lotusinthemud

waterboarding: any of the bush administration want to try it?

::boing boing:

After Christopher Hitchens wrote a Slate article suggesting that waterboarding wasn't really torture, readers suggested that he try it himself. He did.

So what did it feel like? Hitchens recounts how he was lashed tightly to a sloping board, then, "on top of the hood, three layers of enveloping towel were added. In this pregnant darkness, head downward, I waited until I abruptly felt a slow cascade of water going up my nose ... I held my breath for a while and then had to exhale and - as you might expect - inhale in turn."

That, he says, "brought the damp cloths tight against my nostrils, as if a huge, wet paw had been suddenly and annihilatingly clamped over my face. Unable to determine whether I was breathing in or out, flooded more with sheer panic than with water, I triggered the pre-arranged signal" and felt the "unbelievable relief" of being pulled upright.

The "official lie" about waterboarding, Hitchens says, is that it "simulates the feeling of drowning". In fact, "you are drowning - or rather, being drowned".

::read more

dharmavidya's quotation on the 'do no harm' site

Do No Harm is one of those wonderful impossible ideals that inspire us. "Cease from ill; Do only good; Do good for others. Purify your mind." As what the Japanese call "bombu" i.e. ordinary fallible beings of wayward passion and boundless karma we all do harm while wishing to do less of it and it always helps to have that aspiration strengthened as it is by the love of our friends. The key is to embrace, to esteem all that is in our world as best we can. Esteem and embrace the other. All forms of enlightenment are intended to help us become open to others. Shakyamuni became enlightened when he saw the morning star - our life is full of such stars and if we can allow each thing to be a star it will start to glow and our world will be full of new light.

These days there is a strong tendency to see everything in selfish terms. The reason for doing something is, apparently to be located in the good that will come back to us. No doubt good does come back... however, it is just possible that the impulse to love is actually more fundamental in our lives than the impulse to gain. Whether it is true or not, simply thinking so makes huge difference to one's life. How lucky we all are to have such a beautiful world full of loveable beings of so many kinds.

Dharmavidya (David Brazier)
http://www.amidatrust.com

::link to 'do no harm'

new pureland buddhist book: 'never die alone'

The book, Never Die Alone: Death as Birth in Pure Land Buddhism, published by Jodo Shu Research Institute is on the brink of publication and copies can be pre-ordered from Amazon. Authors include: Mark Blum author of The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism; Carl Becker author of Breaking the Circle: Death and the Afterlife in Buddhism; David Brazier (Dharmavidya), head of the Amida Order, author of Who Loves Dies Well: On the Brink of Buddha’s Pure Land; Yoshiharu Tomatsu the Director of the Jodo Shu Research Institute’s Ojo and Death Project; and a group of Thai Buddhists offering a different view of Buddhist dying.

::link

saving gas (or petrol, as we brits call it)

Save Gas, Save Money: 66 Ways To Spend Less On Gasoline:

While the rising cost of oil has the price of gasoline skyrocketing faster than global warming is melting glaciers, people everywhere are preparing for cross-country road trips to Grand Canyon National Park and summer camps in Maine. We can't really argue with that innate desire to get closer to nature and out on the open road, and whether you're a die-hard cyclist or a still driving an SUV, chances are you plan to get in a car to go somewhere this summer. So whether you're packing up the Prius for some close-to-home camping, towing the boat to far-away shores, or merely fighting the crosstown traffic, these money- and gas-saving tips are designed to help you squeeze every last bit of power out of that precious petrol--and cause fewer CO2 emissions, too. It's a comprehensive list--several tasks should be done before even starting your car; others require minor adjustments to your driving style. All of them aim to help you drive a little greener.

::read more here

twenty years from now...

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did.

~ Mark Twain
via big happy buddha

allegation - china demolished mosque for not supporting olympics

It's just too convenient to label anyone who doesn't go along with you a terrorist. It's not just the Tibetans who are being treated this way If the chinese Government wants to drive the Uyghur people into the arms of al Qaeda this would be the way to do it:

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities in the restive far western region of Xinjiang have demolished a mosque for refusing to put up signs in support of this August's Beijing Olympics, an exiled group said on Monday.

The mosque was in Kalpin county near Aksu city in Xinjiang's rugged southwest, the World Uyghur Congress said.

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dalai lama hopes china talks will resume in july

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama hopes postponed talks between China and his envoys will resume next month, he said on Thursday, adding he supported China's desire for stability but that it must come "from the heart not the gun".

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an answer to the question "what does Buddhism say about 'religions'..?"

::stableboy says:

It doesn't say much really. But you can infer some things from what it DOES say:

- Buddhist teaching generally challenges the notion of a fixed self or entity which serves as the core of being. In Buddhist ontology, all things are considered to be composites -- you and I are the result of the conditions which produce our existence, and those conditions are in turn produced by other conditions, ad infinitum. So nowhere can you get your hands on some solid unchanging "essence of being".

This is what it means when Buddhism talks about "no self". It's not that there's no self at all, it's that there's no permanent entity like a core upon which our qualities and characteristics are "glued". The implication for other religions is that Buddhism challenges the existence of the soul as it's normally conceived -- a permanent essence which transcends the conditions of body, time, space, cause-and-effect.

- Buddhism is silent on the existence of God. So in a sense, it does not conflict with religions which place God at the center of everything. Buddhism neither denies nor affirms the existence of God -- that is considered a matter which is outside the scope of Buddhism's concerns. Buddhism is concerned with awakening -- recovering the true nature of being in a practical way which makes a practical difference in ordinary life. It's not particularly interested in large-scale metaphysical questions about the origin of man or the nature of God, etc. Those are basically considered irrelevant to the core problem Buddhism addresses: suffering.

- Buddhism is strongly critical of the human tendency to cling to beliefs of any kind. That doesn't mean Buddhism is intolerant of beliefs in general, it means that CLINGING is considered very unwise. So since many religions implicitly encourage the very clinging that Buddhism is working to disrupt, in that sense Buddhism is anti-religion. However, it is possible (and some people do it) to merge other religions with Buddhism... i.e. I know Christian Buddhists who believe in the redemption offered by Christ, etc., and still practice Buddhism. I presume they've dialed down the clinging aspect of their Christianity to make it all work, but don't really know the details.

In general, Buddhism promotes tolerance and peaceful coexistence as essential qualities to be developed by all humans, regardless of their religious orientation. It would be completely antithetical to Buddhist teachings to (for example) discriminate against others based on their religion, and completely unthinkable to use religious differences to justify a conflict or war. While Buddhism doesn't really promote the notion that "all religions are one", it promotes the notion that all of REALITY is one, and religions are a part of reality as a whole. In that respect, it makes no sense for Buddhism to adopt an aggressive or hostile stance toward other religions.

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biking it

Presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama has won our admiration before, thanks to his support of cycling and his support of public transportation, as well as his eagerness to address climate change, as exemplified by the fact that he would want Al Gore to help him on climate issues (however, we have also been less-than-impressed with Obama's stance on "clean coal" technology). Now, after a protracted, difficult campaign, Obama has finally won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. So how did he celebrate? According to the Associated Press, the Senator took the weekend off and "joined family and neighbors for a bicycle ride along the shores of Lake Michigan on Sunday."

::link to story and photos

news about buddhafield

Here's a post about the Buddhafield festival this summer, with links to news coverage. Amida will have a presence there for the third time this year, led by Sr Modgala, with Rachel and Sally, who are presently and previously part of the Amida Newcastle sangha:

The Buddhafield Festival has for some years been the FWBO’s largest event outside India. It’s been held every year since 1996 and has gone from strength to strength, quietly building a loyal following almost entirely by word of mouth. This year they plan to move to a new site – the third since the Festival began – and increase the size slightly, to 3,000.

::read more here