Caption time ...
Apologies for lack of recent posting but my mind's been a bit blank recently so to keep you amused until I get round to it .... suggest a caption for the following pic
Mind Your Language
A couple of things recently prompted me to consider our use of language. The first was on one of the podcasts on http://abuddhistpodcast.com/ . Where Jason Jarret was talking about how there is a vacuum on positive philosophy in most people's life, which generally speaking, I agree with. Having brought up in the Punk era, I guess I kind of identified with the nihilism of the times, and certainly as a teenager, it had great appeal .. You know how it goes when you're young .. the whole world's against you isn't it !
But when we've finally cast off our black t shirts and ripped jeans, we have to live in this world and become more and more aware of what is going on outside our own little world, and it sometimes ain't that pretty.
But why can we not become more positive ? I honestly think one problem is around language. Kind of in the same way as they used to say the Devil has all the best tunes, I personally think he nicked the language too.
The problem with a lot of positive language is that it's just .. well ... too nice and fluffy .. words like 'happy', 'wonderful', 'joyous' etc .. doesn't it remind you of Sunday schools or a bunch of niaive folkies sitting around a camp fire ... and most people don't relate to that liberal wishy washy attitude even if we, in most cases, desire the same ends.
So .. I think the time has come to abandon the fluffy language and use more constructive non wishy washy terms ... for example ... isn't it better to be 'fulfilled' rather that 'happy' .. happy is a transient thing where as 'fulfilled' indicates a certain longevity.
Anyway .. this is going to be a shorther blog than I'd intended and I may come back to it again but I got interrupted for the third time by a film location crew who are very likely using my flat for a feature film .. I couldn't believe the pic they took last time !!! Thanksfully, I had a bit of notice this time to get rid of the evidence :-)
(should be a pic here but blogger doesn't seem to want to upload them grrrr)
But when we've finally cast off our black t shirts and ripped jeans, we have to live in this world and become more and more aware of what is going on outside our own little world, and it sometimes ain't that pretty.
But why can we not become more positive ? I honestly think one problem is around language. Kind of in the same way as they used to say the Devil has all the best tunes, I personally think he nicked the language too.
The problem with a lot of positive language is that it's just .. well ... too nice and fluffy .. words like 'happy', 'wonderful', 'joyous' etc .. doesn't it remind you of Sunday schools or a bunch of niaive folkies sitting around a camp fire ... and most people don't relate to that liberal wishy washy attitude even if we, in most cases, desire the same ends.
So .. I think the time has come to abandon the fluffy language and use more constructive non wishy washy terms ... for example ... isn't it better to be 'fulfilled' rather that 'happy' .. happy is a transient thing where as 'fulfilled' indicates a certain longevity.
Anyway .. this is going to be a shorther blog than I'd intended and I may come back to it again but I got interrupted for the third time by a film location crew who are very likely using my flat for a feature film .. I couldn't believe the pic they took last time !!! Thanksfully, I had a bit of notice this time to get rid of the evidence :-)
(should be a pic here but blogger doesn't seem to want to upload them grrrr)
Dialogue
Last night (before watching Finding Nemo again !), I watched an interesting programme on Channel 4 called 'What Muslims Want' .. which in itself is a pretty dumb title .. kind of like saying what English People want ... which can range from world peace to a luxury house !
It was good though in that John Snow was doing face to face interviews with a wide variety of people of the Muslim faith. It struck me that many of our views of Muslims are based largely on the ones that the media choose to pick to represent Muslims.
One of the best bits for me was when he was interviewing a guy who was a very strict and I guess you could say radical, Muslim who basically quoted the Koran to each question he was asked. When asked a theoretical question which would have needed free will, he really struggled, purely quoting, what often seemed of dubious relevance, from the Koran. It kind of reminded me of a friends mother who ended her arguements with 'it says so in the bible' and you just couldn't get past that !
While he was interviewing him though, another young Muslim who was passing by interrupted them and started pointing out the faults in the 'radical's' argument, pointing out, for example, that the Koran also states that when living in a non muslim country, Muslims should abide by the Laws of the land. It really highlighted the fact that there is no such things as a typical Muslim. Even the fact that they pointed out that young Muslims between 18 and 24 were the ones most likely to agree with actions such as the London Bombers, doesn't really stand up. Speak to English males of thtt age group and they will have the most aggressive views ... It's not about religion but about Testosterone !
The one thing the programme did highlight really for me though, was the way Muslim communities are, often by choice, becoming isolated and this can't be healthy. Unless we integrate more and more, and with other faiths, and respect different viewpoints even if we don't agree with them - we can always continue to talk talk talk .. Once again, it's all about dialogue I guess.
It was good though in that John Snow was doing face to face interviews with a wide variety of people of the Muslim faith. It struck me that many of our views of Muslims are based largely on the ones that the media choose to pick to represent Muslims.
One of the best bits for me was when he was interviewing a guy who was a very strict and I guess you could say radical, Muslim who basically quoted the Koran to each question he was asked. When asked a theoretical question which would have needed free will, he really struggled, purely quoting, what often seemed of dubious relevance, from the Koran. It kind of reminded me of a friends mother who ended her arguements with 'it says so in the bible' and you just couldn't get past that !
While he was interviewing him though, another young Muslim who was passing by interrupted them and started pointing out the faults in the 'radical's' argument, pointing out, for example, that the Koran also states that when living in a non muslim country, Muslims should abide by the Laws of the land. It really highlighted the fact that there is no such things as a typical Muslim. Even the fact that they pointed out that young Muslims between 18 and 24 were the ones most likely to agree with actions such as the London Bombers, doesn't really stand up. Speak to English males of thtt age group and they will have the most aggressive views ... It's not about religion but about Testosterone !
The one thing the programme did highlight really for me though, was the way Muslim communities are, often by choice, becoming isolated and this can't be healthy. Unless we integrate more and more, and with other faiths, and respect different viewpoints even if we don't agree with them - we can always continue to talk talk talk .. Once again, it's all about dialogue I guess.
Rant of the Weekend
Last Night I started to watch the film version of 'Till death us do part' .. I'd only intended to watch a couple of minutes but actually got into it and taped the rest which I watched today. At the time, there was a lot of debate about having a racist portrayed on TV, but so many people missed the point that he was in fact a bigoted old fool, albeit at times, maybe, an endearing one.
The thing for me in the film though was the times it was set in i.e. late 60s and early 70s. Now there has been a lot written about these times and often glamourised. I was a bit of a punk in the late seventies and I guess being a nihilistic 'yoof', I took a certain amount of pleasure in the grimness of the times. But watching it last night, it occurred to me that the one thing we definitely seem to have lost in the meantime, is the ability to stand up for ourselves and not be walked all over.
Yes, at times there were serious inconveniences with the three day week, strikes etc, but now, people seem to accept the overwhelming power of corporations .. many of whom have more money than some countries. Sure, there are groups such as anti globalisation groups opposing this but taking the general public as a whole, they seem to meekly accept it. It reminds me of A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley where people were fed Soma to keep them happy and ignorant, and it seems to me that today’s Soma is consumerism and celebrity idolisation.
How does this relate to Buddhism? Well.. isn't it just an extension of 'never seek the gohonzon outside yourself'. In a way this means never seek happiness outside yourself which is exactly what many of us do, as can be seen by the ever rising debt problem in this country. We want and want and want and are never satisfied.
On a personal level, it really bugs me when people moan about the NHS or Public Transport being crap, but when you point out that it needn't be if people paid more tax, they go up in arms, but this is what society is isn't it .. a shared environment which we all have to contribute to as well as taking from. But no, people won't pay another £100 a year or whatever for a decent health system/public transport etc but they'll fork out much more than that for a digital flat screen TV or some other gimmick, which whilst nice, isn't exactly essential.
So ... how are we to stop this planet self destructing if greed overcomes us all ? I guess the answer is that we can't UNLESS we all change our attitudes and priorities and look for happiness within ourselves and not outwardly.
And I really can't remember where Alf Garnett came into this ... but cheers anyway Alf :-)
The thing for me in the film though was the times it was set in i.e. late 60s and early 70s. Now there has been a lot written about these times and often glamourised. I was a bit of a punk in the late seventies and I guess being a nihilistic 'yoof', I took a certain amount of pleasure in the grimness of the times. But watching it last night, it occurred to me that the one thing we definitely seem to have lost in the meantime, is the ability to stand up for ourselves and not be walked all over.
Yes, at times there were serious inconveniences with the three day week, strikes etc, but now, people seem to accept the overwhelming power of corporations .. many of whom have more money than some countries. Sure, there are groups such as anti globalisation groups opposing this but taking the general public as a whole, they seem to meekly accept it. It reminds me of A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley where people were fed Soma to keep them happy and ignorant, and it seems to me that today’s Soma is consumerism and celebrity idolisation.
How does this relate to Buddhism? Well.. isn't it just an extension of 'never seek the gohonzon outside yourself'. In a way this means never seek happiness outside yourself which is exactly what many of us do, as can be seen by the ever rising debt problem in this country. We want and want and want and are never satisfied.
On a personal level, it really bugs me when people moan about the NHS or Public Transport being crap, but when you point out that it needn't be if people paid more tax, they go up in arms, but this is what society is isn't it .. a shared environment which we all have to contribute to as well as taking from. But no, people won't pay another £100 a year or whatever for a decent health system/public transport etc but they'll fork out much more than that for a digital flat screen TV or some other gimmick, which whilst nice, isn't exactly essential.
So ... how are we to stop this planet self destructing if greed overcomes us all ? I guess the answer is that we can't UNLESS we all change our attitudes and priorities and look for happiness within ourselves and not outwardly.
And I really can't remember where Alf Garnett came into this ... but cheers anyway Alf :-)
Enough Already.
It's been a while since my last post and there have been no comments which I presume means that no one is reading it or they are completely bored with Neighbours and County Cricket reports!
Now, these probably won't stop as they are a small part of what I am, but I have taken the decision this morning to change the blog to reflect more, my thoughts on the world around us, influenced, hopefully, by my Buddhist practise. There'll probably be a personal section too if there's anything of interest to report.
Last night I skipped the Buddhist Study meeting as I 'couldnt be bothered' .. now, this pretty much sums me up a lot of the time and I need to change that. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's good just to kick back and chill out .. we all need that but I definitely have a tendency to almost give up and think 'what's the point' and that needs to change.
It was partly through watching yet again, a dvd I have called Embattled Buddhists which you can view online at http://sgi-usa.org/thesgiusa/community/video/embBud.html . This is an documentary on the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin and teh Soka Gakkai which puts it into historic context. I think that for me personally, the one thing that stood out was a quote from the second president Josei Toda who said:
“Never passively accept suffering as your destiny. We alone are responsible for the direction of our own lives. Every person has the right to become happy”.
And I think that's so right .. so many of us just accept our lot and don't challenge it, or if we do, we do so only in our minds and never take action to do anything about it.
So .. that's my pledge today to myself ... to get out of my usual lethargy and stop being the Cold Suffering Bird of Buddhist legend which I've always identified myself with and change things ... So .. if I start getting to enthusiastic about Neighbours again ... kick me !!!
And now for my first more thoughtful quote .. maybe I'll start with something nice and simple .. like .... The Middle East !
The reason I've decided to choose this is fairly obvious, each night on TV, we see the true horror of war in the Lebanon and in Israel, with innocent people being killed, many of them young children. Now, It's not my place to go into the rights and wrongs of the conflict, though obviously there are political issues that do need to be resolved before the whole region becomes involved. Some on the extreme right are even talking of World War Three, though, on their part, this might be wishful thinking !!
Probably the most 'interesting' point in it for me, is that, coming from a left wing background, It's a real battle not to hate Israel for everything it has done in the region, and listening to it's leaders at times coming out with some appalling stuff. It seems to me that it really is about time that Israel lose its victim mentality and look forward to the future. No one is denying that the Holocaust was an awful event and should never be forgotten or repeated, but this is not the reason for the war. Interestingly, in a book I read on Islam by Karan Armstrong, apparently, prior to the Palestinians being evicted from their homeland for the creation of Israel, Jews and Muslims lived together pretty much ok, and much anti Israeli propaganda has been taken from Nazi philosophy as there was no real hatred previous to this.
But anyway, my point is that despite my anger at the Israelis actions, having watched Israeli citizens on the news, it's obvious that their main concern is the protection of their families from Hezbollah rockets. These are the ordinary people, not the military. Some of their views I disagree with though I suspect the media in Israel paints a pretty one sided picture. But the point is that they are saying pretty much what the Lebanese are saying. Both sides want to protect themselves from each other, and in doing so are basically encouraging both the Israeli Army and Hezbollah to continuing the fighting which is having exactly the opposite effect. There may well, hopefully, be a ceasefire soon to allow talks, but unless citizens of each country can break down the us and them mentally, the cause is made for this all to re-occur at some time in the future.
There was a blogger on Newsnight the other day who was saying that, despite the current situation, there was still communication between young Israelis and Lebanese and that basically they want the same things from life as each other, and surely this is the way to look forward. Looking at what we need from life to live a healthy fulfilling life and look at ways to create this. It is only the people in power who stand to benefit from wars in the long run and therefore, it's probably only the ordinary citizen who has the power to put an end to all wars.
Now this isn't a Hippy 'stop all wars now maaaan' thing. It isn't going to happen overnight and most likely not in my generation or even the next, but the important thing is to make a start, however small and all in our own way, whether by thought word or deed - It's all about dialogue .. and very often with people we may not like or feel threatened by but if anything positive can come out of this conflict, let's hope it's some kind of hope for a way forward.
And on that note, after watching Neighbours (only kidding ;-) ...I'm going to try to chant for an hour now then have a listen to the new Buddhist Podcast at http://abuddhistpodcast.com/2006/08/05/a-buddhist-podcast-making-a-great-vow/ .
And on that rather lengthy note, I'm signing off for now.
Now, these probably won't stop as they are a small part of what I am, but I have taken the decision this morning to change the blog to reflect more, my thoughts on the world around us, influenced, hopefully, by my Buddhist practise. There'll probably be a personal section too if there's anything of interest to report.
Last night I skipped the Buddhist Study meeting as I 'couldnt be bothered' .. now, this pretty much sums me up a lot of the time and I need to change that. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's good just to kick back and chill out .. we all need that but I definitely have a tendency to almost give up and think 'what's the point' and that needs to change.
It was partly through watching yet again, a dvd I have called Embattled Buddhists which you can view online at http://sgi-usa.org/thesgiusa/community/video/embBud.html . This is an documentary on the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin and teh Soka Gakkai which puts it into historic context. I think that for me personally, the one thing that stood out was a quote from the second president Josei Toda who said:
“Never passively accept suffering as your destiny. We alone are responsible for the direction of our own lives. Every person has the right to become happy”.
And I think that's so right .. so many of us just accept our lot and don't challenge it, or if we do, we do so only in our minds and never take action to do anything about it.
So .. that's my pledge today to myself ... to get out of my usual lethargy and stop being the Cold Suffering Bird of Buddhist legend which I've always identified myself with and change things ... So .. if I start getting to enthusiastic about Neighbours again ... kick me !!!
And now for my first more thoughtful quote .. maybe I'll start with something nice and simple .. like .... The Middle East !
The reason I've decided to choose this is fairly obvious, each night on TV, we see the true horror of war in the Lebanon and in Israel, with innocent people being killed, many of them young children. Now, It's not my place to go into the rights and wrongs of the conflict, though obviously there are political issues that do need to be resolved before the whole region becomes involved. Some on the extreme right are even talking of World War Three, though, on their part, this might be wishful thinking !!
Probably the most 'interesting' point in it for me, is that, coming from a left wing background, It's a real battle not to hate Israel for everything it has done in the region, and listening to it's leaders at times coming out with some appalling stuff. It seems to me that it really is about time that Israel lose its victim mentality and look forward to the future. No one is denying that the Holocaust was an awful event and should never be forgotten or repeated, but this is not the reason for the war. Interestingly, in a book I read on Islam by Karan Armstrong, apparently, prior to the Palestinians being evicted from their homeland for the creation of Israel, Jews and Muslims lived together pretty much ok, and much anti Israeli propaganda has been taken from Nazi philosophy as there was no real hatred previous to this.
But anyway, my point is that despite my anger at the Israelis actions, having watched Israeli citizens on the news, it's obvious that their main concern is the protection of their families from Hezbollah rockets. These are the ordinary people, not the military. Some of their views I disagree with though I suspect the media in Israel paints a pretty one sided picture. But the point is that they are saying pretty much what the Lebanese are saying. Both sides want to protect themselves from each other, and in doing so are basically encouraging both the Israeli Army and Hezbollah to continuing the fighting which is having exactly the opposite effect. There may well, hopefully, be a ceasefire soon to allow talks, but unless citizens of each country can break down the us and them mentally, the cause is made for this all to re-occur at some time in the future.
There was a blogger on Newsnight the other day who was saying that, despite the current situation, there was still communication between young Israelis and Lebanese and that basically they want the same things from life as each other, and surely this is the way to look forward. Looking at what we need from life to live a healthy fulfilling life and look at ways to create this. It is only the people in power who stand to benefit from wars in the long run and therefore, it's probably only the ordinary citizen who has the power to put an end to all wars.
Now this isn't a Hippy 'stop all wars now maaaan' thing. It isn't going to happen overnight and most likely not in my generation or even the next, but the important thing is to make a start, however small and all in our own way, whether by thought word or deed - It's all about dialogue .. and very often with people we may not like or feel threatened by but if anything positive can come out of this conflict, let's hope it's some kind of hope for a way forward.
And on that note, after watching Neighbours (only kidding ;-) ...I'm going to try to chant for an hour now then have a listen to the new Buddhist Podcast at http://abuddhistpodcast.com/2006/08/05/a-buddhist-podcast-making-a-great-vow/ .
And on that rather lengthy note, I'm signing off for now.
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