude of the resultant loss or harm. However, when we look carefully, we see that the thievish intent to acquire something improperly is the same in both cases. Acquiring material goods in such a way causes harm to others and creates disharmony in our neighborhood whether it is local, national , or international.

Though we may not personally act on thievish intent, we may discover that we are the beneficiary of other’s use of stealth, force, or deception. with the widespread reports of slave labor throughout the world, should we inquire if we are the recipients of any benefit from this forced labor? Was the Persian carpet in our home made by child labor in India? Did force labor in China contribute in any way to the silk clothing we now wear?when we ask thee questions, we awaken the quality of heart that the Buddha called ottappa, which means conscience, or the shame of acting in such a way that bring harm to another. This conscience is the quality that respect others’ sensitivities, vulnerabilities, and limits.

A commitment to this precept doesn’t necessarily mean going without; it means knowing what is enough. Can we look at our busy and full lives to discover what we have in excess? Can we allow ourselves to feel the pain of those who must go without? Can we awaken to the wisdom of renouncing possession of more than enough? Can we be content with what we now have?

3. MAKING AND KEEPING CLEAR RELATIONSHIPS

Undertaking the third precept involves practicing restrain from acting our sexual energy in a way that cause harm to another. This is not a moralistic injunction against mature, adults living a full, enjoyable, sensual life Rather, we develop sensitivity to that personal behavior which, obviously or subtly, causes insecurity, fear, same, humiliation, dis-empowerment, jealously, or other painful feelings to arise within our own heart or the hear of another.

Undertaking this precept is not a capitulation to a moral or spiritual authority, nor is it an ego-investing, self-imposed spiritual ideal. it is a commitment of interest and energy to awaken to our choices and what conditions them. Whether we are aware of it or not, we choose the nature of our relationships with each other. We make commitments based upon shared understandings and expectations. We affirm our connection with all others by honoring our individual commitments.

4. SPEAKING CAREFULLY: THE POWER OF INTENTION

When we undertake to train our speech in order to create harmony, trust, and safety in our communal relationships,we also examine the resultant effect of what we say and how we say it. to help us in our exploration, the Buddha enumerated five conditions of speaking to attend to, five ways that we can awaken to the power of our words to cause pain or condition happiness.

  • By taking a moment before speaking, we can evaluate our intention so that we may choose to speak as a peacemaker rather than carelessly encouraging further agitation, tension, or division between individuals. Choosing sides in interpersonal conflicts is a habit that rarely helps to resolve the conflict. By speaking of reconciliation, resolution, and harmony, we encourage and support letting go of strong opinions and judgment. Renunciation of opinions brings immediate relief.
  • Words spoken gently are more likely to be heard and their true value felt. it is especially important that we speak in a nonthreatening, non-aggressive way when what we need to say will be difficult for another person to hear. speaking gently allows our words to be received even in difficult circumstances.
  • The third element of wise speech that preserves the harmony of community is truthfulness. when we speak the truth, we come to be known as one who can be relied on, one who is dependable, believable, and honest.It is unfortunate that we cannot look to our contemporary social or political mores to guides us in this arena of life. All around us we see deception in advertising, politics, and personal lives. This lack of integrity in speech conditions cynicism, disrespect, confusion, and disbelief. Though the truth is elusive and difficult to discover, or situation is as the Zen monk Ryokan says:
If you speak delsion, everything becomes a delusion;
if you spek the truth, everything becomes the truth ...
why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places?
Look for delusion and truth in the bottom of your own hearts.
  • Even if what we say is true, a fourth condition of wise speech is whether it will be beneficial and useful to another person. Useless, frivolous, foolish, or nonsensical chatter is called samphappalapavada in Pali. Included in this category is gossip, which for the st part is useless potentially harmful, and not of benefit to anyone.
  • The fifth element of wise speech is speaking at the proper time. It is essential that one be prepared for the impact of one’s own words, sensitive to the other’s state of mind, and aware of any other attendant conditions. Buddhist teacher often says, “Nothing is accomplished without patience.” with practice we learn that wisdom is not the manipulation of conditions to get what we want – not “being in control,” but rather the alert waiting for conditions to favor and support what we have to do. in this way the restraint imposed by patience supports wise speech.
5. KEEPING THE MIND CLEAR.

We all have deeply rooted habits that can manifest as compulsive behavior. Perhaps we have an addiction to excitement, pleasure, numbness, thrills, or any other compelling experience. When not seen clearly, thee habits then become obsessions. we often feel powerless in the face of our addictions as we struggle to escape their debilitating effects. By undertaking the fifth precept to abstain from using intoxicants, we confront the tenacious and obsessive addictions of the mind. This precept traditionally refers to the use of physical drugs and alcohol that cloud our awareness. some substances are determined to be physically addictive and harmful, such as alcohol, drugs and nicotine. when we look carefully at what affects our judgment, we can then broaden our understanding of the domain of the fifth precept to include our attempts to free the mind from all compelling, obsessive behavior, whatever the source.

To the degree we act obsessively, we are not free. The joy of freedom is undeniable. it is also fragile. Therefore, it is important to see that a broader application of this precept includes confronting all obsessively addictive behaviors. We limit ourselves through addictive behaviors and thought patterns. we can change. A commitment to grow, rooted in knowledge, sincerity and repeatedly remembered, gets real when we arouse confidence and energy. Acting the body and mind to at least try is the first step. you will never know what can be accomplished if you never try. A considered decision to abstain from some harmful behavior has tremendous power when made with awareness so the consequences and with a sincere commitment. it steadies the mind when the opportunity to indulge is presented. The commitment allows a moment’s pause in which alternatives can be considered. it is a turning away not out of fear or spiritual guilt, but from a decision that we reaffirm each time conditions present the choice.

Integrate the Dharma into our Daily Life

There was a monk in the Buddha’s time, it is said, who originally came from an extremely wealthy aristocratic family. Because he had lived a very pampered life, he was ignorant about some of the simplest things, which made him the object of much teasing by the other monks. One day they asked him, “Where does rice come from, brother?” he replied, “it comes from a golden bowl.” And when they asked him, “Where does milk come from, brother?” he answered, “it comes from a silver bowl.”

In some ways, our own perceptions about the nature of existence may be a bit like those of that monk. When we attempt to understand how our lives work, if we do not look closely, we may see only superficial connections and relationships forming our world. Upon closer examination, we come to understand that each aspect of our present reality arises not from “golden and silver bowls” but rather from a vast ocean of conditions that come together and come apart at every moment. Seeing this is the root of compassion and loving kindness. All things, when seen clearly, are not independent but rather are interdependent with all other things, with the universe, with life itself.

Teachers of Buddhism In the West Share Their Wisdom to Liberation – Taking Refuge in the Sangha

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In learning Buddhism, people have been especially drawn to the various technique meditation. But at the core are two of these practices: Vipassana (insight meditation) – the observation of the mind/body process with clear and focused awareness, leading to a deepening of wisdom and equanimity; and Metta (loving kindness) – the systematic exploration of the ability to love, leading to a deepening of concentration and connection. These practices are to ground in the foundation of Buddhism tradition which is to expand an ever-deepening awareness of the triple refuges ( or Triple Gem). The tradition is kept alive through the commitment to insight, moral integrity and compassion of all who practice it. By honestly making that commitment and sincerely practice the path of insight, we can all free our minds of habitual clinging, anger, and confusion. This is a journey of continuously mindful cultivation and practices.

The Triple Gem of Buddhism is The Buddha, The Dharma & The Sangha. If we look closely, the Triple Gems are actually one. The other two gems always exist in each gem. The Buddha is vision, the Dharma is embodying that vision, and the Sangha is sharing or expressing that vision. The Buddha is wise view, the Dharma is meditation and Sangha is wise action. The Buddha is faith or motivation, the Dharma is practice, and the Sangha is intimacy. The Buddha is enlightenment, the Dharma is actualizing of enlightenment, and the Sangha is manifesting enlightenment. The Buddha is wisdom, the Dharma is the truth, and the Sangha is harmonious action. The Buddha is the vision of awakening out of the conditioning of the mind, the Dharma is refuge in the truth of things, and the Sangha is refuge in the recognition that we have company. Each refuge is powerful and essential in and of itself; at the same time they are all connected in a full and integrated path. The Triple Gems are common to any spiritual search, and are ultimately found within our own heart when we are open to looking.

When the Buddha’s first group of disciples reached enlightenment, he said to them, “Go forth, go out, for the good of the many, for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, for the welfare, for the happiness of beings.” By saying this, the Buddha made it clear that freedom should be expressed and shared in the world – through the Sangha, the third of the Triple Gem. Taking refuge in the Sangha means embracing a seamless view of practice that integrates how we are meditating with how we are in the world and then expressing our understanding through wise action and speech. It is living our meditation, and allowing our lives to express the truth. Sangha reveals the gap between ideas and actuality.

In the Buddhist community one way to take refuge in the Sangha is to remember that we come out of an ancient tradition of awakening. The fact that for over two thousand five hundred years people just like us have been walking this path, can help to give us a sense of direction, protection, and confidence in our own capacity to awaken. It can be comforting to remember that everything that we think is so unique and personal to our own experience has been very well documented in the discourses (suttas) of the Buddha. when we read what was written down so very long ago and see that it is our own experience that is being written about, we may gain a sense of strength and unity.

There are many different ways to look at what Sangha as community means, however. Communities have many shapes and forms. Some communities may even seem formless and fluid. Taking refuge in community does not necessarily mean that we are taking refuge in a specific group of practitioners. One meaning of Sangha is the ordained community of monks and nuns. One meaning is the community of those who from beginningless time, have realized the truth. One meaning is the community of all who are dedicated to lives of truth and good-heartedness, who live with the benefit of all beings in their hearts and minds.

The Buddha’s teaching, as expressed in the lives of the Sangha, is never removed from a sense of humanity. The Buddha was a human being who talked abut what it ultimately means to be a human being and to be happy. When we explore Sangha, we explore what supports us, clears our vision, and inspires us, and what protects us in a life committed to wisdom and good-heartedness. To explore the meaning of community and the exhortation to go forth “for the good of the many,” is to explore a quality of compassion that isn’t lofty or abstract or removed from the concerns of people, but is very present and available.

When the Buddha was asked about he different experiences of life – about being a parent, a renunciate, a friend, being sick, being the one who gives, being the one who receives – he said, “Any life at all may be lived well or may be lived wrongly. If it is lived well, it will bring great results, but if it is lived wrongly, it will bring very poor results.” What ever the particular circumstance of our lives, our potential is great when we honor our own sense of purpose, when we bring wakefulness into the different aspects of our day, and when we remember a heartfelt commitment to the welfare of all beings.

In the time of the Buddha, practitioners had to work with the very same difficulties, hindrances, and obstacles that we meet in our minds today. There are descriptions in the suttas of yearning and longing and anger and agitation and restlessness and doubt and sleepiness and dullness and boredom. To remember this can be a place where we can nourish ourselves when we hit dry or difficult spots. Zen master Dogen said that if there is just one log on a fire, the fire will be weak, whereas many logs make a fire strong and powerful. People can help each other by combing their strengths as they practice. This is one reason why we get together in retreat centers. In terms of a lifetime of practice, most of us can benefits from the support of one another. We are dependent on ourselves to practice; no one can do it for us. But at the same time, most of us need support.

The practice of Vipassana (insight meditation) goes against the grain of the culture, we in the West especially need the strength that practicing together brings. The values of the culture in the world at large differ greatly from the values that we uncover and strengthen in our meditation practice. One examples is that in the culture we are generally encouraged to have strong opinions. having strong views is seen as making one more stable and productive, whereas if we don’t have firmly held dogmatic views, we are seen as wishy-washy. When we look deeply, however, we see that attachment to views and opinions narrows our world and limits creative possibilities. Opinions and views are very subjective and are not something to cling to too tightly.

In spiritual practice we begin to question what is defined as success. The dominant culture encourages us to be as busy and frantic as possible, telling us that if we are doing something, we are on the way to becoming someone. The more crowded one’s life is the more successful. The culture urges us to live for the future and values greed and accumulation. But our practice invites us to be aware and present, while letting go of our attachment to fantasy and preoccupation with external things. It is a radical act to do nothing and to sit in stillness. Doing nothing in a meditative sense means keeping the heart still and being completely present with whatever activity we are engaged in: it is an extremely vibrant creative activity. The art of doing nothing, however easy it may sound, requires a great deal of practice and training.

Although wholesome qualities of heart are developed through our own effort, we can get a clear sense of what they look like and how wonderful they are by seeing them embodies in others. Being contact with wise friends points to and strengthens our own latent wisdom, generosity, and compassion. When we are in contact with those who are wise or free, it touches that which we already know within ourselves but have forgotten. Some part of the heart remembers a little bit more through this contact. Our own Buddha-nature gets revealed. When we see that others have changed and have grown into deepening levels of freedom through practice, we see that this path of liberation is also available to us. When we begin to recognize and let go of our competitive conditioning, others can inspire us when they share themselves and the fruits of their practice.

The Buddha clearly valued the presence of wise friends on the path. In the suttras he taught that when a particular quality of hear such as generosity, patience, or concentration needs to be developed, one should try to have contact with others who have already developed that same wholesome quality. The Buddha emphasized the importance of “noble friendship and suitable conversation.” It makes sense. If we want to realize truth and freedom, it’s helpful to be in the presence of those who are manifesting and expressing truth and freedom. It is more than inspiration. On some level it is transmission: we are very much influenced by one another. Although wholesome qualities of heart are developed through our own effort, we can get a clear sense of what they look like and how wonderful they are by seeing them embodied in others.

The people that we choose to be with in intimate ways and as friends have strong influence on our lives. It is important to notice what we base our relationship choices on. Are we being drawn by blind desire or by wisdom? It is a true treasure in this life of attempting to awaken to find friends who will tell us the truth when we ask. It is very easy to find people who will talk behind our backs, but to receive the truth from friends in a kind way is a wonderful gift. We can take refuge in their discernment. We can check our our assumptions and conclusions. Discerning friend can help us examine ways that we habitually cause suffering from ourselves and others. The path of freedom is a difficult one, a path that requires great effort and earnestness. To be in the company of spiritual friends who can help us recognize and transform the inevitable obstacles that we encounter along the way is invaluable. It is hard to walk on this path of awareness without friend gently pointing out our blind spots.

Though wise friendship is an essential aspect of the spiritual path, this doesn’t mean to avoid or insulate ourselves from people who we think do not have the qualities that we aspire to. There is a great deal to be learned form interacting in situations that are not so protected or consciously supportive of our inner development. When we are being challenged in ways that are not necessarily of our own choosing or within our control, life can continue to teach us. We can develop patience and compassion in situations that provoke impatience and aversion, if we are willing to be mindful of our own reactivity and learn to take responsibility for our response. If we can bring these situations into our practice, then we do not have to relate to ourselves as victims, subjugated to the whims of others.

While being part of the Buddhist tradition that began with the enlightenment of the Buddha, we are also part of a much larger Sangha that includes not only Buddhists but also the greater community of those who are seeking freedom and truth. We are part of this greater community simply through our commitment to being awake and choosing not to engage in harmful actions toward ourselves and others.

We are immediately brought into this larger Sangha with our willingness to be openhearted and with our intention to grow in discernment. Taking refuge in the Sangha is not a matter of adhering to a particular belief system or of identifying oneself as a Buddhist. The Buddha didn’t want people to follow him blindly or to identify with what he taught; his teaching is an invitation to know freedom for ourselves.

When we come in contract with others, as we do everyday, we are bound to be hurt form time to time, and at certain times quite a bit. Our first reaction is to cling to our hurt feelings, to our sense of being separate from one another. instead we can bring mindfulness into our relationships with others rather than taking refuge in withdrawal or blame. Perhaps we can take refuge in risking something different from the old familiar unworkable and unsatisfying ways that we all know so well. We can be mindful in relationship and ask: Am I acting in a habitual or mechanical way? When we are up against that which seems unworkable, what does it mean to remain openhearted? To stay open may go against every bone in the body! So taking refuge in eh Sangha also means making a commitment to bringing mindfulness to this rich area of relationship in all its diverse forms.

Taking refuge in our interconnection means that when we hurt another person, we recognize that we hurt ourselves as well. Similarly, when we hurt ourselves, we also hurt others. We may think that we can hurt ourselves and that no one else will be hared. But because we are interconnected, this is never true. Unless we learn to take care of ourselves,we won’t really know how to care for others. If we haven’t learned how to be kind with ourselves, being kind to others is often merely an ideal to strive for. Taking care of oneself also means being willing to acknowledge one’s suffering and then investigate its source. this means to silently observe our suffering without judging or reacting. This process takes a great deal of patience and courage, and we gradually discover an inner refuge through cultivating these qualities. buy training the heart to be steady and equanimous, our confidence grows as well as our capacity to help others. when we remember to bring our mindfulness practice to the complex world of relationship, the gap between spiritual ideals and actuality dissolves.

While we try to be openhearted to everyone around us, we can practice being openhearted to all the emotions, inner voices, and thoughts in our inner environment. Taking refuge in the Sangha means being openhearted with this inner Sangha as well. If we can embrace and accept negative emotions and unpleasant states of mind when they arise, without identifying with them or acting on them, we can begin to trust ourselves and live with greater ease. The practice of meditation teaches us to face whatever is occurring, and this strength of heart and mind becomes a lasting refuge. In the words of the Buddha, “By wise effort and earnestness, find for yourself an island that no flood can overwhelm.” As we find an inner refuge that no flood can overwhelm, we quite naturally become a refuge for others.

Teachers of Buddhism In the West Share Their Wisdom to Liberation – How Government can Deploy these Resources to Remedy Suffering

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After attaining the great enlightenment, the Buddha expressed this verse in his heart (Dhammapada, verses 153-54):

"I wondered through the rounds of countless births,
Seeking but not finding the builder of this house.
Sorrowful indeed is birth again and again.
O house builder! you have now been seen.
You shall build the house no longer.
All Your rafters have been broken,
Your ridgepole shattered.
My mind has attained to unconditioned freedom.
Achieved is the end of craving."

All beings need a refuge, a place where they can find ease or peace. In our day-to-day existence, we are constantly trying to find relief form the torments of the heart – refuge from fear, loneliness, anger, boredom, etc. However, we tend to seek this refuge in outer things which ultimately prove unreliable. This yearning for relief takes many different forms. At times, we try to find refuge in accumulating possessions or through success in our career. Or we try to find refuge in memories or fantasies. Some of us try in alcohol, drugs, entertainment or in sleeping and eating. Without awareness, we blindly seek solace where it cannot be found. And over and over again, we find ourselves disappointed because we are trying to find happiness in that which is impermanent. Through the power of awareness, we begin to realize that a lasting source of ease and comfort can only be found within.

Dr. Gabor Maté, Canadian physician and author with background in family practice and a special interest in childhood development, trauma and potential lifelong impacts on physical and mental health, argues in Modern Culture Is Traumatizing and NOT Normal!, that trying to draw conclusion of human nature from how we live in this society is like to understand a wild animal inside a cage. What we consider to be normal culture that we have here, there is nothing normal in terms of human needs and human potential. In fact, it’s that gap between human needs and human potential and the conditions under which we live now that create so much illness of mind and body, not to mention so much tension, strain, hostility and division in society in general.

Historically, the Buddha’s teachings have been preserved by the monastic tradition, and the term sangha has referred to the community of monks and nuns. Sangha can, as well, be seen in a much more inclusive way to mean all like-minded spiritual seekers. The Buddha, when asked whether anyone who had not ordained as a monk had become fully awakened, replied, “there has not been just one persons. There have been many people who have awakened, who have lived a householder life.” In the original discourses of the Buddha, we see that there all kids of people who practiced and realized the deepest freedom – people with different levels of education, diverse socioeconomic classes, practitioners with big families, both men and women, and even some seven-year-olds. There is a whole group of children who were said to have been enlightened at the age of seven in the Buddha’s time!

The support and encouragement that we receive from the Sangha are invaluable, given the nature and depth of our inquiry. Cultural conditioning, with its obsession with the external, keeps us searching for happiness outside of ourselves. The spiritual path has nothing to do with achievement or attainment or becoming someone special. Because we live in such a competitive culture, we need to be especially mindful of feelings of competition when we practice together. When we compete with one another, we reinforce the discontent that comes form feelings of separateness and in-completion.

Another more expansive way of looking at taking refuge in the Sangha is taking refuge in or interconnection with all beings – whether they are engaged in a spiritual practice or not. We can be aware of our deep sense of a common bond to one another, and can take refuge in being intimate with all beings, if we see through the apparent separation of self and other. The Indian sage Neem Karoli Baba said, “Don’t throw anyone out of your heart.” This means not only seeing our interconnection but living it. Not to throw anyone out means to continue to practice opening our hearts to all beings, even those beings that engage in harmful actions. This doesn’t mean that we approve or condone unskillful actions, or that we can’t say no and set protective boundaries. Boundaries are important if we want to be able to keep everyone in our hearts. There are times when we need to protect ourselves, Situations of oppression or abuse may require throwing someone our of your house to avoid throwing them out of your heart.

Relationship is essential on our path because it strips away our ideas about ourselves. We can be very loving while sitting alone and then become totally angry when we come into contact with someone else. We can have great ideas about being more generous, for example, but then, when we find ourselves in a position to give, we don’t. Thinking about giving can be a lot easier than the actuality, if it means that we have to extend ourselves beyond the range of what we have determined as comfortable. Practice in relationship requires us to examine ourselves with a commitment to honesty, recognizing our limitations and then gently stretching beyond them. it is important to remember that some conflict is a natural part of being in relationship with anyone. Trying to avoid conflict with others out of fear, ironically, prevents intimacy and ultimately leads to greater discontent. We need to learn how to take conflict that arises and work with it skillfully, using the conflict to be more aware of our reactivity and attachment to views and opinions. if our hearts and minds can regain balance in the midst of reactivity and conflict, faith in our practice grow is and we discover a more reliable refuge than avoidance or withdrawal.

In the Book Voices of Insight edited by Sharon Salzberg, cofounder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society and a cofounder of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, introduces to us many great resources to cope with the turbulence and anxiety of our time. The Insight Meditation Society (IMS) is a non-profit organization for study of Buddhism founded in Barre, MA in 1975, by Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, and Joseph Goldstein and is rooted in the Theravada tradition.

In the transition of the Buddhist teachings from Asia to the West, there is an understanding that doesn’t come easily into our culture – the importance of confidence on oneself. Traditional Asian teachings emphasize Right Effort, one of the elements of the Eight-fold Path as reflected in the very last thing the Buddha said to his disciples: “Strive on with diligence.” Meant to be empowering and personally liberating, that message is somehow not understood in the same way in the West. Effort seems burdensome, or even terrifying. We might disdain or dismiss the whole idea that the path demands effort. At the heart of many of these reactions is, I believe, a feeling of helplessness. We might subtly think, “I can’t do it. I don’t have what it takes to ‘strive with diligence; or to bring about a change in my actions.” Sharon Salzbert spoke of her transformation from self-deprecation to self-confidence. Sharon wrote extensively about her teacher Dipa Ma, a Vipassana Buddhist Master Teacher, whose amazing influence to her students on the Right Effort, was always coupled with mirroring to each of her students a powerful sense of their own ability.

Meditation is nothing new. But for many years in the West only monastics, mystics, poets, and Asian Americans practiced it. Now this path of observing life simply and directly has made its way into the mainstream. Partly because of the technological advance of internet make it possible to have wise and direct words of teachers heard, an American meditation tradition has taken root. Buddhism has brought its jewel, the practice of learning by looking within, to a society in need of wisdom to navigate the turmoil of modern world with globalization as background.

In the Buddhist literature, the word kalyannamitta is usually translated as a good, honest or spiritual friend. But is means more than just that. The words “sacred friendship” come closest to describing the depth of connection and commitment, the pure and unconditional relationship, that can exist between a student and a spiritual teacher, as well as between friends. within the wide embrace of sacred friendship, acceptance and forgiveness are what make real intimacy possible. Intimacy rests in the simplicity of being fully present, responsive to what is there in the moment, with no agenda or anticipation. By fully being in the moment we are there in just the right way. We rediscover the mystery of who we are through this interchange of opening and surrender. Such friendships create heaven on earth.

Anchored in the Theravadan Buddhist Burmese lineage of Mahasi Sayadaw since 1974, Steven Smith’s Dharma Talks answer people’s question about how they can integrate the path of self-liberation with the path of paying attention to the welfare of others. His focus is guiding practitioners to do both. The dharmic brilliance is that liberation, the core teaching, creates a deep, transformative experience of who we are, which, in turn, transforms our care for the state of all beings everywhere. Steven Smith also had album MeditationOfTheHeart on Spotify to share for free.

One the great spiritual teacher of our time, Jack Kornfield, spoke of tradition of Ajahn Chah – one of Theravada school of Buddhism. The teachings of Ajahn Chan described two levels of spiritual practice. On the first level, you use Dharma to become comfortable. You become virtuous and a little kinder. you sit and quiet your mind, and you help make a harmonious community. Then the second kind of Dharma, is to discover real freedom of mind, heart, and spirit. This level of practice has nothing whatsoever to do with comfort. here you take every circumstance of life and work with it to learn to be free. Ajahn Chan’s way of teaching combines the ultimate level of Dharma with the practical level. To help us find freedom, Ajahn Chan taught about selflessness, the essential realization of the Buddha’s liberation, in simple and remarkable ways.

Mirabai Bush, Cofounder of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society in Massachusetts, discussed with contemporary thought leaders in Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying Paperback – June 21, 2022, on social justice, radical self-love, devotional ecology, public and spiritual health and more — framed within the context of the work with Ram Dass. Another book coauthored by Mirabai Bush Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning  presents background information and ideas for the practical application of contemplative practices across the academic curriculum from the physical sciences to the humanities and arts. It is an inspiring report from the frontlines of academe by two quiet revolutionaries. A must-read for anyone who cares about the future of college teaching and who seeks a vision of what it could be. The other author Daniel p. Barbezat, is professor of economics at Amherst College and a former director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

In Bryn Mawr College classroom, students meditate before studying the Holocaust, slavery, and apartheid, according to their professor, it helps them “keep the encounter with shared human horror from becoming a kind of vicarious intellectual voyeurism.” Its Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research offers program to Learn mindful self-care strategies and discerning when meditative practices can be  used as prevention vs intervention. Contemplative Arts at the White Lotus Center in Bryn Mawr PA, also teaches meditation and mindfulness-based stress management to individuals and groups, and support people living with cancer or other serious illnesses to integrate a variety of mind body methods into their healing journey. 

Writer Joseph Goldstein who is a prolific writer on meditation and creating life of integrity. He even answers law student’s questions about readiness to learn mindfulness practice. He has several guided meditation programs in youtube including How to Stay Calm while Anxious, Nature of the Mind, and Doorway to Freedom , Conversation on mindfully facing climate change etc.

These are deep and nurturing wellspring of Dharma teachings on sacred journey, sacred friendship, right effort, suffering and the end of suffering, unconditional acceptance, the power of silence and stillness. May they inspire many to deepens their wisdom and compassion and work to relieve the suffering of all being. These resources may very well be taken into consideration in governmental, institutional and school’ reform for detoxification.

Happy Easter！

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In this special day, I would like to share with an article by Falun Gong Founder Mr. Li Hongzhi Publishes ‘How Humankind Came To Be’.

在这复活节的特殊日子里，让我与大家一起分享法轮功创始人李洪志先生的文章《为什么会有人类》。此文震撼了聖經研究學者， 我读后都有很多共鸣。乱世中我们 需找回与神相连的纽带。 居住在美国弗吉尼亚州的退休邮递员Margaret Spiller 说 文章“合乎逻辑”、支持了她“做好人的信念”、让她重新认识了“死亡”这个概念。台湾国中辅导老师徐承玮喜获一份报刊文章，让他心有体悟，神引领世人要向善，是我们要跟随的原则。李大师教导人们“真、善、忍”的原则，是“高贵”的思想，世界各地基督徒中有他的“天然盟友”。以色列教师 Shalom读李大师文章，让他感觉“非常深刻”“非常智慧”和“非常乐观”。 Shalom是信仰犹太教的，但他发现李大师的文章与其它宗教有着“美好的联系”，即有很多东西是相似的，他可以将很多犹太教中的东西与文章中所述的内容联系起来。Shalom说看了这篇文章后，他认为“明天会更好，而且特别、特别美好”。

法轮大法造福社会 维护信仰 坚守正义。李洪志大师公开传授法轮大法（法轮功）已经传播三十余年了。李洪志大师不辞辛劳，走遍大江南北，传法教功。法轮功性命双修、净化身心效果显著，展现了数不清的健康奇迹，震动神州。曾经有幸参加李洪志先生面授班、聆听大师讲法的学员们无比珍视那段可喜的时光，感念法轮功创始人李洪志师父的言传身教。
明慧周报和同胞们说说心里话。 咱老百姓都很老实，是吧，但老实就该被糊弄吗？好人就该被欺负吗？不对吧，咱也得做个明白人，不能老是上当了，吃一百个豆儿还不嫌腥吗？

法轮修炼大法是由李洪志先生创编的佛家上乘修炼大法， “是同化宇宙最高特性‘真、善、忍’为根本，以宇宙最高特性为指导，按照宇宙演化原理而修炼，所以我们修的是大法大道。 ”李洪志大师论述法轮佛法的著作已经公开发表的有 《法轮功》、《转法轮》、《转法轮（卷二）》、《法轮大法义解》、 《法轮大法　大圆满法》、《法轮大法　精進要旨》、《法轮大法　悉尼法会讲法》、 《法轮大法　美国法会讲法》和《转法轮法解》 等四十六本，这些著作已经译成四十多种外文版，在全世界发行和传播。下面是李大师的文章。

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为什么会有人类 – 李洪志

为什么会有人类，宇宙从生成到末后要经过漫长的成、住、坏、灭四个阶段的过程。宇宙一旦到了最后“灭”的过程中的末后，天体中的一切，包括我们生存的宇宙就将在一瞬间解体无存！一切生命尽灭！

人死只是表面的身体败坏老化，而人的元神（真正自我没有死去）会在下一世中转生。宇宙有成、住、坏、灭，人有生、老、病、死，这是宇宙的规律，神也会有此过程，只是漫长，更大的神会更漫长。他们的生死没有痛苦，而且过程都是清醒的，就象换件外衣一样。也就是说生命一般情况下不会死亡。如果宇宙、天体在成、住、坏、灭的最后阶段解体了，生命也不存在转生了，一切生命与物体皆无存，化为尘埃，一切归空。目前人世间正在经历成、住、坏、灭的“灭”的最后过程。末后的一切都会变的不好了，所以才会灭，因此目前的社会才会这么乱。人无善念，乱性，心理变态，毒品泛滥，不信神等乱象丛生，这是天体末后的必然，就是到这时候了！

创世主珍惜众神与众多善良美好的生命和天体中那些美好的造化，因此在“坏”的初期，就带领一些神来到天体的最外层（统称法界外）无神之地，造了地球。地球无法独立存在，必须有相应的天体结构形成一个生命与生物的循环体系才能存在。为此，创世主在地球之外造了一个大的范围，众神叫“三界”。不到末后救度时，无论多高的神，无创世主同意，不得随意出入三界。三界范围内有三大界，地上众生包括人类这层叫“欲界”；在欲界之上是第二界为“色界”；再上一层是第三界为“无色界”。一界比一界高而美好，但都无法与法界与法界之上的众天国相比。人类通常所说的天，其实是色界与无色界三界内的天。因为每一界都有十层天，三界内共有三十三层天加三界本身。人在欲界，这是最低层，环境也最恶劣。人生苦短，最可怕的是人世无正理，在宇宙中人的理是反的（除神对人讲的法理外）。如：胜者为王、兵争天下、强者为英雄等等，在神眼中都不是正理，都是杀来抢来的。宇宙与神不会这样，可是在人这却是必须的，是可行的，这是人界的理，与宇宙的理对照是“反理”，所以要回天就得按正理“修”才行。有的人比别人过的好点，就觉得很好了，那是人在此界人与人比，其实都在宇宙的垃圾堆里生存而已。三界建在天体宇宙的最外层，这里是分子、原子等最低、最粗、最脏的粒子组成的。在神的眼里，这就是宇宙的垃圾排放之处。因此神把分子这一层粒子视为泥土，是最低层的地方，这也是宗教中所说的“上帝用泥土造了人”的原意，其实就是用分子构成的这一层物质造了人。

众神造人是创世主的指派，叫不同的神照着自己的样子造不同形貌的人，所以有白种人，有黄种人，有黑种人等种族，这只是外形不同，内在的生命是创世主给的，所以都有共同的价值观。创世主叫神造人的目地是末后救度天宇众生包括众神时所用。

那么为什么创世主要叫众神在这么低劣的环境造人类呢？因为这里是宇宙的最低层，是最苦的地方，苦才能修炼，苦才能消罪业。在苦中人还能保持善良，还知感恩，做一个好人，这就是在提高自己。而且救度是从下而上的过程，必须从最低处开始。生命在这里活的苦，人与人也会有利益的冲突，自然环境的恶劣，人为生存要劳思劳力等等等等，都能给生命提供提高、消业的机会。苦能消罪业是一定的，痛苦与矛盾中，人还能保持善良就会积功德，从而生命得到提升。

到了近代创世主要用人体救度宇宙众生时，人体中原有的生命多数由“神”转生为人所替代。因为人体可以在苦中消罪业，同时在无正理中，能坚守神说的正理，又能保持善良就会得到生命的提高。末后已到，三界天门已开，创世主已在选择这种人救度。

天体宇宙在成住坏的过程中一切都不纯净了，都不如初成时好了，才会走向“灭”的。也就是说天体中的一切都坏了，众生都不象初始时那么好了，生命也都不纯净了，都有罪业了，所以才会灭的。宗教中把这种罪叫“原罪”。为了挽救天宇，创世主叫众神、众主下世在此环境中当人，吃苦、提高、消罪，重新塑造自己，从而再回天堂。（因为创世主救人的同时也在重新造宇宙）新天宇是绝对纯净美好的，在艰苦环境中人能保持善念，面对现代观念的冲击，人能坚持传统观念，在无神论、進化论的冲击中，还能信神，这样的人就达到得救回天国的目地。一切乱象都是神在最后安排的，目地是考验众生能否得救度，同时苦也能在这过程中消罪业，一切为救人回天国世界而为之。

那么也就是说，人生在世不是为了什么社会成就。人生奋斗、拼搏，不择手段的获取，这只能把人变坏。下世当人是为了消罪业，以修好自己为目地的。人来世是为了得救，是为了等创世主救回天国世界才来当人的，等待中生生世世都在积累功德，这也是人轮回转生的目地，乱世是为了成就众生。然而也有一些人面对困难求神帮助时，没有得到满足而开始恨神，从而走向反神的地步，甚至入魔道造下新的罪业。此等人赶快走回来，向神乞求宽恕，回头是岸。其实人生的一切，应得与不应得，都是前一生、前一世做的好与不好所造成的下一生、下一世因果，前一世所积累的福德多少而决定这一世或下一世的福分多少 。福德多，下一世就可能用福德换来高官厚禄，也可能换来各种钱财福分等，包括家庭是否幸福，甚至子女如何。这就是有人富，有人穷，有人当大官，有人无家可归的根本原因，不是共产邪党所宣传的均贫富的那一套魔鬼的说词。宇宙是公平的，生命做的好就有福报，做坏事就要偿还，今生不还下生还，这是绝对的宇宙法则！天、地、神、创世主对众生是慈悲的，天、地、人、神都是创世主造的，绝不会对哪些生命好，对哪些生命不好。因果报应，这是人生有福与无福的根本原因。

得与失的表现，在现实中看上去就如社会的正常表现一样，根本上是生命自己造成的前因后果。但是有与没有、得与失，在人类社会的表现上是符合人类社会状况的，所以人生在世无论你的生活贫富，一定要做好事，不做坏事，保持善良，敬天敬神，乐于助人。这样就会积下福德，来世就会有福报。在中国过去的老人们经常讲，今生苦点不要怨天怨地，多做点好事多积点德，下一世就好了，也就是说上一辈子没干好事，没积福德，你求神来帮助也没用。宇宙有宇宙的法则，神也得遵照。神干了不该干的，神也会受到责罚。不是人想的那么简单，你想要什么神就得给你办到？条件是你必须有前世积下的福德，用福德来换取！因为这是宇宙的法理所决定的。但从根上来讲，这不是积福德的根本目地。人生在世多积福德，为的是用来积累铺垫自己回天之路才是最关键的，而不是为换取人生的一时一世的幸福！

法轮大法简介

Pitfall of Corporate Power, Structural Fraud in Tax Code, War Economy, Gun Violence and Huge Disparity in the Era of Globalization

Posted on by PathFinder

In The New Human Rights Movement – Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression, Peter Joseph wrote: “Today the US leads the world in terms of both economic influence and military force, endlessly pushing the neoliberal values of “free trade” as a root priority. The incentives that are at play in the US war economy is like a philosophical crusade, it has been deemed an imperative of Western business-political leaders to ensure that people comply with what is in effect the new global religion – a religion that invariably prioritizes commerce over everything else, with human rights increasingly subordinated to business rights. When one understands how the rules of trade, property, and exchange have become the determining mechanisms of society, decoupling focus from actual life-supporting means and factors of social trust, the dehumanized, conflicted-ridden nature of the modern world begins to make a lot more sense.

Given this ethic, educations is simply another product to be bought and sold and little more. The US government allocates roughly 2 percent of its annual budge to education. This is in stark contrast to the 20 percent of its annual budget to military, suggesting war is more beneficial to the nation’s leaders than an educated population.” New Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz questions the double standard of Republican party: “558 people has been murdered in school, who cared about the cost? What about the kids? No hearings for them! Three hundred thirty thousand kids experience gun violence in this country, the number one killer of school age children in this country is gun violence.”

Just see Who REALLY Won the War in Afghanistan. This list is just a drop on the bucket. The list of who got super rich off the war is longer than any of us can fathom. The incentives are at play in the US war economy – this is a structure issue as well as a moral issue. Edward Snowden says “When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are being ruled by criminals”. What blows our mind is that killing innocent Iraqi civilians can be swept under the rug without any consequences but leaking publishing information about can get you jailed for multiple years, as in the case of Julian Assange who is a hero to expose the corruption. We thankful to these people who take the time to defend society’s true freedom. The fact that the most powerful country of the world feel so threatened by a man like Julian Assange speaks of itself. ‘The object of power is power. The object of torture is torture.’ -1984, Orwell.

In The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality Paperback – November 3, 2020 Katharina Pistor, a legal scholar demonstrates how the rights of capital have been entrenched in the international legal system, opening a thoughtful discussion about the treaties on capital flows and privileges that need to be rewritten. The book explains how, behind closed doors in the offices of private attorneys, capital is created―and why this little-known activity is one of the biggest reasons for the widening wealth gap between the holders of capital and everybody else. The book explains the various ways that debt, complex financial products, and other assets are selectively coded to protect and reproduce private wealth. This provocative book paints a troubling portrait of the pervasive global nature of the code, the people who shape it, and the governments that enforce it. The author argues that almost everything that we call wealth is ultimately a human construction based in law and subject to review and change. What is the point of endlessly arguing about the ineffable logic of economics if that logic largely emerges from the fabric of law? Much more likely those laws are merely another political landscape upon which the endless struggle between the powerful and the rest plays out. And as such, they are changeable – and with that change, outcomes will be different. Moreover, this discussion is morally necessary because it is ultimately the power of the state – as the representative of the people – which is being used to enforce the claims of wealth among its citizens. A powerful new way of thinking about one of the most pernicious problems of our time.

Today people almost take for granted big corporate money in American politics. Not only can congresspeople trade stocks, they can insider trade without repercussions. It’s absurd. But it started with the Powell memo. The Corporate “Heist” of the United States Government Began With this Memo in 1971. Lewis Powell was a corporate attorney from Virginia who was asked by his friend at the US Chamber of Commerce to write a secret strategy memorandum for the chamber in 1971. Two months later, Richard Nixon nominated him to the Supreme Court of the United States, where he served a number of years. The memo became a rallying cry among corporate executives for how to reassert corporate dominance over the American economy and its government, which it had lost during the era of the New Deal. The memo openly stated that corporations should punish their political enemies and should seek political power through both the law and politics. It encouraged challenges to what it saw as left-wing activities by people such as Ralph Nader and US academics. By 1978, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable defeated pro-labor law reforms through a filibuster by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, which signaled the demise of organized labor as a significant opponent of organized money.

Economist Robert Reich wrote in Worse Memo in American History: Wealthy individuals also accounted for a growing share. In 1980, the richest one-hundredth of 1% of Americans provided 10% of contributions to federal elections. By 2012, they provided 40%. Although Republicans mostly benefited from a few large donors and Democrats from a much larger number of small donors (more on this to come), both political parties transformed themselves from state and local organizations that channeled the views of members upward into giant fundraising machines that sucked in money from the top.

Senator Joe Manchin has been Congress’ largest recipient of money from natural gas pipeline companies. He just reciprocated by gaining Senate support for the Mountain Valley pipeline in West Virginia and expedited approval for pipelines nationwide. Senator Kyrsten Sinema is among Congress’s largest recipients of money from the private-equity industry. She just reciprocated by preserving private-equity’s tax loophole in the Inflation Reduction Act.

In a interview on political economic laws, Mark Karlin, Managing Editor of Buzzflash on Truthout, asked: Playing the role of devil’s advocate, despite the planned evolution of a pro-corporate majority on the Supreme Court, one of their most significant rulings in the past few years, Citizens United, was not able to buy them the 2012 presidential election. Was this a fluke, or are changing demographics starting to counterbalance, at least on some key occasions, the insidious influence of big money?

Thom Hartmann, an political commentator views it this way: “I think it’s both. First, the selection allowed them to calibrate their systems for future elections. I mean, when you think of what an incredibly bad candidate Mitt Romney was – a predatory banker who was born a millionaire and couldn’t even pull decent approval ratings numbers in the state where he had been governor – what should shock and horrify all of us is that he was able to get, ironically, 47 percent of the vote. You have virtually every Republican member of the House of Representatives who voted for Paul Ryan’s budget – which would have decimated the middle class, voucherized Medicare and dropped Mitt Romney’s tax rate to zero – and enough of them, with billionaire support, were able to get elected but they held the House. I see these as very dangerous and, frankly, frightening trends. And not only will they be back, but it’s already begun.”

Look at this group of multi-millionaire and billionaire CEOs who, along with a few shill former politicians, have started this multi-million-dollar AstroTurf “fix the debt” group. We didn’t see the end; we just saw the very beginning. Unless we amend the Constitution to say that corporations are not people and that money is not speech, America will soon become a full-blown oligarchy.

It is interesting how the term philanthropy, defined as “the desire to promote the welfare of others,” has become associated almost exclusively with the wealthy; a badge worn to show how they “give back” to the community. Yet, rarely is the question of why there is the need to give back considered from the standpoint of market dynamics itself. While there is indeed growing global concern about increasing inequality, existing poverty, and so on little real effort is being made to counter the problem from the standpoint of altering the social structure to correct what are clearly systemic problems inherent in or society. In fact, philanthropy appears to be the only practice to redistribute wealth that isn’t met head-on with great disdain by the prevailing intelligentsia, especially in America. Even quite basic traditional platforms, such as increased taxation of the rich, are routinely met with contempt by gatekeeper of the capitalist religion. In the words of conservative Forbes contributor Jeffery Dorfman, “Income Redistribution’s Logical Conclusion Is Communism…. once you admit that income redistribution is fair, there is no logical stopping point short of communism.” This kind of anti-social dogma is nothing new, prominently set in motion in the early to mid-twentieth century when the threat of communism was putting capitalist hegemony at risk. The long-term consequence has been a reactionary Western culture that sees any direct government action toward economic equality, especially if it inconveniences the wealthy, as little more than a move toward bureaucratic tyranny.

While all charity is admirable, once it becomes institutionalized and funded to the extent seen by organizations such as the Gates Foundation, it turns into something different, with extended social ramifications. These elite charities are true, large-scale institutions with power, engaging in lobbying, transnational partnerships, political policy alignments, and so on. Where and how the George Soroses and Bill Gateses of the world mobilize money can have powerful effects on industry, politics, culture, academia, scientific research, national policy, and the like. In the case of Gates, his foundation is “undeniably, the most powerful an influential global health charity in history,” in the words of health-law professor Lawrence Gostin. What critics rightfully point out is that, regardless of good intention, unaccountable, singular private power in global health affairs poses serious problems, in the same way autocratic dictatorships pose serious problems for democracy and liberty. Any organization with the power to actually affect the lives of millions of people needs transparency, accountability, and a democratic presence. Thee private institutions have little to non.

What we have is the rise of a new breed of pseudo-egalitarian capitalists. They generate their great wealth by way of often ruthless competitive behavior in the private sector, arguably promoting the very mechanisms that have led to the vast structural violence and extensive poverty existing on Earth to begin with. They then turn around and offer their charity as the solution to the problems created by the very system that rewards them. Once again, this has nothing to do with intent. It is about an underlying hypocrisy that bypasses and obscures the real problem-solving focus desperately needed to further human-rights justice. That focus can only be structural.

At the same time, this institutionalization of philanthropy also serves to placate the public, giving a caring face to those who have often extracted such great wealth at the cost of others’ well-being. In the words of activist Slavoj Zizek, “Charity is the humanitarian mask hiding the face of economic exploitation.” There is a deep psychological need in those of great wealth to feel that their exceptionalism is justified. They naturally wish not only to ensure everyone believes they deserve what they have, but also to justify it to themselves. An example of this is the “Giving Pledge” project it is very difficult not to view the entire project as a PR stunt for the upper 0.1 percent. There is no transparency, so the public might never know whether a person gave or not.

For those who do follow through, there are prominent tax incentives, specifically in the United States. Since donations to charity and philanthropic foundations allow for reduced tax liability for the rich, giving money away often becomes an act of strategic self-interest. Very often, the rich simply set up their own foundations and move money through them via tax loopholes. Estate taxes are interesting as they relate to the rich only. In the US when wealthy people die, s In 2023, the federal estate tax ranges from rates of 18% to 40% and generally only applies to assets over $12.92 million. The rich work around this tax in various ways, with charitable foundations forming the most common means. A study done by the Tax Policy Center in 2003 found that “the estate tax encourage charitable giving at death by allowing a deduction for charitable bequests” and “also encourages giving during life.” The Congressional Budge Office corroborated this finding and added that during life, this same class would also reduce giving by up to 11 percent.

With globalization wealth inequality explode to a level never seen before. Disparity is not a Democratic or Republican problem. It is a problem challenging our great cities, sprawling suburbs and rural heartland.  Asian Americans are among the fastest growing group in US. But Why income inequality is growing at the fastest rate among Asian Americans. According to Pew Research Center, the median household income for Asian American households was $85,800 in 2019, slightly higher than the total U.S. median household income. Burmese Americans, however, bring in a household income of $44,400, about half of the median income for Asians in the United States. It’s an example of the widening income inequality within the Asian American community. Aggregate economic data often overshadows poverty experienced by many Asian Americans. Even in Taiwan, one of the most well-to-do and democratic politics in Asian regions, the Housing Affordability Crisis is closely related to Government Policy Actions in Taiwan.

In June 2020, US House Speaker Pelosi appointed the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth. The Committee was suppose to develop solutions to the key economic issue of our time: the yawning prosperity gap between wealthy Americans and everyone else. America is more unequal today than it has ever been, and far more unequal than other developed nations. Great wealth disparities slow our economy, poison our politics and offend our moral sensibilities. The Committee was dissolved in January 2023 at the start of the 118th Congress, is not fair and justice one of the most pressing issues of our time? With government cutting social welfare, Assisted-living homes are rejecting Medicaid and evicting seniors. How to balance business interest with humanitarian and needs is something our government needs to address.

The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics Paperback – August 23, 2022 by Jerry Bowyer (Author). Jesus definitely wants His followers to be compassionate and generous, He had no problem with those who accumulate wealth honestly, by hard work or even shrewd investments, enjoying the fruits of their efforts. Rather His issue is with those in positions of power who prosper by exploiting the less fortunate. As the author puts it, “What you will see is Jesus confronting the takers of wealth, not the makers of it”. Jesus never said anything negative about wealth or rich people when preaching in Galilee, which was characterized by numerous moderately prosperous tradespeople and small family farms, what today we would call “small businesses.” It was only in Judea, and especially Jerusalem, where a powerful ruling class exploited the people for their own profit, that He had harsh things to say to the rich.

Surrender to Higher Self and Awake the Soul

Posted on by PathFinder

In my search of myself, I have make many mistakes, lost many times. Each time is my prayer and mind yoga with the Divine that saved me. Astrology also serve as a very useful tool for me to stay in the path. There are Exoteric Astrology (about personality based), and Esoteric Astrology (soul based).

Exoteric Astrology is like a light turned on in a dark room. Turning the light on does not change anything in the room but it does help you to see what is in the room more clearly. Exoteric astrology relates to the roadmap of the personality, and the archetypal traits, and talents of the individual. It’s psychological astrology.

Esoteric Astrology turns the light on and you see your own Soul. The Soul is always there but now you are aware of its presence. Esoteric astrology is an exploration of the inner unconscious and discipleship.

Planet Neptune is the higher octave of Venus. It is a transpersonal (collective) planet. It is the expression in the solar system of the heart of the spiritual Sun. It is the planet most closely linked with the work of the Soul in manifestation and is thus the vehicle for the Christ consciousness, which is indeed at the Heart of Divinity. At personal level, its higher manifestation is compassion, connecting to the oneness of the cosmos, practice non-duality, introspection/meditation, chanting mantras, pay tributes to our divinity, observe sacredness of mind-body-spirit, finding peace from within, loving kindness. When we do not practice the positive side of the energy, we can easily slip into negative traits of escapism, drug addiction, alcoholic, delusion, illusion, fraud, deception, dishonest, deceiving, hypocrisy, treachery, immoral etc. misguided guru, or victimized others and thus creating karma to pay back in the future. Collectively, Neptune is the indwelling Christ Principle in humanity which, when evoked, brings forth these healing properties from mankind. 

The sign of Cancer represents the foundation of creation. Cancer represents the spark of consciousness that is brought forth as the spirit. In Cancer, the influence of spirit begins to make its presence felt and man becomes a conscious personality. Cancer is the fusion of the physical body and the soul. Esoterically speaking, Neptune rule the sign of Cancer and fourth nature house (home and foundations). The US natal Sun, Jupiter, Venus stands. Cancer rules the mass consciousness, and as such, this is ruled by feeling rather than reason. Symbolizing the will of the masses, Cancer provides the experience necessary to awaken compassion and a deeper sense-perception. It is in Cancer that sense-perception is cultivated and fine-tuned. Cancer is concerned primarily with the world of causes where we discover an urge to wake up from the illusion of the outer world. The Moon in Cancer rules our past and past conditioning which represents major negative emotional response patterns inherited from the past. It represents the Prison of the Soul which has us cling to our past. Cancer is a sign of maternal instincts and feelings, and partakes in a nurturing nature.

Esoterically, Uranus rules Libra and the 7th nature house. On this level, Uranus is the spark of ideas that ignite relation, keeps relation evolving, or dooms the relation. The later case is because ideas are not shared or are antagonistic among the partners. Planets in the 7th house are instrumental in relation, partnerships, and interactions that either have or create structure. Uranus is the mental component of this spark. It ignites newness or change in partnerships or relationships.

Globally and personally, this level of Uranus points to the mind as the creative thinking and insight process. “As the slayer of the real,” mind rationalizes, negates, dismisses that which is real and important. Wars, genocide, occupation, abuse, sources of profit that cause disease or impoverishment of others, and such are examples of this. Then there are the personal manifestations of the same. Yet, Uranus is the sky – it is vast, empty of clutter, and thus unobstructed. When human beings understand that “me” “my” “I deserve” “I won’t give” are based in selfish desire and not in clear-mindedness, then the power of clarity is released and can produce new forms of society, politics, business, and relations.

 Libra represents the balance within creation. This sign forces everything into equilibrium. All the experience humanity has collected is laid in the scales of balance and weighed. What’s valuable is kept; what’s worthless is thrown away. The effect of this balance is harmony, developing our powers of discrimination, and bringing into equilibrium the two-sided forces of duality. Libra radiates the law of balance and justice into the three-dimensional world.      Libra is the sign of justice – it governs law, sex and money, representing life in the lower three worlds, the playing field of the personality. These three areas represent humanity’s greatest battlefields. The first aspect of will or power expresses itself in this sign as law~as legislation, legality and justice. The second aspect manifests as the relation between the pairs of opposites~sex on the physical plane of which Libra is the symbol. The astral plane shows itself as money; this is the third aspect and demonstrates as concrete energy. It is literally gold, this the externalized symbol of that which is created by the bringing together of spirit and matter upon the physical plane.  

Libra has three planetary rulers: Venus is the ‘ruler’ at personality level, Uranus is the ruler at Soul level and Saturn is the ruler at hierarchical level.  All three planetary ‘rulers’ of Libra are considered to be sacred planets. Air signs are all about Mastery of the Mind, which shows a deep significance of Libra’s sacred role in the evolution of  consciousness.      

So Neptune is extremely important to the spiritual development of United States (as mentioned earlier, U.S Sun, Jupiter and Venus are all in Cancer ruled esoterically by Neptune). In China’s natal chart, Neptune is in Libra and Uranus in Cancer – the two planets are in mutual reception ( when two planets are in each other’s signs of rulership). And the natal Jupiter, the exoteric ruler of religion/law/judiciary/higher learning is squaring the nodal axis (Libra and Aries), calling for China to make up the lesson in religious/legislature/judiciary practice for fairness and balanced justice. To learn lessons about cooperation, seeing things through another’s eyes, increasing awareness of others’ needs, giving support without expecting reciprocity, creating win/win situations and sharing. And in the meanwhile cultivate independence and self-nurturance, and have the courage to communicate self identity and trust one’s impulses. The lesson learned from Culture Revolution,  Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 are events coming from soul’s calling for deep introspection and re-orientation.

历史学家和政治评论员辛灏年所著《誰是新中國》一書是在對世界近三百年歷史進行全新探討和深入剖析的前提下，對二十世紀中國歷史的一個總回顧和總辨析。它所建立的理論體系，所揭露的歷史真相，不僅從理論與事實兩個方面，對新中國 —— 中華民國，一再遭遇國內外形形色色專制勢力反撲和顛覆的艱難歷史，予以了清晰的論述；還對中國共產黨在蘇俄的長期命令和直接指揮下，對中華民國實行造反和奪權的行徑，及其在革命的名義之下，於中國大陸全面復辟專制制度的事實，予以了明確的論證；特別是它對一系列重大歷史問題所進行的澄清，不僅是對中共史學界和思想界的嚴峻挑戰，而且是對費正清中國現代史觀的深深責難。

辛灏年在【透视中国】辛亥革命与中华民国(上) ， 辛亥革命与中华民国(下) 中谈到，中国的近代史和现代史的划分界线应该是1911年。而这个呢应该说自辛亥革命以后一直到共产党在中国大陆“当家作主”，基本上历史学界是统一的看法。可是中共建政以后五十多年来，在它大、中、小学所有的历史教科书里面都把1919年爆发的五四运动，作为中国现代史的开端。 这样一个划分就等于把辛亥革命、中华民国都划分到了所谓“旧”的时代里面去了。

Esoteric Astrology is a soul-centered astrology. Less concerned with our singular outward personality or what’s going to happen to us in this lifetime, esoteric astrology is about defining our soul’s contribution to the evolution of humanity. It’s taught as a way of healing the relationship between soul and personality. According to esoteric astrologers, in order to reach our highest self and live with soul consciousness, we must transcend our material nature, using our personality as an instrument of soul expression, not the other way around. If this is already sounding a bit woo-woo, that’s because it is. Esoteric astrology originated with Theosophy—or, the “New Age” movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Alice Bailey has wrote more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects telepathically dictated to her by a Master of Wisdom, initially referred to only as “the Tibetan” or by the initials “D.K.”, later identified as Djwal Khul.

The Theosophical Society is the organisational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, USA in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principle thinker of the Theosophy movement, and Henry Steel Olcott, its first president.

MAGA Slogan Turns Out to be American Publicity of Self-Deception

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In the book, Emotional Bullshit: The Hidden Plague that Is Threatening to Destroy Your Relationships-and How to S top It Paperback – December 26, 2008, author, Dr. Carl Alasko, a practicing family therapist, takes apart the emotional poisons that destroys trust and happiness in every area of life, no matter is dating, marriage, parenting, friendship or at work, explain how the toxic trio dynamics of Denial, Delusion and Blame combined to cause stealth disease of mental disorder in individuals as well as in the nation.
*  deny, manipulate and distort essential facts 
*  substitute a delusional and false reality, and then 
*  blame someone or something when things fall apart. 

Many components of this trio are innate behavioral and chemical processes that are necessary for survival. It is when we abuse the properties of the ‘Toxic Trio,’ that problems begin. Dr. Alasko gives you the knowledge and power to understand the forces that come into play when you feel compelled to refuse to accept responsibilities for the choices you make.  These plagues have proven to be the prevalent cause of destructive and even irreparably damaged relationships. The problems of society start with the individual.  Learn how to recognize these toxic and avoid the dark, downward spiral of self-deception and delusion. This type of dynamic is denoted in the Neptune in Virgo square Mars in Gemini in the United States national chart, and manifested as self-undoing behavior such as habitual liar/misrepresentation, compulsive gambling, uncontrollable drug usage, lawless sex addition, incessant wars/proxy war with other countries of last seventy years, are among some of the symptoms of a mind that prone to be clouded by corruption distorted value system . We observed this display darkness in the United States during the crisis of national debt accumulation, government budget ceiling, financial/bank disaster and outrageous claims of the politicians.

Professor Michael Hudson has devoted his career to the study of debt, both domestic debt (loans, mortgages, interest payments), and external debt. In his works, he consistently advocates the idea that loans and exponentially growing debts that outstrip profits from the real economy are disastrous for both the government and the people of the borrowing state as they wash money (payments to usurers and rentiers) from turnover, not leaving them funds to buy goods and services, thus leading to debt deflation. Hudson notes that the existing economic theory, the Chicago School in particular, serves rentiers and financiers and has developed a special language designed to reinforce the impression that there is no alternative to the status quo. In a false theory, the parasitic encumbrances of a real economy, instead of being deducted in accounting, add up as an addition to the gross domestic product and are presented as productive. Hudson sees consumer protection, state support of infrastructure projects, and taxation of rentier sectors of the economy rather than workers, as a continuation of the line of classical economists today.

Professor Hudson talked about Economic lessons for 2020. He has written extensively on the 2008 and 2020 crisis, including the books, Super Imperialism. The Economic Strategy of American Empire Third Edition Paperback – September 30, 2021, THE BUBBLE AND BEYOND Paperback – Illustrated, June 20, 2014, Killing the Host: How Financial Parasites and Debt Bondage Destroy the Global Economy Paperback – August 20, 2015, and J IS FOR JUNK ECONOMICS: A GUIDE TO REALITY IN AN AGE OF DECEPTION Paperback – February 21, 2017. He has also done groundbreaking research on debt and finance in antiquity, most recently in “….…and forgive them their debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption From Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year (1) (Tyranny of Debt) Paperback – October 30, 2018,” revealing the long history of lending, foreclosure and redemption, and how “debts that can’t be paid, won’t be paid.” The only question is on whose backs those debts will be carried.

Dr. Michael HUDSON – De-Dollarization – Toward the End of U.S. Monetary Hegemony? Since the end of World War II, the United States has been the world’s hegemonic power. In economic, military, and cultural spheres, the U.S. has enjoyed nearly unrivaled supremacy. However, unlike past hegemons, which have been net creditors to the rest of the world, the United States is a net debitor; but this is a strength, not a weakness. U.S. debt is an integral feature of its economic dominance, through which the United States receives goods and services from the rest of the world in exchange for dollars it can print and keystroke into existence. Yet cracks are showing in the foundations of dollar hegemony, as countries look to find ways to escape from U.S. economic dominance. In this talk, Prof. HUDSON will discuss the prospects and challenges of global de-dollarization, and how countries like China may forge a way toward a different monetary system free of U.S. control.

https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/banking/national-debt-by-president/

How can we Make American Great Again? First of all, we have to address these compulsive spending of military complex, politicians and ruling classes in draining the world economy by rent-seeking 90 percent of the world. As United States is so deep entrenched into the debt, both Republican and Democratic party blame on China as the country that take away American’ job. One of President Donald Trump’s lesser known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. How will his policy of cutting taxes for the corporation and 1% contribute to the MAGA? According to the fact checking site Snopes and U.S. Treasury data, 25% of the United States’ total national debt was accrued during the Trump administration. The surge in debt was largely due to the $3.7 trillion in pandemic relief offered to Americans, Snopes reported. And that definitely contribute to a good degree of high inflation we are suffering now.

Israel National Chart

Posted on by PathFinder

Recently there is an upheaval in Israel, something never happened in Israel’s history since its birth on May 14 1948. Even though I had quote Anne Norton’s book in discussing Jew’s philosophy in conflict with Muslim, but I admit I do not know much about Jew’s life. I am just going to read from the Horoscope of Israel national chart to see if it give us some clue.

This is a national that is destined and strongly desired to play an important role in the international stage. The four planets clustered in the 10th house donates those determination and resolute. Pluto is the subconscious desire, Mars is the energy of dedication, Saturn is the implementation and the Moon, together with the emotional needs and subjective awareness of the Moon which is right on the MC and in conjunction to Pluto, the chart ruler. The prolific Moon in Leo is in a Quintile (72 degree) aspect to the Taurus Sun. The Sun is the depositor of all the planets in 10th house and the MC. This fuses a driven restless energy with intense creativity to organize and manifest something that’s usually tied to earthly reality. 

But there is a blockage between the Sun in Taurus and Mars /Saturn in Leo. This denotes difficulties in the holistic integration of its energies/organizing efforts to manifest optimal result. There was a skipped step in the past relating to the ability of Pluto (unconscious desire for transformation) and Saturn (responsibility, regulations, authority, discipline, control, fear and denial). As they are stuck in the past (Scorpio South Node) of attraction to crisis situations, and obsessive-compulsive tendencies, the Native is over concerned with others’ business and has resistance to cooperating with what others what. A sense of setting boundary and self-reliance is in need for further development. Currently transit planet Uranus is in close conjunction to the North node, awaken the native the need for self assurance and the courage/conviction to search for its own identity (Transit Pluto square its Asc.) .

A north node in 7th house in Taurus denotes the needs to develop awareness of its value system to appropriately interaction with others – honoring expressed needs of self and others, and to forge mindset of forgiveness and gratitude. Just a few days before the founding of the country (May 9th 1948) there was a solar eclipse on 19 degree of Taurus, sensitize the 7th house, where the Sun stands as well as the North Node, putting the ruler of 7th house, Venus in focus. Venus, the planet of money and relationship is in early degree of Cancer is in 9th house ruling 7th and the 12th where Neptune in Libra stands. And Venus is deposited by the Moon in Leo at MC.

It seems the native’s value system and the emotional needs for getting social status paralyzed its spirituality. Neptune is often called whisper form the eternal. The 12th house is the house of self-undoing. The Native can easily prone to the trap of the ego and lose its good judgement in its creative projects/endeavors. Deeply merged its psyche with others, the native may not have a clear sense of its own identity/boundary, and can suffer from taking on too much risk in its endeavor for social achievements and thus constantly in a state of crisis mentality .

Remember The stars incline, but do not compel. In this case, Introspection, self-examination, prayers maybe especially important for the native to establish its own value system, find peace and the lost dreams, re-discover the blessings from its heritage (which had always been there), and for its general well-being. With a more clear vision, it can take on the works of service humanity and the betterment of the world using its ingenuity. Purification and giving back to the Mother Earth (not necessary for the so-called climate change) are among some of the transformations this country is well capable of exemplifying. In doing so, fulfill the emotional needs it so inspiriting to. After all, the Star of David national flag was envisioned from the prayer with God.