Now That's a LOT of Shoes!

 

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Blogging By the Numbers #4

[This is part of my occasional Blogging By the Numbers series.]

• One Hundred Twenty-Three: How many words per minute (WPM) I type, according to a recent typing test.
• Sixty-One: The predicted high temperature for today in Santa Fe, where I and my lovely wife Suzy will be spending the day.
• Forty: How many days between now and my birthday! Weeee!
• Thirty-Two Point Nine: How many minutes are left on my phone. Guess I should add more soon, eh?
• Thirty: The minimum number of classes I had to teach every week at my last job. So glad I'm not doing that anymore!
• Seventeen: How many dollars Suzy and I spend, combined, on our cell phones every month. Contracts? We don't need no STINKIN' contracts!
• Fourteen: The number of days between now and the HUGE booksale down at the main library. $3, you can take as many books as fit in the big bag they give you. Heaven for a bookworm like me!
• Nine: Total number of books in my queue. I actually have them lined up on a bookshelf, in the order I intend to read them. Le sigh!
• Six: The number of items in my Opera Speed Dial which are related to social media (Twitter, blogs, etc.).
• One: How many people will actually read this blog post, ever.;-)
• Zero: How many problems I've had with my trusty ol' iPod Video since I went back to it. A lot better track record than a certain other iPod I have, which is useless with Linux... *cough*iPod Touch*cough*

Guiding Thoughts: Part 3 - Three Friends in Winter

[This is part 3 of my Guiding Thoughts series, where I share some spiritual ideas that have a positive impact on my life.]

One of my earliest spiritual forays was into Taoism, a wonderful philsophical tradition from China. While I primarily consider myself to be a Buddhist, Taoism is still an important part of my spirituality and something that continues to enrich my life. From traditional Chinese culture and Taoism comes a trinity of ideas that I think is important to keep in mind always -- and especially in difficult times.

Thought 3: Remember The Three Friends in Winter (岁寒三友)
What are the "three friends"? They are bamboo, plum blossoms, and the pine tree. They represent three ideal aspects of the ideal person:

1. Bamboo - this friend represents flexibility. Bamboo grows tall, and can be very solid. It's solid enough to use as a tool or as a weapon, yet it is also flexible. Healthy bamboo can become very long and yet, when even the strongest wind blows, it will not break. In the face of great force, you can yield as necessary and then spring back from a position of strength, without breaking.
2. Plum Blossoms - this friend represents beauty among even harsh circumstances. Plum flowers bloom in the depth of winter. Amid great cold and dreariness that might kill other flowers, the plum blossom opens and shows its beauty. To be like this friend, you should find opportunity even in the most bleak situations, and let your beauty shine forth.
3. Pine Tree - this friend symbolizes survival through difficulty. The pine is green all year round, and does not wither even in the coldest days of winter. It can grow in places with little water and nutrients.

If you keep these friends in mind in both good times and bad, you may find yourself inspired to be flexible in ways you thought you couldn't be -- and perhaps you can blossom and survive in situations where others falter.

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

One of My Favorite Pics from China

This is probably my most favoritest picture EVAR from my time in China. This photo was taken when I, my wife Suzy, and our friend Mark went to the gorgeous Zhang Jia Jie national park:

via flickr.com

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Feeding Monkeys and Hiking Through Caves

Can't believe it's taken me almost 6 months to get around to putting these pictures online! Here are some awesome pictures from my trip to Zhang Jia Jie with Suzy and our Aussie pal, Mark.

Highlights include: beautiful scenery, hungry thieving monkeys, and random Chinese people!

via flickr.com

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Earth Day - Not Just a Day, But a Beginning

I know, it's a cliché -- "every day should be Earth Day!" I've been thinking about this a bit as Earth Day approached. I want to do something symbolic to "celebrate" the day. I already do a lot of stuff the mainstream media recommends each year -- bike or take public transportation, use re-usable bags, use natural soaps/detergents, etc. I want to do something more in recognition of Earth Day.

Bearing in mind that "practice = enlightenment" in Buddhism, I decided I shouldn't just do a one-off thing. I should use Earth Day as not simply a day, but as a beginning. So this Earth Day, I will begin a new habit that's been on my mind for a while anyway: wasting less water. I'm generally good about my water use anyway, but I know my weakness is long showers. My job demands a lot of physical work, and I do a lot of biking or walking to the bus every day. That means I really enjoy a long, hot, relaxing shower at the end of the day. I always feel a tug of guilt over the water (and money) being wasted.

Earth Day will be the symbolic start of a new habit for me, then. Starting tonight, I will strive to take shorter showers. I'll use a timer and start limiting myself to five minutes, and see how it goes from there. Maybe I'll get down to three minutes or less? Or I could get to the point where I can take "Navy showers" -- turn the water on for a few seconds to get wet all over, turn it off, lather up the soap and shampoo, then turn the water on again for a few seconds to rinse off. Not sure if I want to go that far! We'll see...

So, what new habits will you start (and maintain after!) Earth Day? My always-fabulous friend Nadia has some good ideas to help keep the planet happy.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Wisdom and Compassion

I think everybody knows that compassion is a fundamental part of Buddhism. However, wisdom is equally important. Wisdom and compassion are likened to the two wings of a bird -- both are necessary for the bird to take flight. In the same way, we need both wisdom and compassion for our spiritual side to take flight; and these two aspects need to be balanced, otherwise we will be flying in crooked circles all the time.

(Before continuing, I need to apologize for the readability of some of what follows -- I'm writing about people I know, and I'm doing my best to protect their identities by not revealing their names or giving much detail about how we all know each other. Please bear with me as I mangle the English language for that purpose!)

I bring this up because I'm seeing how the wisdom-compassion balance is playing out in my own life. I know someone who has gotten stuck living entirely out of habit and knee-jerk reactions -- continuing cycles of emotion and ego that are hurtful for herself and others. I and another person, before even talking about it together, independently came to the same conclusion: she lacks self awareness. Self awareness is an essential skill that allows you to see the patterns you fall into, to see if your authenticity is becoming blocked, and to see whether your actions are promoting something positive or something painful.

So, I and this other person both have the same understanding: we know that this woman is lacking self awareness. But now that we have that intellectual understanding, we are at a critical juncture. What do we do with that understanding? This is where the spiritual tires hit the pavement!

From the other person's perspective, he judges the woman in a negative light. Her ever-deepening entrapment in negative patterns and habits is something to condemn her for, as something intrinsically bad about her as a person. There's no point in trying to understand her or the situation further.

From a Buddhist perspective, such a judgment is not only pointless, it is often damaging to both the judge and the judged. I don't feel anger or strong negativity towards this person for the cycles she has fallen into. I feel sadness and compassion, because I see she has somehow lost even the ability to see these cycles or the roots they come from. I feel a desire to help break those cycles, or at the very least to use my understanding to avoid fueling further negativity. If I can't help much, at least I can help by not harming, right?

In Awakening the Buddha Within, Lama Surya Das warns early on that we should not fall victim to "hardening of the heart-waves." That is, it's all well and good to intellectually understand the truth of life or the truth of a situation, but this understanding must be tempered with compassion. There absolutely must be a balance. Otherwise, we run the very real risk of becoming judgmental and hurtful, using our spirituality to harm rather than help those who most need our compassion. Sitting on the high pedestal of our great spiritual truths, looking down at the hapless commoners below -- that helps nobody.

I'm not trying to be judgmental of judgmental people! What I am saying is this: please look carefully and critically at the things you think and say about other people. Look closely at your thoughts, and ask yourself where they come from. Do they come from something positive or something negative? Do they come from a desire to help, or from a desire to ridicule? Do your thoughts, words, and deeds serve to unite people or to marginalize and separate them? I know that we in the West are so fond of our logical understanding and the irrefutable, iron-clad judgments that come from doing the math. But in my opinion, that understanding is not enough. Computers can follow that logic and come to calculated results, but do we want to be mere automotons of logic? Part of what makes us human is our innate ability to balance understanding and love.

This takes me back to what my friend Nadia (@HappyLotus) wrote about on her blog: who do you want to be? Do you want to fill yourself with negative judgments of people? How does that negativity affect you? As Jesus said, we are not defiled by the things that we put in our mouths, but by the things that come out of our mouths. Each moment is a new opportunity to choose who we want to be, and we can choose to be a person of wise compassion if we really want to.

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

UPS Store Reunion

Tonight, me and mah UPS Store peepz finally got together for a reunion dinner, having not all gotten together in the last 2+ years. It took us four months to get this damn thing to come together, but we finally pulled it off!

From left to right: Short Bus Ninja Mario, my dear Suzy, me, Art, Maisie, and Yvette.

Suzy in front of the Sandias:

The mealtime chaos ensues indoors:

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Snowy Sandias Yesterday

Today it's toasty warm with mild cool breezes, blue skies, and fluffy clouds... But yesterday, it looked like this:

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Flowers Near the Bosque

Beautiful little flowers near my mom's house, along the Bosque.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Photos from Casa Rondeña Winery

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Test Photo From My Motorola w376g

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Book Review: The Secret

I was out of the country when The Secret phenomenon was going on, so pardon my late arrival to the party. My initial contact with the book caused me to dismiss it as too New Age-y for my interest. Recently I decided to give it a second glance, and while there is a lot I can say about the book (both positive and negative), I'll try to keep it brief.

If you haven't read The Secret or seen the movie, the basic idea is this: through the Law of Attraction, your thoughts attract whatever you are thinking about. If you think a lot about making money, the universe will present you with the cues and opportunities to do so.

On the face of it, The Secret seems to teach something very positive -- motivation is a key to your life. How you think shapes what happens. A worthy mantra (one of the few) from the book is, "Thoughts become things." I believe this is very true. However, I believe it is true for very different reasons than the author/contributors of The Secret do.

The Secret says that your thoughts send out "vibrations" that "the universe" responds to. Another reviewer elsewhere (I believe on Amazon) pointed out that, according to this book, the universe has a language processing disorder, and even turns your thoughts of "don't want" into "want." Whatever. I believe "thoughts become things" in the Buddhist sense. Your thoughts form the foundation for your actions, your speech, and your perceptions. I think it's too fluffy and cute to think that the universe (whatever that is) is actively responding to your brainwaves. I do think that if you think a lot of negative things, you will speak and do things rooted in negativity -- and the same, for positivity, generosity, and everything else. Thoughts do become things.

In reality, I think The Secret can be summed up like this: avoid creating mental roadblocks for yourself, and realize that motivation and your own thoughts will shape the world you live in (for the reasons I outlined in the last paragraph -- not because of fakey quantum physics). Why, then, is a meandering book of this length necessary? I don't know. It isn't necessary for any reason I can see.

Poitive side note: I really like Lee Brower's idea of "gratitude rocks," described on page 78: "Every time I touch this rock, I'm going to think of something that I'm grateful for." This is a great spiritual practice, and could be done with anything. I wear a small gold pendant of the Bodhisattva Guan Yin, and whenever my awareness drifts to it or I touch it with my hand, I try to re-center myself spiritually. I think keeping a special object with you and using it as a spiritual wake-up call during your day is an excellent practice.

That said, I think The Secret can be seen as either a harmlessly dreamy book, or a naively dangerous one. It's harmless if you have your wits about you and don't get taken in by all the pseudoscience, pseudospiritualism, and misused quotations that fill up the book. It's potentially dangerous if you are taken in by those things, and aren't alert to the following characteristics of the book:

• There are repeated overtones of escapism. Something bad comes along in your mind or your world, and you must escape it! Nevermind why it came or where it came from. I believe the why and the where are pretty critical sources of inquiry for anyone on a genuine spiritual path, but they are absent in The Secret, or replaced by the aforementioned pseudoscience.
• The book is almost completely focused on material abundance and acquisition -- me, my money, my accomplishments, my good feelings. I didn't see much about giving, healing, or helping other people.
  
• Following on from the last point, The Secret engages in a lot of ego-stroking. As a practicing Buddhist, I've found many problems come from inflating one's sense of self. I think it's better to empty oneself of the ego as much as possible, rather than to throw more gasoline onto the flames by acquiring lots of stuff and lots of materialistic ideas.
  

Overall, I think The Secret is too long and tries too hard to take its subject seriously. If it was based on such a solid and dependable "law" as it claims, why would it be composed of so many pages of quotes and "teachers" trying to prop it up? It contains no actual secret, and it detracts a lot from what could be a valuable teaching: know that your thoughts are the root of everything that you will do and become.

Don't bother reading The Secret for anything serious. You'd be served far better by Googling for quotes by Thich Nhat Nanh, or reading spiritually sound writing from people like my friends Nadia, Lori, and @coffeesister.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Inspired by @HappyLotus: Who Do You Want To Be?

I wanted to pass on a wonderful, thoughtful, yet simple blog post written by my friend Nadia at Happy Lotus. Her post is titled "Who Do You Want To Be?", and is something I would highly recommend to anyone who is on a spiritual path, Buddhist or otherwise.

My own comments on the post:

This is a great question to ask yourself every morning after you wake up, and indeed every moment — whether your buttons are being pushed or not. “Who do you want to be?”

Each day you are a blank slate, and you can be anybody you want to be. You can be someone whose actions are fueled by anger (even righteous anger), or whose actions are fueled by peace. You can be a person who sleep-walks through the day on autopilot, or a person who keeps awareness and lives life on purpose.

Who do you want to be? This is the meditation that should be on everyone’s lips, every moment. If more people gave that question serious thought before they spoke and acted, so much needless suffering would be avoided.

As Christopher Hansard says in The Tibetan Art of Living, "We are not reborn complete with a soul, but we do come to this life with all the ingredients to make one." Each day, you have the ingredients to make your soul anew -- who will you be today?

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

Don't Be Something... Just Be.

Much in Buddhism is written about the importance of not labeling things. The more you label things and lock them into little frozen categories in your mind, the less open you are to the vibrance of reality. You start to see things as you think they are, rather than as they actually may be in any given moment. You set yourself up for lots of disappointment when the world doesn't match your static ideas, and your suffering may be passed on to others when you place those expectations on them.

To borrow from the great Zhuangzi, labeling the people and things in your life is like pinning a butterfly: "the husk is captured, but the flying is lost."

Just now, my thinking was jolted to that idea. My wife gave me an off-hand compliment, and I found myself puzzled as to how I should respond. My usual response would be something modest, trying to shrug off the compliment and not let it go to my head. Another possible response would be to agree with the compliment and internalize it, at the risk of inflating my ego or looking uncharacteristically smug.

I suddenly realized that in the middle is the best solution: let the compliment go. Don't sell myself short by running away from the compliment -- that enhances some label I've applied to myself, perhaps a seemingly positive one like "modest" or a negative one like "not worthy of that kind of compliment." But also, don't inflate myself by taking the compliment to heart and building up some ego-image of a great guy. Labels mean nothing for more than a brief instant! The compliment applies to a Thomas of the past, even if that past moment was just mere seconds ago.

The middle way truly is the best path, because it tends to be naturally free of labels. Why worry about what to do with the compliment? It's so good to just let it flutter on by, like a leaf on the wind. I would look rather silly if I glued leaves to myself throughout the day, so why should compliments or criticism be any different? It's much better to be than to be something definable in words.

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

Sense of Wonder

Just now, I was watching the morning sunlight shining through my blinds and onto my bed. A thought jumped into my mind: much of my schooling as a child actually did me a great disservice.

A strange thought to think while looking at light and shadows, right? But actually it is related. I thunk that thought because most schooling ignores or even tries to take away one's natural sense of wonder. My best teachers were the ones who would take students step-by-step through the material at hand, and do so with a feeling of reverence. Even my geology class, a subject that would normally put a non-scientifically minded person to sleep, was a bit like an adventure because my teacher taught this way.

But a lot of education lacks that sense of wonder. You're told how light works, how it can be both a wave and a particle. The problem isn't in knowing how the light works. The problem is being told "Oh, it's just light. We understand it scientifically, so there's no reason to be all that impressed by it." That feeling came from so many of my teachers and textbooks. Where is the beauty? What is the point in understanding something if understanding it does not reveal more of its beauty and charm to us?

Whether you understand it scientifically or not, it is still wondrous. It is a beautiful, awe-inspiring thing to wake up early in the morning and see the shadow of a tree outside your bedroom window, gently dancing across the wall as the breeze caresses its leaves and branches.

Do yourself a favor, and educate yourself not only about numbers, facts, and brainy understanding. Educate yourself with a sense of wonder. With that sense of wonder will come feelings of joy and gratitude for your good fortune to be participating in this world. That joy and gratitude can change your day, and perhaps your life as well.

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

Is This Amazon's Morality?

Is this the result Amazon was going for with its "adult" filtering? Or is this some search algorithm gone bad?

This is either a huge error in judgment or a huge error in technology -- either way, this is a PR nightmare for the textbooks. Public relations and marketing majors for the next 50 years will have a whole chapter in their textbooks about "The Amazon Rank Incident."

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Summary of the #amazonfail Spectacle Today

I spent a while watching #amazonfail on Twitter today, and collecting juicy stuff in real time from Twitterfall. It's no longer the #1 trend on Twitter, but it's still a strong #2 -- right after "Happy Easter." Happy Easter indeed, if you don't work for Amazon during this PR nightmare!

Anyway, here are some bits of how people feel about the whole thing:

@antinmitchfield suggested that @Powells (www.powells.com) spin this to their advantage by having an "Amazon Fail Sale." Very catchy!

The Twitterverse successfully "Google bombed" the definition of "Amazon Rank." The #1 result for a Google search on "Amazon Rank" is now this web page, which I quoted and linked to earlier.

@gorgeousnerd said: the best part of #amazonfail is just how many ways Amazon seems to think I'm lesser. Way to alienate a book lover, guys!

@mizmedia said: #Amazonfail Why not have search pref for those who want adult/gay/whatever filtered? Don't make filtered results default!

@Lysimachia pointed out that "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality" is not affected by the filtering.

@shawnmain linked to an analysis of which books are affected by #amazonfail: http://digg.com/d1oYGx

@TarotByArwen passed on the sentiment of another Twitterer I cannot find: we all know that heather has two mommies is CLEARLY an adult book full of explicit sexual content!!! #amazonfail

@cabridges said: Response from Amazon's e-mail: "Due to the high volume of emails we are receiving..." Happy Easter, Amazon! #amazonfail

@girlonetrack said: until 'Playboy Centrefolds' is blocked like lesbian fiction, "think of the children" argument is invalid #amazonfail

Booksquare.com posted an excellent open letter to Amazon, including this part that I like: Gee, I can buy a book on training fighting dogs (something so offensive my stomach hurts just looking at the cover image), but specific types of human relationships are suddenly taboo?

@sgerald said: you leave to eat cupcakes & hunt eggs only to discover that a Twitter revolution has taken place in that time. #amazonfail

@rframpton said that joining the conversation of #amazonfail is "Joining the train of WTF." I love it! Everybody hopped on the WTF train with this one!

@magicalrealist said: apparently hetero porn is allowable. Ron Jeremy's bio is ranked, but Ellen DeGeneres's is not. WTF Amazon? #amazonfail

@Toneils said: #amazonfail. Easter is the WORST possible time for this, lol. All us deviants are at the computer being bored!

@ColleenLindsay said: ANARCHIST COOKBOOK is ranked; JOY OF SEX is unranked. Amazon would rather you make napalm than get laid. #amazonfail

A Slashdot comment by tftp pointed out that this is an opportunity. Domains are cheap, selling stuff online is also cheap and easy. Instead of just whining, people should go set up their own bookstores and sell the stuff Amazon is offended by.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Definition of Amazon Rank

(The following definition is courtesy of this web page and @SmartBitches on Twitter.)

amazon rank

Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): amazon ranked

1. To censor and exclude on the basis of adult content in literature (except for Playboy, Penthouse, dogfighting and graphic novels depicting incest orgies). 
2. To make changes based on inconsistent applications of standards, logic and common sense.

Etymology: from 12 April 2009 removal of sales rank figures from books on Amazon.com containing sexual, erotic, romantic, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or queer content, rendering them impossible to find through basic search functions at the top of Amazon.com's website. Titles stripped of their sales rankings include "Bastard Out of Carolina," "Lady Chatterly's Lover," prominent romance novels, GLBTQ fiction novels, YA books, and narratives about gay people.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Amazon Makes a Stupid Move - #amazonfail

Happy Easter! ... Unless you're the author of a book on lesbian parenting, in which case you have just been banished from Amazon searches and bestseller lists.

Amazon has started filtering "adult" content out of search results and best seller lists -- not a terrible idea in itself, but really boneheaded in this case. The devil is in the details of what Amazon considers to be "adult" content. According to one petition against the new policy, Amazon seems very happy to filter out books on gay/lesbian parenting (with no explicit sexual content), while allowing explicitly sexual heterosexual books to appear without filtering:

We would like to hear the rationalisation for allowing sales ratings for explicit books with a heterosexual focus such as:

--Playboy: The Complete Centerfolds by Chronicle Books (pictures of over 600 naked women)
--Rosemary Rogers' Sweet Savage Love" (explicit heterosexual romance);
--Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Wolf and the Dove (explicit heterosexual romance);
--Bertrice Smal's Skye o'Malley which are all explicit heterosexual romances
--and Alan Moore's Lost Girls (which is a very explicit sexual graphic novel)

Yet the following books, which have a gay or lesbian focus, have been classed as "adult books" and stripped of their sales ratings:

--Radclyffe Hill's classic novel about lesbians in Victorian times, The Well of Loneliness, and which contains not one sentence of sexual description;
--Mark R Probst's YA novel The Filly about a young man in the wild West discovering that he's gay (gay romance, no sex);
--Charlie Cochrane's Lessons in Love (gay romance with no sex);
--The Dictionary of Homophobia: A Global History of Gay & Lesbian Experience, edited by Louis-George Tin (non-fiction, history and social issues);
--and Homophobia: A History by Bryan Fone (non-fiction, focus on history and the forms prejudice against homosexuality has taken over the years).

Please tell us, Amazon, why the explicit books with a heterosexual focus are allowed to keep their sales ratings while the non-explicit romances, the histories and the biographies that deal with LGBTQ issues are not.

As of this writing, the tag #amazonfail is the number 1 trending topic on Twitter, as outrage spreads.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

5 Fun Facts About GhostNet (Spy Network From China)

I listened to Security Now! episode 191 on my commute to/from work today. The episode focuses on GhostNet, the computer spy network based in China that has infiltrated systems across 103 countries.

(If you have time, I highly recommend you listen to the show, so you can hear the fascinating details about how GhostNet works, what it can do, how it was discovered, and just how easy it is for this technology to compromise government computers and others. You can skip to about 30 minutes into the show, if you are not interested in the other unrelated security stories at the beginning.)

Here are five key facts about GhostNet that I learned from the episode:

1. The four known GhostNet control computers are all based on the island of Hainan in China -- that island is also home to Chinese intelligence agencies, though China denies any involvement.
2. The GhostNet software is based off of freely available trojan code called GhostRat, hence the "GhostNet" name.
3. The trojan software exploits a security flaw that has been known, documented, and patched since 2006! Many of the systems in GhostNet have remained infected since that time, and others continue to be infected even now.
4. Reportedly, a woman entering China was detained for two months. After denying any involvement with Tibet or the Dalai Lama, she was presented with a transcript of her private e-mails which had, presumably, been collected using the GhostNet network.
5. The compromised systems include: offices of the Dalai Lama; the Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, and the Philippines; the Embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany, and Pakistan; an unclassified computer at NATO headquarters, and many otthers.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Security Now! Podcast Covers Chinese Cyber-Spying Network

The newest episode of the Security Now! podcast covers "GhostNet", the Chinese computer spy network. This is the network I mentioned in an earlier post, and it allegedly has infiltrated computers in 103 countries, including some embassies and the offices of the Dalai Lama.

I've got a lot of podcasts to listen to, but I'll bump this to the front of the queue and listen to it on my way to work today!

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Living in the Pure Land

In Buddhism, there is a concept of the Pure Land. There is even a whole branch dedicated to Pure Land Buddhism. A Pure Land is a place -- physical, spiritual, mental, or otherwise -- that provides a perfect environment for spiritual growth and (eventually) enlightenment. It could be a physical place of safety and no distractions, or a spiritual place where even the very words to express ideas of Hell and suffering do not exist.

To find or be born in a Pure Land is a true blessing for Buddhists. To dwell there is to be virtually assured of peace, enlightenment, and the right environment to spread your spiritual wings and give blessings to others. Most people think the Pure Land is either a metaphor, or it is somewhere you have to wait to get to -- most likely, your best shot for finding it is to do the right things in this life so that you will be reborn in a Pure Land in the next life.

I think that I have, unwittingly, found the Pure Land in my life at this moment. I have a comfortable (but not too comfortable) home, I have a loving and supportive wife, and my job allows me to express my desire to help people while also fulfilling my desire to put food on the table. In a Pure Land, you feel safe, and your life is blessed with the right ingredients to expand your spiritual understanding and your compassion. I ended up with all those perfect ingredients in my life just recently.

Buddhists say that be in the Pure Land is an opportunity that must not be squandered. It is rare and a true blessing -- its opportunities must be taken advantage of, for the benefit of oneself and for all beings. In recent months as all these circumstances came together in my life, I've felt a tremendous surge inside me, as if a massive gust of wind was pushing me along somewhere. Surely this is the feeling a caterpillar must have as it is on the edge of transformation, before it breaks out and finds its new life as a butterfly. Where will the wind take me? I don't know, but it has brought me to a kind of Pure Land, and I must use this opportunity to go from the caterpillar I've been to the butterfly of what I will be!

The consummation of work lies not only in what we have done, but who we have become while accomplishing the task.
~ David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

Thoughts on Work, and the REAL Economic Recovery

Today while rummaging around through books at a nearby second hand shop, I was extremely happy to come across a book called Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimate of Identity. Tom Clancy thriller novel this is not, but it speaks to something that's been on my mind for a while. Namely, how do average people like me and you relate to work? I'm excited to read the book and find out what the author's take is on this relationship.

This subject comes up from time to time on my favorite podcast, This Week in Tech. They usually approach it from a technology angle, of course, but there is also talk about what work means in this economy and what it will mean after the recovery. The folks on TWiT seem to glimpse that "recovery" is not going to be what most people think, and I agree. Gone are those fantasy days of busting your hump for 40 years and then retiring to a life of relaxation and ocean cruises for the remainder of your (hopefully many) later years. In some ways, that fantasy is not a very good one anyway. I don't know anyone who is retired who is happy doing nothing -- often they work harder than they ever did while employed, but the focus has shifted from something they do for pay to something they do for joy or recreation. They enjoy that work because they find joy in it as a present-moment thing, not as a "I have to do this for another <X> years so I can rest!" thing.

Those of you who know me personally probably know that I hated a great deal about my last job (a teaching job in China, for an American company). I hated the long hours, the way local Chinese workers were [mis]treated (forced to work longer and harder than anybody else but for less pay), the condescending and abusive attitude sales staff held towards the students who they bilked out of thousands of dollars, etc. Now I have a job that is very human, very people-focused, and satisfying... Of course, I don't make the embarrassingly large stacks of money I made at the teaching job. But if you have to choose, it's better to have one's soul than to have a bursting wallet, right?

On the cover of Crossing the Unknown, work is defined as "the place where the self meets the world." This is the so-called pilgrimage of identity. You can't separate yourself from your job, as if it's some parasite unrelated to who you are and the life you lead. What will the economic recovery be? It won't be a return to $300,000 houses, two SUVs in the garage, and a 37" HD flat screen TV in every bedroom. Those days are gone, and good riddance to them. The economic recovery will be a return to middle ground: working a job that doesn't pay you as much, but prompts you to live a simpler and more satisfying lifestyle.

With my teaching job, I could buy virtually anything I wanted, anytime I wanted, for any price I wanted, and I hardly had to ever think about how much money was left in my bank account. I could blow money at Starbucks every day during lunch, my wife and I could eat at any of the hundreds of high-class, expensive restaurants nearby and not flinch at the price. We could do those things, and we often did. But I'm telling you, that lifestyle sucks. It is not at all satisfying, and it came at a price while I was working there -- a gut-wrenching churn of my stomach every morning before work, and a sense of dread hanging over each weekend, knowing that the work week would soon come again.

Now I have a much lower salary and we have a much stricter budget. Meals out are much less frequent, we buy our goodies at second hand stores when possible, etc. But I have birds chirping outside my window every morning, I have fluffy white clouds gliding across the blue skies above me, I have a modest (but comfortable) place to live, I have my cheap collection of used books, and my wife and I can walk every night while enjoying the silence and the stars. What more do we need? The REAL economic recovery will be when the rest of America realizes our lifestyle is a pretty good one, even if it lacks the (ridiculous) treadmill of consumption that people enjoyed before 2009.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Washing the Dishes

I enjoy taking my time with each dish, being fully aware of the dish, the water, and each movement of my hands. I know that if I hurry in order to eat dessert sooner, the time of washing dishes will be unpleasant and not worth living. That would be a pity, for each minute, each second of life is a miracle.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step

That may sound fluffy and new age-y to you, but it's true when you put it into practice. Tonight I saw Suzy start scrubbing away at a particularly greasy pan that she always uses for cooking Chinese food. Chinese food is generally fried in lots of oil, so this thing was REALLY greasy. To my own surprise, I was almost itching with excitement to take that chore off her hands and have the privilege of scrubbing it.

In Buddhism, there are basically two ways to meditate -- you can meditate because you force yourself to do so, or you can meditate because you want to. In this case, scrubbing the pot was a kind of meditation. Finding the right way to hold it or brace it against the side of the sink so it wouldn't move around, the movements of my hand as I used the scour to scrape off the stubborn grease. It's a kind of meditation, becoming identified with the actions you are taking. There's no separation, so no suffering. No desire to be somewhere else or doing something else, so no wandering mind or frustration.

In an indirect way, a lot of the conveniences we have (especially here in the USA) are a spiritual impediment. We've lost respect for the value of a job well done, especially one that is done with presence of mind. We all want the latest gadgets to save time on things we don't like doing. But this not only reduces our respect for the beauty of doing an action whole-heartedly; it also strokes our ego in a way. That's the spiritual impediment: we become so crippled by our quick fixes, that our ego-based indignation flares up if we (GASP) have to do something in a manner that takes more than 5 seconds.

Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step

(Posted via email from bites of buddha)

Chinese Spy System: Dalai Lama Computers, and Others in 103 Countries

From the New York Times:

A vast electronic spying operation has infiltrated computers and has stolen documents from hundreds of government and private offices around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, Canadian researchers have concluded.

[The operation] has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries, including many belonging to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centers in India, Brussels, London and New York.

According to episode 189 of This Week in Tech, the system can be used to activate the computers' webcams and microphones at will, among other things.

Also, it was reported that China used this information to stop a member of a pro-Tibetan group at the border, presenting her with transcripts of her own private e-mails with the Dalai Lama's offices. Apparently the infiltration began through social engineering, with someone from China taking part in a message board and passing along virus/trojan infected PC documents to a monk affiliated with the Dalai Lama.

Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness

Toltec Goodness

A few days ago, I bought a second-hand copy of A Toltec Path by Ken Eagle Feather. It's basically a handbook for all the ideas, techniques, and understanding behind the Toltec lifestyle. A lot of it is a stretch for me -- energy fields, multiple worlds arranged like the layers of an onion, shapeshifting, etc. However, there are a lot of philosophical points in the tradition that I think are really worthy of incorporating into a healthy spiritual life. Here are some bits I've discovered so far in the book:

Reality Is Interpretation. "We spend an enormous amount of energy molding our world to our thoughts, thereby creating what we believe to be reality." (p. 150)

If you acknowledge this idea and keep it in mind always, you will be less attached to the things you perceive and think. You will also realize that the things people do and the reactions they have are part of the conditioning and habits that formed along with their view of the world. This is why in The Four Agreements, don Miguel Ruiz stresses the value of the second agreement: Don't take anything personally. Often the things that other people do are because of the reality they believe in -- not because of you, personally.

"Reality is an interpretation of events. How we organize and view the world stems from a reflection within ourselves."
-- Ken Eagle Feather, A Toltec Path (p. 129)

The Value of Death. Death is an equalizer: "The fact that we all face death makes us all equal, leaving us no time for anything less." (p. 58, attributed to don Juan Matus)

Keeping that thought in mind can help you move away from the mind's habit to categorize people into neat little conceptual boxes, thereby making them less human than you or less worthy than you.

Death also presents us with good questions for evaluating what we're doing in the present moment. From the book:

1. If all I have is this moment, how do I want to use it?
2. Is this the best I can do?
3. Is this activity worthy of my life?

The Value of Petty Tyrants. Petty tyrants are the people or things in your life that dominate your time and your freedom in small, frustrating ways. Toltecs might encourage you to actively seek out petty tyrants; Ken likens this to "placing yourself through a mind-numbing obstacle course." If you approach these obstacles with self-awareness, you will learn to see instead of merely react out of blind habit. You will gain awareness of your ego, your weaknesses, and the buttons other people can push to make you react. Basically, you learn more about yourself and have opportunities to put your spirituality into practice. Here the spiritual tires hit the pavement of real life!

Our Place in Nature. "Our place in the natural order [is] simply to learn. This attitude causes an ongoing examination of oneself, and of one's relation to society, the world, and beyond... It also provides an orientation to uncover the unknown. Otherwise, there is no true learning. There is only repetition and enhancement of what is already known." (p. 35)

If our purpose is to learn, then this requires a certain amount of openness. That means we should reduce (and eventually eliminate) our habitual labeling and judging of everybody and everything around us, not jump to conclusions, and follow our intuition.

"Rather than strive to be an individual, you may find your individuality by allowing all life to express itself through you."
-- Ken Eagle Feather, A Toltec Path (p. 35)

Best of Thomas Time 4

Hard to believe it was only a month ago I did the last Best Of Thomas Time post... It feels like it's been months! Anyway, it's time to look back at some of my favorite posts since that time. Here they are, in no particular order. They're pretty much all about spirituality and religion, since that's the main force behind my blogging these days.

• Worship - do real Buddhists worship? Should a person like me, who does not think of the Buddha as a god, worship or bow to the Buddha?
• Rumi Ruminations - some beautiful bits of poetry by Rumi, perhaps the most awesome mystic poet of all time.
• Returning - you are the divine, and the divine wants to experience itself through you.

Guiding Thoughts: Part 2

[This is part 2 of my Guiding Thoughts series, where I share some spiritual ideas that have a positive impact on my life.]


Thought 2: Things aren't what you think
I think Rumi said it very well in "A Children's Game":

Recognize that your imagination and your thinking
and your sense perception
are reed canes that children cut
and pretend are horses.

The things our mind comes up with are often very much like those pretend horses. We dream up some idea of something, and we prance around with it, riding it as if it were a real horse. We take our concepts and thought bubbles and run with them as if they actually had something to do with reality.

Things aren't what you (or I) think. In Buddhism Is Not What You Think, Steve Hagen brings up a Zen teaching: "What is the mind? Ice forming in fire." Though it seems impossible for ice to form in fire, that is in fact what our ordinary minds are doing all the time. We live in this vibrant, ever-changing world called reality (fire), but our minds insist on boxing things up into static little concepts and labels (ice). When our thoughts don't match up with reality or they lead us astray, it inevitably brings us pain.

What's the solution? Breathe every breath and take every action with this mantra always on the tip of your tongue: things aren't what I think. If you can not take your own thoughts and ideas quite so seriously, you will save yourself a world of suffering -- and probably make things easier for those around you as well.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, and even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
-- Rumi

(Photo courtesy of alicepopkorn.)