Engagement vs Detachment

The Buddha tells us that we should not attach to the worldly things of this life because all will eventually pass. The path to enlightenment winds through many lifetimes. The teachings of Buddha look past our current temporal life.

Happiness is a slippery concept. You can define it and know that you feel it, but that feeling can change radically in an instant. To feel fulfilled in life, a person must be engaged. Obviously this can take many forms. Without the process of engagement, there is nothing to be filled with. Haidt is teaching that engagement is the path toward happiness. Granted, but then you must ask… Engage in what?

Haidt says ‘personal life, work and something larger than ourselves’. And Buddhism says that everything is larger than ourselves. If you push personal and work without the larger world in mind you may be engaged and you may feel happy, but those things that carry on from your life, those things that are larger than you, will scarcely be affected. If you follow personal and work disjointedly from the ‘larger world’ a chasm will grow, which you are bound to face at some time.

There is nothing antithetical to Buddhism about immersing in life with gusto. And there is nothing contradictory about entertaining bemused detachment to the outcome of your activities. We continually see how change (e.g. storms, floods, waves, wars… ) can destroy plans and happiness. And these things can occur at any moment. So the wise person, the sage of Buddhism, delights in the experience of life, yet realizes its inherently impermanent and transitory nature. With that in mind, she walks directly into the spiritual. And it is through the spiritual that we grow as humanity.

Haidt has nothing to say to correct the Buddha. The mixture of personal and spiritual in your life is an individual matter. Finding happiness is not necessarily spiritual and finding spirit is not necessarily happiness.

More Mercenary Armies

Armies for hire are disgusting. If you are possibly able to justify a war, then you have determined a 'good' side and a 'bad' side. A mercenary army is only in it for the money. Nothing else. There is no honor and no trust. Period.

The U.S. Government assumes the level of the organizations that are hired to do it's work... reflecting the ethically bankrupt nature of the actions of this government.

If the government cannot fight wars without hiring the corporate darlings of the Administration, (like Halliburton and Blackwater), then the U.S. has no business in those situations. The taxpayers and voters never authorized this corporate control. It is a government stolen from the people.

But ‘we the people’ have the potential to shift the balance and regain the creativity and power that is our nature and our right. Not only do we have the capability, but we also have the responsibility, as the future is upon the shoulders of each one of us.

Continuing Harrassment of Indigenous People

This is a very sad recurring story of international politics destroying indigenous people. It is high time for the State nations of our planet to recognize the importance of global resources, affairs and problems. We are linked together in so many ways, but the attitudes and practices of the NationStates force irrelevant differences upon us. The Mohawks of Akwesasne attempt to live in independence across political divides --- in violation of the tenets of the NationStates. They discuss and respond to environmental and political activities across those divides and advocate for others to do so as well. Much honor and respect to them.

In the 21st century we are being forced into a global view of affairs. The world has become much more connected and much smaller. Our problems and their solutions cross political boundaries. In the process of realizing our world citizenship we come to respect and acknowledge the importance and power of indigenous people and culture that exist independently from the economics and politics of the NationStates… cultures that relate to Gaia through everyday practices of living… an art and ideal quite hidden in our global power structure.

Is Life Fair?

The world isn't fair. Things happen to us over which we have no control and those things do not affect people in equal ways. This is a fact of life.

Why do we seek fairness? Are the people in UG not wanting the co-player to do better than his/her self? Is this Darwinian survival or is this some type of altruism?

And maybe the camaraderie associated with drugs like MDMA arises from the breakdown of our usual sense of separation of 'I vs. not I' causing the user to feel connected to, and in love with others. And thus more giving and altruistic because of the lessening of a sense of competition.

Maybe as we begin to realize how intimately we all are connected across time and space we will all become less self-grubbing and more kind to the people and world around us.

Mercenary Armies

The real sad part of this story is the selling of the U.S. Government. Our tax dollars increasingly go to pay for private companies to do the work of government. And with all the lobbyists, special interests, ex and current government employees with stakes in economic interests vying for government monies, our government is being sold.

This is not free market. This is freedom to rampage. And there are no real loyalties and allegiances other than to the $$$$. When the U.S. fails to be the profit haven that it now is, these companies (with their collected intelligence about the governments, people, businesses and technologies of the world) will go elsewhere with their money and knowledge.

Government working efficiently for the interests of the people, not corporate profits and opportunities is our path of hope for the future.