Best Of
Re: Should a Buddhist own a gun ?
I think you’d make a great moderator @karasti, you always struck me as thoroughly practical and able to see the many sides of an argument.
Jeroen
Re: Should a Buddhist own a gun ?
@Jeroen My beliefs have always been constantly evolving. I still firmly believe in the foundations of Buddhism. But I am also pretty pagan and the core of my beliefs is centered on the laws of nature, primarily. They work well together, for me. But for other people, they wouldn't. Ie, I know a lot of Official Buddhists who dislike Thay's teachings on interconnectedness with nature as "not Buddhist." I believe very strongly in that. So, it really depends on the details which is always where things get murky IMO 😂
@lobster thanks for the reminder, I will send a note about the moderator title, as that happened right before I took an extended internet break and I thought I had made clear I did not wish to be a moderator but apparently it is still there!
karasti
Re: Space - the final frontier
I have been very enthusiastically following the news about the new ground-based Vera Rubin Telescope in Chile. From what I can tell, it has excited astronomers worldwide on par with the launch of Hubble or James Webb.
It has a mirror of 8.4 meters, which is like the largest ground-based telescopes, so nothing special. But it has a HUGE field of view, something like 500-1000x the field of view of other ground-based telescopes. So the idea is to image the whole sky visible from Chile every 3 days, by making many short exposures of 30 seconds, and to keep surveying the whole sky like that for 10 years.
The effect will be that everything that changes will be detected like never before: asteroids, interstellar objects (that we have only begun to detect), supernovae, novae, variable stars... It will also make the largest catalogue of galaxies and stars to date (10 billion of each).
I was already geeking out, but then I found out that the Director of Construction, and once the telescope is operational the Director of Science, is Željko Ivezić, a Croatian who went.. to my high-school! He's really great in terms of getting people excited but staying scientific and at explaining the science behind it in simple terms but without dumbing it down too much.
To be clear: Since it will be making many very short exposures, we should not expect "beautiful pictures", like eg. Hubble or Keck. However, after 10 years, since the images can be "stacked", it will be possible to have both "beautiful pictures" (stacked images of the region over 10 years) AND a "movie" of the whole sky (a time-series of a region of sky or the whole sky).
A few photos have already been unveiled and the actual survey should start in a few months.
First photos unveiling text:
https://www.universetoday.com/articles/the-first-pictures-from-vera-rubin-are-here
First photos unveiling press-conference:
marcitko
Re: Space - the final frontier
I do miss the night sky of Lanzarote. Nothing compared to what I see (nothing) in the city centre here..!
Kotishka
Sweaty zazen?
I have noticed a pattern where I will go back into no zazen at all periods and then return. They are now shorter gaps in between these shikantaza cycles. However, the beginning is always so demanding. It seems I have been going way too fast. It is like I'm slowing down and leaving traffic through a specific path designed for this case scenario. All thought about. No worries, just sit down!
The beginning: the back ache, noticing the left shoulder rising -as if contracted, with a muscleknot or something- and a sensation of inner heat. Quensland, harsh summer heat sweat...
Hope you are all having a great practice and life. It is incredible how much tension we can build up sometimes... and how much is avoidable. Some not so much.
Kotishka
Re: Should a Buddhist own a gun ?
I will be in the minority who does own guns. That said, I've never bought a single one. They are all hunting guns that were handed down in my and my husband's families. We live in a very rural area, and I grew up hunting, fishing, foraging, and gardening to supplement our food and income. I don't remember the last time I hunted, so we just have them, locked up. If I ever needed one for self defense, I'd be in big trouble 😂
Growing up, they were tools like anything else and that is how we learned about them. pretty much every kid here takes gun safety training. When I was a kid (late 80s in this case) we took at as part of our schooling. We took our rifles to school, on the bus, and put them in our lockers until the end of the day where we went to the gun range in our school basement to learn safe gun handling. Crazy 🤯 But I am grateful for it, and I feel safer overall among rural people who don't treat guns like status symbols or fun toys or whatever people think of them otherwise.
I can also say I am grateful for the knowledge and skill. If I had to provide for my family, I would know how to do so and living in a rural area, it's a valuable thing to know. Despite being (partially) Buddhist, I do still eat meat. I often tell myself I should do better to connect with my food than to buy it from the store, but I haven't gotten there yet. Just can't bring myself to it.
karasti
Re: Radicalism
And may all beings affected by war find peace.
I am afraid there is little we can do. What could people do against the Mongolian horde centuries ago? Ah wait, they were not so hyperconnected and engaged in a world system where human rights had achieved this level of awareness and development. This is what I have heard. We could do more now. But this cycle of violence is so prevalent. Reality is dukkha. A constant reminder is war.
What left to do but to cultivate peace and loving-kindness.
Kotishka
Re: Radicalism
The algorythm is a crazy propaganda tool. It also seems so chaotic...
In the sense of, it does not care which rabbit hole you fall through. It just loosens up the selection and tricks you into more and more of these clever punchlines, highly articulated verbosity or just horror shock with intense facts.
I try to feed it good music.
Kotishka
Re: Should a Buddhist own a gun ?
The example you are bringing answers the question of why would someone need such a powerful item. It is justified under my view. But yes, impulse control, self-awareness, emotional intelligence should be stressed and taught to people that inevitably will be in touch with them. You mention hunters for example or in certain areas of the world where it is essential (I'm thinking of Fosdick living in Alaska. Don't know why I imagine harsh blizzards, a bear, having to venture through the forest..)
I would be worried though, as a Buddhist, if living in a an area where being armed for self defense purposes is common is good for my practice. Maybe the challenges of bearing a firearm for self-defenses, the risks of taking a life, even if it were for self-defense.
Kotishka