More mantras...

hello people that read this - if anyone...
I added some new mantras - they help me they might help you... one is about the unending variety of human nature; the other is about the predicament of human suffering and finding peace within it. They're not perfect and need some work - but the gist is there, so I uploaded them. You are looking for numbers 33 and 34. It's like bingo though, isn't it?

Instant relief from emotional pain...

Whether my brain is faulty or if all minds have the same qualities is irrelevant, what is clear is that my capacity for self inflicting pain, misery, mental torture, despair and projecting bad outcomes on my life is limitless, endless and infinite. Particularly with emotional situations I could be forever consumed by the suffering that has been thrust upon me throughout my life.

Of course, the only reason for the extent of these mental states, diseased or otherwise, is that they are not real but merely the creation of my mind's perceptions, conditionings and inherited meanings. Even emotions are just labels that we use to give meaning to our feelings and the events of our existence. The truth is simple - we only exist as selves in accordance with our own understanding, in reality we are not even the sum of our parts, as demonstrated by the fact that our components, when isolated, carry nothing of ourselves. Since we only understand ourselves as a collection of these meaningless parts - any definition of self is only attributed. We are made of nothing and are therefore nothing.

However this apparent disregard of everything we see, feel, hear, taste, touch and know gives me the greatest comfort and hope for the future, both for our whole species and myself. Firstly, the knowledge of this absence of reality allows for the cessation of my endless self inflicted emotional pain, misery and suffering. Instantly, by removing my self as an entity, the bad feelings are discredited and risen above. Secondly, since these conditioned and false existences are all we know and experience we should use our limitless ability to think, feel, touch, see, hear and taste for helping others and achieving good. If it's possible for my misery, pain and suffering to be infinite then I can instead cultivate limitless patience, tolerance, generosity, compassion and kindness with concentrated mental effort. This, I would assert, in turn brings it's own rewards through happiness and a reduction in the suffering.

I don't expect these processes to be easy to understand, come to terms with or act upon, but then everything that brings any real achievement only comes through concentration, effort and dedication. For the moment this knowledge and practice is central to my life and prevents it's consumption by the limitless suffering that only brings unhappiness. It is finding the middle ground between attachment to life and the knowledge of an empty existence that is the key; it is on my every breath.

Everyone smiles in the same language

It’s true, a dolphin told me, via a caption (that I presume was a direct translation of dolphin speak) on a laminated poster featuring the afore mentioned grinning aquatic mammal. That was on my brothers bedroom wall about 20 years ago and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. The act of smiling has, however, in the course of recent week cropped up over and over again. I could have called this piece ‘I love your smile…’ or ‘Smile like you mean it’ – but popular culture references tend fade fast in cyberspace. The first of those two songs was played over and over at the conference I worked at this week accompanied by large images of a two up turned painted red lips suspended apart by a rack of glistening white teeth.

If everyone smiles in the same language than may be we could conduct some kind of international smiling day, whereby all beings meet all bothers and others with a smile. If we did it for a day we might not see the need to return to the current fashions of unfriendliness. I’ve been trying to smile recently, whenever I can and to whomever I come across; but it can be a tricky business and since the corners of my mouth turn down, it also requires effort. I like to think of my face and eyes as highly expressive, they normally convey everything whether I want them to or not. So looking at a stranger and smiling is the case of picking the correct expression for the right person, surroundings and timing; they come from an inbuilt bank of a thousand different smiles. You have to get the right one. There has to be no chance you will be seen as in any way mocking, insane, sarcastic or unhinged.

The particular smile I generally opt for has broad but not exaggerated lift of my lower cheeks, with a slight pursing of the lips and a dip of my eyebrows. The effect should be one of impartiality, acceptance, compassion and warmth – like seeing an old friend or relative. It allows me to accept and enjoy all that I see around me, even with it’s inherent problems and contradictions; in fact a higher incidence of smiling makes me more inclined to do something about these negativities. It also makes you feel good when people smile back, hopefully they will feel happy too and will continue it on for the good of all. If people do look freaked out or upset I avert my gaze quickly but internally make an attempt to relieve them of their negativity, taking it onboard myself, knowing it can be diffused through my own inner happiness and knowledge of inherent existence. With this in mind you have to hope they will smile more themselves in future.

After all, if we all want to be as happy as we can, as much of the time, smiling, niceness and kindness, while arguably flawed, is an instinctive and surefire first step towards this. Perhaps try it yourself – what’s to lose?

"Live and breathe despite pain and despair.
Smile back at their stare and afford them your care."

mantra 023.

make manic monday mornings a walk in the park

You wake up, get ready, leave the house on time - there is absolutely no sign that there is likely to be anything but routine for the journey to start the second week of your new job, but I didn't even get that far.

The car battery was flat, I'd jump started it the previous day and taken it for a drive to give the alternator a chance to charge up the battery, but the fuel tank got low and in my joy at starting the car I hadn't left the house with any money to fill-up. So it was only in the morning that I discovered the alternator had apparently not charged the battery sufficiently - or it was faulty. I got the keys to my housemates car and got the jump leads ready. But after the previous days shenanigans the car's were now on opposite sides on the drive and the jump leads weren't long enough to reach across. Securing the bonnet back in place I jumped into the drivers seat of my housemates car in order to turn it around on the drive. I'd been given the unlock code to type in to the keypad of the immobilizer, but I’d foolishly remembered it wrong and entered it incorrectly, 3 times. It bleeped - rapidly and it dawned on me I had immobilized the vehicle, seemingly permanently.

Undeterred I thought that since I wasn't insured to drive the car to work and my housemate was by now on the train I would deal with this particular calamity later. I returned to my own vehicle to attempt to bump start it by rolling it round the corner. Heaving it back off the drive and through 90 degrees by myself took enough effort, but soon I had it facing down the hill of our cul-de-sac. I jumped in and rolled down, around the corner, twisting the ignition and pumping pedals, all to no avail and only just managed to halt before colliding with a red brick wall in front of the last house. With the car now illegally parked at the bottom of a hill and with insufficient time or money to catch a train for at least another hour, it was time to call my mother and then my new boss.

At this point my housemate unexpectedly returned home from the train station - I never found out what for since I thought it more important to deliver the news about his car. As he soon left again for the station he agreed with me it was an issue to be resolved later. By this time my Mum had rearranged her life and was predictably on her way, thus I manoeuvred the car to a more reachable position for the apparently 'short' jump leads. I also called into work and explained, perhaps not in full, the extent of my morning, I’d be there as soon as I could. The 'one-woman-rescue-squad' arrived shortly after this and we attempted to jump start the car, once, twice, three times (a lady) and as I rested my head on the steering wheel - 'Marty McFly' style, I expected it to start - it didn't.

The next task was to get it off the yellow lines and avoid a £25 parking ticket, which at least meant rolling back up the hill as far as our newly vacated neighbours drive. Only at my utter insistence did my mother take up the job of pushing the car from the door and steering as opposed to taking the full weight from the front, which I quite duly did. Three prolonged heave and indeed ho's later we roughly backed the car up on to the neighbours drive – having seen the hill since I have no idear how. By this time I could have conceivably cut my losses and made for the train but I didn't, though still out of breath we decided that after pushing the vehicle up the hill it would be worth one more go, - cue the jump leads. I cleaned the by now greasy contacts on both batteries and the leads and made sure they were secured extra tightly, determined this last effort would not be without just that. It went first time.

The next thing was petrol, I had enough to make it to the filling station, but all my belongings were by now locked inside the house with my front door key attached to the now functioning ignition key and I wasn't about to mess with that! So ‘you know who’ followed me to the pumps and paid for my petrol, where would I be? I did, however, have to perform the prohibited activity of filling up with petrol whilst the engine was running, which must be slightly more risky than using a mobile phone... Luckily I was covered by the noise of a nearby tractor-come-lawnmower and the busy hum of a whirling carwash. Mum paid up before we got away with out turning off the engine, heading back to the house with me removing my front door key from the ring as I drove. This allowed me access to the house to get my necessaries for work and after the usual attempt at gratitude where none is needed, that is where I headed.

I arrived at in my office at least two hours late and paid the price with a hectic schedule which ended with me making up the lost time at the end of the day, more by accident than endeavour. The email I got upon arriving at work from my housemate explained the immobilizer was on a thirty minute timeout and should function by the evening, which it did. I drove a van home as I'm working away tomorrow - I won't know till Wednesday if the alternator on my car is working – I’m thinking it won’t start. I left it in the same spot as where my last car got burnt alive so may be I'll never find out. Either way, it essentially means nothing, it's all a walk in the park.

I can't say that anger, frustration or impatience got the better of me at any point today. There was a fair amount of embarrassment, guilt and aggravation at the situation, but I was able to diffuse this as soon as it rose to the surface. This came through a knowledge that my perception of myself and the things that happen to me is derived from conditioned, pre-conceived and determined factors. On one level I am a human being with feelings and emotions living in a society that dictates I must have a job and transport to get there, the combination of which this morning could have lead to a great deal of negativity. On an another level I am not even flesh and bone, or cells or electrical impulses; not even elements, electrons, protons or neutrons - I am just a coincidence through various sums of these parts and affected by everything that I have absorbed as I have developed. Yet, before running into the vast emptiness of non belief in the self and therefore anything - there is a me. There is this life and being, my mind and heart; it is all I may ever know and is therefore very real. However, through the knowledge that this self only exists in the basis of our inherent understanding and perceptions, I am freed in my reactions to the things that happen in daily life - gaining independence from the pre-conditioned expectations of a modern life with it’s frustrations.

With the knowledge that we only inherit reality through perception and understanding; it can be seen to be just as natural, but considerably more worthwhile for everyone and everything, to react positively to negative situations. By remaining calm, well mannered, passive, patient and humble in difficult situations is undoubtedly beneficial, to yourself, the situation and the other beings involved. The only skill involved in this is the continued mental effort it takes, you must become a constant reminder to yourself of the true nature of your reality and remember the inherent, percieved and developed sense of a 'I' is just that and therfore subject to change . If everything we know and are, only appears as a reality it would be ridiculous to meet it with any negativity at all, it's just life, it is whatever we make it, for me it’s a walk in the park.

Children forced to kill their Parents and the sterilization of men and women against their will...

Other horror stories include the dumping of nuclear waste on active farmland, enforced copulation between monks and nuns - to make them renounce their vows and the kidnap of a 6 six year old child (shortly after he was pronounced as the incarnation of a religious leader) that has lead to ten year long political imprisonment. There are countless other examples of torture, murder, false imprisonment and just about every other violation of human decency you can think of, all connected with an illegal invasion of a peaceful people.

The perpetrators of these atrocities aren't a regime from a country on the 'axis of evil' as you might think, instead they are hosting the next Olympic games and the keyboard I am typing on was made there, along with the mouse in my hand. If you're feeling a little disturbed by what you've just read it might be best to check whether anything you are touching or looking at was made in China.

Cutting through the craziness of the Chinese occupation of Tibet here are 3 issues that affect us all:

Google
In January 2006 Google announced it was bowing to pressure from the Chinese Ministry of Information to censor results from it's Beijing based search facility. Here are two excerpts from Google's mission statement:
" to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
"You can make money without doing evil."
Which, as they admit, is pretty different to what's happening with www.google.cn:
"In order to operate from China, we have removed some content from the search results available on Google.cn, in response to local law, regulation or policy."
"While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission.''
They didn't mention the murderous acts they would be suppressing the knowledge of; which includes those committed in Taiwan, Tibet and Tiananmen Square and the fact that 'freedom' and 'democracy' will be blocked, literally.

Beijing 2008
This is from the charter of the international Olympic committee:
"the goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practised without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play"
Beijing and the Chinese Government will be hosting the Olympics in 2 years time; if you can see the contradiction between the committee’s charter and the practices of the Chinese military state and also recognise the power of the Olympics, as an embodiment of peace and a movement towards a better world, then do something: www.boycottbeijing2008.net

So we could all avoid Google (I tried it and it's not easy) and make a stand against the Beijing Olympics, but we shouldn't have to - there are already international bodies in place to right the wrongs of violent regimes. It does unfortunately take them a while to act, yet they should have our help, support and recognition, since the regimes they seek to correct are already part of our interconnected world. So, however much we may seem interested in the lure of fame and fortune, the benefits of peace and equal human rights for all shouldn't be passed over as worthless political nonsense. So...

United Nations Commission on Human Rights
www.ohchr.org/english/
After ten years of attempts, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture recently visited China and the region rightly or wrongly known as Tibet, his findings are to be delivered this month at the 62nd session of the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. He reports that:
"that the practice of torture, though on the decline - particularly in urban areas - remains widespread in China" and there is a "consistent and systematic pattern of torture related to ethnic minorities, particularly Tibetans and Uighurs..." full report on the UN website, no less! The impact of the report and the knock on affects it should have is likely to be overshadowed by celebrity drug ‘shocks’ in the news media, but if you care it will be there, somewhere.

One of the saddest on going tales from the human-rights abuses in Tibet is that of The Panchen Lama, the worlds youngest political prisoner, held captive by the Chinese since the age of 6. May 2005 was the tenth anniversary of his disappearance, read more about him and protest his plight at the hands of the Chinese regime:
www.savetibet.org/campaigns/pl/index.php

For more general information on Tibet, with my hands tied by profit seeking corporations, it is with regret that I tell you to visit www.google.com and type in the words 'free Tibet'; the first four links should suffice. There's plenty of different ways you can protest and help, it's probably more useful than just avoiding Google, but don’t click any sponsored links – ever.

It’s worth being aware that in our globally reliant industrialized world, the development and advantage of modernisation and integration should not be based on economic factors alone, there needs to be political, social and human values taken into consideration too. China, through both culture and industry, plays an important role in our lives as worldly modern citizens, but that is not to say that the current Chinese regime meets the standards we expect from those governing our world. In the interests of everyone we ought to recognise this and support those attempting to correct the situation. At least that way if your mouse is made in China, you won't need to check your hand for the blood of innocents after using it.

Right, now I’ve got that off my chest…