What would it look like if you were really you?
November 15, 2007 | Leave a Comment
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Leo Babauta, of Zen Habits, asks his readers today about an interesting tension between two philosophical systems. On the one hand there is zen buddhism which suggests that you give up all desires, and on the other hand there is the desire to improve.
I have several reactions, but my first one is that zen practice itself is driven by a certain desire. If not, why go through the practice. Sitting motionless for sometime is hard work, hurts your legs. You have to overcome resistance from time to time, to actually go and sit early in the morning. Why do this? Because you desire a better life, where the turmoils of the world disturb you less and less. It is a good reason and a good practice, driven by a reasonable desire.
Most importantly however, I think that this is a question that lives in a consumerist world, where our failures are pointed out, over and over again. And if we didn’t think there were any failures, marketers will let us know that we overlooked something.
Take working out for instance. Why do we work out? If you believe the marketers, you work out because you have flabby abs that are just not sexy. You are overweight and that is bad, didn’t you realize it? In other words, pointing out what is wrong sells.
It takes effort to turn this around. Work out because you love your body. Now that is a radical concept. We have learned to think of working out as a hard labor punishment that we bravely confront. Look at horses in the wild. Let them loose and they will run. It is in their nature. My dog picks up the biggest stick she can find. That is in her nature. Children play in the street (if they can) and they run around like mad. That is in their nature.
Adult humans however lost their sense of their nature. And so the idea of self improvement was born. You see, if you don’t know who you are, then you can think about improvement. But it is not self improvement. That is the deception. We improve precisely because we don’t know ourselves anymore. If we really knew ourselves, the idea of self improvement would disappear. We would simply express ourselves all the time. We wold not work out, but be physically active in a way that works for us. I was told that running was good, and tried to like to run. In the end though, I hate to run. I just hate it.
I love to work out with kettlebells. That is what I do.
Zen practice is not a practice to learn to be quite and minimalist. Zen practice teaches you who you really are. The moment you think about self improvement, sit. Who are you really. What would it look like if you are really you? That is a much harder question.
Technorati Tags: improvement, zen, sitting, kettlebells, running
Democrats oppose torture
November 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment
I am beginning to regain some trust in the Senate. The opposition against Judge Mukasey is rising. Mukasey has refused to classify waterboarding as a technique of torture and therefore illegal in the US. He was of course instructed by the White House to remain vague, but he has to make up his own mind. Does he want to be implicated in the policies of this government that condone torture? He knows it is torture—I really believe he does know it—yet remains vague, which means that practically he agrees with the White House. If he were to become Attorney General, he would be guilty of torture as if he conducted it himself.
Now the Democratic Senators are beginning to oppose this nomination and I am much relieved. This is a litmus test. Watch Senator Sheldon Whitehouse speak about his opposition to Mukasey, which is a form of opposition to the Bush regime’s policy on torture.
Oh, and if you really want to know why waterboarding is a form of torture, read this from someone who knows. But be prepared, this is a difficult read.
Technorati Tags: senate, Mukasey, torture, waterboarding
Mukasey concerned with liability of the White House
November 1, 2007 | Leave a Comment
According to the New York Times this morning, Mukasey cannot call waterboarding torture, because torture is illegal. Yet, waterboarding happens in this country and the president may have explicitly approved it. So, if the Attorney General considers waterboarding torture, than all who use it and approve it should face criminal charges. Cover yourselves, that is what this is about. I cannot help but think about all those Nazis who burned so much paperwork to cover up the holocaust and their participation in it. That is what we are facing right now, covering these officials is more important than covering this country and what it stands for.
The New York Times also manages to misrepresent what waterboarding is:
Waterboarding is a centuries-old interrogation method in which a prisoner’s face is covered with cloth and then doused with water to create a feeling of suffocation.
But that is not what waterboarding is. Here is a description from someone who knows, because he trains American navy personnel to deal with torture:
Waterboarding is a controlled drowning that, in the American model, occurs under the watch of a doctor, a psychologist, an interrogator and a trained strap-in/strap-out team. It does not simulate drowning, as the lungs are actually filling with water. There is no way to simulate that. The victim is drowning. How much the victim is to drown depends on the desired result (in the form of answers to questions shouted into the victim’s face) and the obstinacy of the subject. A team doctor watches the quantity of water that is ingested and for the physiological signs which show when the drowning effect goes from painful psychological experience, to horrific suffocating punishment to the final death spiral.
Waterboarding is slow motion suffocation with enough time to contemplate the inevitability of black out and expiration –usually the person goes into hysterics on the board. For the uninitiated, it is horrifying to watch and if it goes wrong, it can lead straight to terminal hypoxia. When done right it is controlled death. Its lack of physical scarring allows the victim to recover and be threaten with its use again and again.
There is no way to make nice about this or to suggest that it is anything but torture. This country tortures people, willingly and knowingly. At some point, someone will have to be held accountable for that. A question at the next presidential debate should ask whether they will bring Bush to justice and persecute him for human rights violations. That will show courage.
Technorati Tags: human rights, waterboarding, senate, torture
