Human Beings: Objects, Things, Concepts Or, Beings with Needs, Feelings, Awareness, and Compassion

  

A delusional Russian dictator who wants to restore the ‘greatness of the motherland,’ is needlessly slaughtering children, women and destroys hospitals, schools, and homes of people to claim that he has achieved his dream. In his wake he has left burnt bodies, severed limbs, destroyed families, starvation, illness, pain and grief.

In this country we have political ‘leaders’ who are more concerned with following their dogmas than caring whether or not people have to choose between putting food on their table or purchasing necessary medicine, obtaining necessary medical care or putting a roof over their heads.

 

We have two camps of people in our government.  Those who function from the basis of me, my-self, my wants, and focus on what’s good for my political survival. Then, we have those who care about being a part of the human family and are concerned with what benefits the members of our human family. Do we politically only care about ourselves and no one else, or do our political decisions take into account what is in the best interest of our neighbors, fellow workers, the needs of children, the elderly.

 

We also have those in politics who are delusional, who assert that they have won the Presidency when facts have shown, and courts have ruled, that they have lost the Presidency. They assert that the election was stolen from them and that there were all kinds of fraud going on in the vote counting. In point of fact, the Presidential Election of 2022 was deemed to be the most honest election in our history.

 

This person then attempted to have votes switched from the real count, in one state, so he would have won that states vote, when he had actually lost the vote of the people.

 

This person’s final insult to our country was to attempt to prevent the actual, legal vote count from taking place and having the orderly transition of power that has been the American tradition since the beginnings of our country. In fact, he committed sedition. He even threatened the Vice Present with death if the Vice President did not make sure that fraudulent candidate had won the election. History books are filled with the January 6, 2021 ransacking of the Capitol, and those who were injured and died in defending our political and constitutional institutions. 

 

Today, we have elected members of our Congress selling out the public. These folks, Marjory Taylor Green, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz of our political world, care about their power and control over government. They don’t care whether the federal government goes bankrupt due to not raising the debt ceiling. Some of these people even think that shaking things up with national bankruptcy would be a good thing. That translates into people in the military would go without pay, social security payments would be withheld, Medicare payments would be withheld, food programs for the poor would cease to be available.

 

These self-serving ‘public servants’ do not care about people earning livable incomes, being able to put food on their tables, able to obtain necessary and essential medical care, putting a roof over their heads, being safe from being killed by someone who decides to randomly kill people on a certain day, at a public school, a store, at a place of worship, on a bus or other means of public transportation. We truly live at a time when we say good-bye to a loved one in the morning, we may never see them again because someone shoots them in a public place.

 

We have to decide whether we view people as objects, things or concepts. Or do we view members of our human family as beings with needs, feelings, awareness, empathy and compassion?  Our political world is dependent on honesty and trust. How can we decide on issues if we can’t believe what we are being told by our political leaders? 

 

Our democracy depends being able to discuss issues with respect for someone we might not agree with. The basic question to be asked when deciding on a political issue is, whether or not someone will be damaged by the decision, and how will people suffer by taking this particular course of action? Are we relating to our fellow members of our American family as beings with needs, feelings, awareness, empathy and compassion, or do we view human beings as objects, things or concepts? Are our fellow citizens to be treated as a means to an end, or as essential to our very survival?

 

The Dali Lama has written:

‘Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man or woman, black, white or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally and mentally we are all equal. We all share basic needs of food, shelter, safety and love.  We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears and dreams.  Each of us want the best for our family and loved ones.  We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek.  On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language makes no difference.’ 

 

He goes on, ‘Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence.  This is why we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.

 

Or again, compassion and love are not a luxury; they are essential to our existence.  Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.  If we are to survive, human beings must develop a greater sense of universal responsibility.  We must learn to work not just for our own self, family, or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind.’ May we live with awareness and compassion. And may we survive as a species. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Are We? We Are Awareness, Empathy and Compassion

  

Over the past seven years, the American people have existed in a politically toxic environment. I have been attempting to understand how I am able to apply my Mindfulness Practice to relate to and neutralize this toxicity. The question is, are we simply at the mercy of those who are delusional, dishonest and disregarding of the feelings and needs of fellow members of our American family? Or, is there a way that our practice can express itself to correct the ugliness of what has been going on in our political world for the past seven years? Many have written that this negative course of behavior, if unchecked, will lead to the destruction of our political institutions and Constitutional Rights as American citizens. 

 

I have found Adyashanti’s writings to be of great help in this discovery process that I have been following. Adyashanti writes: “Awareness is that part of us that perceives, observes and witnesses our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and bodily sensations. It can be quite transformative to realize that you are not your thoughts, you   that you are not your feelings, that you are not your beliefs, that you are not your personality, that you are not your ego. You are something other than that, something that resides on the inside, at the innermost core of your being. For the moment we are calling that something awareness itself.”

 

When our awareness is in the present moment, we are in touch with who we really are, with our very essence. When we respond from that place, our decisions will not only be expressions of our awareness, they will also be expressions of our empathy and compassion for ourselves and others.

 

America’s recent election demonstrated how it is that our awareness can reveal and express itself in such circumstances. It was a matter of who are, at our core essence as human beings, that spoke out. In the face of all of the dishonesty, conspiracy theories, hostility and delusional behavior and words, and all of the dire prognostications of how this election cycle was going to be a disaster, something took place that was truly transformative. Instead of members of the American family buying into a continuation of what has been going on in our political life, people began to realize that what was happening was poisoning the well. Our awareness has become an active part of our experience of who we are, where we are and what we need. 

 

As a consequence, there were many who voted for facilitating our ability to grow, heal and assist one another, in spite of others whose long-held beliefs would only add to our darkened political night. Instead of losing both the Senate and House, as had been predicted by many, conscious, caring voters won the Senate and are close to nearly tying in the House results…

 

It is quite amazing to realize that the 8 million votes that separated Biden from Trump in 2020, amounted to the nearly 8 million votes that changed a Democratic disaster from happening in 2022…When we, as individuals, are able to bring our awareness to the fore front of our life circumstance, we are able to live in the now and relate to the now…we are able to see the light and follow it…

 

Our practice needs to be seen and trusted as an integral aspect of who we are. We are awareness, empathy and compassion. We need only to remember and internalize that and move ahead in life with that assurance. We are our essence and need to embrace that truth in each moment of our lives. 

 

On the occasion of this, my eightieth birthday, I wanted to share this essay with you… With warmest regards… 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Walking the Road, We Need to Walk, To Be the People We Need to Be, In Our America of Today

 

Land of the Free and Home of the Brave… Has regretfully become the Land of the Unconscious and Home of the Fearful. Am I bring a bit too harsh? 

 

There will always be the free and brave in this home of ours. That group of members of our human family will always be present and willing to feed the poor and provide medical care of the sick, public education for our children, and address what is wrong by asserting what is right and the truth.

 

The Marjorie Taylor Greens and Donald Trumps of this world are not a part this family. Their disregard for the needs of others, their misrepresenting of the truth, their outright fabricating of reality is what represents who we can be, and who we are at our worst. There are too many of these types of people in present day America that suck the health and hope out of our realizing our potential as a community. If you can’t believe someone, how can you trust them? And a democracy is dependent of being able to believe what we are being told, so we can make decisions that have a basis in reality, for the good of all.

 

A country that was founded by immigrants, vilifying immigrants, a country that was founded on an economic system that depended on slaves, treating human being as inhuman or subhuman, is our history. It has taken us four hundred years to correct that attitude among our communities and we still have not been able to get it right. This is an example of our unconsciousness and fear at its worst. That which is different from who we are, seen as a threat and treated as something to destroy.

 

When will we see the light? When will we see a Trump as sick, a lying sociopathic blow hard, and a threat to our welfare? We already have January 6^th in the history books. 

 

When will we see a Marjorie Taylor Green and the Ted Cruz’s, the Lindsay Graham’s, the Jim Jordan’s and the Matt Gaetz’s as the limited, ignorant, disregarding of others,’ blowhards ‘that they are? My God, what are we waiting for? The time spent reflecting on and anticipating the impact that such people have on our society is a waste of time…we can talk, and talk, and talk and in the end, we need to see what is before us for what it is, decide on whether or not we can live with what they are promoting and, then to decide to do something about it.

 

The place where this needs to begin is in the corridors of the very political forums where these folks were selected to represent the people who voted them into office. Next, we need to, each of us, speak out, as I am doing in this article.

 

With the demands of our daily life, where do we find the time to address such issues? The simple truth is that if you have a cancerous grow in your body, YOU TAKE THE TIME to seek out the necessary medical care you need to maintain your ability to live.

 

In our American Family we are a body that can develop various cancerous processes. If we treat other family members in an inhuman, disregarding way, we cultivate pathological consequences in our body politic. We will only become more diseased if we remain ignorant of what is destroying us as a community.  

 

There are two truths that I believe, that will bring us together as people, generally, and as American’s in particular: ‘To treat others as I would like to be treated.’ And ‘There, but by the grace of God go I.’

 

The Dali Lama is one of my spiritual teachers.  His writings address our humanness and needs as a community of people living together to live in awareness and with compassion.

 

He has written: ‘Whether one is rich or poor, educated or illiterate, religious or nonbeliever, man or woman, black, white or brown, we are all the same. Physically, emotionally and mentally we are all equal. We all share basic needs of food, shelter, safety and love. We all aspire to happiness and we all shun suffering. Each of us has hopes, worries, fears and dreams.  Each of us want the best for our family and loved ones.  We all experience pain when we suffer loss and joy when we achieve what we seek. On this fundamental level, religion, ethnicity, culture and language makes no difference.’ 

 

Again, as the Dali Lama has written, ‘Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Our own survival is so dependent on the help of others that a need for love lies at the very core of our existence.  This is why we need to cultivate a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reentering the Blog Sphere

 It has been quite sometime since I have added a post to my blog, Making Sense Of What's What.

I have taken time to write a book entitled Compassionate Commitment, Growing Together Through Awareness, Empathy and Kindness, which was published by The Mindful Word.  In addition I have, as well, written articles published by The Mindful Word. These writings have centered upon how a practice of Mindfulness enriches in our daily lives and relationships.

One of the basic tennants of my writings centers on the Buddhist notion that the root of all our suffering is ignorance and that our suffering occurs 'if we believe in a thought that is at odds with what is, what was, or what will be. - Adyashanti

My intent in returning to my blog writing is to relate, in a more general way, what is happening in the world coming from this perspective. It is my belief that, in order to function as a world that promotes life, liberity and the pursuit of fulfillment, requires that we are living is a world that is not delusional, where we can believe what we are being told by our leaders and we practice regard for others' feelings, and needs. 

My intentension is, from time to time, to drop in and comment on issues as they appear in our daily lives.

Namaste.

Trump Sending Our Children To Their Death, Is A Step Too Far…

How is it possible for us, as fellow human beings, to accept an order from Donald Trump, demanding all parents send their children to their possible death, by forcing them to attend school during this Covid-19 Pandemic? Along with the children’s welfare being compromised, the lives of their families, teachers and school personnel are likewise threatened by a Pandemic that has already taken 136,000 lives in five weeks.

             

Trump has also ordered adults to return to work, in spite of the dangers of the coronavirus. What would cause him to do this? What possesses one human being to treat and disregard other human beings in this way?

First of all, he believes that the coronavirus is a hoax, a trumped up scam by liberals to deny him reelection in November.

Second, he wants the economy to return what it was before the pandemic hit our shores and that won’t happen if people stay at home and don’t go to work.

Third, if the economy doesn’t return to its old ways, Trump knows there is no chance for him to be reelected. His only solution is to send people back to work, regardless how much their lives are threatened with illness or death.

What kind of a person would think in these terms or behave in this way?   Or, is he a compassionless, sociopath who gives not a damn about anybody else, but himself.

           

After nearly four years in the public’s eye, with his over 19,000 lies, his refusal to behave within the parameters of law abiding citizens, his destruction of everything Obama, his refusal to acknowledge the three separate and equal branches of government, his inexcusable alliance with Putin, his disbelief of his intelligence agencies input about Russia’s involvement in the 2016 Presidential Election, his refusal to believe in Climate change and, our current pandemic, his destruction of treaty agreements with our allies; what kind of a freak show are we allowing to run ramped, all because we have a delusional, sociopath sitting in the Oval Office.

How can sane, intelligent, caring people stand by and watch this horror story play itself out, at the cost of peoples’ lives, and the destruction of American values and institutions. His treatment of children who are being torn away from their parents in attempting to rightfully seek asylum in the United States, is going to emotionally scar those children for the rest of their lives. He could care less.  Why because he has no compassion for anyone.  All he cares about is himself and gaining what he wants, to hell with anyone else.

The problem with a Trump-like person is that they always, in someway, crash and burn. Their Karma always catches up with them. Hitler finally found his bunker.

Trump’s delusional world is such that if people don’t believe what he believes, they are either ‘fake news,’ or lying or are being unfair and mistreating of him. In his eyes he is always being victimized by others reactions to his words and actions. In truth, he never looks into the mirror and reflects on what he has said or done, that has caused others to react to him for who he is. In this, Trump is unfit to run again for reelection.  He is unfit to be President of the United States.

 

Trump’s Mindless Abuse of Power

I was noticing that the voting lines in many places, Georgia for example, are too long, too few and are not helpful for those who are infirmed, or those who are concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus. So what is wrong with using mail- in-ballots? People can stay at home and simply mail them in to be counted.  There is a paper trail.  Utah has been using this method for over 150 years. People in the military have used mail in ballots for years. I have used absente ballots. It is truly a simple and stupid solution to the need to simplify our access to voting, so why any pushback at all?

It has become an issue because the current abuse of power occupant of the Oval Office has asserted that there is too much voter fraud and using voting by mail will make too much fraud, into overwhelming fraud, when the fact is that there is virtually no voting fraud in the United States at all.

In fact, what Trump and the Republican’s are saying is that IF there isn’t someway to stop the Democrats from voting, the party of Trump and the Senate majority, what I refer to as the abusers of power will lose. As a result the Trump and Moscow Mitch club are trying, in everyway to reduce the democrats access to voting options; fewer voting precincts, proof of citizenship, you name it, they will do it, just to stop people from voting, just to make sure that the democratic majority will not will win the 2020 Presidency and Senate.

Trump has asserted that to make sure that no one can cast a mail in ballot, he is going to close down all post offices.  The United States Postal Service will be put out of existence. Along with those closures, 100,000 veterans, who after their military service, have served their country through the post office, will lose their jobs. Thank you for your service.

Why do I refer to the current occupant of the Oval Office as I do? His assertion and belief that he knows more than the generals comes to mind. His opening the doors to people being even more exposed to the coronavirus by ‘returning America’ to the way it was before the coronavirus pandemic, comes to mind. Behaving like this, when we continue to be ignorant about the intricacies of this virus and its spread comes to mind. And Trump has never believed that the Pandemic was ever real in the first place. In his delusional world, ‘it will simply disappear.

Oh, by the way, his reason for returning America back to the way it was before the coronavirus Pandemic is to bring back the economy to the place it was before the Pandemic. His ‘reasoning’ is that if people stay home, the economy continues to tank and so do his chances of being reelected. If he throws citizens back to work, the economy might return to its former humming ways and HE might be reelected to a second term. What he fails to care about is, at what cost?  More people contracting the virus, more people dying, and, for what, his slight chance of winning his reelection. What little compassion for other members of the human family, what disregard for the lives and families of the United States, what a blatant display of his ‘me V.S. we’ approach to ‘leadership.’

Do you remember what he said about Hillary’s winning the popular vote by three million votes. It was those ‘illegal’ California immigrants that were responsible for that winning majority. What is his continual lying all about?  Who in their right mind would believe anything this guy might say?

 And, then there are any number of ‘tweets’ that reveal his ‘reasoning,’ ‘thought process,’ and, again his ‘lies.’ For the 75 year old man who was pushed by the police, he tweeted ‘Buffalo Protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur. 75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to block out the equipment. @oann I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up.’ Again, mindless abuse of power, asserting facts that have no basis in reality…

We are better than this. We deserve more than this. We can see through the mindlessness and the stupid and see the truth.   Someday, we shall over come this freak show. In the meantime, we need to keep the faith.  Namaste

‘You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, and those are good odds.’

Don-the-Con has said that with mail in ballots, there is ‘so much voter fraud’ present in our elections. He will sometimes add, ‘you know what I mean…’ as if those who listen to him know what he is talking about and are in agreement with him…’You know what I mean’ is a con-artist’s way of ensnaring his victims into believing that they believe in his way of thinking. For the gullible, this ploy often works.

So much for another example of Trump’s delusional thinking.  The voter fraud claim is an out right lie. Trump’s con is that his real reason for such a gatherings of his supporters at precincts is to intimidate those who would vote against him, or make it more difficult for non-supporters, many of whom are people of color and the elderly to vote.

In addition, he is showing his true colors by his demand for people to return to work during the coronavirus Pandemic. His need is have the economy rebound from the Pandemic. The economy cannot rebound if people do not work. He is gambling that with a return of the work force, the economy will improve and he might win the election. Another snap shot of his delusional world is that most experts estimate that, for the economy to return to where it was, will take years and not the six months that we have before the election.

The part of this that reveals his lack of compassion for others and their welfare, is that with the return of the work force, in the face of a Pandemic, more people will become sick and how many thousands will die. To show you what kind of a guy Trump is, he doesn’t really care. It is another case of ‘me first, and not we first.’

Oh, by the way, to add more confusion to this plan, Trump wants to shut down the ‘joke of a postal service, as he refers to the Postal Service that was first run by Ben Franklin.  He wants to shut down services, so that everyone will have to go to their voting precinct, to cast their vote. If he makes it more difficult to vote, he thinks he might have a better chance of winning…