Even More Bozos on this Bus

Well, here we are again, seems to me we are currently in an even worse place than the first Drumpf administration, there even are more Bozos on this Bus...  

The destruction of our democratic principles is faster, wider, and deeper this time around…  

I Blogged about economic inequality in February of 2020:  

https://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2022/02/economic-inequality.html

In there I referred to this Blog of August of 2020:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2020/08/black-lives-matter.html

I am repeating just a little of that latter Blog again here:  

“Fundamental 1

People are inherently fearful

They fear for their lives, their economics, families, friends…  in no specific order

The lower their evolutionary level, the smaller the circle of who is in their family

https://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/02/just-stranger-in-strange-land-part-2.html

They fear “the other”

Those who are not in their family

Those who are perceived to be “different””

Back then I outlined some possible “fixes.”  

I suspect we are still too primitive a society for what I proposed back then…  

Today I want to outline some failures of the Democratic Party.  

The failures that lead to the election of such a destructive current administration…

You may not agree with me, great, find your own methods to solving this problem…  

 Let us open with a quote:

“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.”

P.J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores

1-Failure to address economic disparity sufficiently.  

Rising costs of food, housing, insurance, health care, etc. 

https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/05/31/the-state-of-the-american-middle-class/

It is difficult to be compassionate when you feel you are drowning.  You cannot want to give your hard-earned dollars to anyone outside of “your family.”    

2-Failures of DEI initiatives.  

https://hbr.org/2022/12/the-failure-of-the-dei-industrial-complex

3-Firearm regulations, without providing adequate safety for individuals.  

I suspect many Democrats will disagree with me.  I recommend spending some time learning to shoot and hang out with “the other side,” perhaps at a local gun club.  

As the saying goes “When seconds count the police are only minutes away.”  

I am a great believer in adequate training and continued practice, if you are going to own a firearm, although the data is not great:  

https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/firearm-safety-training-requirements.html

If you are going to carry, I recommend carry insurance as well, but how many poor people can afford that?  

https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/membership/

4-Failures to highlight where the Democrats have succeeded in boosting the economy and the Infrastructure Act.  

https://www.epi.org/press/new-report-finds-that-the-economy-performs-better-under-democratic-presidential-administrations/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/at-its-two-year-anniversary-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-continues-to-rebuild-all-of-america/

Of course, the above do not take into the consideration other failures where President Biden failed to step down in a timely manner, and the Democrats clearly hid his dementia, until this was revealed in real time on TV, and the Democrats choose a weak Vice President to begin with, and then promoted her as the successor in an untimely manner.   

https://www.theglobalist.com/united-states-2024-us-presidential-elections-democratic-party-donald-trump-kamala-harris/

Can our country recover?

I am usually an optimist…

Maybe I am just getting more pessimistic in my old age…  

Right now, I fear globally for the world, for our country’s democracy, and personally for my kids and grandkids futures…  

Namaste 

 

Winning The Game

Perhaps spurred on by processing the grief…  

Going through the myriad failures of our Democratic Party over these years…  

Some of these I have highlighted in other Blog entries…

I have been reading others pontificating, ad nauseum… 

Not doing that this time…  

Much weirder thoughts to process this morning.  

These thoughts started on my bike ride yesterday afternoon.  

I do not listen to music or podcasts when biking, I just enjoy the changing scenery and muse…  

First was processing hearing something about witnessed UFO sightings by highly trained Airforce personnel, clearly seeing something that should not be possible with current human technology.  

Can’t find the original reference, some low-level info here:  

https://science.howstuffworks.com/space/aliens-ufos/uaps.htm

Then my musings went to the conundrum of dark matter and dark energy:  

 “The universe is made up of three components: normal or visible matter (5%), dark matter (27%), and dark energy (68%).”    

“Scientists today think dark matter exists in a vast, web-like structure that winds through the whole universe – a gravitational scaffold that attracts most of the cosmos’ normal matter. They’ve determined that dark matter isn’t composed of known particles of matter because the universe would look very different if it were. The search for what makes up dark matter continues.”  

“Dark energy may compose roughly 68% of the universe, but scientists know even less about it than they do about dark matter. But something like dark energy must exist to explain the universe’s accelerating expansion.”  https://science.nasa.gov/universe/overview/building-blocks/

The first time I came upon this information a few years ago, my first thoughts were: “WTF! “ 

I am no physicist, but I do have a science PhD and an MD, and for 30 plus years have read Science News and 2 astronomy magazines…  

Clearly, the more we know, the more we realize how profound is our level of ignorance of how everything works…  

It seems we don’t know squat!  

Heretic!  

So, let us start from a position of profound ignorance…  

What can we speculate upon?  

I then was thinking about the book “Flatland.”  This is about a 2-dimensional world, where 2-dimensional beings cannot understand a 3-dimensional being.  

In some ways a parallel to the allegory of Plato’s Cave.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69F7GhASOdM

According to string theory there may perhaps 11 dimensions…   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory

So let us theorize a being that travels in at least just 1 extra dimension…  

That being could enter and exit our 3- dimensional world, and we could only glimpse a small slice of that being.  

This being could move objects around in our world that would seem to be impossible.  

 Perhaps an explanation for the unexplainable, such as UFO sightings and the effects on our Universe of what we label dark matter and energy.  

Maybe each of us are extensions of higher dimensional beings…  

As in Douglas Adams’ pandimensional beings that look like mice…

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/475365-these-creatures-you-call-mice-you-see-they-are-not

Perhaps we, and the entire Cosmos, are an extension of one higher dimensional being…  

Oh well, then we get back to something we can label as” G-d, or Source,” the speculations that arise out of the study of the mystical centers of all religions, as per Houston Smith.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huston_Smith

As I have labeled “Everything-That-Is and Everything-That-Is-Not.”  

Everything-That-Is, perhaps being that 5% visible matter…  

Everything-That-Is-Not,” is everything else, pure potential, including the potential of dark matter (27%), and dark energy (68%).     

My next musings related to our relationship to this potential extra dimensional being or concept.  Since we are an extension of this Source, can we not look back into the Source, is that what happens in meditation or in deep dreamless sleep?  

Do we get back to being Source…  

Is that how we get back to “Winning the Game?”  

Not “Winning” as in there are winners and losers, not being the human with the most stuff as a winner, perhaps “Winning” as realizing there is a “Game” being played, and being played at a higher level than we are able to comprehend…  

Perhaps the Lila of Hinduism… 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lila_(Hinduism)

Perhaps, through this contact feeling the interconnectedness of all things…  

Leading to profound compassion for our own small self, and all of us “Other” small selves…  

And then realizing there is no “Other.”  

 Maybe leading us to working toward the betterment of all beings and all things…  

In whatever way we are able…  

Perhaps “Winning the Game” is to get to a place of gratitude, perhaps even a level of satisfaction, if not even happiness, right now, in this very moment…  

Does not mean we cannot have sadness and grief for our suffering and the suffering of others…  

Does not mean we cannot worry about the potential of future suffering for ourselves and others…  

However, we do not let the grief and worry stop us from the gratitude of being given this life…  

To appreciate the places we find Truth and Beauty…  

Perhaps that is Winning the Game… 

Namaste

A Watched Mind Does Not Roil

Well, maybe it still does, hopefully less than an unwatched mind…  

For me at least that seems to be the results of meditation.  

Not that we are trying to achieve anything…  

Or are we?  

The Buddhist literature is filled with “non-achievement.”  

Well, actually, if you Google “non-achievement,” you mostly get links to “non-attachment”…    

You only sometimes get links to “non-achievement.”  

https://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/bt_52.htm

This title came to me during last night’s meditation, a usual 3 am awake mind, up to sit, always starts off with a thinking mind, thoughts slow their appearance with attention, watching thoughts, letting them drift away, sometimes a bumper sticker saying arises…  

I laughed at that one, so I grabbed my phone to write it down, then I can get back to sitting…  

 This Blog title is just an excuse to put down some thoughts arising out of this quarter’s Tricycle Fall 2024.  

On page 40 there is a Meet the Teacher, Phra Ajan Suchart Abhijato, interesting story, does a little teaching, but mostly practices.  I went on his website and looked at a few of his teachings, came away with the idea that he was mostly a classic “Monk on a Mountain.”   

Reminds me of Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge, where the protagonist realizes it is easier to be a monk on a mountain than it is to come back and practice in this messy world.  

I guess I resonate more with Maugham’s protagonist…  

It is not easy to live in this messy world.  I recently read the article in the Atlantic about the migrants trying to come to the US over the Darien Gap, what awful lives they must be having to attempt such a miserable trek.  I contemplate the current wars in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Sudan.  How can we each sit with such misery…  

Then there is the article on page 33 by Mark Van Buren on sitting with suffering, the bodhisattva vow to free everyone from suffering.  He then goes on to write how that vow can be overwhelming.  He then tells the story of a young girl throwing starfish back into the sea after a big storm, and a man telling her she was wasting her time, and she retorts “Well, I made a difference to that one!”  He ends with “So go ahead, take the commitment to save the world, but please don’t forget to help your mother do the dishes.”   Make a difference to the everyday lives you touch along the bodhisattva way.  

On page 46 Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat Roshi (that is a mouthful!) writes “…each sitting has an unlimited ripple effect.  The simple repetition of that which is unrepeatable allows us to respond from the hara (lower belly), from the heart, with trust.  There is no formula!  Each situation demands complete awareness, the clear mirror of mind that is free from prior convictions and karmic patterns.  Thus, we can discern right action.”  

Peter Coyote on page 61 writes “Try to pin down the source from where your internal speech and bizarre little narrative daydreams arise.  Meditating allows the apparent boundaries of distinctions to dissolve and the place from which new thoughts and impulses arise to express itself.  When our boundaries are wide open and anything can be included, we really don’t know with certainty who’s sitting on our cushion or who or what is orchestrating our breathing, and surprisingly, it is more interesting not to know.”  

My overall take on this Labor Day 2024 is that there are many ways to surf this wild world, be satisfied with your individual path, and realize it may change…  

You may choose to be a monk on a mountain or wash the feet of the poor…  

Personally, I enjoy the blessings of the material world, if you embrace and enjoy the material world, do so fully, drop guilt and “shoulds,” don’t should yourself…  

I agree with living a life of contribution and non-harming.  

I embrace a life of practices to continue self-evolution, a never-ending practice…  

Follow “The 3 Commandments.” 

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-second-commandment-love-everything.html

If that resonates with you…  

Remember that you are the sensory organs of Source...   

Source needs you to Experience Life, ‘cause sometimes it is less fun to have dinner alone…  

Namaste

If You Can Keep It

McHenry records the events of the last day of the convention, September 18, 1787, he wrote: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”

https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/01/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-elizabeth-willing-powel-benjamin-franklin-and-the-james-mchenry-journal/

Much is being written recently about the great divide in our, current, seemingly, not so United States.  

Additionally, historians are writing about other times of comparative great divide, some write about how our country survived the Vietnam war, despite that great divide.  

Others are writing about the failures of our Constitution which was designed for 13 colonies, and not for 50 very different States.  Particularly, mentioning the domination of minority political populations due to the failures of the electoral college system of voting, but also the possibly unbalanced power of the Senate and Supreme Court.  

David French wrote a provocative book, “Divided We Fall.”  There he outlines several scenarios that might result in another succession between the States.  

And then there is the 2024 dystopian film “Civil War.”  

Thoughts about this blog started after reading a provocative thought-piece written by my friend Harvey, he titled this “Men Are Oppressed – By Men.”  My general gist of his words is that men who have been bullied and abused, can result in a syndrome of giving power to a dominating individual, and then being satisfied with the crumbs of power.  He was particularly writing about this young man who tried to assassinate Drumpf, without having a clear anti-republican philosophy, as well as Drumpf’s vice presidential candidate.   That young men “identify with and take on the power of their oppressors.”  He outlines that the real oppressors are the plutocrats and corporations, operating out of greed, that result in loss of jobs and autonomy.  I wrote back that I was reminded of the many movies depicting the evil leader and their crony subordinates.   

Harvey's full article:  

https://www.icloud.com/pages/038toXbk5s3DO_qRO_g2uK5fg#Male_Oppression

So how do we address this Great Divide?

David French, as well as others, lament the ability of social media to feed you more and more information to support your political point of view, no matter how factually wrong it might be, and that is true for both the Right and Left.  Perhaps the cure for that is to read more widely and spend time with more diverse groups.  

French posits in Chapter 15 that the way through may be within Pluralism and the Bill of Rights.  Where neither the Right nor the Left wins or loses.  That the States do not have to be uniform “let Tennessee be Tennessee, let California be California,” and let rural areas be different from big cities.  Where we can allow for different cultural backgrounds, whether based on religion and/or geography.   He argues in chapter 16 we must “Rediscover Tolerance.”  

French then writes on page 250, “Yes, there is the right/left culture war that we are long familiar with, but there’s now an even deeper struggle – between decency and indecency.”  He then argues that our “Our nation is built from the ground up to handle political disagreement.  It is not built to endure mass-scale dishonesty and vindictiveness.”  Page 256, he writes that we need to embrace “three cardinal virtues:” justice, mercy, humility.   And there does not seem to be a call for politicians that embrace these qualities.  

In my words we need more kindness and compassion.  

My wife this morning pointed out an article in the Summer 2024 Tricycle, pages 53-54 and 104, by Segall, “The Wheel Turns Slowly.”  In his Buddhist view, we must:  By individual action spend our dollars wisely, join in collective action to change public opinion, avoid arguing, and, as the title says, be realistic about how change occurs slowly, over “decades – perhaps lifetimes”.  He also quotes Churchill on liberal democracy which may “allow diverse social groups to live side-by-side (and sometimes together) without killing each other.” as “the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried.”  

Sebastian Junger wrote a book “Tribe:  On Homecoming and Belonging.”  His thesis is that modern Western society is intrinsically “unappealing.”   Page 22 he writes: “human beings need three basic things in order to be content:  they need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others.  These values are considered ‘intrinsic’ to human happiness and far outweigh ‘extrinsic’ values such as beauty, money, and status.”  

Much of the book is about war and PTSD, and how early childhood abuse increases risk for PTSD and how the lack of society support contributes to PTSD.   This connects to what my friend Harvey wrote.  

What I took away from Junger’s book is that we live in a society that is too large.  Many of us no longer live in manageable groups where we can feel competent, authentic, and connected to community.   

We need to elect leaders that demonstrate kindness and compassion, so that we can strive to emulate these kinds of leaders.  We need to enact laws that rein in the plutocrats and corporations that accumulate wealth without giving back to society.  

As an optimist I believe we can evolve toward these goals.  As a realist I worry that there will be much destruction before we reach these goals.  

Namaste

The Reflex Gets Rusty

In the distant past I identified as a lazy individual…  

I would procrastinate until the very last minute, putting off those tasks I did not want to perform.  

In high school, along with smoking cannabis, and skipping classes, that resulting in my barely graduating.  

After contemplation, through meditation and psychotherapy, I realized what I was seeking was to be efficient.  

I did not want to waste my precious time on worthless tasks, such as homework… 

I would rather be out hanging with friends listening to music and discussing deep philosophical ideas, driving around town with my friend Neil who had a car, walking or swimming at the beach, bicycling around town, or spending hours reading about science and reading science fiction.  

It is hard to know who you are when you are young…  

It takes a lifetime of specific work to start to know yourself…  

I first learned to meditate in the 1970’s as part of my training in martial arts at our local community college.  I went to community college first because I barely graduated high school.  

I learned that meditation allows the monkey mind to get out of the way, so that your martial art was more efficient.  

Several trips on LSD at about age 15-16 further clarified the way my mind worked.  

I had an early experience of psychotherapy at about the same age when I was caught rolling cannabis by my parents, and, therefore, sent to someone to make sure I was not “crazy.”  He did some standardized testing and counseling sessions and told my parents I was not a danger to myself and was just a smart teenager terribly bored by school.  

I was an on and off meditator until the 1990’s when I was working hard trying to gain tenure at the UW-Madison.  That stressor had me waking at 3 am and going to the bathroom to meditate sitting on my folded bathrobe.  

I eventually started meditating with Vipassana groups, sitting for longer periods of time.  

It would usually take the first 2-3 days of a 7-10-day retreat for the mind to calm down.  

After many retreats and continued meditation, the mind could slip into “Calm Clear Mind” just by stopping for a moment.  I have written about “keeping a toe dipped into” this mind state at most times.  

That is what I call “The Reflex.” 

When I avoid meditating, labeling myself as too tired, too busy, I feel that monkey mind arising…  

Meditating can feel like a chore, it takes time to sit…  

On the surface, it can feel like a waste of precious time.  

Of course, sitting in meditation makes me more efficient.  

This last time I lapsed in my practice, when I sat, I came up with this thought of “The Reflex Gets Rusty.”  

It becomes a little more difficult to slip into the calm clear mind state.  

It no long feels like having a toe dipped in this mind state.  

I don’t berate myself for not sitting…  

I find it amusing…  

This uncovers the various selves that make up our personalities, in this case, that part that thinks that sitting is not efficient and that part that knows that sitting makes me more efficient.  

It is a dance of this current mind…  

Contemplation allows a deeper and more complete uncovering of how the mind works…  

May uncover formerly unconscious information…  

And the mind will continue to change and evolve…  

Part of the Beauty and Mystery of existence…  

Enjoy the ride… 

Namaste

Do We Create Reality?

Watching the Apple TV plus series Dark Matter.  

I have read a few of Blake Crouch’s books, not read this one.  

What I have read, usually deals with the nature of reality…  

Warning:  Spoiler Alert ahead…  

Currently watched the 4 released episodes, last one May 22, 2024. 

The current premise is that scientists built a box that can allow travel to different dimensions on earth.  What we just learned, is what you are thinking about at that moment allows you to open a door to that dimension.  

The antagonist built this box to travel to an alternate reality where he did not leave his pregnant girlfriend, and so can return to a loving wife and 16-year-old son, he did have to get rid of the protagonist, his alternate self, but did not kill him, instead sent him back to the antagonist’s alternate reality.   You can read or watch the rest yourself, if interested.  

I am more interested in the idea that we have a hand in creating our own realities.  

On one level, what we think, sometimes, results in what we do.   

For example, on a population level, if enough of the US population thinks that Trumpf is a good choice to be president, and goes out to vote for him, then that may turn into a (dreaded) reality.  

On an individual level, if we bank or invest money on a regular basis, investing in our future self, we may be able to live a life with more ease, maybe even retire before we die.  That of course also depends on the state of the economy, and factors that may have allowed us to have enough income to bank or invest our money.  

There are those who think we have no choices, that we have “No Conscious Will.”   

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2017/05/

It is possible that all our actions and behaviors arise from our genetic tendencies altered by our environmental experiences.  

However, I like to paraphrase Ramana Maharshi, “There is no Destiny, There is no Free Will.”  

Truth in paradox…  

I like to think we have a responsibility to act at the highest levels…  

Perhaps we might follow the precepts of our religion of origin, or an adopted set of precepts…  

There are:  The 10 Commandments, Jewish 613 Mitzvot, Buddhist precepts, and I assume many more…  

I like my “Three Commandments”  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-first-commandment.html

Or it can be very simple, such as, “Be Kind”  

I like to think that I can choose to be kind and compassionate, I can make choices to invest in my future self, I can be a force to make the world a better place through my actions and behaviors.  

I could be correct, or I could be fooling myself…   

Perhaps, in the end, this world is mostly a Mystery…  

Namaste

Thoughts on Totality

I have seen partial eclipses several times in my lifetime.  

Each time felt quite amazing. 

This past April 2024, my wife and I took a trip to visit my sister brother-in-law in upstate NY, and then traveled with them further north to my nephew and his wife in Colton, NY, to try to see totality.  

We lucked out, despite some high clouds, we had a magnificent view!  

Traveling on the way back, my wife mentioned it was better than any psychedelic experience.  

I agreed, greater than any of my own psychedelic experiences.  

In the psychedelic literature one of the measures of importance has been to cite the psychedelic experience as:  “Among the Top 5 Personally Meaningful Experiences of a Lifetime.”  

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3050654/

I would agree and rate this short 4.5 minute experience of totality as “Among the Top 5 Personally Meaningful Experiences of a Lifetime.”  

Why would this view of the new moon completely eclipsing the sun result in what I could label as an amazing, even spiritual, experience?  

The rays spanning out were stunningly beautiful, there was an intense red dot of a solar prominence at the bottom of the eclipse. 

The sudden darkness was interesting, the temperature dropped, and we all donned more clothing.  

It was not the experience of the mosquitos suddenly coming out to bite…  

I like my toys, I had a solar telescope, image stabilized binoculars and a binocular telescope both with glass solar filters, lots of eclipse glasses for viewing.  

Seeing the sunspots and the solar prominences using the solar telescope is always beautiful.  

Watching the slow progression was amazing.  

At totality we all removed our eclipse glasses, seeing this sight with the naked eye was something else.  

Although, I am writing a lot here, the experience is truly ineffable…  

Why?  

There has been much written through the ages about the significance given to solar eclipses, particularly before we understood the science.  

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231012-how-solar-eclipses-have-shaped-history

In 1919 expeditions to view the solar eclipse confirmed Einstein’s generalized theory of relativity.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/a-history-of-solar-eclipses/

Some become “addicted” to seeing totality repeatedly: 

https://beingintheshadow.com/publications/total-addiction-the-life-of-an-eclipse-chaser/

Humans are interesting creatures.  

As humans we can find beauty in unusual places, sometimes we find beauty in symmetry, in the structure of molecules, even in great ugliness:  

http://enlightenedmdphd.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-three-beauties.html

Perhaps, this breathtaking beauty of totality, is the basic spiritual experience of Source, G-d, All-That-Is, and All-That-Is-Not. 

You are the Totality…  

You are experiencing the beauty of being human, and being the Totality…  

Perhaps, instead of chasing eclipses, we can slow down, and perhaps begin to see the magnificence in our everyday experiences.   

Namaste