Blog Post Ideas

Which blog post idea sounds most interesting to you?
-Day of the Dead 2015 and the Dead as oppressed peoples
- Slow Schools
-Intercambio and volunteerism: pairing the elderly with language learners

What if you could get paid for meditating?

This may be the job of the future. Imagine you meditate, allowing your mind to go back and forth between thoughts and mantra and no thought. When you are consciously experiencing no thought, your brain is doing massive calculations IN PARRALLEL, meaning at the same time. Your brain is actually faster than a super computer because it doesn't just have one central processor. It's doing subconscious calculations all the time.

If we network our brains (as is already happening with communications technology and will continue to happen with devices implanted into our bodies), we can imagine a world where our most perplexing problems are solved not by computers but by networked human brains. (More accurately, networked human brains assisted by computers to communicate efficiently.)

The future is now, and it occurs to me that you probably can already get paid for meditating.

Stop Military Base Construction in Okinawa

This is a message of solidarity with the people of Okinawa. I would like to express my sincere determination that their movement for peace is realized. The local people have made it abundantly clear: they do not want the construction of new US military bases on their islands, specifically at the sites of Henoko and Takae. The US and Japanese governments must listen to the local people. These projects which have moved forward into the construction phase, endanger the area's bio-diverse ecosystems, public health, and public safety. For many reasons the people of Okinawa have shown with an overwhelming majority that they do not support these US military base projects. In fact the people of Okinawa have repeatedly demonstrated through elections and referendums that they are in favor of relieving the burden of US Military bases. They would like for the US and Japanese governments to come to a solution where these bases can be moved away and off of Okinawa. These efforts have led to mass protests and demonstrations and a sit in at the construction site that's gone on for about a decade at this point.

 

When we speak up and speak out, we strengthen the global movement for peace. We lend our voices in support of keeping Okinawa the beautiful place that it is with pristine beaches, wonderful history and culture, and many happy people. We want future generations to be able to enjoy the beauty of Okinawa, as well. For this reason, I am boldly encouraging the members of SGI USA and SGI Japan to take a strong stance: No new bases in Okinawa. Close the bases in Okinawa, as part of our movement for peace and kosen rufu and worldwide human revolution. What we are talking about is the courage to be vocal about peace and realize the ways that we can contribute to it.

 

Please join in taking a bold stance on Okinawa and speak out! As Buddhists, we chant every day for world peace. "I pray for the happiness of all living beings and peace throughout the world." I pray for the peace of the people of Okinawa, the United States and around the world. Let's close the bases. Let's change our military bases into school, recreation centers, and libraries. Let's change poison into medicine. Nam myo ho renge kyo.

-Benjamin F. C. King, February 16, 2015
 

For more information and updates, please visit:

Okinawa Outreach

The Peace Philosophy Center

What would it ACTUALLY take?

What would it ACTUALLY take to make it happen?

What do you really have to do to achieve your dreams?

The Health of the Cell is Transcendent

The health of the cell is the health of the body is the health of the species is the health of the planet. -Maree Avery Brown (?)

The above quotation may make us think in hierarchical terms, but the qualities of health and happiness I believe are transcendent across these material boundaries. Transcendental beings (Buddhas of pure energy) may make quantum leaps across, around and through our material universe. "We" are but conduits, our souls merely an accumulation of these energies (plural!) over time, just as our bodies emerge as the complex expression of the interaction of our cells.

More traditionally, we think of units such as individual, family, town or city, state, country, world. May happiness flow through all these places, people and things like warm water, gently washing our molecules and atoms. May we breath from the space between

Sun Consciousness

The sun is a star. Is a star alive? I believe so. Perhaps not by traditional biological definition, but it has a life cycle. As a human, this is almost unimaginable. But that's probably because the billions of years that constitute a star's life are so far beyond our own lifetime.

Thinking about which life forms on earth might communicate with the sun and stars, trees seem like the best bet. With their extended lifetime of hundreds of years and their use of photosynthesis for energy production, trees may have a much more intimate symbioyic relationship with the sun.

Anti-critical Thinking

Recently, a friend who I consider to be a spiritual mentor told me, "Ben, you are a very critical thinker." Generally, I consider this a compliment. Although I have many critical thoughts about our spiritual organization/religious group, we both understand that these thoughts serve to deepen faith. Faith cannot, and should not, be blind.

However, tonight I opened myself to the concept of anti-critical thinking. That is, I decided that I would listen to the radio show below with a sense of openness and non-judgement. I'm glad I did.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/americameditating/2014/10/13/what-are-you-broadcasting-with-bestselling-author-futurist-dawn-clark

A year or two ago, the feelings of uneasiness provoked by this podcast may have driven me to turn it off. Too much feminine energy. Too new-agey. The guest and her father are associated with the military industrial complex. Too corporate in her approach. Though these thoughts are still present, I decided to view them with open awareness. As a result, the message of love broadcast here is now radiating through me. I want to share this message, this frequency, with my friends, family, and the entire world. Love might be an approximation or an interpretation of this frequency, as would nam-myoho-renge-kyo, as would Truth in the Gandhian sense. Whatever these words point to, that is what I want to broadcast.

Thank you to Dawn Clark for attuning me to this frequency. I look forward to exploring her website!   

Update:
10/15/14
I am back to critical thinking today. After looking at Dawn Clark's website, I found that she requires an email address to view 3 "free" hours of video listed on her gifts page. Information is currency. I'm resentful she's reinforcing the prrdominant economic paradigm - there is no free lunch. I feel swindled!