Daily Conundrums...

Socrates: A Lesson in Humility

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Tue, 01 May 2012 07:26:00 +0000

From The Project Gutenberg eBook

The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates

By Xenophon

Editor: Henry Morley

Translator: Edward Bysshe

Book IV, Chapter II. Conference Between Socrates And Euthydemus, In Which He

Convinces That Young Man, Who Had A Great Opinion Of Himself, That He

Knew Nothing.

When Socrates…found any who soothe themselves up in the belief that they are well instructed, and who boast of their own sufficiency, he never failed to chastise the vanity of such persons. Of his conduct in this particular I will relate the following instance:

He had been told that Euthydemus had bought up several works of the most celebrated poets and sophists, and that this acquisition had so puffed him up with arrogance, that he already esteemed himself the greatest man for learning and parts of any of the age, and pretended to no less than being the first man of the city, either for negotiating or for discoursing in public. Nevertheless, he was still so young that he was not admitted into the assemblies of the people, and if he had any affair to solicit, he generally came and placed himself in one of the shops that were near the courts of justice. Socrates, having observed his station, failed not to go thither likewise with two or three of his friends; and there, being fallen into discourse, this question was started: Whether it was by the improving conversation of philosophers or by the strength of his natural parts only that Themistocles surpassed all his countrymen in wisdom and valor, and advanced himself to such a high rank and to so great esteem, that all the Republic cast their eyes upon him whenever their affairs required the conduct of a man of bravery and wisdom? Socrates, who had a mind to reflect upon Euthydemus, answered that "a man must be very stupid to believe that mechanic arts (which are comparatively things but of small importance) cannot be learnt without masters; and yet that the art of governing of States, which is a thing of the greatest moment and that requires the greatest effort of human prudence, comes of itself into the mind." And this was all that passed in this first interview.

After this Socrates, observing that Euthydemus always avoided being in his company…and once when he happened to be where he was, addressed himself to the rest of the company in these words:

Certainly, gentlemen, by what may be conjectured from the studies of this young man, it is very likely that when he shall have attained the age that permits him to be present in the assemblies of the people, if any important affair come to be debated there, he will not fail to give his judgment of it; and in my opinion he would introduce his harangue by a very pleasant exordium, if he should begin with giving them to understand that he had never learnt anything of any man whatsoever; he must address himself to them in words to this purpose:

“Gentlemen, I have never been taught anything, I never frequented the conversation of men of parts, I never gave myself the trouble to look out for a master that was able to instruct me. On the contrary, gentlemen, I have not only had an aversion to learn from others, but I should even have been very sorry to have it believed I had done so; nevertheless, I will venture to tell you what chance shall suggest to me in this present occasion.” At this rate they who present themselves to be received physicians might introduce a like discourse as thus: “Gentlemen, I have never had any master to teach me this science; for, indeed, I would never learn it, nor even have the repute of having learnt it; nevertheless, admit me a physician, and I will endeavor to become learned in the art by making experiments on your own bodies.”

All the company fell a-laughing at this pleasant preface, and from that time Euthydemus never avoided Socrates' company as he had done before; but he never offered to speak, believing that his silence would be an argument of his modesty. Socrates, being desirous to rally him out of that mistaken notion, spoke to him in this manner:

"I wonder that they who desire to learn to play upon the lute, or to ride well, do not endeavor to learn it alone by themselves; but that they look out for masters, resolved to do everything they bid them, and to believe all they say, there being no other way to arrive at perfection in those arts; and that they who hope one day to govern the Republic, and to declaim before the people, imagine they can become fit to do so of themselves all of a sudden. Nevertheless, it must be owned that these employments are more difficult than the others, since among the great number of persons who push themselves into office so few discharge their duty as they ought. This shows us that more labor and diligence is required in such as would capacitate themselves for those offices than for anything else."

By these discourses, Socrates having prepared the mind of Euthydemus to hearken to what he intended to say to him, and to enter into conference with him, he came another time by himself into the same shop, and taking a seat next to this young man. "I have heard," said he to him, "that you have been curious in buying a great many good books."

"I have," said Euthydemus, "and continue to do so every day, designing to have as many as I can get."

"I commend you very much," said Socrates, "for choosing rather to hoard up a treasure of learning and knowledge than of money. For you testify by so doing that you are not of opinion that riches, or silver and gold, can render one more valuable. That is to say, a wiser or a better man; but that it is only the writings and precepts of the philosophers and other fine writers that are the true riches, because they enrich with virtue the minds of those that possess them." Euthydemus was pleased to hear him say this, believing that he approved his method; and Socrates, perceiving his satisfaction, went on: "But what is your design of making a collection of so many books? Do you intend to be a physician? There are many books in that science."

"That is not my design," said Euthydemus.

"Will you be an architect, then?" said Socrates, "for that art requires a learned man. Or do you study geometry or astrology?"

"None of them."

"Do you mean to be a reciter of heroic verses?" continued Socrates, "for I have been told that you have all Homer's works."

"Not in the least," answered Euthydemus, "for I have observed that men of that profession know indeed a great many verses by heart, but for anything else they are for the most part very impertinent."

"Perhaps you are in love with that noble science that makes politicians and economists, and that renders men capable to govern, and to be useful to others and to themselves?"

"That is what I endeavor to learn," said Euthydemus, "and what I passionately desire to know."

"It is a sublime science," replied Socrates, "it is that we call the royal science, because it truly is the science of kings. But have you weighed this point, whether a man can excel in that science without being an honest man?"

"I have," said the young man, "and am even of opinion that none but honest men can be good citizens."

"And are you an honest man?" said Socrates.

"I hope I am," answered Euthydemus, "as honest a man as another."

"Tell me," said Socrates, "can we know who are honest men by what they do, as we know what trade a man is of by his work?"

"We may."

"Then," said Socrates, "as architects show us their works, can honest men show us theirs likewise?"

"No doubt of it," replied Euthydemus, "and it is no difficult task to show you which are the works of justice, and which those of injustice, that we so often hear mentioned."

"Shall we," said Socrates, "make two characters, the one ‘J’ to signify justice, the other ‘I’ to denote injustice; and write under one of them all the works that belong to justice, and under the other all that belong to injustice?"

"Do," said Euthydemus, "if you think fit."

Socrates, having done what he proposed, continued thus his discourse: "Do not men tell lies?"

"Very often," answered Euthydemus.

"Under which head shall we put lying?"

"Under that of injustice," said Euthydemus.

"Do not men sometimes cheat?"

"Most certainly."

"Where shall we put cheating?" said Socrates.

"Under injustice."

"And doing wrong to one's neighbor?"

"There too."

"And selling of free persons into slavery?"

"Still in the same place."

"And shall we write none of all these," said Socrates, "under the head of justice?"

"Not one of them," answered Euthydemus; "it would be strange if we did."

"But what," replied Socrates, "when a general plunders an enemy's city, and makes slaves of all the inhabitants, shall we say that he commits an injustice?"

"By no means."

"Shall we own, then, that he does an act of justice?"

"Without doubt."

"And when he circumvents his enemies in the war, does he not do well?"

"Very well."

"And when he ravages their land, and takes away their cattle and their corn, does he not do justly?"

"It is certain he does," said Euthydemus, "and when I answered you that all these actions were unjust, I thought you had spoken of them in regard only of friend to friend."

"We must, therefore," replied Socrates, "put among the actions of justice those very actions we have ascribed to injustice, and we will only establish this distinction, that it is just to behave ourselves so towards our enemies; but that to treat our friends thus is an injustice, because we ought to live with them uprightly, and without any deceit."

"I think so," said Euthydemus.

"But," continued Socrates, "when a general sees that his troops begin to be disheartened, if he makes them believe that a great reinforcement is coming to him, and by that stratagem inspires fresh courage into the soldiers, under what head shall we put this lie?"

"Under the head of justice," answered Euthydemus.

"And when a child will not take the physic that he has great need of, and his father makes it be given him in a mess of broth, and by that means the child recovers his health, to which shall we ascribe this deceit?"

"To justice likewise."

"And if a man, who sees his friend in despair, and fears he will kill himself, hides his sword from him, or takes it out of his hands by force, what shall we say of this violence?"

"That it is just," replied Euthydemus.

"Observe what you say," continued Socrates; "for it follows from your answers that we are not always obliged to live with our friends uprightly, and without any deceit, as we agreed we were."

"No, certainly we are not, and if I may be permitted to retract what I said, I change my opinion very freely."

"It is better," said Socrates, "to change an opinion than to persist in a wrong one. But there is still one point which we must not pass over without inquiry, and this relates to those whose deceits are prejudicial to their friends; for I ask you, which are most unjust, they who with premeditate design cheat their friends, or they who do it through inadvertency?"

"Indeed," said Euthydemus, "I know not what to answer, nor what to believe, for you have so fully refuted what I have said, that what appeared to me before in one light appears to me now in another. Nevertheless, I will venture to say that he is the most unjust who deceives his friend deliberately."

"Do you think," said Socrates, "that one may learn to be just and honest, as well as we learn to read and write?"

"I think we may."

"Which," added Socrates, "do you take to be the most ignorant, he who reads wrong on purpose, or he who reads wrong because he can read no better?"

"The last of them," answered Euthydemus, "for the other who mistakes for pleasure need not mistake when he pleases."

"Then," inferred Socrates, "he who reads wrong deliberately knows how to read; but he who reads wrong without design is an ignorant man."

"You say true."

"Tell me likewise," pursued Socrates, "which knows best what ought to be done, and what belongs to justice, he who lies and cheats with premeditate design, or he who deceives without intention to deceive?"

"It is most plain," said Euthydemus, "that it is he who deceives with premeditate design."

"But you said," replied Socrates, "that he who can read is more learned than he who cannot read?"

"I did so."

"Therefore he who best knows which are the duties of justice is more just than he that knows them not."

"It seems to be so," answered Euthydemus, "and I know not well how I came to say what I did."

"Indeed," said Socrates, "you often change your opinion, and contradict what you say; and what would you yourself think of any man who pretended to tell the truth, and yet never said the same thing; who, in pointing out to you the same road, should show you sometimes east, sometimes west, and who, in telling the same sum, should find more money at one time than another; what would you think of such a man?"

"He would make all men think," answered Euthydemus, "that he knew nothing of what he pretended to know."

Socrates urged him yet further, and asked him: "Have you ever heard say that some men have abject and servile minds?"

"I have."

"Is it said of them because they are learned or because they are ignorant?"

"Surely because they are ignorant."

"Perhaps," said Socrates, "it is because they understand not the trade of a smith?"

"Not in the least for that."

"Is it because they know not how to build a house, or to make shoes?"

"By no means," said Euthydemus, "for most who are skilled in such professions have likewise abject and servile minds."

"This character, then," pursued Socrates, "must be given to those who are ignorant of the noble sciences, and who know not what is just nor what is honorable?"

"I believe so."

"We ought, therefore, Euthydemus, to do all we can to avoid falling into that ignominious ignorance that sinks us down so low."

"Alas, Socrates!" cried he out, "I will not lie for the matter; I thought I knew something in philosophy, and that I had learnt whatever was requisite to be known by a man who desired to make a practice of virtue; but judge how much I am afflicted to see that, after all my labors, I am not able to answer you concerning things which I ought chiefly to know; and yet I am at a loss what method to pursue in order to render myself more capable and knowing in the things I desire to understand." Upon this, Socrates asked him whether he had ever been at Delphi, and Euthydemus answered that he had been there twice.

"Did you not take notice," said Socrates, "that somewhere on the front of the temple there is this inscription, 'KNOW THYSELF'?"

"I remember," answered he, "I have read it there."

"It is not enough," replied Socrates, "to have read it. Have you been the better for this admonition? Have you given yourself the trouble to consider what you are?"

"I think I know that well enough," replied the young man, "for I should have found it very difficult to have known any other thing if I had not known myself."

"But for a man to know himself well," said Socrates, "it is not enough that he knows his own name; for, as a man that buys a horse cannot be certain that he knows what he is before he has ridden him, to see whether he be quiet or restive, whether he be mettlesome or dull, whether he be fleet or heavy - in short, before he has made trial of all that is good and bad in him - in like manner, a man cannot say that he knows himself before he has tried what he is fit for, and what he is able to do."

"It is true," said Euthydemus, "that whoever knows not his own strength knows not himself."

"But," continued Socrates, "who sees not of how great advantage this knowledge is to man, and how dangerous it is to be mistaken in this affair? for he who knows himself knows likewise what is good for himself. He sees what he is able to do, and what he is not able to do; by applying himself to things that he can do, he gets his bread with pleasure, and is happy; and by not attempting to do the things he cannot do, he avoids the danger of falling into errors, and of seeing himself miserable. By knowing himself, he knows likewise how to judge of others, and to make use of their services for his own advantage, either to procure himself some good, or to protect himself from some misfortune; but he who knows not himself, and is mistaken in the opinion he has of his own abilities, mistakes likewise in the knowledge of others, and in the conduct of his own affairs. He is ignorant of what is necessary for him, he knows not what he undertakes, nor comprehends the means he makes use of, and this is the reason that success never attends his enterprises, and that he always falls into misfortunes. But the man who sees clear into his own designs generally obtains the end he proposes to himself, and at the same time gains reputation and honor. For this reason, even his equals are well pleased to follow his advices; and they whose affairs are in disorder implore his assistance, and throw themselves into his hands, depending upon his prudence to retrieve their affairs, and to restore them to their former good condition. But he who undertakes he knows not what, generally makes an ill choice, and succeeds yet worse; and the present damage is not the only punishment he undergoes for his temerity. He is disgraced forever; all men laugh at him, all men despise and speak ill of him. Consider likewise what happens to Republics who mistake their own strength, and declare war against States more powerful than themselves; some are utterly ruined, others lose their liberty, and are compelled to receive laws from the conquerors."

"I am fully satisfied," said Euthydemus, "that a great deal depends on the knowledge of oneself. I hope you will now tell me by what a man must begin to examine himself."

"You know," said Socrates, "what things are good and what are bad?"

"Indeed," answered Euthydemus, "if I knew not that, I were the most ignorant of all men."

"Then tell me your thoughts of this matter," said Socrates.

"First," said Euthydemus, "I hold that health is a good and sickness an evil, and that whatever contributes to either of them partakes of the same qualities. Thus nourishment and the exercises that keep the body in health are very good; and, on the contrary, those that cause diseases are hurtful."

"But would it not be better to say," replied Socrates, "that health and sickness are both good when they are the causes of any good, and that they are both bad when they are the causes of any ill?"

"And when can it ever happen," said Euthydemus, "that health is the cause of any ill, and sickness the cause of any good?"

"This may happen," answered Socrates, "when troops are raised for any enterprise that proves fatal; when men are embarked who are destined to perish at sea; for men who are in health may be involved in these misfortunes, when they who, by reason of their infirmities, are left at home, will be exempted from the mischief in which the others perish."

"You say true," said Euthydemus, "but you see, too, that men who are in health are present in fortunate occasions, while they who are confined to their beds cannot be there."

"It must therefore be granted," said Socrates, "that these things which are sometimes useful and sometimes hurtful are not rather good than bad."

"That is, indeed, the consequence of your argument," replied Euthydemus; "but it cannot be denied that knowledge is a good thing; for what is there in which a knowing man has not the advantage of an ignorant one?"

"And have you not read," said Socrates, "what happened to Daedalus for his knowing so many excellent arts, and how, being fallen into the hands of Minos, he was detained by force, and saw himself at once banished from his country and stripped of his liberty? To complete his misfortune, flying away with his son, he was the occasion of his being miserably lost, and could not, after all, escape in his own person; for, falling into the hands of barbarians, he was again made a slave. Know you not likewise the adventure of Palamedes, who was so envied by Ulysses for his great capacity, and who perished wretchedly by the calumnious artifices of that rival? How many great men likewise has the King of Persia caused to be seized and carried away because of their admirable parts, and who are now languishing under him in a perpetual slavery?"

"But, granting this to be as you say," added Euthydemus, "you will certainly allow good fortune to be a good?"

"I will," said Socrates, "provided this good fortune consists in things that are undoubtedly good."

"And how can it be that the things which compose good fortune should not be infallibly good?"

"They are," answered Socrates, "unless you reckon among them beauty and strength of body, riches, honors, and other things of that nature."

"And how can a man be happy without them?"

"Rather," said Socrates, "how can a man be happy with things that are the causes of so many misfortunes? For many are daily corrupted because of their beauty; many who presume too much on their own strength are oppressed under the burden of their undertakings. Among the rich, some are lost in luxury, and others fall into the snares of those that wait for their estates. And lastly, the reputation and honors that are acquired in Republics are often the cause of their ruin who possess them."

"Certainly," said Euthydemus, "if I am in the wrong to praise good fortune, I know not what we ought to ask of the Deity."

"Perhaps, too," replied Socrates, "you have never considered it, because you think you know it well enough.

"But," continued he, changing the subject of their discourse, "seeing you are preparing yourself to enter upon the government of our Republic, where the people are master, without doubt you have reflected on the nature of this State, and know what a democracy is?"

"You ought to believe I do."

"And do you think it possible," said Socrates, "to know what a democracy or popular State is without knowing what the people is?"

"I do not think I can."

"And what is the people?" said Socrates.

"Under that name," answered Euthydemus, "I mean the poor citizens."

"You know, then, who are the poor?"

"I do," said Euthydemus.

"Do you know, too, who are the rich?"

"I know that too."

"Tell me, then, who are the rich and who are the poor?"

"I take the poor," answered Euthydemus, "to be those who have not enough to supply their necessary expenses, and the rich to be they who have more than they have occasion for."

"But have you observed," replied Socrates, "that there are certain persons who, though they have very little, have nevertheless enough, and even lay up some small matter out of it; and, on the contrary, there are others who never have enough how great so ever their estates and possessions are?"

"You put me in mind," said Euthydemus, "of something very much to the purpose, for I have seen even some princes so necessitous that they have been compelled to take away their subjects' estates, and to commit many injustices."

"We must, then," said Socrates, "place such princes in the rank of the poor, and those who have but small estates, yet manage them well, in the number of the rich."

"I must give consent to all you say," answered Euthydemus, "for I am too ignorant to contradict you; and I think it will be best for me, from henceforward, to hold my peace, for I am almost ready to confess that I know nothing at all."

Having said this, he withdrew, full of confusion and self-contempt, beginning to be conscious to himself that he was indeed a person of little or no account at all. Nor was he the only person whom Socrates had thus convinced of their ignorance and insufficiency, several of whom never came more to see him, and valued him the less for it. But Euthydemus did not act like them. On the contrary, he believed it impossible for him to improve his parts but by frequently conversing with Socrates, insomuch that he never left him, unless some business of moment called him away, and he even took delight to imitate some of his actions. Socrates, seeing him thus altered from what he was, was tender of saying anything to him that might irritate or discourage him; but took care to speak more freely and plainly to him of the things he ought to know and apply himself to.

Chronic Disease: Cause, Prevention and Cure - Diabetes (Part I)

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Tue, 01 May 2012 06:57:00 +0000

~ Courtesy of the World Preservation Foundation

Plant-base Diets: A Solution to Our Public Health Crisis

Joel Fuhrman MD

Director of Research for Nutritional Research Project for the National

Health Association, Board Certified Family Physician, New Jersey, USA

Type II diabetes, which accounts for over 90% of diabetes cases, is preventable and even reversible with excellent nutrition Excess body fat is the most significant cause of type II diabetes. In order to reverse the rising trends of obesity and diabetes and their associated costs, we must emphasize prevention and treatment via dietary and lifestyle modifications.

How Does Obesity Cause Diabetes?

Every cell in the human body needs glucose. Insulin promotes uptake and storage of glucose in muscle and fat cells. Type II diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance – the body is not adequately responding to the insulin being produced.

Obesity is related to the development of diabetes for several reasons. Fat cells are not merely storage houses for extra energy – they produce and secrete substances with significant biological effects, including interfering with the uptake of insulin into other cells. Fat cells release substances such as free fatty acids, hormones, and cytokines that promote insulin resistance.¹ Furthermore dietary trans fats and saturated fats interfere with insulin binding to its receptors.² When an individual is significantly overweight or obese, with more than 50 pounds of additional fat weight, the body demands huge loads of insulin from the pancreas. After years of overworking the pancreas, it loses the ability to keep up with the huge insulin demands. Eventually, with less insulin available to move glucose from the bloodstream into the cells, the glucose level in the blood starts to rise and the person is diagnosed with diabetes.

Drugs Do Little To Help, and Often Can Make Things Worse

Medication is now the accepted treatment for diabetes—even though it’s often the medication itself that is causing more weight gain, worsening symptoms, and making the individual more diabetic. Insulin and many of the oral anti-diabetes drugs promote weight gain, exacerbating the condition.³ Type II diabetic patients exposed to insulin or sulfonylureas (commonly prescribed oral anti-diabetes drugs) which push the failing pancreas to produce more insulin, advance the natural deterioration of the beta cells in the pancreas and have significantly increased incidence of cancer at multiple sites,^4,5 higher risk of heart failure and all-cause mortality.⁶

The ACCORD (Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes) study was conducted to determine whether lowering glucose to near-normal levels (HbA1C <6.0%) with drugs would decrease cardiovascular risk; the study was halted when the results showed that aggressive glycemic control actually increased the risk of death from all causes and from cardiovascular disease.⁷

Clearly, relying on medication without utilizing dietary and exercise interventions is not ideal. Diabetics take medication but remain overweight and continue to consume the Western diet; they continue to damage their organs, develop complications, and die prematurely.

How Can We Prevent (and reverse) Diabetes?

The cure for type II diabetes is already known – removing the cause can reverse the disease, and the chief cause is excess weight from the Western diet and inactivity. The best and safest “medicine” for a diabetic is a high-nutrient density diet (HND diet; an eating style focused on low-calorie, nutrient-rich plant foods) and exercise.

Weight loss is effective in itself¹, but the goal of lifestyle intervention must be to improve pancreatic function and lower insulin resistance over and above what could be accomplished with weight loss alone. An HND diet can accomplish this; by emphasizing micronutrient adequacy, cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood pressure are lowered as weight is lost and blood glucose drops. We have extensive experience treating overweight diabetics with superior nutrition and the results are impressive. The majority are able to restore their glucose levels to the normal range without any further need for medications. They have essentially become non-diabetic again.

Overview of an HND Diet for Diabetes Reversal:

• No refined carbohydrates – both sugars and starches

• Minimal grains (intact grains only) only one serving daily

• Very high fibre (over 50 grams per day)

• High viscous fiber (flax, oats, beans)

• High percentage of resistant starch

• Moderate fat from seeds and nuts

• Very low saturated fat

• Zero trans fatty acids

• Sufficient omega-3 fatty acids

• High phytochemicals and antioxidants

• Low glycemic load

• Very low sodium (less than 1,200 mg/day)

• Low caloric density per food volume

• Minimal or no animal products, used only occasionally as one ounce condiment

The HND diet consists primarily of foods that have been associated with diabetes prevention in the medical literature: its focus is on eating more vegetables, especially low-calorie, high nutrient vegetables such as green vegetables, eggplant, onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, zucchini squash and legumes. Animal products are significantly curtailed or eliminated as are processed foods, sweeteners, white rice, white flour, oils and caloric sweeteners. Of note:

• Pooled data from four studies determined that eating 1.35 servings (1 serving = 106 g) of green leafy vegetables vs. 0.2 servings per day provided a 14% decrease in diabetes risk⁸

• Beans are high-nutrient, high-fiber, and low-calorie. They are digested slowly which induces satiety and stabilizes blood glucose. Therefore, beans are the most appropriate source of carbohydrate for diabetics. A study on 64,000 women followed for 4 years found that high intake of legumes were associated with a 38% decreased risk of diabetes⁹

• An inverse relationship between nut consumption and diabetes was reported in the Nurses’ Health Study – 5 servings of nuts per week was associated with a 27% decrease in risk¹⁰

• Adding three servings of fresh fruit (with a focus on low sugar fruits) per day to one’s diet may decrease diabetes risk by up to 18%¹¹

Scientific support for the therapeutic use of plant-based diets for diabetes

Whole, plant foods have anti-diabetic characteristics.¹² As such, randomized trials using a plant-based diet to treat diabetes have yielded impressive results. In a 22-week study published in 2006, a low-fat plant-based diet allowed for an average decrease of 1.23 points in A1C, weight loss of 13 lbs., and 21.2% decrease in LDL cholesterol. Most importantly, 43% of the participants were able to reduce their diabetes medications. An earlier study reported a 28% decrease in fasting blood glucose, as well as reduction or discontinuation of diabetes medications.¹³ An HND diet, however, potentially has further advantages over a low-fat vegan diet, because an HND diet is based primarily on green vegetables and beans rather than grains and starches, which provides greater micronutrient and resistant starch content. Data was collected from thirteen subjects at baseline and after a median of seven months on a HND diet. Mean values are shown in the table below:¹⁴

Conclusion

The current standard of treating diabetes with medications does little to improve long-term patient outcomes, has significant drawbacks and in many cases the medications serve as subconscious permission to continue eating improperly. Evidence on nutritional interventions for diabetics from multiple investigations as well as our own data demonstrates that a plant-based micronutrient rich diet has tremendous therapeutic potential while decreasing cardiovascular risk factors. Additionally, in an earlier study an HND diet was shown to reduce LDL cholesterol by 33%.¹⁵ This approach promotes longevity and in many cases can even resolve the diabetes. If this approach was used on a large scale, for both prevention and reversal of chronic disease, rates of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer would all drop, resulting in a healthier population and a dramatic reduction in healthcare costs.

References:

1. Khaodhiar, L., S. Cummings, and C.M. Apovian, Treating diabetes and prediabetes by focusing on obesity management. Current diabetes reports, 2009. 9(5): p. 348-54.

2. Riserus, U., W.C. Willett, and F.B. Hu, Dietary fats and prevention of type 2 diabetes. Prog. Lipid Res., 2009. 48(1): p. 44-51.

3. Hermansen, K. and L.S. Mortensen, Bodyweight changes associated with antihyperglycaemic agents in type 2 diabetes mellitus. Drug safety : an international journal of medical toxicology and drug experience, 2007. 30(12): p. 1127-42.

4. Bowker, S.L., S.R. Majumdar, P. Veugelers, et al., Increased cancer-related mortality for patients with type 2 diabetes who use sulfonylureas or insulin: Response to Farooki and Schneider. Diabetes Care, 2006. 29(8): p. 1990-1.

5. Harish, K., M. Dharmalingam, and M. Himanshu, Study Protocol: insulin and its role in cancer.BMC endocrine disorders, 2007. 7: p. 10.

6. Tzoulaki, I., M. Molokhia, V. Curcin, et al., Risk of cardiovascular disease and all cause mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes prescribed oral antidiabetes drugs: retrospective cohort study using UK general practice research database. BMJ, 2009. 339: p. b4731.

7. Gerstein, H.C., M.E. Miller, R.P. Byington, et al., Effects of intensive glucose lowering in type 2 diabetes. The New England journal of medicine, 2008. 358(24): p. 2545-59.

8. Carter, P., L.J. Gray, J. Troughton, et al., Fruit and vegetable intake and incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus: systematic review and metaanalysis. BMJ, 2010. 341: p. c4229.

9. Villegas, R., Y.T. Gao, G. Yang, et al., Legume and soy food intake and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in the Shanghai Women’s Health Study. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 2008. 87(1): p. 162-7.

10. Jiang, R., J.E. Manson, M.J. Stampfer, et al., Nut and peanut butter consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in women. JAMA, 2002. 288(20): p. 2554-60.

11. Bazzano, L.A., T.Y. Li, K.J. Joshipura, et al., Intake of Fruit, Vegetables, and Fruit Juices and Risk of Diabetes in Women. Diabetes Care, 2008. 31(7): p. 1311-1317.

12. Jenkins, D.J., C.W. Kendall, A. Marchie, et al., Type 2 diabetes and the vegetarian diet. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 2003. 78(3 Suppl): p. 610S-616S.

13. Nicholson, A.S., M. Sklar, N.D. Barnard, et al., Toward improved management of NIDDM: A randomized, controlled, pilot intervention using a lowfat, vegetarian diet. Prev. Med., 1999. 29(2): p. 87-91.

14. Dunaief, D., Y. Gui-shuang, J. Fuhrman, et al., Glycemic and cardiovascular parameters improved in type 2 diabetes with the high nutrient density diet. J. Nutr., 2010. 14(6): p. 500.

15. Jenkins, D.J., C.W. Kendall, D.G. Popovich, et al., Effect of a very-high-fiber vegetable, fruit, and nut diet on serum lipids and colonic function. Metabolism., 2001. 50(4): p. 494-503.

Note: To download the full publication of "Plant-based Diets: A Solution to Our Public Health Crisis", please visit the World Preservation Foundation.

Aulacese Sandwich with an American Twist... Yum!

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:09:00 +0000

Vegan Aulacese Bacon Sandwich à la Tom

I got to admit, Tom made a salivating, mouth-drenching vegan bacon sandwich using Aulacese-style French baguette that left me hankering for more! It's quick, easy to make, and you can add whatever you like!

Ingredients:

1. Plain Aulacese-style (or Vietnamese) French baguette (or any sandwich rolls, but the French baguette is the best)
2. Tomatoes, as many slices as you'd want
3. Cucumbers, as many slices as you'd want
4. Black pepper
5. Jalapenos to taste
6. Vegan bacon

This is the type of vegan bacon we use:

Once you open the package, you'll see two big chunks like this:

I think there are a total of 20 slices or so, but don't quote me on that. I didn't think to count the slices. Maybe I'll count them next time :)

Directions for cooking the vegan bacon:

1. Heat some oil in a wok or pan.
2. Put 3 or 4 slices, depending on how many you want in your sandwich, in and cook each side for 4 minutes.
3. Sprinkle some black pepper on each side as they cook.
4. Put them on a plate when done.

Directions for preparing the baguette:

1. I like to cut my baguettes into 12-inch sandwiches, but you can cut it however long or short a sandwhich you'd like.
2. Slice down the middle, lengthwise.
3. Toast for a few seconds if you want it hot, optional.
4. Spread vegan mayo, as little or as generously, in the baguette.
5. Put in a layer of the newly cooked vegan bacon.
6. Next, add a layer of tomatoes on top of the bacon, and a layer of cucumber slices on top of the layer of tomatoes.
7. If you like jalapenos, add some slices to your baguette.

And... it's ready to eat! Now, to make it taste even better, sprinkle some crushed, toasted sesame seeds. Oh la la, c'est magnifique!

The crushed sesame seeds really enhance the flavor of the sandwich. But try one without the sesame, then the next time try it with the sesame seeds (or have half of your baguette with and the other half without the crushed sesame seeds) and you'll see the difference.

This can be eaten at any time of the day, as a snack or a meal. If I have my way, I'd eat two in one sitting. Yeah, I'm a veritable cochon and not afraid to admit it when it comes to good food! Enjoy!

Friendship -- so amazing!

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 19:59:00 +0000

A dear and lovely angel sent this heartfelt story to me; it moved me to tears that I have to share it here. (source unknown)

Long Live Friendship! After losing his parents, this 3 year old orangutan was so depressed he wouldn't eat and didn't respond to any medical treatments. The veterinarians thought he would surely die from sadness.

The zoo keepers found an old sick dog on the grounds in the park at the zoo where the orangutan lived and took the dog to the animal treatment center. The dog arrived at the same time the orangutan was there being treated.

The two lost souls met and have been inseparable ever since.

The orangutan found a new reason to live and each always tries his best to be a good companion to his new found friend. They are together 24 hours a day in all their activities. They live in Northern California where swimming is their favorite past time, although Roscoe (the orangutan) is a little afraid of the water and needs his friend's help to swim.

Together they have discovered the joy and laughter in life and the value of friendship.

They have found more than a friendly shoulder to lean on.

Long live friendship!

Maybe the media got lost on the way to "Occupy Wall Street"

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:50:00 +0000

It looks like "Occupy Wall Street" has been stone-walled by mainstream media -- they're not talking about it! Or perhaps the event is in such a remote and unknown corner of the US that even the most intrepid news team and camera crew cannot find their way there. Maybe. Or perhaps mainstream media has lost its heart, no longer reporting truthful and relevant news, and merely functions as a machine. Perhaps. In fact, one radio talk show host has denounced "Occupy Wall Street" as a futile effort, and this come from someone who touts herself as a liberal talk show host. Interesting. The worst yet: maybe they don't care. Truly, money is the root of all evil. If uses wisely and without greed, money can do a lot of good; but if it's driven by selfish desires and solely for personal gain, then it can create hell on Earth.

It is high time that the common folk takes action. No matter how minute that act, it will create a ripple effect that reaches out and connects with the heart of the world, the heart of a compassionate humanity.

Direct from the front line, A Message from Occupy Wall Street:

This is the fifth communiqué from the 99 percent. We are occupying Wall Street.

On September 21st, 2011, Troy Davis, an innocent man, was murdered by the state of Georgia. Troy Davis was one of the 99 percent.

Ending capital punishment is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, the richest 400 Americans owned more wealth than half of the country's population.

Ending wealth inequality is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, four of our members were arrested on baseless charges.

Ending police intimidation is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, we determined that Yahoo lied about occupywallst.org being in spam filters.

Ending corporate censorship is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly eighty percent of Americans thought the country was on the wrong track.

Ending the modern gilded age is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly 15% of Americans approved of the job Congress was doing.

Ending political corruption is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly one sixth of Americans did not have work.

Ending joblessness is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly one sixth of America lived in poverty.

Ending poverty is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, roughly fifty million Americans were without health insurance.

Ending health-profiteering is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, America had military bases in around one hundred and thirty out of one hundred and sixty-five countries.

Ending American imperialism is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, America was at war with the world.

Ending war is our one demand.

On September 21st, 2011, we stood in solidarity with Madrid, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Madison, Toronto, London, Athens, Sydney, Stuttgart, Tokyo, Milan, Amsterdam, Algiers, Tel Aviv, Portland and Chicago. Soon we will stand with Phoenix, Montreal, Cleveland and Atlanta. We're still here. We are growing. We intend to stay until we see movements toward real change in our country and the world.

You have fought all the wars. You have worked for all the bosses. You have wandered over all the countries. Have you harvested the fruits of your labors, the price of your victories? Does the past comfort you? Does the present smile on you? Does the future promise you anything? Have you found a piece of land where you can live like a human being and die like a human being? On these questions, on this argument, and on this theme, the struggle for existence, the people will speak.

Note: For the complete message, please visit Occupy Wall Street's website.

Walking down memory lane: teacher's expectations

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 03:30:00 +0000

I was re-reading one of the books on classroom management and when I came to the part about teacher's expectation, an old memory from high school resurfaced. When I was in the 10th grade, my family moved to a different town and I was transferred to a new high school. The guidance counselor placed me in AP History, telling me that it was a special class, handpicked by the teacher, but since my grades from my other school showed that I can handle the challenge, she had decided to place me in his class. I didn't think anything about it.

On my first day of class, the first thing the teacher conveyed to me, in front of the whole class, was that he didn't choose me to be in his classroom since all of his students were special. Imagine how I'd felt: he was saying in so many words that I didn't belong there. Two days later, we had a test and I scored a 98, the highest in the class. Imagine his surprise. The students' attitude toward me changed, because the attitude of the teacher also changed: he praised me and complimented me for doing so well having only been in the class for a few days.

He turned out to be a not-so-bad teacher who did care for his students. Regardless, had I been someone less capable, or had I gave in to his low expectation of me, or had low self-esteem, and ended up doing poorly in his class -- my entire year in his class would have been a disaster for my personal development. Who knows what kind of emotional scars I would have had of that incident. Even now, even though I did well in the class I aced it, I still remembered the incident, over 20 years later.

Teachers are the beacons of hope and light for students -- how we guide them will shape and mold them for the rest of their lives.

Sustainable Eating

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:36:00 +0000

A great article by Bill Gee on vegetarianism. Click here for the full article.

Sustainable Eating Part 2: Vegetarian Awareness Month

There is little doubt about it that Americans are addicted to meat, and the evidence is overwhelming that a diet high in animal products is not only bad for your health but it is also bad for the environment. As a person who has not eaten meat for five years, I can tell you firsthand how difficult it is to explain to non-vegetarians the benefits of changing their diets, but getting people to actually consider changing their behavior is like trying to convince a nicotine addict to stop smoking or a alcoholic to stop drinking.

Sustainable Barbeque?
Nathan Myhrvold recently wrote an article for Bloomberg regarding Texan’s love of Barbeque. His headline says it all, “Texas’s Cult of Smoke”. At first glance you might assume that the article will be pointing out the insanity in cutting down acres of mesquite hardwood in order to feed the “eternal fire” at Smitty’s Market in Lowell Texas, but there is hardly a discouraging word in the entire article. The article even points out how bad the beans are so that customers are encouraged to eat more meat like that's a good thing!
In preparing this article, I found it extremely discouraging to not find any articles or studies that evaluated the environmental impact of the cult of barbeque beyond the benefits of propane verses charcoal. Have we become so addicted to the practice that even organizations like the Sierra Club are more content to seek a compromise with long-time barbeque fans rather than pointing out the fact that America’s barbeque and meat habit is destroying natural habitat, polluting the air, reducing the water table, and increasing our healthcare costs at the same time?

Failed Vegetarians
The reason why most people stop eating a vegetarian diet is because they simply don’t know how to eat a diet without meat in it. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve met people who have told me that they tried eating a vegetarian diet, but they got tired of eating salads all the time, and they couldn’t stand the fact that they didn’t have a lot of energy. There is a myth among meat eaters that a vegetarian diet is simply a normal diet without the meat. That instead of a 10-ounce porterhouse and a side of (mostly untouched) greens, the vegetarians will just go for the greens and leave the table hungry.
When I first began eating a mostly vegetarian diet, I cannot tell you how many people told me that my new diet would actually be BAD for my health! At the time, I was overweight, I had Stage One Hypertension, my cholesterol was slipping into the danger zone, and I was often tired, moody, and I was passing kidney stones every other month. In other words, at 35 years-old, I was falling into a high-risk group for a heart attack, stroke, colon cancer, and renal failure, yet my friends and family simply assumed that my diet had nothing to do with that!

Since changing my diet, my blood pressure is under control, my cholesterol is manageable, I have plenty of energy, I’m more productive than ever and I haven’t passed a kidney stone in four years.

Vegetarian Etiquette
A word of warning about taking the pledge: it won’t be easy. When I first made the change to my diet, I cannot tell you how many times I was hanging out with friends and finding there was very little for me to eat. There was one time when I attended a banquet where there was absolutely nothing on the menu I could eat as even the salad and the dinner rolls contained meat. At a family picnic, the only thing I could eat was an ear of corn and hamburger bun. (My family didn’t even bother packing lettuce and tomatoes for their burgers)
Today, rather than depend on my friends and family to prepare enough food for me to be satisfied, I bring my own “main course”. If I’m going to a picnic, I take along a couple of mushroom burgers. If I’m going to a dinner where I know my choices are likely to be limited, I eat before I arrive, or if the meal is “potluck”, I’m sure to bring something that I’ll be able to eat and I know others are likely to enjoy as well.

The one thing you should never do is wear your vegetarianism on your shoulder like a newfound religion. You will never be able to convince anyone to change their diets or improve their health by being an ass about it.

Cold Turkey
In conclusion, in the spirit of doing something good for yourself and the rest of the world, consider taking the pledge next month to eat a vegetarian diet. Do it for a day, or try it for the entire month. As long as you plan your meals carefully, you won’t starve. Being a vegetarian doesn’t mean you’re eating nothing but salads all day. It’ll surprise you how much good food loaded with easily digestible fats and protein is out there.
There may come a time within our lifetimes when sustainable, mostly vegetarian eating will become a necessity, so why not give it a try right now? Your body and your community may thank you for it.

Mean Greens: A University of North Texas Cafeteria Goes Vegan

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 07:09:00 +0000

When students returned this August for their fall classes at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, they were treated to a healthy surprise – the UNT Dining Services has converted the Maple Hall cafeteria to become a new 100% all-vegan full-service cafeteria, Mean Greens. The decision was based on a survey of University of North Texas students in which 15% responders were vegetarian and 5% were vegan – and, of course, to attract more students with specific dietary preferences to the campus.

In order to create the perfect vegan menu, UNT Dining Services staff visited a number of restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for inspiration, and according to a press release by the UNT Dining Services, “The culinary staff has been creating recipes using nothing but fresh herbs, vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains.” Apparently, the University of North Texas is the first in the US to open an all-vegan cafeteria to meet the plant-based needs of its students.

But that’s not all – the UNT Dining Services will also make, on the spot, any vegan dish upon request by concerned students. In “White Paper: A Vegan Diet,” published by the UNT Dining Services, vegetarian or vegan options are offered at other cafeterias on campus, with each item being labeled with a “V” next to each item. However, “If a nutrition card is not available on the food being served or the student has questions about the food preparation, a manager is always available to assist the student with his or her questions. If a student is still concerned about food preparation of the item, he or she can ask for the food to be prepared a different way as long as the ingredients needed are available in the cafeteria.” Moreover, managers at non-vegan cafeterias are requested to maintain at least one vegetarian option daily for students who didn’t want to eat meat for either environmental, compassionate, or health reasons. Students at the University of North Texas can also visit a registered dietician at the UNT Wellness Center for consultations on the planning of a healthy and balanced vegan lifestyle.

In an interview with NT Daily, Ken Botts, director of special programs for UNT Dining Services, stated, “We put a lot of effort into designing recipes that would provide protein, would provide the necessary vitamins and nutrition to a balanced diet, so chances are, you’ll get a better balanced opportunity in your food choices at Maple than you would at any other eating establishment in and around campus.” Opened to the public on August 22, the concept for an all-vegan cafeteria began a year ago.

Speaking to the University of North Texas News Service, Botts commented, “Most schools only have one or two cafeterias, so it is difficult for them to dedicate an entire dining hall to one type of cuisine. We are fortunate to have five cafeterias on our campus, so it made sense to diversify the dining halls to offer more variety. UNT has a very diverse population with many different tastes and lifestyles, and we believe that this new dining option will be attractive to current students and community members.”

In addition to begin the first vegan university cafeteria in the nation, Mean Green is also going green: plates are used instead of the traditional cafeteria trays, which cut water usage by 40 percent. And surprisingly, not all students who dined at now popular vegan cafeteria are vegans or vegetarians – they’re simply students who love good, healthy food.

Impressed by the university’s decision to provide healthy food to its student body, Animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals honored the University of North Texas with the Compassionate Campus award. Kudos to UNT for blazing the vegan trail in the cattle-country Lone Star State!

US Top Climate Scientist Arrested in Protest of the Keystone XL Pipeline

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:07:00 +0000

NASA's climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen
Photos: Josh Lopez via tarsandsaction on Flickr/CC BY

The arrest of US preeminent climate scientist James Hansen on August 29, 2011, for protesting outside the White House has brought more media focus to an issue that has been pretty much ignored by mainstream media. With arrests now climbing to nearly 600 in over a week, what exactly has caused famed NASA’s scientist to take to the street with faith leaders and commit a peaceful act of civil disobedience? The proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline by TransCanada that is now sitting on President Obama’s desk, waiting for a green light.

Photo by Tar Sands Action

The Keystone XL is a 1700-mile pipeline that runs from Canada through the US, carrying tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, through the US to the Gulf Coast. According to Tar Sands Action, “If built, the pipeline could bring as much as 900,000 barrels per day through the U.S., and put fresh water, clean air and the climate at risk.” Back in June 2011, Dr. James Hansen explained in an essay, “Silence is Deadly,” why tar sands, and the proposed Keystone XL, is disastrous for our nation as well as the planet.

The U.S. Department of State seems likely to approve a huge pipeline to carry tar sands oil (about 830,000 barrels per day) to Texas refineries unless sufficient objections are raised.

The scientific community needs to get involved in this fray now. If this project gains approval, it will become exceedingly difficult to control the tar sands monster.

Although there are multiple objections to tar sands development and the pipeline, including destruction of the environment in Canada and the likelihood of spills along the pipeline's pathway, such objections, by themselves, are very unlikely to stop the project.

An overwhelming objection is that exploitation of tar sands would make it implausible to stabilize climate and avoid disastrous global climate impacts. The tar sands are estimated (e.g., see IPCC AR4 WG3 report) to contain at least 400 GtC (equivalent to about 200 ppm CO2).

Easily available reserves of conventional oil and gas are enough to take atmospheric CO2 well above 400 ppm. However, if emissions from coal are phased out over the next few decades and if unconventional fossil fuels are left in the ground, it is conceivable to stabilize climate.

Phase out of emissions from coal is itself an enormous challenge. However, if the tar sands are thrown into the mix it is essentially game over. There is no practical way to capturethe CO2 emitted while burning oil, which is used principally in vehicles.

Governments are acting as if they are oblivious to the fact that there is a limit on how much fossil fuel carbon we can put into the air. Fossil fuel carbon injected into the atmosphere will stay in surface reservoirs for millennia. We can extract a fraction of the excess CO2 via improved agricultural and forestry practices, but we cannot get back to a safe CO2 level if all coal is used without carbon capture or if unconventional fossil fuels are exploited.

I am submitting a comment that the analysis is flawed and insufficient, failing to account for important information regarding human-made climate change that is now available. I note that prior government targets for limiting human-made global warming are now known to be inadequate. Specifically, the target to limit global warming to 2°C, rather than being a safe "guardrail", is actually a recipe for global climate disasters. I will include drafts of the "Paleoclimate Information", "Earth's Energy Imbalance" and "The Case for Young People and Nature" papers, which are so far only published in arXiv; we will submit revised versions of all
of these papers for publication this summer.

I also will comment that the pipeline project does not serve the national interest, because it will result in large adverse impacts, on the public and wildlife, by contributing substantially to climate change. These impacts must be evaluated before the project is considered further.

It is my impression and understanding that a large number of objections could have an effect and help achieve a more careful evaluation, possibly averting a huge mistake. Brief pointed comments may be just as well as longer statements.

James Hansen

As predicted, just last week the State Department has already approved of the pipeline.

To date leading environmentalist, author, and founder of the climate campaign 350.org Bill McKibben, former White House official and Yale dean Gus Speth, gay rights activist Lt. Dan Choi, Dr. James Hansen, an 84-year-old grandmother, and many others have been arrested. Supporters for the protest include dozens of religious leaders, Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT-I) and celebrities Mark Ruffalo, Thom Yorke, Danny Glover, Josh Fox, and 20 top US scientists.

Environmentalist, author & founder of 350.org Bill McKibben being arrested
Photo: Shadia Lopez

Renowned gay rights activist, Lt. Dan Choi, being arrested in front of the White House.
Photo: Josh Lopez

According to Bill McKibben, “This is the largest civil disobedience action in the environmental movement in a generation, and if they really aren’t even discussing it with the president, that signals a deep disrespect for their supporters, especially young people who have demonstrated that the environment is a top priority.”

Let’s hope President Obama is listening and paying attention, and shows that he cares about the environment and our nation by tossing the Keystone XL proposal right in the garbage bin. Do the right thing, Mr. President.

Note: For the full text of Dr. James Hansen's "Silence is Deadly," please visit http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2011/20110603_SilenceIsDeadly.pdf

"Song of a Yogi's Joy" & "Milarepa and the Pigeon"

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 21:31:00 +0000

I was reading Garma Chang's translation of The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, a very well-known Tibetan enlightened master (1040-1123), and came across these two songs which I really like -- "Song of a Yogi's Joy" and "Milarepa and the Pigeon." They have some very relevant advice, even for modern-day spiritual practitioners or ordinary humans.

Tibetan Yogi Jetsun Milarepa

"The Song of a Yogi’s Joy"

Obeisance to all Gurus

The Master of Yoga, the Jetsun Milarepa, in obedience to his Guru’s orders, went from Junpan to Yolmo Snow Range, where he dwelt at the Tiger Cave of Senge Tson in the woods of Singalin. The local goddess of Yolmo appeared in a gracious form, obeying the Jetsun’s orders and rendering her best service to him. Milarepa remained there for some time in a deeply inspired mood.

One day, five young nuns came from Mon to visit him. They addressed him thus: “It is said that this place is full of terror, and an ideal place in which to attain great improvement in meditation. Can this be true? Have you found it so?” Milarepa then sang in praise of the place:

Obeisance to you, my Guru!

I met you through having accumulated great merits,

And now stay at the place you prophesied.

This is a delightful place, a place of hills and forests.

In the mountain-meadows, flowers bloom;

In the woods dance the swaying trees!

For monkeys it is a playground.

Birds sing tunefully,

Bees fly and buzz,

And from day until night the rainbows come and go.

In summer and winter falls the sweet rain,

And mist and fog roll up in fall and spring.

At such a pleasant place, in solitude,

I, Milarepa, happily abide,

Meditating upon the void-illuminating Mind.

Oh, happy are the myriad manifestations!

The more ups-and-downs, the more joy I feel.

Happy is the body with no sinful Karma (retribution),

Happy indeed are the countless confusions!

The greater the fear, the greater the happiness I feel.

Oh, happy is the death of sensations and passions!

The greater the distress and passions,

The more can one be blithe and gay!

What happiness to feel no ailment or illness;

What happiness to feel that joy and suffering are one;

What happiness to play in bodily movement

With the power aroused by Yoga.

To jump and run, to dance and leap, is more joyful still.

What happiness to sing the victorious song,

What happiness to chant and hum,

More joyful still to talk and loudly sing!

Happy is the mind, powerful and confident,

Steeped in the realm of Totality.

The most extreme happiness

Is the self-emanation of self-power;

Happy are the myriad forms, the myriad revelations.

As a welcoming gift to my faithful pupils,

I sing of yogic happiness.

Thereupon, Milarepa initiated the five young nun-novices and gave them the verbal instructions. After practicing these teachings for some time, the light of inner Realization was born within them. Milarepa was overjoyed and sang the “Nectar of Instruction”:

Oh, my Guru, he who shows

The unmistakable path to Liberation,

The Perfect Savior, the great Compassionate One,

Pray, never leave me, ever remain

Above my head as my crest-jewel!

Hearken, followers of the Dharma (true teaching),

Ye meditators seated here,

Though the teachings of Buddha are most numerous,

He who can practice this Profound Path

Is gifted indeed!

If you wish to become a Buddha in one lifetime,

You should not crave the things of this life,

Nor intensify your self-longing,

Else you will be entangled between good and evil,

And you may fall into the realm of misery.

When you give service to your Guru,

Refrain from thinking, “I am the one who works,

He is the one who enjoys.”

Should you have this kind of feeling,

Quarrel and discord will surely follow,

And your wish can never be fulfilled.

When you observe the Tantric Precepts,

Cease association with the vicious,

Else you will be contaminated by evil influences,

And you may risk breaking the Precepts.

When you engage in study and learning,

Do not attach yourself to words with pride,

Else the dormant fire of the Five

Poisonous Passions will blaze,

And virtuous thoughts and deeds will be consumed.

When you meditate with friends in retreat,

Do not attempt too many things,

Else your virtuous deeds will cease,

And your devotion will be distracted.

When you practice the Path with Form

of the Whispered Transmissions,

Do not exorcise demons, nor curse ghosts for others,

Lest demons rise within your mind

And a longing for worldly aims will blaze.

When you have acquired Experience and Realization,

Do not display your miraculous powers, nor prophesy,

Lest the secret words and symbols slip away

And merits and spiritual insight will diminish.

Beware of these pitfalls and avoid them.

Commit not evil deeds. Eat not beguiling food.

Take not the burden of the corpse.

Utter not sweet words to please others.

Be humble and modest, and you will find your way.

The nuns then asked Milarepa how they might find their own way, beseeching him for further instruction. In reply, Milarepa sang:

I pay homage to my Guru, the gracious one.

I pray you to vouchsafe me your grace-waves.

Pray help me, the mendicant, happily to meditate.

Though you children of the new generation

Dwell in towns infested with deceitful Karma (retribution),

The link of Dharma (true teaching) still remains.

Because you have heard the Buddha’s teaching

You now come to me,

And thus avoid going astray.

By constant practice of the Accumulation-of-Merits

You will foster an aptitude for devotion.

The grace-waves will then enter you,

While the corresponding and actual Realization will grow.

But even if you do all this, it will help but little

If you cannot reach full mastery.

Having pity on you, I now give you this instruction.

Listen closely, my young friends!

When you remain in solitude,

Think not of the amusements in the town,

Else the evil one will rise up in your heart;

Turn inward your mind,

And you will find your way.

When you meditate with perseverance and determination,

You should think upon the evils of Samsara (migration and transmigration)

And the uncertainty of death.

Shun the craving for worldly pleasures;

Courage and patience then will grow in you,

And you will find your way.

When you solicit the deep teachings of the Practice,

Do not long for learning, nor to become a scholar,

Else worldly actions and desires will dominate;

Then this very life will be thrown away.

Be humble and modest,

And you will find your way.

When the various experiences come to you in meditation,

Do not be proud and anxious to tell people,

Else you will disturb the Goddesses of Mothers.

Meditate without distractions,

And you will find your way.

When you accompany your Guru,

Do not look upon his merits or demerits,

Else you will find mountains of faults.

Only with faith and loyalty

Will you find your way.

When you attend holy meetings

With brothers and sisters in the Dharma (true teaching),

Do not think of heading the row,

Else you will arouse both hate and craving,

And offend against the Precepts.

Adjust yourselves, understand each other,

And you will find your way.

When you beg for alms in the village,

Do not use the Dharma (true teaching) for deceit and exploitation,

Else you will force yourself down to the lower Path.

Be honest and sincere,

And you will find your way.

Beyond all else remember, at all times and places,

Never be overweening, nor of yourself be proud,

Else you will be overbearing in your self-esteem

And overloaded with hypocrisy.

If you abandon deceit and pretense,

You will find your way.

The person who has found the way

Can pass on the gracious teachings to others;

Thus he aids himself and helps the others, too.

To give is then the only thought

Remaining in his heart.

The disciples were all greatly inspired with the determination to practice diligently and to renounce the world. An unalterable faith in the Jetsun was established in them. They said, “We want to offer you a golden Mandala. Pray accept it, and give us the practical teaching of the View, Practice, and Action.”

Milarepa replied, “I do not need the gold; you may use it to maintain your meditation. As for the teaching of the View, Practice, and Action, I shall tell you. Pray hearken to my song”:

Oh, my Guru! The Exemplar of the View, Practice, and Action,

Pray vouchsafe me your grace, and enable me

To be absorbed in the realm of Self-nature!

For the View, Practice, Action, and Accomplishment

There are three Key-points you should know:

All the manifestation, the Universe itself, is contained in the mind;

The nature of Mind is in the realm of illumination

Which can neither be conceived nor touched.

These are the Key-points of the View.

Errant thoughts are liberated in the Dharmakaya;

The awareness, the illumination, is always blissful;

Meditate in a manner of non-doing and non-effort.

These are the Key–points of Practice.

In the action of naturalness

The Ten Virtues spontaneously grow;

All the Ten Vices are thus purified.

By corrections or remedies

The Illuminating Void is ne’er disturbed.

These are the Key-points of Action.

There is no Nirvana (Eternal Bliss) to attain beyond;

There is no Samsara (migration and transmigration) here to renounce;

Truly to know the Self-mind

It is to be the Buddha Himself.

These are the Key-points of Accomplishment.

Reduce inwardly the Three Key-points to One.

This One is the Void Nature of Being,

Which only a wondrous Guru

Can clearly illustrate.

Much activity is of no avail;

If one sees the Simultaneously Born Wisdom,

He reaches his goal.

For all the practitioners of Dharma (true teaching)

This preaching is a precious gem;

It is my direct experience from yogic meditation.

Think carefully and bear it in your minds,

Oh, my children and disciples.

The disciples then asked Milarepa, “As we understood you, the unmistakable guide along the Path of Practice is to pray to one’s Guru with great earnestness. Is there anything else beyond this?” Milarepa smiled and answered, “The Tree of Guidance has also many branches.”

In explaining this to them, he sang:

The Guru, the disciple, and the secret teachings;

Endurance, perseverance, and the faith;

Wisdom, compassion, and the human form;

All these are ever guides upon the Path.

Solitude with no commotion and disturbance

Is the guide protecting meditation.

The accomplished Guru, the Jetsun,

Is the guide dispelling ignorance and darkness.

Faith without sorrow and weariness

Is the guide which leads you safely to happiness.

The sensations of the five organs

Are the guides which lead you to freedom from “contact.”

The verbal teachings of the Lineage Gurus

Are the guides which illustrate the Three Bodies of the Buddha.

The protectors, the Three Precious Ones,

Are the guides with no faults or mistakes.

Led by these six guides,

One will reach the happy plane of Yoga –

Abiding in the realm of Non-differentiation

In which all views and sophisms are no more.

Remaining in the realm of self-knowledge and self-liberation

Is indeed happy and joyful;

Abiding in the valley where no men dwell,

With confidence and knowledge, one lives in his own way.

With a thundering voice,

He sings the happy song of Yoga.

Falling in the Ten Directions is the rain of fame;

Brought to blooming are the flowers and leaves of Compassion.

The enterprise of Bodhi encompasses the Universe;

The pure fruit of the Bodhi-Heart thus attains perfection.

The disciples thought, “It makes no difference now to the Jetsun where he stays. We will invite him to our village.” Thereupon they said to Milarepa, “Revered One, since your mind no longer changes, there is no need for you to practice meditation. Therefore, for the sake of sentient beings please come to our village and preach the Dharma for us.” Milarepa replied, “Practicing meditation in solitude is, in itself, a service to the people. Although my mind no longer changes, it is still a good tradition for a great yogi to remain in solitude.” He then sang:

Through the practice of meditation I show gratitude to my Guru.

Pray grant me your grace, ripen and liberate me.

You, gifted disciples, the followers of Dharma,

Heed carefully, with all attention

While I sing of the profound Essential Teaching.

The great lioness in the upper snow mountain

Poses proudly on the summit of the peak;

She is not afraid –

Proudly dwelling on the mountain

Is the snow lion’s way.

The queen vulture on Red Rock

Stretches her wings in the wide sky;

She is not afraid of falling –

Flying through the sky is the vulture’s way.

In the depths of the great ocean

Darts of the Queen of fish, glittering;

She is not afraid –

Swimming is the fish’s way.

On the branches of the oak trees,

Agile monkeys swing and leap;

They are not afraid of falling –

Such is the wild monkey’s way.

Under the leafy canopy of the dense wood,

The striped tiger roams and swiftly runs,

Not because of fear or worry –

This shows her haughty pride,

And is the mighty tiger’s way.

In the wood on Singa Mountain,

I, Milarepa, meditate on Voidness,

Not because I fear to lose my understanding –

Constant meditation is the yogi’s way.

Without distraction, the yogi meditates absorbed

Upon the pure Mandala of Dharmadhatu (Realm of Truth),

Not because he fears to go astray –

But to hold to Self-quintessence is the yogi’s way.

When he works on the Nadis, Prana, and Bindu

He avoids hindrances and errors,

Not that the teaching has faults in itself –

But it is a good way to improve true Realization.

With natural and spontaneous behavior

One surely meets with countless ups-and-downs,

Not because there is discrimination and dualistic thought –

But because to manifest all, is causation’s nature.

When he develops other beings by

demonstrating the power of Karma (retribution),

Though seemingly he sees as real both good and evil,

It is not because he has gone astray in his practice,

But because, to explain the truth to different people,

He must use appropriate illustrations.

Those great yogis who have mastered the Practice,

Never desire anything in this world.

It is not because they want fame that

they remain in solitude;

It is the natural sign springing from their hearts –

The true feeling of non-attachment and renunciation.

Yogis who practice the teaching of the Path Profound,

Dwell always in caves and mountains;

Not that they are cynical or pompous,

But to concentrate on meditation is their self-willing.

I, the cotton-clad, have sung many songs,

Not to amuse myself by singing sophistries,

But for your sake, faithful followers who assemble here,

From my heart I have spoken words helpful and profound.

The disciples then said to Milarepa, “One may live alone in solitude, but it is necessary to have food and a suitable dwelling in which he can meditate properly.” The Jetsun replied, “I have my own food and dwelling which I will illustrate for you.”

I bow down at the feet of the wish-fulfilling Guru.

Pray vouchsafe me your grace in bestowing beneficial food,

Pray make me realize my own body as the house of Buddha,

Pray grant me this sure knowledge.

I built the house through fear,

The home of Sunyata, the void nature of being;

Now I have no fear of its collapsing.

I, the Yogi with the wish-fulfilling gem,

Feel happiness and joy where’er I stay.

Because of the fear of cold, I sought for clothes;

The clothing I found is the Ah Shea Vital Heat.

Now I have no fear of coldness.

Because of the fear of poverty, I sought for riches;

The riches I found are the inexhaustible Seven Holy Jewels.

Now I have no fear of poverty.

Now I have no fear of thirst.

Because of the fear of loneliness, I searched for a friend;

The friend I found is the bliss of perpetual Sunyata (Voidness).

Now I have no fear of loneliness.

Because of the fear of going astray,

I sought for the right path to follow.

The wide path I found is the Path of Two-in-One.

Now I do not fear to lose my way.

I am a yogi with all desirable possessions,

A man always happy where’er he stays.

Here at Yolmo Tagpu Senge Tson,

The tigress howling with a pitiful, trembling cry,

Reminds me that her helpless cubs are innocently playing.

I cannot help but feel a great compassion for them,

I cannot help but practice more diligently,

I cannot help but augment thus my Bodhi-Mind.

The touching cry of the monkey,

So impressive and so moving,

Cannot help but raise in me deep pity.

The little monkey’s chattering is amusing and pitiful;

As I hear it, I cannot but think of it with compassion.

The voice of the cuckoo is so moving,

And so tuneful is the lark’s sweet singing,

That when I hear them I cannot help but listen –

When I listen to them,

I cannot help but shed my tears.

The varied cries and cawing of the crow,

Are a good and helpful friend unto the yogi.

Even without a single friend,

To remain here is a pleasure.

With joy flowing from my heart, I sing this happy song;

May the dark shadow of all men’s sorrows

Be dispelled by my joyful singing.

The disciples were all deeply moved, and a feeling of weariness with Samsara (migration and transmigration) overwhelmed them. They swore to Milarepa that they would never leave the mountain. Afterwards, through the practice of meditation, they all reached the state of perfection.

One day, Milarepa’s patron Buddha told the time had come for him to go to Tibet proper and there meditate in solitude to help sentient beings. The patron Buddha also prophesied the success of his career in helping people and in spreading the Dharma (true teaching). Hence, about this time, Milarepa decided to go to Tibet.

This is the story of Yolmo Snow Mountain.

"Milarepa and the Pigeon"

Obeisance to all Gurus

In accordance with the prophecy of his Patron Buddha, Milarepa went to Tibet proper from Yolmo. He arrived at Gu Tang and lived in a cave, absorbing himself in the Meditation of the Great Illumination.

One day a pigeon wearing golden ornaments came to Milarepa. The bird nodded, bowed, and circled him many times. Then it flew away in the direction of the Immaculate Rock. Milarepa understood that this must be a spell of the Non-men to make him welcome. So he followed the pigeon and went up to the hill, where he found a heap of white rice. The bird pecked at the rice with its bill and brought some to Milarepa as if showing him hospitality and welcome. Milarepa, surprised and delighted, broke into song:

Oh! My gracious Guru, Marpa Lho Draug Wa,

From the depth of my heart I think of you.

In deepest earnestness I meditate on you.

That I never be separated from you, is my prayer.

Merging the Self-mind with the Guru is indeed a happy thing.

Manifestation itself is the essences of Reality.

Through the realization of this unborn Dharmakaya (a body of the Buddha, composed of the Buddha’s teachings),

I merge myself in the Realm of Non-effort.

To both the high and low Views am I indifferent.

In the mind of Non-effort I feel happiness and joy.

The nature of Mind is the Light and the Void.

By realizing the awareness of Light-Void,

I merge myself in the original state of Non-effort.

To good and bad experiences am I indifferent.

With a mind of Non-effort, I feel happiness and joy.

The Six Senses and Sense Objects of themselves

dissolve into the Dharmadhatu

Where the Non-differentiation of subject and object is realized.

I merge with happiness and sorrow into one;

I enter the original state of Non-effort.

To right and wrong actions, am I indifferent.

Happy indeed is the Non-effort mind.

The very nature of the Dharmakaya

Is identified through its myriad forms;

The myriad forms are the Nirmanakaya of Buddha.

With this understanding in mind,

Whatever circumstance I may encounter,

I am free in the happy realm of Liberation!

To return to the home of Buddha

I have no longing!

Happy indeed is this mind of Non-effort.

Whereupon the pigeon, with seven companions, came nearer to Milarepa. They all bowed to him and circled him many times, as the first bird had done before. Milarepa thought, “These pigeons must be Non-men. I shall ask them and see whether they will tell the truth.” So he said, “Who are you, and why do you come here?” The pigeons then broke the spell and displayed their real forms as female Devas. Their leader said, “We are the angel-maidens of Heaven. Because we have great faith in you, we come here to learn the Dharma (true teaching) from you. We beseech you to give us the instructions.”

In response, Milarepa sang:

Oh! The wondrous Transformation Body of my Guru!

Pray, kindly grant me your grace-wave.

You eight charming maidens of Heaven,

Who appeared just now in pigeon form,

Your spell was fine, and in conformity with the Dharma!

If you, the eight beautiful maidens of Heaven,

Wish to practice the white Dharma of Buddha,

Pray remember the meaning of this song.

Though worldly happiness and pleasure

Seem delightful and pleasing,

They soon will pass away.

Though high-ranking ladies are proud and exultant

In their lofty dignity,

What refuge and shelter do they have?

To dwell in the fiery home of Samsara

Sometimes seems pleasant, but is mostly misery.

If a well-endowed and well-loved son

Has no self-respect and makes no self-effort,

His father will meet nothing but distress.

If a disciple commits evil deeds,

He must fall into Samsara,

No matter how superb his Guru may be.

You maidens of Heaven, the conjurers of the pigeons!

It is easy for you to ask for Dharma,

But hard to have deep faith in it.

You should remind yourselves

Of the inevitable misfortunes

Connected with worldly joys.

The pains and miseries of this life,

You should regard as friends leading you toward Nirvana.

As for me, I am very grateful for

The misfortunes I have met.

Oh, my friends, bear this in mind, and do the same!

The Devas smiled at Milarepa and said, “We shall do so.” Then they made obeisance and circumambulated him many times. The Jetsun then asked the angels, “Why did you come here in pigeon forms?” They replied, “You are a yogi who has not the slightest attachment to yourself, nor any desire for this worldly life. It is only for the sake of Bodhi and welfare of sentient beings that you have remained in solitude and meditated without distraction. With our heavenly eyes, we have been able to see you; and with respect and faith we now come to you for Dharma. But in order to conceal our real form from sinful beings, we have transformed ourselves into pigeons. We pray that your Reverence will now be kind enough to go up into Heaven with us and preach the righteous Dharma (true teaching) for us.” But Milarepa replied, “As long as life lasts, I shall remain in this world to benefit sentient beings here. You must know that Heaven is far from dependable; it is not eternal, and one should not rely on it. To be born in Heaven is not necessarily a wonderful thing. You should pay heed and follow these instructions”:

I bow down at the feet of Marpa Lho Draug.

Oh, Father Guru! Pray grant me your

grace-wave and accomplishment.

You, eight beauties of the Deva-realm,

Have offered me white rice, the wondrous fruit of Dhyana (a state of deep meditation).

Eating it my body is strengthened, and my mind enlivened.

As a token of my gratitude, I sing this song of Dharma to you.

Now, lift up your ears, and listen to me carefully.

Even though one reaches the highest Heaven of the White Devas,

It has no permanent value and meaning!

Lovable and touching are those flowers of youth in Heaven.

But however pleasant it may seem to be,

In the end comes separation.

Although the bliss in Heaven seems to be very great,

It is merely a deceitful mirage, a bewildering hallucination;

In fact, it is the very cause of the return to suffering!

Thinking of the miseries of the Six Realms in Samsara,

I cannot help but have a feeling of disgust and aversion –

A feeling of anguish and distressed emotion!

Should you intend to practice the teaching of Buddha,

You must take refuge in the Three Precious Ones and pray to them.

Sentient beings in the Six Realms

You should consider as your parents.

Give to the poor, and offer to the Guru!

For the benefit of all, dedicate your merits.

Always remember that death may come at any moment.

Identify your body with Buddha’s body!

Identify your own voice with Buddha’s Mantra.

Contemplate the Sunyata of self-awakening Wisdom,

And always try to be master of your mind!

The Devas of Heaven said, “In ignorant beings like us, the Klesas (sources of suffering) always follow the mind. Pray give us a teaching with which we can correct this fault, so we may depend upon it and practice it frequently.”

In response to their request, Milarepa sang:

Obeisance to Marpa, the gracious one!

Pray grant me the blessing of virtuous remedy.

Should you, oh faithful lady Devas, intend

to practice the Dharma (true teaching) often,

Inwardly you should practice concentration and contemplation.

The renunciation of external affairs is your adornment.

Oh, bear in mind this remedy for external involvement!

With self-composure and mindfulness, you should remain serene.

Glory is the equanimity of mind and speech!

Glory is the resignation from many actions!

Should you meet disagreeable conditions,

Disturbing to your mind,

Keep watch upon yourself and be alert;

Keep warning yourself:

“The danger of anger is on its way.”

When you meet with enticing wealth,

Keep watch upon yourself with alert;

Keep a check upon yourself:

“The danger of craving is on its way.”

Should hurtful, insulting words come to your ears,

Keep watch upon yourself and be alert,

And so remind yourself:

“Hurtful sounds are but delusions of the ear.”

When you associate with your friends,

Watch carefully and warn yourself:

“Let not jealousy in my heart arise.”

When you are plied with services and offerings,

Be alert and warn yourself:

“Let me beware, lest pride should spring up in my heart.”

At all times, in every way, keep watch upon yourself.

At all times try conquer the evil thoughts within you!

Whatever you may meet in our daily doings,

You should contemplate its void and illusory nature.

Were even one hundred saints and scholars gathered here,

More than this they could not say.

May you all be happy and prosperous!

May you all, with joyful hearts,

Devote yourselves to the practice of the Dharma!

The maidens of Heaven were all very happy, and in their delight and satisfaction they again turned their bodies into pigeons, and flew up toward Heaven. Milarepa then ate the offered rice, and set out for Gray Rock Vajra Enclosure.

This is the story of the angel-maidens in pigeon form and their offerings.

The Garden Party

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:41:00 +0000

Photo by Everyman

Ever heard of the Garden Party? It does sound a little more productive than tea parties, doesn’t it? From its appellation, it appears that members of this party are growing something instead of sitting around drinking tea, shooting the breeze, and talking politics. A quick search on the Internet won’t come up with anything about this movement, which is surprising. The principles of the Garden Party are practical and very doable, especially for this period of time when it’s critical that individuals and families are encouraged to go local and organic. Let’s face it, climate change is a reality. There are plenty of scientific studies that point to the urgent state of our planet, as well as devastating physical manifestations of Mother Nature herself in the forms of earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, droughts, and for some countries, floods. Climate change is here to stay – be it global warming or global cooling – unless humankind does something about it, for example, curb manmade activities that are toxic to our air, our planet, and to the survival of all beings.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released a report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” which implicates the livestock industry as the number one source of greenhouse gas emissions, 18 percent, more than all the transportation sectors combined. However, in 2009, researchers at the Worldwatch Institute estimated that that number is a bit higher, producing about 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year. That’s about 51 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Imagine that. Just reducing our meat consumption – or even better, going vegetarian or vegan – we, as individuals, are already doing our part in the fight to stop or even reverse climate change.

Aside from cutting the meat out of our diet, we can contribute our efforts in another way – going organic. If the world’s agriculture switch to organic farming, not only will we eliminate chemical runoffs of fertilizers into the oceans, which harm marine life as well as create dead zones, but the sustainable methods of organic farming actually absorb 40 percent of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That’s why a Garden Party is so important. A Garden Party in every neighborhood – what a wonderful way to have healthy and affordable vegetables, right in our backyard, or windowsill or rooftop.

Let us take a look at the Manifesto of the Garden Party (which can be found in its entirety at the Feral Scholar website):

1. The Garden Party is a collection of people who are committed to designing and implementing local, practical initiatives that:

a. increase food security through local sustainability

b. reduce our dependency on money, on-the-grid jobs, expensive and entropic technology, service agencies, and the government to feed ourselves.

2. The Garden Party is not seeking to acquire power for itself, but to deflate the structures of power by reducing people’s dependencies on those structures, in particular from the industrial food-grid, general-purpose money, and administration/management by employers, service agencies, and government.

The Garden Party is preparing for the ultimate General Strike, whereupon people can quit working for wages, quit requiring money to survive, quit paying taxes, quit obeying cruel, stupid, and unjust laws, and quit requiring resources that are not locally available for survival. This will not happen in one stroke, but little by little, spreading as both root and seed.

3. The Garden Party is peaceable. We do not accept the right of anyone to use physical force to bend the will of another; and we will not use any form of violence against persons as part of any campaign or initiative, no matter how much violence and force might increase our efficacy. The ends do not justify the means.

4. The Garden Party can “bind and loose.” If we voluntarily participate together in a boycott, or pickets against some entity, or any other trans-local initiative, then so be it. It requires no executive bodies, but can be suggested in the course of broad communication. Broad communication is encouraged to share helpful, practical tips, and to describe local activities. If the majority decides to participate in trans-local actions, then the majority will participate. No one will be coerced or expelled who doesn’t. If local groups want to initiate local projects, they need not request permission from anyone. Executive committees are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

5. There are no geographic boundaries for the Garden Party. Anyone anywhere can join.

6. The Garden Party is based on a concept of community that emphasizes the practical and personal, not the ideological. Local groups of the Garden Party should be friends. If you can’t be friends and treat each other with genuine goodwill and affection, then nothing you do will last anyway. A communication network is a good thing, but it is not a community. Communities can share food with each other, tend to each others’ children, nurture one another through times of personal trial, and celebrate together. If you’re too far apart to do these things, then there’s a better word than community.

The only requirement for membership into the Garden Party is to have a garden, be it pots that sit on windowsills or vegetables in plastic containers around the yard. What a wonderful way to empower ourselves, our family, as well as our neighborhoods and community. We are not helpless in the face of climate change. Together as a free-thinking collective, we can make a huge difference.

Kudos to Stan of the Feral Scholar website for the Garden Party concept. May there be members in every neighborhood throughout the world.

A True Leader

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 22:44:00 +0000


Photo by Alex Cherney

We need a leader who speaks for the people

We need a hero who cares not about what others think

We need someone who will do the right thing

To fight for the downtrodden, the poor and the hopeless

To stand up for justice and speak the truth

Who won’t sell his soul to the highest bidder

Drenching himself in the blood of the people thereafter

We need a leader who’s good and kind

Who’s brave and ready to sacrifice for humankind

We need someone who won’t give in to pressure

To lobbyists and bankers and corrupt politicians

Who doesn’t care about the label of “Democrat” or “Republican”

We need someone like the FDR of old

Who challenged the old guards

And gave the people hope
Who brought the water of life

Back to the dying land

And to the desperate he gives a helping hand

Restoring to them their human dignity

We need someone who’s a true public servant

Not just for our country but the world and all beings

The people are crying

The planet is dying

The heart of the nation

Is disappearing…

A Thought on the Existence of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:19:00 +0000

Photo by M. N.

Have you ever wondered about the existence of life? Have you questioned why you were born at all? Life can't just be all there is, the daily conundrum of waking up, going to work, come back, sleep, and then it starts all over again the next day. It can't just be merely for procreation -- the animals do a better job of it than us. There must be something more. Perhaps it's this question of the meaning of life that had driven people like the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius, Jesus, Muhammad, Guru Nanak, Kabir, and all the past ancient and modern masters and prophets to forsake everything, risking their lives in search of a single concept: an unknown Truth. Maybe they did find it, and perhaps that Truth is embedded in their teachings, their poetry, a Truth so profound which stirs our hearts when we read it, though we know not what it is.

I heard a very wise person said, and I'm paraphrasing: Human existence is to rediscover the love within ourselves -- a love that transcends all racial boundaries, all gender barriers, beyond the appellation of "species." It is a selfless love that only finds fulfillment and contentment when it is activated for the betterment of other beings, be it human or animal.

Are human beings capable of this? Is it as unreachable as the stars above? It is a question that only each individual can answer for himself or herself.

A Touching Story about Peace Abbey

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 20:48:00 +0000

This is an amazing story which I have to share despite my tight schedule lately. Maya Angelou's quote moved me, Emily's story got me teary, and the stone walk of All Unknown Civilians Killed in Wars made my heart ache. For the original story, please go to the National Catholic Reporter website.

A visit to the Peace Abbey
By John Dear SJ
Created Oct 20, 2009
by John Dear SJ [1] on Oct. 20, 2009

On the Road to Peace [2]

With many others, the news last week that President Obama had received the Nobel Peace Prize left me dismayed. Out he stepped from the Oval Office to accept the prize, then back in he went to continue his preparations to send tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan. There, under his orders, they’ll drop bombs, follow their drones, make sweeps through villages and terrorize children. Not my idea of a peacemaker.

In fact, he’s conducting two wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq, and rumors continue of an attack on Iran. Obama’s war budget exceeds that of even George W. Bush. No peace can come from this, only decades more of brutal war, poverty, terrorism, and fear.

A new president, a shiny peace prize dangling off his neck -- but little has changed. I understand why Europeans support him so earnestly, but his administration maintains our imperial war machine. It wreaks havoc, wastes billions, breeds terrorists, rewards corrupt bankers, and plants the seeds of our own economic collapse. Over 4,000 American lives have been lost, and who knows how many Iraqi and Afghani. A day of war in Iraq costs us $720 million. On the Afghani conflict, since 2001, we’ve spent $223 billion.

It baffles many of us that the head of such a warlike juggernaut should win a prize ordained for those who make peace. But then I remember: Gandhi never received one; neither did Thich Nhat Hanh, Dorothy Day, nor Dan and Phil Berrigan. On the other hand, they handed one to Henry Kissinger and, in 1938, they thought seriously about awarding one to Hitler.

Dorothy Stang, Jean Donovan, Steve Biko, Franz Jagerstatter—those who expend their lives, some of whom suffer martyrdom for making peace, are usually unheralded and unsung. Such is the way for most nonviolent peacemakers.

I learned more about such great peacemakers last month when I visited the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. Here is a true oasis of peace and nonviolence. And here over the decades they’ve given the “Courage of Conscience” award to an astonishing list of peacemakers: Mother Teresa and Thich Nhat Hanh, Pete Seeger and Maya Angelou, Dr. Paul Farmer and Kathy Kelly -- people who work in a variety of ways to end the culture of war and poverty.

Part school, part peace center, and part museum, the Peace Abbey is dedicated to the world’s greatest peacemakers, and features books, pictures and artifacts (such as Archbishop Romero’s glasses and blood-stained alb). Outside on the lawn is a memorial garden with two giant statues -- one of Gandhi and one of Mother Teresa -- and with plaques bearing the quotes of some of our greatest peacemakers.

It was Mother Teresa herself who inspired the launching of the Peace Abbey. She had come in 1988 to visit the Life Experience School, its peace school and community for disabled students. After her visit, organizer Lewis Randa and his friends added a museum, library, multi-faith chapel and memorial to inspire the students and other visitors. Now it has become a landmark, a sign of what we could be if we all dared.

These days, the Peace Abbey takes in guests and offers weekly interfaith peace prayer services. It hosts lectures and periodically presents its “Courage of Conscience” award. It administers the National Registry for Conscientious Objectors and provides a cemetery to honor those who had refused to fight. It operates the Veganpeace Animal Sanctuary (for rescued animals from a nearby slaughterhouse) as well as an Animal Rights Memorial.

The Life Experience School has evolved into the Special Peace Corps, with twelve members engaged in service work in the local community. The Peace Abbey also sponsors Stonewalk, the sober procession of a carved stone dedicated to “All Unknown Civilians Killed in War.” I know of no other memorial to the millions of non-military sisters and brothers who have died from the privations and ordnance of war.

Their mission statement reads:

The Peace Abbey is dedicated to creating innovative models for society that empower individuals on the paths of nonviolence, peacemaking, and cruelty-free living. We offer a variety of programs and resources that teach, inspire and encourage one to speak out and act on issues of peace and social justice. Faith in action is the cornerstone of our fellowship and activist pacifism is our creed.

My heart lifted and I breathed easier as I walked through the buildings filled with sacred peace memorabilia -- a wall of books about Gandhi, pews in the chapel dedicated to the peace tradition within every religion, photos of peacemakers from around the world on the wall. In one room is the Peacemakers Table, where a silent interfaith prayer is held before the presentation of the award. Here has prayed a wide array of extraordinary people: Mother Teresa, Daniel Berrigan, Thich Nhat Hanh, Muhammad Ali, and Maya Angelou.

Maya Angelou said after her visit: "God put the rainbow in the clouds so even in the dreariest of times we would know there is hope. And that is why The Peace Abbey is here."

Mother Teresa said: "My prayer is that this school continues to prepare its children to become peacemakers in our troubled world -- the true peace that comes from loving and caring and respecting the rights of everyone -- my brother, my sister."

I was moved most especially as I prayed over the graves of the Conscientious Objectors, which included my late friends Tom Lewis and Dave Dellinger. I was humbled that evening to receive the award, along with Suzanne Belote Shanley and Brayton Shanley from the nearby Agape Community.

Lewis Randa, founder and leader of the Peace Abbey, himself one of the truly great peacemakers, has kept the ship afloat despite little advertising or fundraising. A few years ago, as the Abbey foundered, on the verge of closing, Yoko Ono sent a large donation. A vote of confidence; she, too, wants to keep the Peace Abbey going.

The place achieved national attention in 1995, when they rescued a cow on the lam from death row. Not far from the Abbey is a slaughter-house and “Emily,” as she was later named, leaped the five foot tall fence and made her way toward freedom. For weeks she lay low in the woods, and for weeks the media stoked the story. Where is Emily?

Emily was found finally, and the Peace Abbey offered her sanctuary, to which the slaughterhouse reluctantly agreed. For eight years Emily lived the retired life in a fine barn and attracted crowds of visitors and well-wishers.

When she died finally, a few years ago, the Abbey erected a statue of her to remind us of the dignity of all of God’s creatures, and to lift up the vision of Isaiah and St. Francis—we are to live at peace with all creation. Emily was truly a “sacred cow.”

With such warmth and basic humanity, the Peace Abbey radiates peace. It makes nonviolence feel “normal.” It inspires visitors to join the movement and become peacemakers.

I wish every church, university and monastery could become like the Peace Abbey, a center of nonviolence that upholds peacemakers and inspires students and visitors to live the life of peace, nonviolence, compassion and love. I urge everyone to visit it someday, and to learn its lessons of peace. Together, all of us can aspire to the heights of peace and nonviolence -- and be re-energized to work for the immediate end of our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

***

For further information, see: www.peaceabbey.org [3]. This week, John will speak in Kona, on the big island of Hawaii, on his way toward a national speaking tour of New Zealand. John’s latest books, A Persistent Peace and Put Down the Sword, along with Patricia Normile’s John Dear On Peace are available from www.amazon.com [4]. Next month, Orbis Books will publish his new collection, Daniel Berrigan: Essential Writings. For further information, and to schedule a speaking event, see: www.johndear.org [5].

On the Road to Peace
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Sheena Blackhall's "The Animal Refugees"

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:31:00 +0000

Oh dear, Leao the loyal canine in Brazil started it all. After reading his story, I couldn't help but look for more animal stories. I found this poem on the internet, written by Sheena Blackhall, about animal refugees. It's a very thought-provoking one... And once more, it's us humans who bring destruction and despair to the natural world and the world of other beings. Now we're also destroying our Earth, our only home, through our destructive habits of excessive consumerism. However, it seems that the main culprit of the most destruction -- polluting our oceans; deforesting our rainforests; impairing human health, those who live in the vicinity, through toxic gas and fumes and waste lagoons -- is the livestock industry. We're decimating biodiversity, human as well as animal. Going veg, being vegan, reducing meat consumption, is the first step we can take to protect all lives, as well as preserve our planet for posterity.

The Animal Refugees

By Sheena Blackhall

I’m the only elephant in Phnomh Penh
No more of my kind you’ll see
My wife ran off from the killing fields
She’s an animal refugee

I’m a Mekong crocodile from Vietnam
When the napalm scorched each tree
I swam to Laos at dead of night
I’m an animal refugee

I’m a slithery snake from Angkor Wat
Where the mountains churned the sea
Now tourists squat in my habitat
I’m an animal refugee

When people’s homes are ripped apart
There’s appeals on world TV
No one saves us. There’s little fuss
For an animal refugee.

Words of a Piglet

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:36:00 +0000

I just can't help it. Busy or not, I have to share this poem. It kinda makes you pause and think a little bit. This poem also reminds of a story my older sister told me a long time ago. When she was younger, much, much younger, years ago, my parents raised some farm animals. My sister fell in love with a little piglet. It was her playmate, her best friend. One day she came home from school and couldn't find the piglet. She asked the housekeeper and discovered that her playmate, her best friend, had been slaughtered for dinner that day. Decades later, my sister still couldn't eat pork because it reminded her so much of her little piglet friend.

Words of a Piglet

By Supreme Master Ching Hai

The day I met you first

Was the day of my birth

Pink and round, me oh so plump

With Mom I gaily frolicked.

Lovingly you looked at me

Praising, “Oh, so round, what a cutie!”

Every day you came by to visit

Bringing cool water and delicious veggie treats.

Mommy and I were so touched

Your kindness worth more than gold

I lived a peaceful life

Under your care and protection

Growing more plump with each passing day

Just eat, rest and play…

So lovely was this early morn

As clouds were drifting across the sky

Cuddling together, Mommy and I

Unaware of the befalling tragedy!

Two brawny young men

Strong like tigers and elephants

Squashed my tiny body

Flat into a cage of horror!

There was no way to escape!

O God, what purgatory was this?

I wailed in fear and terror

Mom, oh Mom, please save me!

Oh caretaker,

please come protect me quickly!

Rescue my life, I’m still at a tender age!

Mom was crying out in sorrow

Tears of desperation filling her eyes

The immense Heavens cannot contain

This horrendous emotional pain!

My caretaker turned away

Hands busy counting a stack of money

Haplessly I rolled around in the car trunk

Breaking heart more painful

than bodily misery!

The two young men bantered:

“This piglet will be so tasty!

Tomorrow we’ll slaughter him

To celebrate the birth

of the wife’s newborn baby!”

Oh, how ironic this life

My soul is shattered

Tears flow in my heart

Like blood running in rivulets.

I thought you loved me

Nurturing me to maturity

But all this was a sham

For you, it’s just profit and gain!

Tomorrow my body will be cut to pieces

My flesh and bones

turned to sheer torture

Just so people can laugh in merriment

At their happy feast and gathering.

To your children and others’ too

I wish them all long lives

So the family can stay together

Not endure the same fate as mine…

I pray the whole family lives nobly

To be human in many lifetimes

And never be reborn as pigs

Paying forever karmic debts!

Alas, good-bye life…

I ache for my gentle suffering mother

In tears I am overcome…

Oh, Mommy! Mom…Mom…

The following video of "Words of a Piglet" is an artistic presentation of the poem, broadcast on Supreme Master Television and can be download free of charge. The language is originally Vietnamese.

Over a Cup of Bitter Coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:59:00 +0000

So much to share, but I had no time

I wrote them all in my head instead

At a later date on my blog I shall post!

When night wanes and morning arrives

What I want to write

Have all taken wings

Soaring high

In the sky of my imagination

Over a cup of black coffee

Bitter to no end

Wondering what to write

As the clock goes tick tock

Alas! Time has run out on me!

Bitter coffee

An empty page

The dawn of a new day

But now I must flee

Work, work, work

No time to play

The Loyalty of Leao

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 19:02:00 +0000

Innocently reading my email, I didn't expect to be emotionally affected this morning over black coffee. (I don't like black coffee but I ran out of my vegan almond milk.) I didn't expect such an innocuous looking email to affect me so much. I couldn't help it. My heart broke when I saw this photo and read the caption.


A dog, "Leao", sits for a second consecutive day, next to the grave of her owner, Cristina Maria Cesario Santana, who died in the week's catastrophic landslides in Brazil, at the cemetery in Teresopolis, near Rio de Janiero, on Jan. 15. Courtesy of MSNBC

My heart went out to Leao the dog. Perhaps Cristina Maria Cesario Santana was his whole world, his only family. Now she's buried under a mound of earth, never to be seen again. He won't ever get to be hugged or feel her loving touch anymore.

What are his thoughts as he sits there, waiting by her graveside? Does he know that she is gone forever from this physical existence? Or is he like us humans, knowing that our loved one is gone, yet we can't help but wish and pray that our beloved come back to us again? I've read of stories where dogs, even horses, wouldn't leave their deceased human companions' grave until they themselves died of starvation or loneliness. In one story, the villagers took pity on the dog and put up a makeshift shelter by the grave, bringing food now and then for the canine for years until he too passed away by his owner's mound of earth. A friend told me another story about a dog who, after his owner passed away, he kept the daily routine with his owner, going to the train station every day, waiting for his owner to walk back home with him. Thinking about that story now got me all teary.

His loyalty moved me to tears. How could anyone not be affected? I wish and pray someone will adopt him and take him to his owner's grave often to visit. I hope that he will go on. Waiting in loneliness for someone who will never ever come back again is a painful existence. At least we have to live on, carrying the happy memories of our beloved in our heart.

Because we cannot see with our physical eyes, we cannot know that death is not the end. Our loved ones are on the other side, waiting for us, guarding, and protecting us. If only we can see. Sometimes if we yearn so desperately, then we see our deceased family members return to us in our dreams. I think this applies to animals as well. After all, the souls of animals are also sparks of the Divine.

Death isn't the end. We just need to go on and live our life as best as we can. I hope that Leao can find happiness and not starve himself to death in loneliness and yearning.

Angel on Our Plate

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:35:00 +0000

by Farm Sanctuary

At one time or another, we all have heard or read of a compelling reason why we should stay away from eating animal flesh. In fact, many religions make reference to the abstinence from meat. Here are a few examples:

Regarding the eating of animal flesh and abstinence therefrom, know thou of a certainty that, in the beginning of creation, God determined the food of every living being, and to eat contrary to that determination is not approved.
~ The Bahá’í Faith, Selections from the Bahá’í Writings on Some Aspects of Health and Healing, Pages 7-8

If you know the animals were killed for meat, but we still eat, we’re already committing the sin of killing. If the animals are killed because of us, then the sin belongs to us, and the soul of the dead will resent us, not the killer. If we are willing to eat that meat, that shows that we are cruel and ruthless! Therefore, only a ruthless heart can eat meat or that meat eaters have a ruthless heart.
~ The Bhiksu Sangha Buddhist Association, The Book of Truth, Pages 201-202, lines 25-33

Bhagavan, having heard the Buddha said that, in the six paths, all the meat we eat are of the relatives of our own, we now know that meat eating makes us the big enemies of living beings, destroys our great merciful seeds, increases evil karmas, and is the root of great suffering.
~ Buddhism, Lankavatara Sutra (Tripitaka No. 671)

Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them.
~ Christianity, Holy Bible, 1st Corinthians 6:13

He who desires to augment his own flesh by eating the flesh of other creatures lives in misery in whatever species he may take his birth.
~ Hinduism, Mahabharata, Anu. 115.47. FS, pg. 90

Allah will not give mercy to anyone, except those who give mercy to other creatures. Where there is an abundance of vegetables, a host of angels will descend on that place.
~ Islam, Hadith

Those plants, I, Ahura Mazda (God), rain down upon the earth, to bring food to the faithful, and fodder to the beneficent cow; to bring food to my people that they may live on it.
~ Zoroastrianism, Avesta, Venidad Fargard 5-20

I have read all this. Some of it is pretty scary especially the excerpt from the Buddha about eating our own relatives because, for some reasons, they might have reincarnated onto this plane again in an animal form. The Buddha is certainly a much more enlightened being than me, and highly revered and respected all over the world, so I take his word for it. A good reason to be vegetarian or vegan. But nothing made a deeper impression on me than what I've read today in Dolores Cannon’s book, Convoluted Universe III. To illustrate the point, I have to excerpt a little bit. What follows is a conversation between Dolores and a form of energy that has a personality and can communicate in human language, through a person whom Dolores was regressing using hypnotherapy.

D: Is there anyone that tells you what you have to do, and where you have to go?
P: Not really. When we join and kind of blend together, it becomes, I guess, a group decision. The energies join together and you come out with a direction. Where to go. What to do.
D: Then you all work together?
P: Not necessarily, no. But the All helps the one determine what would be best for all.
D: Then eventually, you do have to go someplace and help?
P: There’s no have to. You don’t have to go. But we feel a responsibility, because we go places and raise energy in places that need it.
D: Places where the energy is too low, or ....
P: And dense, yes. Earth would be a place.
D: Have you been there before?
P: Many times. The energy is very dense. But we go and we create pockets of energy. And just by being there, it raises the frequency.
D: Do you have to be in a physical body when you’re there?
P: No, we can do it either way. If it serves the purpose, we can become a form; a human form, animal form. We can also exist there as the air.
D: So if you feel the need to go and just raise the energy of a
certain area?
P: We go, yes.
D: You said, pockets of energy? (Yes.) How do you do that?
P: Just the same bellows thing I was telling you about. Going in and coming out, in this energy shape. It’s kind of a rhythmic pulsation. And it lifts the vibration.

In order to uplift the vibration of our planet, of any planet, this energy “can become a form; a human form, animal form.” That sentence got me. According to what I’ve read, our planet is in a really critical state right now and the call has gone out throughout the universe for volunteers to come and help restore the balance and protect our planet. These volunteers, loving beings who have been living in bliss in their home planets, come to Earth in many different forms, sizes and shapes, and some of them may come in as animal forms to bless our planet with their pure and loving energy. They are what we call “guardian angels.” We are used to guardian angels as brilliant beings of light with delicate and transparent wings. That's what I thought too, that all angels look like that. Apparently not. They can be angels in disguise, wearing the skin of an animal so they can be closer to us humans so they can help us even more. And yet, we kill them and serve them up, angels on our plate, as dinner, every day, all over the world, millions and billions of them.

Why can’t they protect themselves from being killed if they are angels? Good question. I asked that question too. Based on what I've read that once they are in the human forms, they are restricted by the physical limitation, and like all of us, the true purpose of their existence has been erased from their memory; otherwise, it would be too unbearable, too painful, too miserable, for them to continue living on Earth in such a dense and restrictive form.

We can’t tell really which animals are angels incarnate who have descended to help our planet…we don’t have the wisdom or the third eye to even discern who they are. I, for one, can’t tell. When I read that part, it tore at my heart somehow: in our ignorance we eat up our guardian angels. How sad is that?

Do we really need animal flesh to sustain our physical existence? There are so much information out there and plenty of research studies that say otherwise. Check out the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. We need to inform ourselves about the best dietary choice for our health, our conscience, and for our planet…because the next time we eat animal flesh, it may be an angel that’s on our plate.

Nick Vujicic: A Gift from the Heart

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:45:00 +0000

I was sitting there, just minding my own business, living in my own world in my head, when a friend skyped this link to me...and changed a little bit of my world:

I didn't know what to expect, but as the video unfolded before my eyes, I heard the beating of my heart, I saw my face smile, and my eyes, they were welling up. And I thought: Wow! What an amazing human being. What an awesome personality! He might not have arms or legs, but his presence filled the room...and reached out beyond the flat monitor and touched my heart and the heart of thousands, maybe millions of others who chance to see his presentation.

For many of us, having no arms or legs is a tragedy, a life born with heavy karma. I used to think like that, but I don't anymore. I realized all of us have a role to play on this physical plane. We choose our parts, our fleshly costumes. Many of us choose ordinary, everyday fleshly costumes, while others choose extraordinary ones, like Nick Vujicic. Being who he is, he is touching the lives of others, inspiring them, giving them confidence, hope, and a sense of self-worth. His message is so much more powerful, so much more convincing, coming from someone like him -- a person without arms and legs, challenging the odds to live an "ordinary" life.

I don't think many of us could do what he is doing, perhaps that's why there is only one Nick Vujicic. What an amazing human being. I didn't know what to expect...but I know it has changed something inside me. If he could do what he is doing with all those physical limitations, then I can keep on smiling and charge forward with my life. God has given me two arms and legs, I can change the world -- at least my world.

God bless people like Nick Vujicic.

New York Governor David Paterson Pardons Immigrants

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:51:00 +0000

We are all immigrants of sorts. It’s just a matter of how long we’ve lived (or our parents or grandparents) in a certain location. It depends on how far back we go into the history of our family, maybe even the history of the country – and if you want to stretch your imagination a little bit, even the history of our planet. I’ve read that once upon a time, when planet Earth was merely an infant planet, there were no life whatsoever on this. None at all. It was a collaboration of many beings from different planets who came to our Earth and “seeded” life. Yep, “seeded” – this word always make me pause, trying to wrap my brain around the concept of being “seeded.” So, depends on how far back we want to go into the past, once upon an immemorial time, we were immigrants, not natives of this Earth. In a much more recent era, this land was inhabited by different tribes of native Americans. There were no other races here.

We human beings tend to forget that we live on a shared planet. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our daily lives, trying to make a living and survive, we hurt other human beings with our thoughts of separation, our actions of violence, our words that sometimes maim and hurt or incite hatred. Thank God that there are also plenty examples of wonderful human beings who, by their way of life, remind us that we are more noble than the selfishness of our habits – Krishna, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Prophet Muhammad, Kabir, Gandhi, Mother Theresa and many, many more.

I think it’s wonderful that Governor David Paterson didn’t deport the “immigrants.”

"The individuals pardoned committed past offences but paid their debt to society. They now make positive contributions to our state and nation, and I believe they should be protected from inflexible and misguides immigration statutes.”

He even created a review panel in May 2010 for all cases of immigrants pending deportation, saying it was “abundantly clear that the federal government's immigration laws are often excessively harsh and in need of modernization.” Governor Paterson is the kind of governor that I’d like to be in office. He has compassion for his fellow human beings. Who was it that said, “Rules are made to protect human beings, not human beings protecting the rules.” Something like that. Kudos to the New York governor for his wisdom! (Too bad he's no longer the governor of the Big Apple.)

Wouldn’t it be great if one day we can travel anywhere in the world without the need of a visa? Wouldn’t it be marvelous if we longer label ourselves citizens of Earth instead of a tiny little country? I'd like to live to see that day.

Eben's "How to Feed the World by Going Veggie"

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 03:10:00 +0000

I came across this blog post and I thought it was interesting. Rather than summarizing or paraphrasing it and losing all the good stuff in between, I'm re-posting it here:

How To Feed The World By Going Veggie
By Eben Harrel

I don't eat bacon cheeseburgers. About three years ago I gave up red meat and pork. I am American, and brother do I love bacon cheeseburgers. But I decided that as part of the imperfect project of trying to live a decent, moral life, I could no longer chow down on bacon cheeseburgers. I could not put my preference for the taste of a certain type of protein above the hunger of starving babies, or the imperative of tackling climate change.

It is one of the great failings of the environmental movement—and successes of the food lobby—that most people have no idea that bacon cheeseburgers have anything to do with starving babies, or climate change. Meat production is incredibly energy intensive. According to the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, meat production accounts for 18% of annual greenhouse-gas emissions — more than transportation, which accounts for roughly 14%. What's more, millions of acres of rain forest are cleared each year for cattle ranchers and suppliers of animal feed, wiping out one of the world's great "carbon sinks" and further accelerating climate change. A simultaneous problem is that meat production is also incredibly energy inefficient. We feed far more calories to cattle in the form of grain than we consume from their flesh. In a world where hundreds of millions of people go hungry, we snatch food from the mouths of starving babies and feed it to plump beasts.

Anyone doubting the severity of the issue would do well to spend a few hours browsing through the collection of 21 studies published today in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The special issue, published by the Royal Society and overseen by the UK government chief scientist John Beggington, looks at the issue of food security in 2050—by then, the population of the earth is predicted to reach around 9 billion, meaning that global food supplies will need to increase by as much as 70% to meet increased demand. Clearly that's not possible if all 9 billion people want to eat bacon cheese burgers.

The special issue looks at various technological innovations that could help tackle food scarcity, including the possibility of growing meat in test tubes or using nanotechnology to deliver medication to livestock. It also talks about the importance of reducing food waste, particularly in developed countries (we end up throwing away a third of our food). Some of the scientists in the issue express optimism that global food security is achievable. And the issue points out that there will be some benefits from global warming when it comes to food production: extra carbon dioxide in the air could actually help increase yields and reduce water consumption, according to one study by a team of scientists at Rothamsted, a British agricultural research center. The Guardian offers a good summary of the entire special publication here.

There's no doubt that the task of feeding the world and tackling climate change would be helped if people fortunate enough to afford to eat meat decided to stop doing so. In 2008, Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, suggested that the most useful step ordinary citizens could take to help combat climate change would be to embrace a vegetarian diet. Even meat reduction can be useful: in Belgium, the Flemish city of Ghent has designated every Thursday as "Veggiedag" — Veggie Day — calling for meat-free meals to be served in schools and public buildings, and encouraging vegetarianism among citizens by promoting vegetarian eateries and offering advice on how to follow a herbivorous diet.

Maybe it's time to follow the lead of the enlightened citizens of Ghent. In his great profile this week of the novelist Jonathan Franzen, TIME's Lev Grossman writes about how Franzen believes Americans would do well to adjust their conception of the concept of "freedom." To Franzen, constraints can actually be liberating. I know what he means. When I stopped eating meat, I felt free from the guilt of eating meat. By constraining my freedom of choice, I felt more free. So altruism, in a sense, can be self-serving and liberating. That's an alignment of incentives that even the most red-blooded, meat-loving American could appreciate. (Man do I miss bacon cheese burgers though).

I Know I'm Losing It

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:02:00 +0000

I know I’m losing it when I can’t even find my coffee mug this morning. I threw all the cabinet doors opened, looking for it. I could have sworn I just saw it a moment ago. Maybe I forgot to wash it? So I checked the sink. Nope. No mug there. I checked the dish strainer. Nope, no coffee mug there either. What in the world? I thought I was losing my mind. Then my brain suddenly registered the humming of the microwave behind me. I turned around and there was my coffee mug going for a merry-go-round ride with the vanilla almond milk. Now I remembered. I took it out of the cabinet earlier, poured some almond milk and was heating it up so I could add it to my coffee. Yep. For sure I was losing it, driving myself crazy because I forgot I had the mug in the microwave!

You ever got one of those days? I'd feel like getting back into bed and starting my day all over again.

Unexpected Kindness

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 11:29:00 +0000

I got home from work late one night, hungry and tired and ready to just chill out on the living room couch. Unfortunately, as I was walking away from my car, I noticed a bothersome thing: one of my front tires was flat. Staring at the tire, my mind staunchly dredged up the last reservoir of energy to convince my body to take care of the matter immediately instead of waiting until tomorrow morning. Shutting down my mind from thinking any further (in case it started to rationalize and try to wheedle itself out of a tiresome task), I got back into my car and got it into gear and headed out.

As I was driving slowly down the streets, I mentally tried to remember the gas station that would have an air pump. Rejecting a few as being too far away, I headed for the Mobil station near the freeway. With the hazard lights blinking, I crawled down the streets. Thankfully it was late at night so I wasn’t causing any unnecessary delay for people rushing home from a long day at work. My heart was creating havoc in my chest as I listened to the uneven clunking of the car dragging itself courageously to the gas station with me.

After five minutes, I managed to safely cross a seemingly too big boulevard and turned into the gas station. Heaving a big sigh, I started to look for the air and water pump…and didn’t see any! Mentally berating myself for not noticing the flat tire sooner, I started to circle the dark gas station, peering into the darkness for anything that looked like an air pump. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a mechanic carrying a table inside, about to close up shop for the day. Unhesitatingly, I drove right up to him.

“Is there an air pump here?” The tired mechanic nodded and pointed to a dark corner off to the side. Thanking him, I made my way over to the air pump. When I stepped outside, I was immediately assailed by the stench of urine and some off-putting odor. Ignoring all that, I peered at the air pump, wondering what to do. Obviously this was my first time doing this. Noticing that I had to pay 75 cents to get the air going, I rummaged around inside the seat, looking for loose change. With the coins in my hand, I peered at the flat tire, wondering if I was supposed to loosen some screw or twist some top or something when the mechanic came over.

“You need air for your tire?”

“Yeah. My front tire is flat.”

“Come on over. I still have some air left. Just pull right up to the first door.” He had turned off the compression but there was still some air left. Wow! Thank God! Problem solved! I didn’t have to try to figure out what to do. I hopped back into the car and drove up to the garage. He came out with a pump and started to unscrew the air thingy on my tire (you can tell by now I am completely clueless about cars and stuff). As he was putting the air in the tire, I asked him all sorts of questions about putting air into the tire and when to stop otherwise the tire would blow up. (That was a joke. I have no idea if it would blow up or not if I put too much air in it.)

After he put the air in the tire, I gratefully thanked him for his kindness and he proceeded to check all four of my tires, filling them up with air. What a nice man! During the course of the conversation, I found out that he worked seven days a week, not even taking a day off! Even though it was late at night and he definitely looked really tired, yet he went out of his way to fill up all four of my tires, not asking for anything in return. His gesture of kindness touched me and made my day. As I was driving away, I was telling myself: “I’m bringing my car back next time to get an oil change from him.”

It’s amazing how little acts of kindness, especially when most unexpected, can really bring joy to the receiver. When I got home, I didn’t feel tired or grumpy. Rather, I was feeling happy, grateful, and lighthearted. God bless him, for his kind soul.

Another Face of Terrorism

noreply@blogger.com (Everyman) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 03:45:00 +0000

A friend of mine skyped me the other day: “I don’t want to stay longer in the US. You guys have people who go into schools and shoot up students and principles?!” He was visiting from Australia. That made me pause. I thought about Columbine. I thought about my high school experience when a former student came back and held up the senior Humanities class for the whole day before the some male students jumped him when he was careless and ended the situation bloodlessly. I could only reply, “Yeah, we do.” His next comment took me back a bit, “So the days of innocence in the US were only in the 60s and 70s, huh?”

What had happened to our country? I don’t want to list a bunch of examples, but if we look back in history, right after World War II, it seems like the US involvement in wars and spy games have escalated since then. I’m no expert, but it seems that way to me. And then I read today in the news about the shooting of a federal judge, a Congresswoman, the killing six others and wounding more. How horrible is this? This is terrorism. When we bring violence to another being, instilling fear in them, that’s terrorism. Then there are people, respectable people, pundits and politicians, who espouse violence on other human beings – that’s also terrorism, inciting violence and harm. How can anyone condone such behavior, especially from public figures? Where is the outcry? It doesn’t matter which party we belong to, inciting violence should not be supported or tolerated.

We are all human beings. All of us are trying our best to live our lives and make a difference somehow to the lives of others, be it our friends, neighbors, constituents, or the entire nation or the world. I believe all of us have an innate desire to help, to make others happy, to bring goodness to the world in some form or shape. It’s the duty of politicians, religious figures, and public entities to guide and provide role models for the right way to live. Inciting violence, spewing hatred, calling for the assassination or the torture of another human being is utterly unacceptable. That’s terrorism.

I read somewhere once: victims of violence or wars actually go to a better place after their death. The people who commit those violent acts are the ones who will suffer their own private hell because their conscience cannot forgive them. Because what they have done is totally against the core value, the intrinsic nature, of humankind or any “kind.” It’s against the universal law of love. I still haven’t quite grasped it yet, but it makes sense to me. Notwithstanding, we should never condone or tolerate any kind of violence, even with spoken words, against anyone. The trauma of the violence, the suffering, the anguish -- they leave an indelible mark on a soul, something we can't ever forget. Why inflict that upon another being?

My prayers go out to the victims and their families. May God bless them.