Beware the Pure Spirit, Let the Flesh Instruct the Mind

We are absolutely right to condemn the suicide bomber’s targeting of innocent civilians and mourn his victims. But as we have seen, in war the state also targets such victims; during the 20 th century, the rate of civilian deaths rose sharply and now stands at 90 percent. In the West we solemnize the deaths of our regular troops carefully and recurrently honor the memory of the soldier who dies for his country. Yet the civilian deaths that we cause are rarely mentioned, and there has been no sustained outcry in the West against them. Suicide bombing shocks us to the core; but should it be more shocking than the deaths of thousands of children in their homelands every year because of land mines?  Or collateral damage in a drone strike?  “Dropping cluster bombs from the air is not only less repugnant: it is somehow deemed, by Western people at least, to be morally superior, says British psychologist Jacqueline Rose… The colonial West had created a two-tiered hierarchy that pri...

This was an article that was a requirement for my Ethics class in CJCR 5005. I enjoyed the class taught by Dr. Braswell and I have incorporated this article in my COBH 3330 course.  Feelings and Perceptions                 I was very glad to see Thich Nhat Hanh as the author of one of the selections in this course book.  I have had the pleasure of reading articles written by the author and had wondered if he would be included in the discussion of nonviolence.  The article included here is a goldmine.                He begins by discussing the challenge of perception. What we often see is not often add up to true perception. For example, we never see the sun as it truly is. We see the sun always through the past as it takes over 8 minutes for the sunlight to travel the immense distance from its surface to our planet....

My mid morning nourishment for my atman - this speaks to me rather loudly today. Are we addicted? Cultivating addiction? Should we replace weed with tobacco, or tobacco with weed? Water with wine, wine with water? Sugar with honey or agave? Meat with tofu? Ridding ourselves of toxins, is that it? Ridding ourselves of the unwanted, the undesirable, the unhealthy? Are your thoughts simply an echo of how you feel? Are your feelings as good as thoughts? Can you distinguish between the two? ~ Saul Williams The Answer to the Question that Wings Ask 

The following excerpt is from a policy paper that I wrote several years ago when beginning my doctoral studies. Times have changed for the better in some instances. Still, I should definitely reacquaint myself with changes and challenges still facing this important issue... Evaluation of the Policy             The  U. S.  federal government currently spends million of dollars to fund AOE programs, programs which present little or no scientific evidence related to efficacy. In other words, taxpayer dollars are being used to fund programs that have not been proven effective. The  U.S.  continues to lead the industrialized world in teen births and in STD infections for youth. Studies conducted on AOE curricula have found false and/or misleading information about the effectiveness of contraceptives, false information about abortions, blurred the distinctions between religion and science, reinforced gend...

My A. konjac's are now in full bloom and ready to have sex. The flies are a swarmin' and the stench is noticeable. These are beautiful plants. I think they knew it was Earth Day

Winged Deer Park today

Some thoughts that I had to submit for a past class:  Each of us is ultimately alone. From my perspective, this is true. Ultimately, we are left to ourselves and can only understand, control, and learn in relation to ourselves. We interact with others, love others, build lives with others, but at the end of the day, we are alone unto ourselves. We must live with the choices we have made, we can truly only depend on ourselves.  We come into this world on our own and we leave by ourselves.  The only thing that we can honestly know is the self. There is only the self.  All of our experiences, sensations are filtered through and interpreted our own self and thus the only thing we can be sure of is what we sense. This may be slightly or greatly different from how others perceive.  One thing that all of us share, is that we are all alone.  We can be lonely side by side; we hide from ourselves and our aloneness with one another. From Spamalot, the musical b...