I turn away
Mirror, you misunderstand
You cast me in a bad light
Not I, this coarse beast
This ugliness is the fault of my
Children
My spouse
My circumstances
The wounds
The suffering
Are justified
I am not the one who needs to change
Election 2020 Post-Mortem
I don’t have a lot to say yet on the technical or political aspects of this year’s Presidential Election. I think that we will learn a lot once data on Hispanic voters can be parsed.
Like many, I am relieved that we will have someone in power who is more competent, better mannered, less buffoonish, and less overtly racist and sexist.
If someone is expecting a Biden Administration to be anything more than that, though, I am afraid that they may be disappointed.
On National Greatness
Perhaps it is just my own perception, but I’ve noticed that Veterans Day 2020 seems, at least for some, to be more an occasion to celebrate military might than anything else.
To the extent that America is, or ever has been, great, that greatness has derived from the strength of our ideals, not from our nation’s ability to destroy more things or kill more people more efficiently than other nations.
Among ideologies, nationalism seems to me to be among the most childish and ignorant of all. I am sad to witness so much of it.
Preface notwithstanding, here is a post from nine years ago that still expresses the gist of my own personal observance today.
I wish you peace,
The Language of the Birds
Guggenheim Fellow Anna Badkhen writes about zeitgeist in Philadelphia, collective spirit in the Global North, and what the birds foretell.
We may say we like to be surprised, astonished, but we like to be surprised in a particular way that is expected or suits our projected needs. This is why children like to hear the same stories. Their predictability is something to hold onto. This is why I am rereading the classics, which I first read as a very young child: it is like worrying a rosary or a wave-grooved seashell you keep in your pocket, something familiar for the fingers to run over and over. This is why we read projections for how long the pandemic will last, or who will win the election, or whether the global uprising against racism will prevail: we want to know when those of us who survive can go back to normal. We want to project that normal.
Source: The Paris Review – Blog Archive How to Read the Air – The Paris Review
George
I just finished watching Scorsese’s film about George Harrison. It left me even more in awe than I had been.
The Best Government Money Can Buy
Open Secrets reports that Biden is near to raising $1 Billion in the most expensive election in history.
The 2020 election is more than twice as expensive as the runner up, the 2016 election. In fact, this year’s election will see more spending than the previous two presidential election cycles combined. The massive numbers are headlined by unprecedented spending in the presidential contest, which is expected to see $6.6 billion in total spending alone. That’s up from around $2.4 billion in the 2016 race. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will be the first candidate in history to raise $1 billion from donors. His campaign brought in a record-breaking $938 million through Oct. 14, riding Democrats’ enthusiasm to defeat Trump. President Donald Trump raised $596 million, which would be a strong fundraising effort if not for Biden’s immense haul.
Source: 2020 election to cost $14 billion, blowing away spending records • OpenSecrets
Mystery Democrat Theater 2020
Truth bomb from Leonard C. Goodman at The Chicago Reader. TLDR: Barrett is exactly the kind of judge corporate donors love.
The Democrats claimed to be united in their opposition to Barrett’s confirmation. Yet their resistance to having a justice rammed through at the 11th hour of a lame duck presidency feels like the resistance that the Washington Generals used to show against the Harlem Globetrotters. That is, pure theater in which the outcome is never in doubt. What this tells us is that the corporate donors who control the Democratic Party are happy with a Justice Barrett.
Source: The real reason Democrats didn’t stop the Barrett confirmation | Opinion | Chicago Reader
Dimensions of Meditation
Today over on the Shyamatara Das site, I share some thoughts on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of meditation.
As we achieve deeper and more profound levels of consciousness during meditation, it has been speculated that we can experience this field, and interact with it – perhaps even influence it – more directly than we do when mitigated by our bodily senses. Since the field is the foundational essence of all time and space, it is boundless. While experiencing these deeper levels of consciousness, we, too, become unbounded.
What I’m Reading: Autobiography of a Yogi
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda is one of the great modern classics of spiritual literature. Since its first publication in 1946, it has been cited again and again as “the” book which first set one seeker after another on their path of discovery.
Yogananda was one of the very first Indian mystics to bring the ancient teachings of yoga to the Western World. He arrived in the United States in 1920, and lectured here widely until his Mahāsamādhi in 1952.
I happened recently across a documentary on the saint’s life called AWAKE: The Life of Yogananda and became fascinated. The book, thus far, gives a great bit more detail on Yogananda’s life from childhood through his departure for America. I’m looking forward to reading the rest.
I always seem to have several books going at once, and currently, along with this one, I’ve been reading Ram Dass’ Be Here Now and Krishna Das’ Chants of a Lifetime. It’s interesting to contrast the spiritual journeys of these two Americans who both mention Yogananda as an early influence, with that of this important Indian master himself.
Report From Thailand
Tyrell Haberkorn sums up the situation this week in Thailand, where what began as a student movement questioning the role of the monarchy has become a broader struggle for democracy.
In arresting them and others last week, the Thai authorities seemed to hope to end the movement calling for an end to dictatorship and reform of the monarchy by locking its leaders away behind bars. But as the mushrooming protests this past weekend and early this week illustrate, the tactic has failed.
One who is dear to our hearts lives in Bangkok. We pray for her safety during this time of turbulance.
Source: The Fight for Democracy in Thailand | Dissent Magazine