Black Dorje Shugden, a dharmapala or protector of the Dharma (teachings of Buddha).

Yesterday’s radio talked of the President’s words: (excuse errors of mine) “If North Korea attacked the US with nuclear missiles, I would have the right to retaliate.” This deterioration is sadly taking the place of civilized conversation. It is Old Testament thinking: an eye-for-an-eye. You know, the kind of thinking revered in Islam (I could be wrong). “We become our enemies” (anon)

How base is the struggle!

How shattering the ethics of those who lead us.

And that’s where Aikido thinking would greatly relieve its participants. As I understand it, when someone comes at you aggressively, you quickly assess the direction of the attacker’s energetic flow, step into it, barely tap the center of movement that you understand because you are in his or her flow. Such a light tap exactly on target will be enough to cause the attacker to lose his balance, and so falls and does himself in. And the Aikido practitioner has accrued no negative karma because his tap was not violent.

Compared to an eye-for-an-eye approach, the Aikido approach decreases overall suffering. Basically, you’re recognizing the aggressive flow of anger, and turning it on its own head, letting the negative energy do itself in. This is non-violent, but for what the attacker does to himself.

I pray that our government would start Aikido thinking: North Korea attacks to provoke, and we do nothing. That would be heroic moral courage for the US president, and would set an example to the rest of the ravaged world. An example of restraint. We all need examples of restraint of body, speech and mind, me included.

So, Mr. President, remember: let the attacking energy come to you, tip it off balance so it does itself in, let it brush off your shoulder and don’t retaliate. That will only set off the domino-effect of endless planetary war.

Just a suggestion . . .

A Wrathful Dakini . . . sometimes Tough Love is needed

On that life-changing day of 9/11, something deep in me came out casually, as I watched the televised collision at the World Trade Center: “Well . . . that’s what we get for neglecting the Palestinian people.” It was as if for a shocking moment, my consciousness encountered the massively complex natural law of cause-and-effect, ie., karma, one action causes another that causes another. If I were a Buddha, I could trace precisely the act of 9/11 back to Palestine.

I believe that inner prompting, and I grieve for the long-suffering of the Palestinians . . . and for those innocent Israelis caught up in the problems of their government.

Sometimes I consider the Israelis to be the first Americans in the 1600s; and the Palestinians as the Native American Indians. “Manifest Destiny” was proclaimed by both conquering cultures . . . “God told me to do it.” So it’s ok.

Everybody please relax and watch your breath. We are One. And our lives are our Lessons.

Karma‘s not for sissies. In fact, karma is mysterious: so many causes, so many effects, ad infinitum.

I only know because I’ve been told, that both the peoples of Israel and Palestine have been burning off enormous amounts of negative karma (while creating more at times). It is the same with the Israelis and Palestinians that the people are caught up in a daily state of trauma.

Does history have to repeat itself yet again in the oppression imposed by the oppressor? I proclaim the dignity of the Palestinian people. Would what I wrote be so . . .

Three Yoginis

sid·dhi [sid-dee] Yoga . A miraculous power imparted by the late stages of intense meditation. Pali, iddhi. Buddhism, any occult power acquired through discipline.

I must apologize to you all for neglecting the purpose of this blog. Life calls sometimes. The blog has stagnated out of my lack of discipline in my Dharma studies. And now I wish to revive both—my more-regular posting here for dialogue and my Dharma practice (which are one)—hoping you will be interested in this particular line of thought (the particularity being the telling of the personal experience of a white bi-polar, lay practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism with the Gelugpa lineage for over 12 and a half years . . . a 60-year-old wordsmith who is always a student, and who loves to teach.

Any errors here are mine and mine alone . . . simply my Truth.

Morning Forest in Germany, taken from National Geographic

I’ve thought to connect the qualities of an accomplished Siddha (one with many siddhis) to the qualities of those in the Autistic Spectrum, which mainstream society labels the many mental “disorders”: Asberger syndrome,  bipolar disorder; schizophrenia, ADD, OCD, etc (Google the DSM-IV). I feel the state of Autism to be an umbrella for these “disorders”. I am addressing the previously-unasserted giftedness/healing qualities of all the above socially-stigmatized beings.

And then to bring in the Sacred Clown, the Koshare, the Heyoka, the trickster in the Native American Tradition. She does everything backwards; rides into battle facing where she’s come from. She is revered in her community, and protected, and needed to balance out complacency within the community. She is permitted to be crazy, and revered for it.

Dancing Kokopellis

I sense there is a connection amongst the three accomplished beings. Do these beings resonate with each other? Is the High-Functioning Autistic person actually a Crazy Wisdom practitioner and a Sacred Clown? I don’t know. Here I am counting on those of you who are more intelligent than me, to run this by their mindstreams and help me out. I believe there is great significance here, but I don’t know that much about either state. Yet the whole subject burns in my brain, and has for years . . . since the Winter Solstice of 2003.

By LHAKSAM at http://woeser.middle-way.net
“Dear freedom loving friends specially Tibetan brothers and sisters in exile, I want to share with you my little knowledge about how to fight effectively with Powerful Communist China. My request to you is, you can disagree any point of mine, i have no objection, i just express my opinion in facebook because i am Tibetan.

1. First and foremost Don’t only talk, As a Tibetan take responsiblity and step forward to fight against brutality, Your action makes difference,

2. Speak Tibetan, learn Tibetan, Teach Tibetan language to our younger generation and respect our Language.
THE QUESTION IS WHY? because language is our identity and it is one of the easiest way to communicate between 2 Tibetans to preserve our unique culture and Dharma,

3. All Rinpoches from different religious sector must united, because they are so powerful, i experienced that Rinpoches are more famous and powerful than our political leaders,

4. Educated Tibetans must take responsiblity to become a role model of our younger generations,

5. As saying goes that teacher is a noble profession and it is known as to be a nation builder, So all tibetan teachers in all part of tibetan school must take reponsiblity to guide our kids on the right direction and upgrade our standard of education.

6. we must participate in every election of NGO‘S like our Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Community and Tibetan women association because these are the organization which is totally connected with the tibetans, So your participation in election is extremely important to find a right leaders.

7. Use social media for our cause, don’t sell our issue for your benefit,

8. Tibetan people in exile must recognize our real leaders and use them for our cause, don’t make your personal and family friend!

9. Our most Tibetan organization in exile instead of thinking how to inspire our younger generation, they always focus on how to make fund and how to make organization famous. from my point of view, I know we need fund but at the same time They should focus more on our younger generation to inspire them to involve in community service.

10. RIGHT NOW WORLD POLITICS IS NOT FAIR FOR THE TIBETANS, BUT SOONER OR LATER IT WILL CHANGE BECAUSE TRUTH IS ON OUR SIDE.
AND ACCORDING TO MY LITTLE KNOWLEDGE, I ALWAYS CONSIDER TIBETAN ISSUE IS NOT A PROJECT, ITS A PROCESS AND IT TAKES TIME TO REACH OUR DESTINATION AND ALSO FIGHTING AGAINST COMMUNIST CHINA IS NOT A JOKE, WE MUST BUILD OUR COMMUNITY STRONG AND UNITED AND GIVE OUR YOUNG GENERATION INSPIRATION AND HOPE, SO IN FUTURE THEY WILL TAKE OUR STRUGGLE LIKE US.

11. Dear Tibetan supporters, we have no problem with how to save our culture and dharma in exile, Since 53 yrs you can see our result in exile, Our dharma and culture flourished all over the world. Here is the main point, Tibetans in exile expecting from you that we need your help in a political field, we need your support, so you can be a voice of Tibet. Don’t worry about our dharma, we born with that and our dharma is connected in our soul; nobody can destroy our dharma, just need your help in a political field.
Thank you to the Facebook for giving me chance to express my feelings.
LHAKSAM at http://woeser.middle-way.net

(*Used on this blog for the benefit of all sentient beings. I advocate Non-Violent Actions, not passivity, not fighting)

Here we all are, in a Time of Division (TD) upon the Wheel of Life—that infinitous cycle of crumbs of happiness and suffering on every street corner.

So TD is upon us corroding any fine thread of connection between you and me. With the number of divorces, fights, calls to kill the enemy!—brought down to a personal level, the sacred net of Inter-being is torn (Vietnamese Theravadan (Zen?) monk Thich Nhat Hahn‘s word) to shreds.

The sacred net of Inter-being is torn. O the particular sadness with a close relative . . . to watch your lives with each other shred, as if you’d never met. And to let it happen, passively, yet finally, Impartially. Walk away.

Families become scattered strangers. O yes, a degenerate time. And children, we Baby-Boomers born of such universal ignorance and dysfunctionality, have (as of yet) been silent, as if we were spit out as beings born to man and woman culturally-entrenched in an era of Permissivity. Unstructured. Children raised bereft of values. Nearly anarchist. Do what you want. Free free love. Playtime.

Hence, logically, this Baby-Boomer began to wander and kept wandering . . . and wandering . . . where did I come from? Where do I belong? Tori rode with me all the way . . . for 14,000 miles in one year. Phenomena rushing past like 50 mph winds. O wondrous America with the greatest number of single households in the world (I think). Relationally and spiritually bereft. Where is my real home? I don’t know where I belong.

You and I know we are all the Walking Wounded, secreting our pain as we were raised, i.e., stifle any personal expression for fear of imminent threat or rejection; becoming attached to our pain. We culturally can’t escape it . . . the scenarios are different but the essence is the same. We are left holding our stillborn creations, where all walk away in boredom.

Drawers, files, cabinets filled with renderings of this delusive writer. Why? Since 1974. Why? My only legacy for my son: hundreds of stillborn voices. Silent.

Would that my words would bring Dharma in some small way to someone in the future.

The International Writers Magazine: Autism

THE THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS OF A BUDDHIST AMONG BAPTISTS
• Reverend Father Antonio Hernández, O.M.D., A.B.F.
Founder of the Independent Order of American Buddhist Fathers
suriak@yahoo.com

THE GREATEST BRAINS THERE EVER WERE

A man enters the room. He is a striking personage, and you feel immediately drawn to him. Soon you begin to feel something like a sensation that he is ‘not really there’- sort of like witnessing an out-of-body scenario. He twirls a lock of his grey hair, and his eyes look so far to the distance that you begin to wonder if he’ll snap out of it. He does, right away, and is with you again, laughing, joking and smiling. It’s not easy to see his beautiful eyes, because he does not look at you too often.
Then there is another man. He is considered by many to resemble the first man. He, too, stands like a monolith, sometimes flapping one hand (like the first man sometimes does). Sometimes he twitches a shoulder. He, too, has a rollicking belly laugh, likes humor, but can suddenly become ‘absent’ from his body. He, too, returns rapidly. Or, again like the first man, he might just get up, walk out and never say a word to anyone.

The first man was Albert Einstein, the greatest scientist who ever lived. The second man is yours truly, the author of this here article: greatest windbag who ever lived. Both of us have two things in common: 1. Einstein and I share Jewish heritage; 2. Einstein and I share autism. This article is about the latter.
Dr. Oliver Sacks, a truly great physician, author and thinker, often complains that the public is ignorant of autistic adults. He says people think “autistic” automatically means “child”. He says the public must think autistic children suddenly fall off the face of the earth one day. Autistic adults, especially normally functioning autistic adults, are totally ignored.
There is a circular spectrum of autism, about which I’ve written many times and I describe in my book “No Duty To Retreat” (get it here while it’s hot, it’s lovely folks). But put simply, there are two types of autistic adults: lesser-functioning and high-functioning. The high-function autistic adults usually suffer from Asperger’s autism (a.k.a. Asperger’s Syndrome or AS); it is no coincidence that many great scientists, engineers, mathematicians, artists and writers have Asperger’s. Autism is no death sentence, yet we autistic adults feel rotten about the way society treats us. In and of ourselves, we are otherwise very happy.

Autism in the more easily missed form generally consists of minor “eccentricities”, some social isolation or aloofness, obsessive pursuit of specific subjects, and tics. It also usually entails a sky-high I.Q., immense creativity, imagination, powerful visual thinking and even more powerful general intellect. AUTISM IS NOT SYNONYMOUS WITH “RETARDED”.
Look at this list of names: Ludwig Wittgenstein. Norbert Wiener. Paul Erds. Nikolia Tesla. Jerome Lemelson. Bill Gates. Johann Sebastian Bach. Wolfgang von Goethe. And of course, Albert Einstein. Some names leap out, some seem obscure. But these people changed the world- and they were all autistic people. This is only a tiny sampling. A comprehensive list would require a dozen pages here.
I, your friendly neighborhood Buddhist monk, was diagnosed with mild autism early in 2000. Speaking (writing) as an autistic person, I am humbled and honored to be in such illustrious company.
People must begin opening their eyes about autistic adults, no matter where on the spectrum these adults may find themselves. There are two wonderful people who have websites that can help you learn more:
http://www.isn.net/~jypsy and http://www.geocities.com/autistry/oddizms.html.
These sites are fun, cheerful, informative and just plain fascinating to read, and to utilize as databases. If you or someone you love is affected by autism, by all means these two sites are the folks to contact! Think “Autism Society” only if you need pamphlets- but check out these fantastic sites first.
Now, perhaps, just perhaps, the next time you encounter an adult rocking back and forth, hands flapping, or just staring, you will understand better. There is a full, true human being there before you, an autistic human being, and that human being is as sensitive as anyone, as important as anyone- and very likely ten times more intelligent than anyone.

© Reverend Father Antonio Hernández, O.M.D., A.B.F.
© Hackwriters 2000-2004 all rights reserved

A Lift to Your Life