@Lionduck you iz luxury inclined Buddhist. Tee Hee! I think I may go over budget on something for the sake of Tantric competence.
Maybe time to think of getting a camper van again? Don't think I need to go anywhere. Will have to get a yearly resident street parking licence. Maybe I can just get a white van and paint it in rainbow graffiti? Then I could call it, 'mobile dharma' and go and park outside Aunty Feds latest hideaway (I could literally be her 'dharma stalker'). Too naughty?
I found this a really interesting critique of the processes of Big Tech, where a service starts good and cheap, and becomes large and entrenched, and then becomes noticeably poor value for customers. Enshittification, it is also called.
@Shoshin1 said:
@person said:
Gil Fronsdale gave a good talk on the war last month.
Or the audio version
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/19955Thanks for post @person, however it would seem that he has been swayed a bit by anti Palestinian propaganda... I found 5 minutes into the talk then around 24 minutes in a bit concerning...
"Professor who was going to give a public talk a professor of Jewish studies who was going to talk about um the little history of the conflict there and and the history of a two-state solution and someone who was opposed to the violence that they're now in Middle East 'but it seems that there was a call out from Hamas to uh that there should be this should be disrupted right here in our neighborhood and so that was that were people were informed about this ahead of time' and they um so the police were called in and to be prepared and they decided to change the venue of where the talk was going to be given and uh in fact there were 100 people who came who to demonstrate and the way it was reported to me by people who were there there was calls for uh killing Jews and uh then it was impossible to give the talk and the people who were the speakers of the of that had to be taken out um under police escort there's a large group of police and City Police at least waiting nearby because of they were expecting that there was going to be some problems so I mean the Middle East Gaza is not just in Gaza what's happening in this International world we live in it's spilling over and the divisiveness of the Middle East is also becoming divisiveness in our communities here"...
Many people are calling for a ceasefire; some people are demanding it, and um, I think, of course, we want the killing to stop. Of course, there's another way. Of course, something else can be done. Of course, all these people should stop being killed. But can we ask for a ceasefire? Can we encourage it, not as a demand, but in such a way that the Israelis become inspired themselves, they realize this is not a good deal; there's a better way of doing it because to come down with the demand it's maybe more of the divisiveness. So, I myself would not like to be in a situation. People have asked me to sign things and stuff that more like demands, and um, that's not what I think I want to do. But of course, they should stop doing it. I have no doubt about it. I want to encourage Israel to stop, but the way that how do we do this in a way that is effective, maybe for the long term, or effective for the short term.Sadly, he may not realise that what he said there comes straight out of the anti-Palestinian propaganda handbook. It came across as labeling anybody who shows support for the plight of the Palestinian people as Hamas sympathisers. This may not have been his intention, but it did come across that way—anybody showing support for Palestine is seen as doing Hamas's bidding, as seen in the phrase 'it seems that there was a call out from Hamas.' And then later, he goes on about how we shouldn't demand a ceasefire; we should encourage one, so Israel becomes inspired themselves. Not sure if he has been paying attention to what has been happening in Gaza and Israel's track record when it comes to disregarding any rulings made by the UN and just doing what they want with the US backing them all the way ....
And the rallies I have personally attended, as well as those I have seen elsewhere around the Western world, have always included a Jewish presence in solidarity with the Palestinian people. There were chants, with people from all different religions and backgrounds (including Jewish people) all chanting together: 'Israel! Israel! You can't hide, you're committing genocide' or 'Netanyahu, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide,' and 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.' However, there were definitely no calls for the killing of Jewish people or Israelis...
Apart from that, I felt he did the best he could to try and put a Buddhist spin on it, under difficult circumstances...He has definitely got it right about what's happening now will have a lasting impact...
Certainly I don't have a completely comprehensive view of everything going on. The question that occurs to me is how sure are you that you're not being swayed by anti Israeli propaganda? Or at the very least missing the aspects of the pro Palestinian that put in a less flattering light?
From my perspective he was talking about the mindset we need to develop to come to a long term peace, rather than thinking of it in terms of sinners and saints.
Went shopping for a new car.
Was looking for a late model used low mileage economic car.
Ended up with an SUV - NEW - 24 city, 31 hwy
360 and backup camera, semi leather, blah, blah..
only in hoc for 5 or 6 years at 0%.
Dtr and G'dtr love it. (Mitsubishi Outlander)
have to admit, the Black Brick looks good, rids well
OK, OK! Its a nice car, at only twice my original budget.
Consolation prize: I still have my RE int650.
‘They’ smack you when you are born … and it gets continually worse … until we ‘die before we die’ are ‘born again’ or find Nirvana. Same thing really … 🔆
This quote of Osho summarises pretty well where my spiritual wandering took me five years ago…
“The West went to the other extreme - they devoted their whole energy to material advancement, forgetting completely that material advancement in itself is meaningless. It leads you nowhere; it leads you only into deep frustration, finally, into a meaningless life where you can see clearly that you wasted your whole life collecting rubbish, junk. And it does not give you peace, it does not give you silence. It has not been able to make you aware of truth. And now death is approaching and your hands are empty. Your whole life has been just a desert.”
It occurred even before reading this to me that the things that I had gathered in my life, an outline of 45 years of living in books, dvd’s, clothes and computer equipment, were all just so much rubbish which I had to look after, and which I had to have space to house. It gave the occasional moment of pleasure to remember and hold the dvd of a great film or book, but most of the time these things spent their days sitting in a cupboard. After eight years of Buddhism, Osho lectures, and varied spiritual reading it was not that I was letting go of it, but that it was dropping away from me.
It was a moment of detachment, a shift in perspective where the warm somewhat-romanticised feelings I had for ‘things’ almost totally fell away. Some of my behaviour changes, before then I was a completist collector of boxed sets of certain dvds and books, that behaviour has entirely gone, I no longer collect things. I used to collect fridge magnets on all my holidays, don’t do that anymore.
It launched a new period of minimalist living for me. I got rid of a lot of things, and much of what I couldn’t get rid of I stored in boxes in the garage. Now I keep just a few things nearby — my Mac, the desk it sits on, a dresser for a few clothes, my bed. I really don’t need anything more. On my dresser sits my Buddha statue. I don’t need a house now, a room is enough.
Today I hardly ever think of the content of the boxes or any of the places I used to live in. I certainly don’t miss them.
Gil Fronsdale gave a good talk on the war last month.
Or the audio version
https://www.audiodharma.org/talks/19955
Yes, I know they are. .I think I’ll just let u have this one. Thanks for answering my initial question.
A student of the 4NT & the 8FP might say that a path of indulgence in suffering's causes is clearly the most difficult path.
Only within this one fleeting nano second, is a less difficult path actually possible.