Banana Republic USA

An interesting Op-Ed piece in the New York Times: Our Banana Republic.

As he says, "So we face a choice. Is our economic priority the jobless, or is it zillionaires?"

Too bad a good article like this won't be thought provoking enough to too great a number of people.

It's All In Your Head

I have a Yahoo! email account that i use only for what i call my "junk" email. That's not spam, in the strict sense of the word, but all the newsletters, daily emails, etc. that i sign up for related to self improvement, get rich with this scheme, The Secret, manifest your desires, and all that other "stuff."

I don't know why i like to read all those emails (they come in boatloads every morning); the vast majority are, for all intents and purposes, nothing but spam but i voluntarily sign up to receive them. In a way it's similar to another quirk i have — i refuse to watch violent movies, will not support the portrayal of violence as a valid way to solve problems, YET, i love and do watch "kung fu" type movies (unless Jackie Chan is in it). Can't explain it, but i won't give those up. Weird, i know.

Anyway, in today's mail there was one promising to give you a free video that will show you exactly, step-by-step, how to sell yourself as an expert in any subject and to make millions (MILLIONS) in just a few years getting paid to speak at seminars, consulting, and writing about your new found expert-level expertise in the area of your choosing.

The more i thought about it the less i doubted that this was a bogus claim. People will believe anything. People can be convinced to believe anything if that something allows them to reinforce the picture they have of themselves in their head.

The question that came to mind as i thought about it, though, was why don't more people acknowledge that truth and voluntarily decide to train their minds in better, more meaningful ways? How have greed and materialism become the defining attributes of a successful life?

I will always call Zen my home, but love Tibetan Buddhism for many of their teachings. For me, Tibetan Buddhism is like running to the library: Want to know more of the theory and philosophy behind buddhism? Look to the Tibetans. And one of their great teachings is the method of Seven Point Mind Training.

All buddhists acknowledge that "it's all in your head," that our problems come from our minds and how we use them (or don't), that if we clean up our internal mess we can clean up our lives and see reality as it really is. The Tibetans, though, actually came up with a list of proverbs, slogans, aphorisms, whatever you choose to call them, that when practiced help you train your mind and keep you on the path. I keep a list of them on my computer where they are always just a click away, but there are numerous web sites dedicated to them. A few of them are here, here, and here.

In total there are 59 slogans and if you accept a practice of working with one a day, forever, 'till death do us part, you come to see that the mind can be trained, your view of life can be altered for the better, your view of yourself, the world, and the inter-relationship between the two can be clarified. It really is an amazing practice.

And then maybe, just maybe, if you memorize all of them you can get that free video and sell yourself as an expert and make a million bucks.

Housework

Just before the temperatures dropped here and it got too chilly to work outdoors, i managed to complete the last of my planned outdoor projects. The front porch is now complete, two window sills have been repaired, all of the windows on the south and east sides have been repainted, a new maple tree, some mums, and more lilies have been planted, and the two birdhouses have been painted. When i painted the house about 7-8 years ago, i painted over the red and green trim around the windows, only to find i really missed it.







And even though i know the woman who taught me calligraphy for a year when i lived in Japan back in the '80s is turning over in her grave at how bad my penmanship is, here's a closer look at the finished front porch.






There are rumors floating around that the temperatures could climb back up into the 60's next week. If they do, i will try and sneak back outside and paint the windows and door on the garage. Next spring i'll get the walls themselves, along with the house. I hope.

And now that i'm back indoors, if i can figure out what i want to say, i hope to start writing for the blog more often.

One Down, Three To Go

Finally finished (almost) the front porch project. I tore off all the old boring railings with even more boring standard vertical balusters and rebuilt them with a design i found in one of my books on Japanese design. I also moved one of the railings higher up the stairs and widened the bottom two steps so you aren't constrained to go up and down in an absolutely straight line. You can now enter/exit at an angle.

The final product doesn't look all that "Japanese-ish," but it looks a lot better than the original, IMO. The stairs and railings are done, but one last piece of the project remains. I'll post another picture when that is done — maybe two or three more weeks.


Here's a couple of pictures (click to enlarge them):






Now i have to move back indoors to finish the last three projects that i promised myself i'd finish by the end of the year. Restain all the wood trim in the living room, restain all the wood trim in the dining room and convert a door frame (sans door now) to an arch, and paint the kitchen.

Chinese Democracy

Liu Xiaobo is awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for his sacrifices in calling for Chinese freedom.

Notice on CNN

This is great news.

Winter Study Group of One

It's getting colder as we settle into autumn here in Chicago and the trees in the neighborhood are beginning their annual migration to reds and yellows. This means more time spent indoors as it gets lighter later, darker earlier, and colder day-by-day. As i mentioned earlier, i've decided to use this season to go back and look at the Four Noble Truths and, following the lead of Phillip Moffitt's book Dancing With Life, think about how they apply to my life now, as opposed to how they applied to Buddha's life 2,500 years ago.

My plan is to spend one month on each of the Truths, which will have me finish at the end of January. To that effect, i reread the introductory chapters in Dancing during the last week of September, and started the first chapter of Truth 1 yesterday. Since i'm not going to buy any new books i looked on my shelves this morning and pulled out a selection that i will use as supplemental material. Here's what i came up with:

Ajahn Sumedho's The Four Noble Truths
      Like Moffitt, the Theravada viewpoint
      (Online document at buddhanet.net)

Geshe Tashi Tsering's The Four Noble Truths
      The Tibetan viewpoint

Thach Nhat Hanh's The Heart of The Buddha's Teaching
      The Zen viewpoint
      (The first half of the book only)

And since i have always believed that you can't really understand the intent of what the 4 Truths are asking us to do without understanding the Six Paramitas, i may also spend time again with:

Robert Aitken's The Practice of Perfection

Daido Loori's The Heart of Being
      Selected chapters only, like the chapter on the Bodhisattva Vows

That's a lot of reading, a lot of sitting, and a lot of reflecting, but luckily i don't have to do all of that at home — on sunny days i can simply pack a couple of onigiri, a thermos of green tea (or hōjicha!), my eReader, and sit while i ride my bike.

No, no, no, no, no.....

The question isn't "how dedicated are you to your practice," the question is really "why the heck do you practice in the first place?" Or, "if you piled up all the crap in the world, all in one spot, and did a Down Dog asana over it, could you keep you knows above the stink?"

One attempt to look for an answer is here, in this video: Enlighten Up! (2008) Yoga documentary

Get out your mat, sit comfortably in a cross-legged position, and enjoy.