The greatest need of our time is to clean out the enormous mass of mental and emotional rubbish that clutters our minds and makes of all political and social life a mass illness. Without this housecleaning we cannot begin to see. Unless we see, we cannot think.
Must See: Forks Over Knives
Forks Over Knives premiered here in Jacksonville on Saturday, November 6th at 5-Points Theatre at 5:00 pm. This was a powerful and important documentary.
I encourage everyone who cares about their health and what they eat to see it.
Whitman, Dogen & the Essential Path
I find this passage from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman to be so very connected to the beautiful non-dualty of the great Zen mystics. Dōgen wrote at length about the intimacy that arises when the separation between the self and other fall away.
Whitman wrote this:
Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin of
all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions
of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through
the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.
Likewise, Dōgen wrote that: ”To hear sound with the whole body and mind, to see form with the whole body and mind, one understands them intimately.” This is the essence of Zen. It’s also as ordinary as taking a breath, walking, eating. It is this very life, this very moment.
Simple. Beautiful.
Happy MLK Day
Remember:
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the Office of Strategic Battle Naming and Descriptions
Where does the government come up these great battle and covert ops names? I mean “Operation Mongoose” is so kick-ass. And don’t even get me started on “Shock and Awe.” There are a million of them, some we’ve heard, others that slip under the radar, only to be seen by the eyes of men with top secret clearance. But who names them?
Is it Bush, errrrr, Cheney? Did Colin Powell do it with the help of aides at the Pentagon? Or, do they have guys that sit around with pen and pad, engaging in spirited brain-dumps to get the name that captures the essence of the mission?
What I like to imagine is that there’s an office in some out of the way corridor at the Pentagon where a couple of analysts with English degrees work day and night naming the battles. They come up with entire campaigns and then present the work, each little name neatly mounted on black presentation board, to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, before finally pitching the winning work to the President himself.
Can’t you just see the memo coming down from Powell imploring the guys to put a little more smile into the names saying, “Just because it’s a battle doesn’t mean it has to be so mean sounding.”
Could it be that there is a little department where all these great names emerge? I always wonder about this.