Dear Diary (Revisited)

Scott Bradley
Original post date: April 18, 2011

Sometimes I feel like I should begin each post with, Dear Diary. In a previous post I said, "This is about me. I have nothing else to offer. All my 'truths' are subjective." It is not without some sense of ambivalence that I inflict my personal musings upon you. Do you really care to hear this personal stuff? Would I want to hear it if I were you? I am not sure that I would; I am not really that indulgent of the 'how I feel today' kind of blabber.

Then there's the 'unspiritual' and 'non-sageous' side of it. Somehow "this is about me" doesn't square with my pre-conceived ideas of what is sageous. Aren't I supposed to be beyond 'me'? Oops, I have exposed myself here...so I might as well admit it: I want to be a sage when I grow up. But of course, wanting to be a sage is the antithesis of being one. But I diverge...

The real point of this post is to draw attention, once again, to the biographical nature of the philosophical Taoist's philosophizing. This is the point I tried to make in the piece entitled Kierkegaard. We don't subscribe to a belief in Truths and creeds which exist outside of our inner experience.

If I were a sage, I would not be teaching you factual truths to apply to your life; I would be assisting you, like a midwife, to birth your own way. Of course, that's what I think I am doing now, though I am not a sage, but I know that you have the good sense to keep that in mind.

You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.

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I Ching: Hexagram 40 - The Lines, Part 6

Six at the top means:
The prince shoots at a hawk on a high wall.
He kills it. Everything serves to further.

The hawk on a high wall is the symbol of a powerful inferior in a high position who is hindering the deliverance. He withstands the force of inner influences, because he is hardened in his wickedness. He must be forcibly removed, and this requires appropriate means. Confucius says about this line:

The hawk is the object of the hunt; bow and arrow are the tools and means. The marksman is man (who must make proper use of the means to his end). The superior man contains the means in his own person. He bides his time and then acts. Why then should not everything go well? He acts and is free. Therefore all he has to do is to go forth, and he takes his quarry. This is how a man fares who acts after he has made ready the means.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Obama Cuts Big Business Some Slack...But NOT Their Workers

Trey Smith

The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it would delay for a year, until 2015, the Affordable Care Act mandate that employers provide coverage for their workers or pay penalties, responding to business complaints and postponing the effective date beyond next year’s midterm elections.

...Under the 2010 law, employers of more than 50 full-time employees were required to provide them with health insurance starting next year or face fines. Numerous reports had suggested that some companies with payrolls at or just over that size were complaining that they would have to cut some jobs or switch some full-time workers to part-time employment.

The change does not affect other central provisions of the law, in particular those establishing health care marketplaces in the states — known as exchanges — where individual Americans without health insurance can shop from a menu of insurance policies. Under those provisions, subsidies are available for lower-income individuals who qualify.

However, without being able to confirm whether employers are offering insurance to their employees, it will be difficult for the exchanges to know who is entitled to subsidies to help pay for insurance. Enrollment in the exchanges is to begin Oct. 1, and they are to take effect on Jan. 1.
~ from Obama Administration to Delay Health Law Requirement Until 2015 by Jackie Calmes ~

I hope you understand the gravity of this change. If not, let me explain it to you.

You see, President Obama doesn't want Democrats to lose ground in the mid-term elections. Since the members of Big Business are the main contributors to political candidates, Obama doesn't want to tick them off. Ticking them off will mean that the spigot of political contributions for Democratic candidates will dry up and that money will be given instead to Republican candidates. We can't have that now!

But the Obama administration doesn't give a hoot about the white and blue collar people who work for the bigwigs. You folks will still be mandated to purchase health insurance. Some of you -- the really poorly paid ones -- will qualify for the subsidy. Unfortunately, those of you working who don't meet the definition of "poor" are on your own. Though your employer will be given a pass, you won't! You will be forced to spend even more money on health insurance costs and, if you resist, you will be socked with a monetary penalty.

Under the Obama administration, this is par for the course. Big Business whines and the government cuts them a sweet deal -- like agreeing not to prosecute them for rampant criminality and/or agreeing to allow them to cut costs, so they can pocket even more money. You, on the other hand, can whine all you want, but you're still getting stuck with the bill!

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - War Song

Performed by Neil Young

In the morning when you wake up

You've got planes flying in the sky

Flying bombs made to break up

All the lies in your eyes

There's a man says

he can put an end to war

They shot George Wallace down

He'll never walk around

Our mines are sleeping in the sea

Blow those bridges down

And burn that jungle down

And kill those Vietnamese

There's a man says

he can put an end to war

In the morning when you wake up

You've got planes flying in the sky

Flying bombs made to break up

All the lies in your eyes

There's a man says

he can put an end to war

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

The Spectacle in Florida

Trey Smith

Back when I was a social worker for the states of Arkansas and Missouri, I frequently appeared in court as a [sort of] expert witness. In some cases -- those involving child abuse investigations -- I was the prosecution's star witness since I was THE child abuse investigator. In other cases, I testified in custody hearings in which the state had been asked by a judge or one of the parties involved to conduct a home study (suitability of a particular family to host a relative child and/or for a potential adoption).

While family (or juvenile) court in many jurisdictions tends to be a lot more informal and relaxed than adult court, it still is a bit nerve-racking sitting up there in the witness box in front of however many people are there as well as withstanding the onslaught of the defense attorney under cross-examination. Testifying in court certainly wasn't something I took lightly.

I know that a lot of people -- my wife included -- are riveted by the televised George Zimmerman trial playing out in a Florida courtroom. I am holding comments about the case itself until after the jury renders its verdict. While I certainly support the notion that trials should be free and open to the public, I am not so keen on the idea that they be televised.  Too often, it turns these trials into spectacles and media circuses.

I worry about how the dynamic of the media's glare impacts the people called to testify.  We live in a world in which media pundits and almost any person with some sort of the access to the internet feels compelled to dissect every word uttered in addition to what the witness may look like or be wearing.  How many average folks desire to be scrutinized in this way?  Not many!  For me, this helps to explain why a lot of people try their darnedest not to get involved in a situation that may lead to such public scrutiny, even when that involvement might have had a positive impact on the situation.

Of course, there are those who go the other way.  They fancy themselves media stars.  They pick out certain things to wear and prep themselves for their 15 minutes of fame!  In other words, their focus is almost solely on themselves and not particularly on the case at hand -- not a good formula when someone's freedom or life is hanging in the balance.

Bit by Bit - Chapter 17, Part 13

Trey Smith

"A beam or pillar can be used to batter down a city wall, but it is no good for stopping up a little hole - this refers to a difference in function. Thoroughbreds like Ch'i-chi and Hua-liu could gallop a thousand li in one day, but when it came to catching rats they were no match for the wildcat or the weasel - this refers to a difference in skill. The horned owl catches fleas at night and can spot the tip of a hair, but when daylight comes, no matter how wide it opens its eyes, it cannot see a mound or a hill - this refers to a difference in nature. Now do you say, that you are going to make Right your master and do away with Wrong, or make Order your master and do away with Disorder? If you do, then you have not understood the principle of heaven and earth or the nature of the ten thousand things. This is like saying that you are going to make Heaven your master and do away with Earth, or make Yin your master and do away with Yang. Obviously it is impossible. If men persist in talking this way without stop, they must be either fools or deceivers!
~ Burton Watson translation ~

To understand anything, you must understand its opposite. For example, how can a person truly understand the concept of love without understanding the concept of hate or vice versa?

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

What An Egotistical Lot We Are!

Trey Smith

If nothing else can be said about humans, it is this: What an egotistical lot we are! We think so much of our species that we imagine that, if other species spoke and thought as we do, they would be bedeviled by the same real and perceived problems that we deal with day in and day out.

In the past few years, there have been many films with talking animals. Movies like Zookeeper (2011), Doctor Dolittle (the remake -- 1998) and the animated The Lion King (1994) come to mind. Not only do the animals depicted talk just like we do, but they love, despise, joke, strategize, dream and connive just like we do too.

If you've ever watched animals in the wild, it is really obvious that they don't behave like humans for the most part.  They don't operate based on a shared sense of morality.  There is no indication that one species sees itself as biologically or intellectually superior to other species.  They don't amass wealth just for the sake of it and they don't subjugate others to meet their own lustful needs.

As far as I can discern, they don't worship gods either.  

They simply live their lives according to their own innate natures.  We humans could learn quite a bit from them by NOT trying to humanize them.

I have never heard of lions trying lionize us!

I Ching: Hexagram 40 - The Lines, Part 5

Six in the fifth place means:
If only the superior man can deliver himself,
It brings good fortune.
Thus he proves to inferior men that he is in earnest.

Times of deliverance demand inner resolve. Inferior people cannot be driven off by prohibitions or any external means. If one desires to be rid of them, he must first break completely with them in his own mind; they will see for themselves that he is in earnest and will withdraw.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

Thankfulness Arises (Revisited)

Scott Bradley
Original post date: April 16, 2011

Thankfulness arises
From an empty heart.

"Thankfulness arises" is a phrase that comes to my mind daily -- not because I think it, but because I experience it. Suddenly there is thankfulness. Thankfulness for what? For everything and nothing in particular. It has no object or reason because it simply is. It is an expression of life.

It "arises" because it is what the life experience in me does. I cannot think it into existence. I cannot will it into existence. I can only feel it and, on reflection, be thankful for thankfulness. This is, I think, the essence of spontaneity; it is that experience that wells up within us as a natural function of life without our conscious or willful activity. And this is not only true of thankfulness, but of all those experiences for which we hunger -- harmony, affirmation, unity.... These things are not accomplished, they are experienced as what is already true for us.

The 'saying' says "empty," not as in void or nothingness, but as in openness. We might say that the bed of the river is empty, though the river fills it; because the bed is empty, the river flows. An empty heart is one that allows life to flow through it. One thing that obstructs this flow is the egoic-self.

When I want things to be the way I want them to be, whining, not thankfulness, arises, and not from the heart, but from this me-self. So, as I go about my daily chores and I step in the mud, logs fall on my toe and blackberries scratch my legs, I whine -- and then I (sometimes) laugh and open my heart to thankfulness.

You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.

TYT - Pro-Life Republican Insists Fetuses are Masturbating

I Ching: Hexagram 40 - The Lines, Part 4

Nine in the fourth place means:
Deliver yourself from your great toe.
Then the companion comes,
And him you can trust.

In times of standstill it will happen that inferior people attach themselves to a superior man, and through force of daily habit they may grow very close to him and become indispensable, just as the big toe is indispensable to the foot because it makes walking easier. But when the time of deliverance draws near, with its call to deeds, a man must free himself from such chance acquaintances with whim he has no inner connection. For otherwise the friends who share his views, on whom he could really rely and together with whom he could accomplish something, mistrust him and stay away.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

World in a Barrel

Trey Smith

About a decade or so ago, I experienced a circumstance that I fervently hoped I would never have to experience again. For nearly 6 months, I couldn't hear very well out of my right ear. It is not that I experienced deafness; it was more like the world had been dropped into a deep barrel and I was standing several feet away from the cylinder!

It all started one June with a bad cold. I am one of those individuals who doesn't merely sneeze politely -- my sneezes tend to be sudden and violent. One of the dangers of constant violent sneezes is that one or the other of the Eustachian tubes adjacent to the ears will become clogged and the unfortunate soul will be unable to get the ears to pop (i.e., equalize the air pressure). That's what happened to me and it took nearly 6 months for the problem to rectify itself.

And here I am again in a very familiar situation. As with the first episode, my right ear has clogged as the result of a June cold. I have tried and tried to get it to pop to no avail. I went to the doctor last week and he prescribed a steroidal nose spray and a decongestant. Neither of these medicines will directly address the problem because...well...it is almost impossible to gain access to this small part of the body. So, you try to alleviate the congestion in the sinus cavity in the hope that it will relieve some of the pressure on the Eustachian tube.

Mind you, my sinuses aren't that congested and the area around my ear doesn't hurt. There simply is a lot of pressure behind my eardrum and this pressure, of course, interferes with the mechanism of the eardrum.   What this means is that the hearing in my right ear is very muffled plus I must deal with tinnitus (ringing noises in the ears). In addition, I am plagued by waves of vertigo. On the positive side, I probably will lose a few pounds since vertigo has a tendency to make one's stomach queasy and my gut certainly has been feeling queasy.

But the worst part of my current ordeal is that I know from past experience that it is likely that this annoying problem will not go away anytime soon. This is not to say that my current experience will match my former experience precisely -- it's more than my previous experience INFORMS my current one. I understand the physiology far better and I know that such things generally take a good long time to remedy themselves.

As much as I find my current situation distasteful, it is what it is. My wanting the circumstances to be different will not magically make them different. So, I'm just going to have to muddle through as best I can. The same can be said for much of our lives.

Afternoon Matinee: Protest - Gulf War Song

Performed by Moxy Früvous

We got a call to write a song about the war in the Gulf

But we shouldn't hurt anyone's feelings

So we tried, then gave up, 'cause there was no such song

But the trying was very revealing

What makes a person so poisonous righteous

That they'd think less of anyone who just disagreed?

She's just a pacifist, he's just a patriot

If I said you were crazy, would you have to fight me?

Fighters for liberty, fighters for power

Fighters for longer turns in the shower

Don't tell me I can't fight, 'cause I'll punch out your lights

And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me

So we read and we watched all the specially selected news

And we learned so much more 'bout the good guys

Won't you stand by the flag? was the question unasked

Won't you join in and fight with the allies?

What could we say? We're only 25 years old

With 25 sweet summers, and hot fires in the cold

This kind of life makes that violence unthinkable

We'd like to play hockey, have kids and grow old

Fighters for Texaco, fighters for power

Fighters for longer turns in the shower

Don't tell me I can't fight 'cause I'll punch out your lights

And history seems to agree that I would fight you for me

That us would fight them for we

He's just a peacenik and she's just a warhawk

That's where the beach was, that's where the sea

What could we say? We're only 25 years old

And history seems to agree

that I would fight you for me

That us would fight them for we

Is that how it always will be?

~ from Lyric Wiki ~

Dangerous, Yet Insignificant?

Trey Smith

The incoming US national security adviser has dismissed claims that the surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden has weakened the president, Barack Obama, and damaged American foreign policy.

Susan Rice, the outgoing US ambassador to the United Nations, said it was too soon to judge whether there would be any long-term repercussions from the intelligence leaks by the former National Security Agency contractor, which were published by the Guardian.

Rice rejected suggestions that Snowden's disclosures had made Obama a lame duck, damaged his political base and hurt US foreign policy, saying: "I think that's bunk."

"I don't think the diplomatic consequences, at least as they are foreseeable now, are that significant," she added.
~ from Edward Snowden Has Not Weakened President, Says Susan Rice by Conal Urquhart ~

Here we go again. This is the same line of attack utilized after Bradley Manning gave scores of secret documents to WikiLeaks. On the one hand, the leaked documents were said to jeopardize lives, while on the other hand, we were told that the disclosures weren't really that big of a deal.

I wish the Obama administration could make up their minds!

If Edward Snowden's release of secret NSA information is not that significant, then why do they want his head on a platter? (Because it IS significant and they damn well know it!)

Bit by Bit - Chapter 17, Part 12

Trey Smith

"In ancient times Yao abdicated in favor of Shun and Shun ruled as emperor; K'uai abdicated in favor of Chih and Chih was destroyed. T'ang and Wu fought and became kings; Duke Po fought and was wiped out. Looking at it this way, we see that struggling or giving way, behaving like a Yao or like a Chieh, may be at one time noble and at another time mean. It is impossible to establish any constant rule.
~ Burton Watson translation ~

Times change. Different generations value different things. As knowledge and insight progress, new information causes us to view issues in a different light. While there may be some underlying principles that span time, how we interpret and express them changes with the years.

To view the Index page for this series, go here.

Sam, I Thought We Were Friends

Trey Smith

US intelligence services are spying on the European Union mission in New York and its embassy in Washington, according to the latest top secret US National Security Agency documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

One document lists 38 embassies and missions, describing them as "targets". It details an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target, from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps into cables to the collection of transmissions with specialised antennae.

Along with traditional ideological adversaries and sensitive Middle Eastern countries, the list of targets includes the EU missions and the French, Italian and Greek embassies, as well as a number of other American allies, including Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey. The list in the September 2010 document does not mention the UK, Germany or other western European states.
~ from New NSA Leaks Show How US is Bugging its European Allies by Ewen MacAskill and Julian Borger ~

Gee, this news would seem a bit embarrassing, don't ya think? As I write this post Sunday night, I am wondering about how the Obama administration will attempt to worm its way out of this one. What can they say? Will they advance the idea that they think our allies are terrorists too?

If nothing else, I guess it's a good thing that we at least are not targeting a strong ally like Germany. Oh wait, hold on a second. A news bulletin just came across my desk.

The reports of NSA snooping on Europe – and on Germany in particular – went well beyond previous revelations of electronic spying said to be focused on identifying suspected terrorists, extremists and organised criminals. (emphasis mine)

It turns out that the US government is something akin to a peeping tom! They spy on potential terrorists. They spy on innocent Americans. They spy on innocent citizens of the world. And they even spy on the leaders of their own allies. It is getting to the point in which a person might ask: Is there anyone US spy agencies and contractors don't spy on?

Now, I think it should be really obvious why the NSA and other US agencies spy on European leaders. It is not because of terrorism; it's more that negotiations go much smoother when you already know where everyone else is coming from. When you can see the cards everyone else is holding, it makes it that much easier to place winning bets. It also makes it far easier to blackmail folks.

In essence, while members of the US government like to talk about the rule of law and good faith negotiations, our leaders apparently don't believe in either. Like a mafia organization, we like to win any game we enter and the best way to guarantee that sort of outcome is to cheat.

Cheating your enemies is par for the course. But cheating your best buddies? That's darn audacious, but not very good form!

I Ching: Hexagram 40 - The Lines, Part 3

Six in the third place means:
If a man carries a burden on his back
And nonetheless rides in a carriage,
He thereby encourages robbers to draw near.
Perseverance leads to humiliation.

This refers to a man who has come out of needy circumstances in to comfort and freedom from want. If now, in the manner of an upstart, he tries to take his ease in comfortable surroundings that do not suit his nature, he thereby attracts robbers. If he goes on thus he is sure to bring disgrace upon himself. Confucius says about this line:

Carrying a burden on the back is the business of common man; a carriage is the appurtenance of a man of rank. Now, when a common man uses the appurtenance of man of rank, robbers plot to take it away from him. If a man is insolent toward those above him and hard toward those below him, robbers plot to attack him. Carelessness in guarding things tempts thieves to steal. Sumptuous ornaments worn by a maiden are an enticement to rob her of her virtue.

Translator of this version of the I Ching is Richard Wilhelm. If you missed any posts in this series, please utilize the I Ching label below.

A Piece of Shit (Revisited)

Scott Bradley
Original post date: April 12, 2011

When a monk asked Yun-men (862-949) "What is the Buddha?" he replied, "A dried piece of shit."

Why 'dried'? What kind of shit? Are all things then the Buddha? Inquiring minds want to know. But the point, of course, is that the inquiring mind is the problem; the statement was meant, by way of shock, to direct the monk away from his obvious bondage to the 'understanding mind'. Only an intuitive knowing can experience things spiritual. And, according to both the Daoist and Zen traditions, this kind of knowing is possible only after the rational mind is silenced.

In Zen practice this is accomplished through meditation and the contemplation of koans (of which this is an example). The methods of the philosophical Daoists, however, remain a mystery (at least to me). This appeals to me because it allows me to find my own way or to pursue no way at all. Somewhere in the Zhuangzi it says, "The sage has no use for methods", and I understand this to mean that the way that she follows is the way that happens for her.

You can check out Scott's other miscellaneous writings here.

TYT - Paula Deen's Blatant Racism - 60 Year-Olds Can Use Slurs??