swimming: like being back in the womb

In the spirit of #OpenPractice, below is my latest conversation with Shinzen Young regarding my chosen form of practice. I hope this will be of some use for others out there who have a similar form of practice.

Date: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:54:24 -0800
Subject: Re: The Dark Night
From: "~C4Chaos"
To: Shinzen Young

a.k.a. ~C4Chaos

Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:19:54 -0500
Subject: Re: The Dark Night
From: Shinzen Young
To: "~C4Chaos"

Shinzen


Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:10:27 -080
Subject: Re: The Dark Night
From: "~C4Chaos"
To: Shinzen Young

~ Sent from my iPhone

via david_shankbone @ flickr

Twenty-five hundred years ago the Buddha occupied the Bodhi tree. He sat there in deep meditation until he awakened and saw reality as it is. Then he got up, moved about, and delivered his monumental four-point message that changed—and continues to shape—history and every Buddhist practitioner’s perception of “reality.”

Two months ago the Occupy Wall Street protesters camped out at Zuccotti Park. They had a rude awakening courtesy of Mayor Bloomberg, the police, and the New York County Supreme Court: It’s okay to protest but you just can’t stay here forever. Occupy Wall Street just had its Bodhi tree moment. The time is ripe to get up, move about, and deliver a laser-like message to the public, the people in office, and the powers that be.

This Economist blog, Democracy In America, put it very succinctly.

“Banding together with a bunch of like-minded citizens to make a big noise is a great way to get noticed, to rally similarly-outraged others to a cause, and to shift the terms of the public debate. OWS has done all that. Now they’ve got to get some sympathetic folks elected to public office, because that’s how this democracy thing works, when it does.”

I believe that the OWS protesters should stand proud, raise their heads, and pat their selves on the back for a job well-done. Then channel the sympathetic public attention and its collective passionate energy to disrupt the political process via the State legislatures, all the while continuing to make their voices heard in a rolling non-violent peaceful protests. It’s high time to Occupy the Courts, the Ballot Box, Washington, Congress and participate in a democratic process which is the very soul of this nation, without being co-opted by any political party or any partisan organization. 

Corruption is the root of all “evil” that has hampered our social and economic democracy. We need a swift and focused surgical strike at the root that rules them all. In my opinion, the top specific policy that Occupy Wall Street ought to focus on moving forward is:

Get money out of politics and move to amend the Constitution to eliminate corporate personhood.

Once the root of the problem is dealt with, we can then shift to a Four-Point Plan to Save America:

1. Tax the rich also.
(e.g. let the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich to expire, or more radically, rollback Reaganomics as kick-ass Economist Ravi Batra recommended.)

2. Get rid of corporate welfare.
(e.g. close corporate tax loopholes and reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act)

3. Downsize the Global War Machine.
(e.g. end the U.S. warmongering and reduce the Pentagon budget by at least 25%)

4. Bring the jobs home.
(e.g. increase the taxes for offshoring and kick off re-shoring initiative)

And when all is said and done the OWS meta-movement will unfold as it will like the law of karma. Protesters will continue to occupy spaces where they are allowed to by the courts. They will continue to march and yell their demands on top of their lungs on behalf of the majority of us who are frustrated with partisan politics and Crony Capitalism that corrupts our government. We’re all bearing witness to a revolution in action. This is what a revolution looks like. It’s messy, chaotic, and full of tensions as opposing forces push and pull, expand and contract, while giving birth to a new social and political cycle. I just hope that the protesters remain non-violent especially in the face of violent treatments by the police and the government that have sworn to protect, serve, and uphold their rights. If Ravi Batra is right—and I believe he is—what we’re seeing is a growing seed of a revolution that will bring the demise of Crony Capitalism and usher in a golden age of economic democracy.

May the central ideas and grievances of OWS continue to flourish around the country and around the world. May we all benefit from the shift in political and public conversations. May we all look back to this time in history with gratitude for the people who put themselves on the line by being *our* collective voices and conscience. And may everything unfold as it will with less suffering as possible.

My dear fellow occupiers, carry on, stay non-violent, take care of yourself and one another, kick ass and be still…. Here’s to the next phase of a revolution on its way to shape our political and social reality.

If you don’t know American economist Ravi Batra, do yourself a favor. Read his books and get to know PROUT (PROgressive Utilization Theory). I highly recommend watching the 4-part video, especially part 4. Again, take note that this video was way back in 2007. Batra not only accurately predicted Occupy Wall Street, he even had the balls and foresight to ask everyone to join it!

Batra has been called the Prophet of Boom (and Bust). Yes, some of his forecasts and predictions were off but his track record is impressive for someone who doesn’t have a crystal ball. Or does he?

Anyway, I’m already impressed with Batra’s predictive and prescriptive mojo. But what impresses me more is the spiritual backbone of his economic theory. My basic moral intuition agrees!

Batra’s writings should be considered in terms of the philosophy of his mentor, Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar, who has had a profound influence on him. The ideas of Sarkar are in the tradition of Hindu idealism—a cosmology stating that the universe, both inanimate and animate matter, is permeated with a singular consciousness, a living God. The basic premise is that the souls of all life forms have a singular embedded motive over the evolutionary eons, going from birth to death to birth again, to develop their consciousness. Once they reach the level of human reflective consciousness it is their duty to seek to ultimately unite it with the God consciousness. Part and parcel of this view is that humans should regularly practice yogic meditation—ideate on God—and follow an ethical and vegetarian life style. But Sarkar goes further than anyone else in declaring that God realization is easier with full participation in social service. According to this philosophy, Batra rejects the basic foundations of materialist economics, including the need to consume and acquire without limit, as well as the premise that the saving of capitalists promotes the greater good through investment, itself the penultimate justification for allowing inequality to exist. Instead, Batra promotes raising the incomes of people with the sole purpose to increase their consumption, but in a balanced and sustainable way—in harmony with nature, each other and other life forms. An equitable distribution is not seen as a means to only ensure material welfare but also to secure the ability of all to develop a full personality. This is an integral part of Sarkar’s practical theory of PROUT—PROgressive Utilization Theory.

But only time will tell whether Batra is right or wrong. Let’s wait ’till 2016 for the demise of crony capitalism. If and when that happens I hope this guy gets a Nobel Prize and give Krugman a run for his popularity.

I am an economist and historian and made many forecasts in the past about the economy and social change. While 5 percent of my economic forecasts have been wrong, to my knowledge I have never made an error about forecasting a revolution. My latest estimate is that monopoly capitalism will go the way of Soviet communism by 2016.

Now that is my kind of kick-ass economist!

UPDATE: Another case in point why Dr. Ravi Batra is my kind of kick-ass economist. Check out this interview with Dr. Ravi Batra by Thom Hartmann on why the need to rollback Reaganomics.

Hey, maybe this should be one of the top demands of Occupy Wall Street: ROLLBACK REAGANOMICS!

The Occupy protest in downtown Seattle was peaceful and orderly. There were police presence but there were no tensions. The gathering was organized. The environment was clean. The people were respectful and cheerful. The only disturbance in the usual downtown noise were the honking of cars expressing their approval of the protest signs held by the protesters on the side of the street. 

I don’t consider myself an activist. I’m not even that interested in politics. In fact, this is my first time to support a protest of any kind. However, there is something big happening here and I want to be part of it, no matter how small my participation is. I brought my 19-month old son with me so he could be a part of it as well. I believe that when my son is old enough to understand the relevance of the occupy meta-movement he will appreciate that he and his father were there, even for a brief moment, to express solidarity with the people who are on the right side of history.

Here’s to the shift that is currently sweeping the nation, and the world. May all beings be free and may happiness be.

P.S. A revolution without laughing is not a revolution worth having. So here’s something to make us laugh. It’s funny coz it’s true. ~ Bill Maher on Occupy Wall Street [New Rules] -

P.P.S. Like many people who are feeling that there’s something big happening and that there’s a shift that’s occurring, I’m also wondering, Where do we go from here? -

George Lakoff said: “Frame yourselves before others frame you.” So here’s my own way of framing the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Why Occupy Wall Street? You Be the Jury

#OccupyWallStreet: Four-Point+ Plan to Save America

And for those who are still confused about what Occupy Wall Street is all about, I’d like to share this video of Micah White from Ad Busters. He really nailed it and put it very succinctly. If after watching this, and you still don’t get it, go out there on the streets and talk to the protesters so you can learn what it’s all about firsthand.

Godspeed to all the protesters. Thank you for your courage in putting democracy in action.

Why Occupy Wall Street?!

The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) meta-movement has been going on for more than a month now with no sign of a slow down. It continues to get stronger day by day, week after week. Just last weekend, demonstrations were held in 951 cities across 82 countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa. This global phenomenon transcends borders because what the people are up against are a handful of trans-national corporations of which Wall Street has become the de fact symbol.

The grievances are obvious and justified morally, politically, and economically. Sufficiently informed citizens (who are in the 99%) would have no problem choosing the side of OWS. Calling it a no-brainer is an understatement. In fact, in the U.S. alone, in a recent TIME Magazine poll, a whopping 54% of Americans are in favor of the OWS protests. As Glenn Greenwald said:

“Anyone who expressed difficulty seeing or understanding what motivates these protests revealed many things about themselves. None is flattering. The only thing that’s surprising is that these protests didn’t happen sooner and that they’re not more widespread and intense.”

No wonder politicians and corporate news media in the U.S. continue to downplay its significance by deriding it as a movement with no specifics. As the old adage goes, “You don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg.” And Wall Street has been the generous goose.

But what makes me sad, however, are ordinary citizens who, for some reason, are not in favor of OWS. I believe that they are either too uninformed and detached from the socio-political arena, have been thoroughly brainwashed by politicians who are wholly owned subsidiary of the corporate overlords, and/or they just continue to dogmatically cling to their political ideologies despite all the overwhelming facts to the contrary.

So I’ve put together this list of solid evidences that I believe will convince the doubters, naysayers, and critics, beyond any reasonable doubt, that they ought to be on the side of the majority of the people in support of OWS.

Exhibit A: The Middle Class is FUBAR by Weapons of Mass Exploitation (WME)

Ravi Batra, the economist who successfully predicted the downfall of communism, wrote a very detailed and specific analysis with a nine-point list of economic measures which had devastated the middle class. He then made another bold prediction: “…monopoly capitalism will go the way of Soviet communism by 2016.”

“In 1978, to the laughter of many and the derision of a few, I wrote a book called, “The Downfall of Capitalism and Communism,” which predicted that Soviet communism would vanish around the end of the century, whereas crony or monopoly capitalism would create the worst-ever concentration of wealth in its history, so much so that a social revolution would start its demise around 2010. My forecasts derived from the law of social cycles, which was pioneered by my late teacher and mentor, P. R. Sarkar. Lo and behold, Soviet communism disappeared right before your eyes during the 1990s, and now, just a year after 2010, middle-class America, spearheaded by a movement increasingly known as “Occupy Wall Street (OWS),” is beginning to revolt against Wall Street greed and crony capitalism. Will the revolt succeed? It surely will, because the pre-conditions for its success are all there.”

For the sake of us in the 99%, let’s hope that Batra’s words become prophetic.

Exhibit B: It takes a woman to clean up, kick ass, and fix this sh*t

Many, if not most, people who have voted for President Obama are by now faced with a rude awakening: that talk is cheap, and that compromise and playing nice are not the virtues of a good leader. A true political leader is someone who listens to the majority of the people who got him elected; someone who will fight for the collective interest of the majority and will mop the floor with those who will stand on his way. From the way things have been going, it looks like it will take a woman to do a President’s job. Enter, Elizabeth Warren. This excellent article in Vanity Fair spells out in detail why Elizabeth Warren is the most promising political champion of the 99%.

“Millions of Americans hoped President Obama would nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the consumer financial watchdog agency she had created. Instead, she was pushed aside. As Warren kicks off her run for Scott Brown’s Senate seat in Massachusetts, Suzanna Andrews charts the Harvard professor’s emergence as a champion of the beleaguered middle class, and her fight against a powerful alliance of bankers, lobbyists, and politicians.”

And here she is in action.

No wonder Wall Street hates her guts. All the more reason for us to support her all the way to 2016.

Exhibit C: Political labels are meaningless. It’s the issues, stupid!

Political pundits and talking heads love to box us with politically-charged labels (e.g. Left/Right, Conservatives/Liberals/Progressives, Republicans/Democrats, Socialist/Communist/Corporatists, etc.) so they could pit us against each other. But Occupy Wall Street transcends political lines and simplistic labels. When actual issues are put on the table and the people are asked to pick a side, most, if not all, reasonable and sane people will make the right choice.

Case in point: Here are Chris Hedges and Alan Grayson hitting a home run and shutting down the loudmouths. Classic.

Another case in point: How do you tell the real grass-roots Tea Party from the corporate-sponsored astro-turf? Simple. The real Tea Party supports Occupy Wall Street.

Exhibit D: Corporations are [not] people, my friend!

Mitt Romney’s famous quote says it all. In a short sentence, Romney described the sorry state of our political system, thanks to Citizens United. This is one of the biggest mistakes the Supreme Court has made which will continue to undermine our democracy and political system. When corporations can spend as much money as they want on political advertising, the corruption skyrockets to epic proportions.

But anyway, if corporations are people, then shouldn’t the government be prosecuting them for dodging taxes?.

And by the way, those who say that OWS is anti-capitalist probably don’t know the difference between a capitalist and a corporatist. Here’s Cenk Uygur putting it very succinctly:

“I believe in the capitalist system. I think it makes sense and it is attuned to human nature. People do not work to the best of their ability and take only as much as they need. They work as little as humanly possible and take as much as humanly possible. Capitalism helps to funnel these natural impulses in a positive, hopefully productive manner.

“But in order to have capitalism we must have choice. If consumers do not have different companies to choose from, if the markets aren’t truly free and there is no real competition, then you kill capitalism. Corporations are a natural byproduct of capitalism, but as soon as they are born they want to destroy their parent. Corporations are the Oedipus of the capitalist system.”

There’s nothing explicitly anti-capitalist in the “official” demands of OWS.

UPDATE (10/19/2011): Serendipitously, Cenk Uygur just kicked off Wolf PAC which is proposing a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“Corporations are not people. They have none of the Constitutional rights of human beings. Corporations are not allowed to give money to any politician, directly or indirectly. No politician can raise over $100 from any person or entity. All elections must be publicly financed.”

And I’m all for it! This is Sparta!

Exhibit E: Don’t go the f**k to sleep. We’ve just lost our Republic!

And as I mentioned in my previous post on #OccupyWallStreet, for those who still don’t understand the essence of what OWS is all about, do yourself a favor and watch this lecture by Lawrence Lessig.

Now you be the jury.

Having said all of that, if for some reason people still don’t get Occupy Wall Street then the last option would be to explain it to them like we would explain it to a six-year old.

In the meantime, don’t wait for the 21st revolution to be televised. It’s already playing all over the internets.

Occupy the World: 65 Videos of Global Protest Day

Al Jazeera: In-depth Coverage of Occupy Wall Street

RT.COM: In-depth Coverage of Occupy Wall Street

Alternet.org: Special Coverage: Occupy Wall Street

The Huffington Post: Occupy Wall Street (some news is so big it needs its own page) Coverage

And when everything is said and done, when we’re tired of raging, ranting, cursing, and occupying, it helps to keep our bearing and be aware of the present moment… remembering the maxim: Kick ass and be still….

R.I.P. Steve Jobs

A humble tribute to a human being who was made of awesome….

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

~ Steve Jobs [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

“Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

~ Steve Jobs on Impermanence

P.S. Here’s my wife’s tribute on her Facebook page:

“Holding my iPad and iPhone right now. Can’t believe that the person who invented these is gone. Feel frustrated that Francis wouldn’t be able to see him alive. I thank Steve Jobs for making it easy for me as a parent to teach Francis w/ easy accessibility. At his age, he can manipulate his iPad w/o my help, play those educational games, watch his fave movies, everything that you can’t imagine an 18 month old can do. I’m so lucky that I was able to see you alive Steve Jobs. You are a legend!”

like iFather, like iSon

#OccupyWallStreet: FOUR-POINT+ PLAN TO SAVE AMERICA

Those who are subscribed to my blog, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook feeds are probably getting tired of my politically-charged status updates. Maybe some of you have already unsubscribed, blocked, or unfriended me because you didn’t like my tone or you just don’t agree with my political views. I have no problem with that. We’re all free to express our political views and distance ourselves from whoever we don’t agree with. But there’s an inherent danger with the “I’ll block you and unfriend you just because I don’t agree with your political views” attitude. I don’t have to spell it out. I trust that people who are reading this are intelligent enough to understand the risk of echo chambers and drowning in our own narcissistic cognitive biases.

That said, I’d like everyone to know that I’m not really a very political person. Honest. In fact, I grew up despising politics. I came from a country (Philippines) where corruption in politics, government offices, religious institutions, and business establishments are, for lack of a better description, *in-your-face*. One of the reasons I moved to the U.S. is because of my despair with the politics in my country of birth. Back then I understood that corruption is everywhere, but at least in the U.S. I can “tune it out” and just focus on the “American Dream” and my own personal development.

To a certain extent I have accomplished that “American Dream.” In spite of the recession/depression that the U.S. is in right now, I feel blessed, lucky, and thankful that me and my wife have good-paying jobs, have never defaulted on our mortgage payments, have never left any balance on our credit cards, have a good health care coverage, and could provide for our families here and abroad.

As far as my own personal development — I do acknowledge that it’s a constantly fluctuating, sometimes chaotic, sometimes blissful, spiraling dream…

But I was wrong with one thing: “Tuning out” politics is like stuffing my own head up my ass while going about my business. It’s not a pretty sight. But I’m sure you get the picture.

I don’t consider myself as a radical political activist. I pick my political fights rarely and very carefully. But this is one of them. Everything I love about the U.S. is in danger of being taken over by global corporations. This is no conspiracy theory. It is an ongoing fact. Just follow the money. The government is not the problem. The government is a victim like us. It’s not about black and white, or whatever the color of our skin is. It’s not about gender or our sexual orientation. It’s not about Left and Right, or our political affiliations. It’s about the 99% of us who are sick, tired, and pissed off at the rampant worship of Green and Greed by those we’ve put in power and entrusted to protect our collective self-interests.

And that’s why I’m in 100% support of Occupy Wall Street. I believe that this is a historical event unfolding in front of our eyes. It reminds me of the People Power we had in the Philippines during the pre-internet era. We Filipinos have demonstrated to the world that a non-violent protest, upon reaching critical mass, could change a country virtually overnight. The mainstream corporate media may ignore and deride it, but let them do it at their own peril. I’ve chosen to align myself with real journalists, like Glenn Greenwald, who understand the issue and tell it like it is, with compassion and passionate flare.

I may not march down in the middle of Wall Street but I’m doing my protesting with what I do best: making my voice heard online and supporting and spreading the cause as much as I can. I think that I can express myself better this way and reach more people.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has already issued an official list of demands. I’d like to add the following catchy slogans to the list. They’re short, sweet, direct to the point, and will fit on any protest banner. Thanks to Norman Goldman for putting it very succinctly.

*** FOUR-POINT+ PLAN TO SAVE AMERICA ***

1. Tax the rich also
2. Get rid of Corporate Welfare
3. Downsize the Global War Machine
4. Bring the jobs home

Bonus point: 5. Get rid of Citizens United and the corruption in our politics

(via Norman Goldman)

And for those who still don’t understand the essence of what Occupy Wall Street is protesting about, I suggest you watch this video by Lawrence Lessig.

Here’s to Occupy Wall Street reaching critical mass.

Now excuse me while i take some deep breaths and focus on the other “thing” that really matters: direct perception of the impermanence of it all…

(photo by aechempati @ flickr)

As I’ve obviously stated in the title of the this blog post, this is a response to Brad Warner’s article published on Suicide Girls blog. In that article he compared Ken Wilber stopping-his-brain-waves video to the art of street juggling. Since I’m the unnamed “Facebook friend” and “commenter” Brad referred to who posted the video on his FB page, I’ve decided to post a response here on my blog to provide more context of what started this discussion which led to Brad publishing that article.

The discussion started like this…

Almost a week ago Brad has a link up on his FB page to his blog post entitled, “I (Don’t) Want to be Sedated“. Apparently, at that time he was scheduled to undergo a procedure that required him to be sedated with drugs. Brad is not a big fan of drugs, even those that are “good for you.” So I posted this comment on his FB thread.

good luck. btw, if other Buddhists are correct (e.g. Tibetan Buddhists, etc.) then those who practiced meditation other than zen (or Vipassana) could maintain awareness even in deep sedation or deep dreamless sleep. here’s one person I know of who demonstrated it in realtime. [then i included this video of Ken Wilber playing with his brain waves] ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFFMtq5g8N4

My point here was three-fold. First, I was really sincere on wishing him luck with his procedure (which turned out to be quite a painful ordeal and I’m glad that Brad is doing much better now). Second, to tell Brad that some people who have practiced other kinds of meditation could maintain awareness even in deep sedation or deep dreamless sleep (or so they claim). To back up that statement I included a link to Ken Wilber’s video manipulating his brain waves at will. Third, I wanted to get Brad’s opinion about it, as well as get an idea whether Brad has previously experienced or whether he’s capable of maintaining an unbroken awareness during waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep.

Why am I interested? Well, because unbroken awareness from waking, dreaming, deep dreamless sleep has been reported by long-time meditation practitioners in different non-dual traditions, specifically Vedanta and Buddhism. In Advaita Vedanta, waking, dreaming, and deep dreamless sleep are the three great states of consciousness (e.g. Ramana Maharshi often talked about this when he was alive). In Mahayana Buddhism there’s the concept of “Trikaya” (or three bodies of a Buddha) which corresponds to the three great states of consciousness: Nirmanakaya (gross body, waking state), Sambhogakaya (subtle body, dreaming state), Dharmakaya (causal body, deep dreamless sleep). However, in Zen even the “three bodies” distinctions are only the play of light and shadow of the mind. That’s how hardcore Zen is–it has a zero tolerance policy on altered or expanded states of consciousness. So maybe that’s why in Vajrayana there is a Fourth body — the Svabhavikakaya which is the unity or non-separateness of the three kayas. I presume that this Fourth body corresponds to Zen’s treatment of the three bodies as “only the play of light and shadow of the mind.” Maybe people who like simplicity gravitate more towards Zen, while people who like differentiation gravitate more towards Vajrayana, and those who are geeky embrace them both.

Brad being a hardcore Zen practitioner, I could understand if he dismiss the three great states and categorize them as another form of illusion, but instead what I got was a sarcastic response, and I quote:

“I always thought that video of Wilber and his brainwaves was fake. The machine looks like a toy, something he rigged up. I’m sure there’s someone off camera working the controls.”

Huh? My reaction was, Ok, if Brad wants to play, I’ll dish out a dose of his own sarcastic medicine. So I responded with this:

“Brad, I wasn’t there when it was recorded so I can’t vouch for its authenticity. but he [Wilber] recorded that way back and showed it only to close friends when he was experimenting with different kinds of meditation. Brad, just because you can’t do it doesn’t mean it’s fake.”

And then I thought that was the end of our conversation. There’s no use to continue with the discussion anyway if the other party throws out the “it’s fake” gambit. To me it was obvious that Brad was not interested in a respectful intellectual discussion on the subject-matter.

But lo and behold! Brad wrote an article on Suicide Girls dissing the Ken Wilber video, comparing Wilber’s brain wave manipulation feat to a street juggler, and along the way insulting and dismissing the Vietnamese Buddhist monks who burned themselves to death in protest. Wow! I must’ve really piqued Brad’s interest. Or maybe I annoyed him so much that he could no longer contain his annoyance so he decided to write about it on a blog full of tattooed women (which I find hot by the way). For a “Zen Master” I noticed a pattern that Brad is easily *annoyed* by people that don’t fit his Zen-flavored worldview. Below is what Brad wrote on his article. I’ll just quote the relevant parts.

But first, let me pay some respects to the Vietnamese Buddhists he insulted, by turning the mirror of Brad’s ignorance towards his Original Face. Here’s what he wrote:

“In the case of those Vietnamese monks who burned themselves, they appear to me to be deeply confused people. When I see that damned video I just get incredibly angry and sad. What a fucking waste. What they did amounted to the most macho display of macho-ism ever. What could be more macho than burning yourself alive and not flinching? The fact that you actually had to die to prove how macho you were just makes you that much more macho.

“If what they did had actually made any difference in the war, maybe I’d think differently. Sadly, I don’t think their tragic wasteful ugly deaths did anything to stop the war in Vietnam. They could have done a lot more by staying alive and working for peace.”

Really, Brad? The best you can say about these Buddhist monks who burned themselves alive in protest for their freedom is that they were “deeply confused people”? I’m not exactly sure who are the Vietnamese monks Brad was referring to. There were multiple incidents of this kind of protests. But the most famous was that of a revered monk named Thich Quang Duc. Here’s how he is remembered today:

“In 1963, after four years of increased oppression by the Diem government towards Buddhist priests and the Buddhist community the Most Venerable Thich Quang Duc perfomed his heroic deed to highlight Bhuddhist demands for religious equality in South Vietnam his act literally flashed around the world by television. At midday, on June 11, 1963, he took a ride to the corner of Phan Dinh Phung and Le Van Duyet in central Saigon (now Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Cach Mang Thang Tam Street). Pouring petrol over himself, he sat in the middle of the corner, struck a match, and immolated himself.

“His body was consumed, and all that remained was his heart. Later when the Buddhist community tried to cremate his heart it remained intact. It was placed in the Reserve Bank of Vietnam and became the symbol of the Holy Heart.”

“Millions all over the globe saw his self sacrifice, and The Most Venerable Thich Quang Duc has become world-famous figure. Before he passed away, he left a letter to the government of the day, and through them, for the people of Vietnam. In Vietnamese culture, this letter is now known as the letter of Heart Blood. The core of his letter was a plea for all Buddhist believers, monks, nuns and lay people, to unite and strive for the preservation of Buddhism. His plan was to demonstrate to the world the injustice that was being perpetrated on the Buddhist religion and community by a repressive regime and it worked extremely well. Many nations worldwide brought pressure on the South Vietnamese government to soften its attitude to the traditional Vietnamese religion. The Saigon government complied.”

Yeah, Brad, what a fucking waste, eh? Let’s not even discuss the physiological/neurological elephant in the room–the fact that the monk just *quietly* sat there while burning *without flinching* until his body dropped dead to the ground. I wonder how someone can do that when “normal” people shriek like a rat at the slightest touch of fire on their skin. (Dr. Lewis Lancaster discussed this briefly on his lecture on Buddhism.)

Then Brad went on quoting a story told by Dogen to support his view, which, frankly, I find boring and typical of Zen stories I’ve read which could be interpreted in different ways. So I won’t even take much time rehashing it here. It’s enough to say that I prefer to have a discourse with actual living people doing Buddhist practice than arguing over ancient Buddhist scriptures and long-dead Zen masters.

And now we come to Brad’s comment on Ken Wilber’s brain waves.

“It annoys me to see someone like Ken Wilber who does tricks — ones that nobody can ever even verify he’s accomplished, by the way — make tons more money than that street juggler down on Venice Beach who does something far cooler. I guess people are impressed by imaginary stuff.

I don’t see any great value in most of what passes for “altered states of consciousness.” Every possible state of altered consciousness is contained within this state of consciousness you possess right at this very moment.”

Yep, Brad is annoyed. He’s so annoyed that he failed to see the *scientific* significance of Ken Wilber (or anyone for that matter) manipulating his brain waves in real-time which is a direct result of decades of meditation practice–different forms of meditation to be exact. As one of my FB friends, Rene, eloquently said on his reaction to Brad’s article:

“I don’t know what methods Brad Warner accepts for validation and calibration. He sometimes comes across as rejecting everything that isn’t achieved through some sort of Zen practice. Insights from psychedelics? Not Zen. Mapping brain states? Not Zen. Zen cannot be named, and only he can not-name it correctly. And beware of anyone who relates awakening to brain states and biochemistry!

“And what’s wrong with some healthy competition? It provides the necessary challenges to refine reflection and mindfulness. Too many ‘spiritual’ people operate outside of any feedback loops and self validate themselves and their states. As if they never got any insights into how easily we all can fool ourselves.

Exactly.

And here’s another succinct observation by another FB friend, Mark:

“I also think it is a bit of poor dharmic understanding on Brad’s part. He wants to have his cool cake and eat it too. When it came to Genpo Roshi, he was rather insistent that Big Mind couldn’t point out your true nature in an hour (stating that such a feat took years of hard work). Now when it comes to Wilber doing tricks he can’t, he is going to focus on the ‘always already’ / ‘ever present’ view.”

Ah, Genpo Roshi, another personality that really annoyed Brad. But I’m digressing already… So back to Wilber…

Brad’s accusation of fakery aside, Wilber’s demonstration flies in the face of mainstream science’s understanding of the brain and subjective experiences. By neurological standards Ken Wilber is a freak of nature. “Normal” people can’t manipulate their brain waves like that, at will, in just a few seconds. It’s so unbelievable so then it must be fake! Brad Warner should be given a James Randi medal for quickly arriving at that conclusion.

But what really stood out for me was that Brad even had the nerve to call it “imaginary stuff” when in actuality it is an *empirical* and *objective* display that the states of consciousness described in different wisdom traditions are not only subjectively real but they also have corresponding physiological signatures in the form of brain waves which neuroscientists, neurologists, and psychologists could then study. This makes me think that Brad is deeply confused by what is imaginary and what is objective. It must be a Zen thing.

Here’s my point: Anyone can claim that they can have unbroken awareness from waking, dreaming, to deep dreamless sleep. Anyone can regurgitate the words of Zen masters and various mystics in describing their states of consciousness or their experience of the “No Self.” Heck, I’m so familiar with the lingo of mystical literature that, to a certain extent, I can even fake it if I want to. Basically anyone can make those claims and proclaim that they are way advanced in their meditation practice or even totally “enlightened.” So how can we tell if they’re just pulling our legs? One way is to verify their claims by objectively measuring the physiological correlates of those states of consciousness. Brain waves (alpha, beta, theta, delta) is one such measurement. I believe that future advances in neuro-imaging technology will eventually pin-point the neural correlates of different states of consciousness and of different kinds of meditation, including the physiological signature of “No Self.”

Anyway, maybe I’m just interested in the scientific implications of it all, while Brad is just interested in sitting Zen-style and rehashing stories by Dogen from ancient Buddhist scriptures. So be it.

In the end, when it comes to Ken Wilber juggling his brain waves, Brad sees it as “tricks” and “competition.” I see it as very interesting skill that can be developed by anyone willing to put the time and effort. Brad sees it as macho machismo. I see it as inspiring and deserving of more scientific scrutiny.

I’ll conclude this blog post with a quote from Ken Wilber’s journal One Taste (April 10 entry) wherein he talked about the video tape of him manipulating his brain waves.

“I dragged the video out and we all watched it. Sam says I make a total ass out of myself by showing this, since it seems so self-serving, so braggadocio. Probably so. But to me it’s just an objective event. Too bad the test subject isn’t somebody else, because the results are striking to the average viewer. It really gets their attention, and much more than my books do. It also convinced the soon-to-be psychiatrist, as it does virtually every scientific type I show it to.

“I had started doing these videos–entering various types of meditation states and videotaping the corresponding brain-wave patterns on the EEG–as part of an integral approach to studying higher states and levels of consciousness (correlating what I would call Upper-Left–subjective consciousness–and Upper Right–objective brain). I’ve found that there really are distinctively different brain-wave patterns for different types and levels of meditation. If nothing else, this could serve as a simple pilot project for more adequate and controlled studies….

“People tend to get very serious after seeing this tape–serious in a good sense, I think, because it shows them that there is truly something profound going on, that primordial awareness is not just an idea you memorize but the result of actual practice that truly changes your very makeup. Some people are discouraged watching this, because they think they can’t do it; but most people are encouraged, encouraged to take up an authentic spiritual practice and follow the current of constant consciousness through all three states, waking, dreaming, and deep sleep, thus finding that constant ray of Spirit that speaks to each and all in no uncertain terms.”