Putting Swine Flu Into Perspective

Folks, I just want you to take a look at this graphic that puts swine flu into perspective. Go take a look at the large version where you can see all the numbers. For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume the numbers in this graphic are at least as accurate as anything fed to us by the lame mainstream media we have.

If you do take a look, you'll see how much swine flu lives up to the scaremongering -- which is to say, not much at all. Just taking a few numbers from the graphs, I'd like to point out that in the chart's 300-day period...

• There were 180 times more deaths due to traffic accidents than swine flu. Where are the protests, political measures, and grassroots campaigns for safe driving and improved traffic controls? Where are all the Public Service Announcements™ urging you to brush up at driving school?
• Virtually as many people died from leprosy as died from swine flu. How many people do you know who've died from leprosy lately?
• Over 467 times as many people died from STDs, HIV, or AIDS than died from swine flu. How come there aren't any "national emergencies" declared for AIDS? Why is the CDC spamming the TV and radio airwaves with ads for flu shots, and not condoms?
• Better yet, how come there aren't any national emergencies for cancer (nearly 1100 times as many deaths)?

It's all very fishy, my friends. I don't plan to make use of my $600 swine flu shot anytime soon. Can I get a refund?

Update: Just for the heck of it, compare the above numbers to the CDC's own stats on the seasonal flu:

Every year in the United States, on average:

• 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu;
• more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications; and
• about 36,000 people die [just in the U.S.] from flu-related causes.

Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

Response to FLOSS 91: Boycott Novell

This post is my response to episode 91 of FLOSS Weekly, a podcast that focuses on Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS). This episode was an interview with Roy Schestowitz, representing the Boycott Novell web site. First, let me make my position clear on a few things:

• Before listening to this podcast, I was not aware of the existence of the Boycott Novell site, nor the apparent controversy surrounding it. I was aware of the community reasons for wanting to boycott or otherwise punish Novell, namely the Novell-Microsoft patent agreement.
• I fully support the idea of boycotting companies like Novell, who damage the credibility and legal integrity of Free Software/Open Source in general, and Linux in particular.
• I think the Novell-Microsoft agreement was pretty ridiculous, and the idea that the Linux community needs Novell to "shield" us from Microsoft is silly at best.

That said, I also want to make clear that my intention is not to attack Roy as a person. But I do take serious issue with how he, and by extension Boycott Novell, came across in this interview. I feel that if Roy had been representing a community I was a part of, I would be sorely disappointed by how things went. This episode may be a good case study for learning how not to handle yourself in an interview.

Despite the length of this interview (one hour), virtually no clear answers came out of it. Perhaps Roy was having a bad day, but he seemed to just talk in circles around questions instead of facing them or answering them. It sounded like a tech interview with Bill Clinton -- legendary ol' Slick Willy dancing around the point of what you asked.

I also found a lot of naiveté and/or double standards expressed in the interview. Roy said Microsoft is worthy of slamming because it only seeks to exploit or pollute Linux, and yet IBM and other Linux partners are viewed differently. That's not to say that IBM or others have tried to harm Linux/FLOSS the way Microsoft has; clearly Microsoft has been very hostile towards Linux and open source.

But it's also very naive to say that say that Microsoft interacts with the Linux community only for money, whereas IBM supports Linux for higher principles. Both companies either support or attack Linux because they see that as a way to make money. That's what companies do. Maybe the culture at IBM is very friendly to open source, Linux, etc. but that wouldn't be enough to make them do what they do. The possibility of making money encourages and allows them to be friendly to open source. The moment friendliness to open source seriously hurts the bottom line, you could see a 180 on all that friendliness.

Next, Roy seemed extremely dodgy on the issue of spam. Apparently, he and the Boycott Novell site have been accused of spamming, or endorsing spam. I don't know enough about this issue one way or the other, so I can't express an educated opinion on what's happening there. But what I will say is that Roy came across as simultaneously too passive and perhaps dodgy enough to raise suspicions that he is involved with the spam. Host Jono Bacon tried repeatedly to make the point that Roy should at least post an official statement on the site saying Boycott Novell does not engage in these activities, doesn't support them, and in fact denounces them.

I think Jono's suggestion is sensible. Roy's response was that he doesn't want to engage with the spammers at all, and he repeatedly said "I don't even know these people." I lean more in Jono's direction: it doesn't matter if you know who they are, they are damaging your credibility and you're just lying on the floor taking it like a chump. If somebody went around Facebook, Twitter, Slashdot, etc. spamming links to my blog posts and pretending to be associated with me, I would immediately put a big front-page statement that I don't condone it and am against that behavior. Of course, I could be lying -- but at least I've taken a public stance on the issue to try to put it to rest.

This issue is even more important when you consider what Boycott Novell, by its very name, represents: a call to arms. My blog doesn't really call people to action or organize any activities on any scale. But Boycott Novell seeks to be a community promoting a specific agenda and promoting a specific understanding of the situation. If you're out there riling up the peasants and whipping them into revolt, you have to accept the possibility that some bad eggs are going to take it too far -- and you have to do the responsible thing by discouraging and very publicly distancing yourself from that kind of behavior.

Side note: This is very similar to why I'm disappointed in the Dalai Lama over the Dorje Shugden controversy. It's not that I think the Dalai Lama has no right to advise against worshiping Shugden. I do think his silence on the violent and sometimes deadly actions of overzealous supporters represents either a) lazy irresponsibility or b) unspoken acceptance of said violence. Either way, it's disappointing and sad.

In the end, this interview left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It was like watching a news interview with a government official, squirming in their seat as they worm their way around the knife's point of serious questions. Whether Roy intended it or not, he came off as disorganized at best, disingenuous and evasive at worst.

First 48 Hours with the Sansa Fuze

As I mentioned last week, my loyal iPod Video kicked the bucket and I had to decide on a replacement. Being no longer satisfied to pay the Apple tax for locked-down, proprietary devices, I decided to go for something more open: the Sansa Fuze 4GB. Besides the great price (about $50 and free shipping from Amazon), three things attracted me:

1. The reputation of Sansa devices for working very well with Linux.
2. Good podcast support.
3. Physical controls (not touch screen controls) that work without looking at the device, i.e. while bicycling.

I've had my Fuze for a full two days now, and here is a rundown of my impressions so far:

• Linux Support - as expected, this player works great with Linux. It should work with just about any PC, Mac, or anything else that can take Mass Storage USB devices. I plug it in, drop music files into the "Music" folder, podcasts into the "Podcasts" folder, etc. and that's it. Done. No iTunes, no buggy hacks to fool the iPod into working with non-Apple software. Plug in, add files, walk away.
• Podcasts - one reason I could not use my little iPod Shuffle (1st gen) to take over for my iPod Video: the damn thing cannot handle podcasts well. It constantly forgets what I'm listening to, and how far I've listened. I load my player up with a handful of hour-long-plus shows; it's not acceptable to lose my place in shows that long. Fortunately, the Fuze performs excellently. It automatically remembers where I stopped listening in each show, and allows me to resume from there or start over at the beginning.
• Controls - iPods have a touch wheel, but the Fuze has a control wheel that actually rotates when you move your finger around. It works very well, feels natural, and gives great physical feedback. I've used the Fuze while biking, while riding the bus, while doing chores, etc. and I've never had problems controlling it while keeping my eyes on the task at hand.
• Sound Quality - using the same headphones, I can't tell any difference in sound quality between this device and the iPods I've owned. The sound is great. I don't own $200 headphones, though; I imagine if I did, I would be able to tell the difference. But since I'm mostly listening to podcasts (people speaking), it doesn't matter much to me either way. The small amount of music I do listen to sounds quite awesome on the Fuze.
• FM Radio - a perk that all Sansa players give you is built-in FM radio. I'm not a big fan of radio because podcasts tend to offer better content with fewer advertisements. However, I do think it's handy to have radio as a backup in case I run out of shows to listen to, or I get bored with the stuff I've loaded. Sometimes random is good, and sometimes I want to listen to songs from outside my music collection (which is stuff I tend to play way too often). Here in Albuquerque, the Fuze has given me great reception on a variety of stations, while indoors and outdoors. Overall, a great bonus feature.

Overall, I'm stoked about this little device. It does exactly what I want, it does it well, and I don't have to use proprietary crap I don't want to. The Fuze makes everything dirt simple, and yet it is packed with features. I haven't even dug into things like photos, videos, and adding storage using the built-in microSD card slot. I expect those other features will work pretty well when I get to them.

Summary: The Fuze is an awesome and very inexpensive little device, packing tons of features into a tiny package. I am 110% satisfied.

Book Review: Digital Fortress

If you're not familiar with Digital Fortress, it is a novel by Dan Brown. He's the fellow that wrote The Da Vinci Code. I thoroughly enjoyed the latter, especially as an audiobook. Dan Brown spins some interesting tales, though he does occasionally twist the English language in painfully contorted ways.

That said, Digital Fortress is similar to The Da Vinci Code in that it consists of an almost unending series of turns in its plot, doubling back on itself and twisting around every few pages. I think Digital Fortress is the worst offender of the two, zig-zagging almost endlessly for hundreds of pages. The style of this novel consists of two main elements that repeat continuously:

1. A tense situation ensues over a couple of pages, and then... CLIFFHANGER! The next chapter zooms off to the other side of the globe for something inane. After the inane chapter, BAM! Back to the action.
2. Technobabble revelations of an "oh [expletive]!" nature.

The cliffhanger-mundane-cliffhanger pattern really left me with reader whiplash, at times. While reading Digital Fortress, there were a lot of moments where some low-down, dirty drama would start to happen, and then... Next chapter! Many of those moments left me muttering to myself, "Oh freakin' COME ON!" To be fair, a lot of those action-free interludes do a good job of fleshing out some characters and their personalities.

The technobabble revelations, as I call them, are also very frequent. They basically consist of conversations in this pattern:

1. Character A says something about a new wrinkle in whatever the current situation is, but leaves Character B hanging.
2. Character B's eyes widen and/or Character B pisses his/her pants as understanding dawns on him/her. He/she then mutters some technobabble phrase like "rotating plaintext mutation cipher injections." Whatever that string of words means, it's not good. It more or less means the world is going to f$%#ing end!
3. Character A confirms this pants-pissing revelation.
4. Optional: Character A also reveals that the rabbit hole goes even deeper, with the technobabble having worse ramifications than Character B even imagined.

Speaking of technobabble, remember that this novel is from 1998. A lot of the technobabble is not only nonsensical, it's also rather dated if you know anything at all about tech. My $30 cell phone has a lot more computing power than the billion-dollar government monoliths described in Digital Fortress, which makes the technical details almost comical at times.

Unfortunately, things really come unhinged in the last chapters of the book. When I got to this bit on page 377, that was basically the end of the line for me:

"We've got a five-tier level of defense," Jabba explained. "A primary Bastion Host, two sets of packet filters for FTP and X-eleven, a tunnel block, and finally a PEM-based authorization window right off the Truffle project."

This was followed by some "drama" involving computer defenses being shown like rings of shields, a la Star Trek, and invading hackers "circling" the shields as they fell, one-by-one. As the proud, knowledgeable geek that I am, that nonsensical string of tech lingo put me over the edge. I can't even finish the book.

I really don't want to be overly harsh on Digital Fortress. It has some good bubblegum suspense to it, overall. The story will leave you with a lot of whiplash as you read through it, and yet most of it is not that surprising ultimately. I guess if you know nothing about tech and you find encryption to be "magical," this book won't be as eye-rolling for you as it is for me. But man, it is dated, and my neck still hurts from being flung around the rapid-fire twists and turns of the plot.

If you have to choose between this and The Da Vinci Code (as if you're the one person on the planet who hasn't read it), choose Da Vinci.

Freakin' Awesome Video: Human Jumbotron

This video is just freakin' awesome. If you thought the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics was cool, check out this Human Jumbotron, courtesy of the Koreans:

Happy Diwali!

Happy Diwali, originally uploaded by m4r00n3d.

Happi Diwali, everyone! Let's celebrate the inner triumph of good tendencies over bad, skillful over unskillful, liberating over imprisoning. Use this day to spread the goodness you've cultivated in yourself, and also to inspire yourself to go even further in pursuing truth, goodness, and peace.

Successor to My iPod: Sansa Fuze

Earlier this week, my iPod Video bit the dust. After 3 years of loyal service, it went out in a blaze of glory as it shorted out on too much electricity through the USB port. RIP iPod Video -- you served with distinction over 3 years, 2 countries, and countless thousands of miles of travel. You will be missed!

Since my iPod kicked off, I've been agonizing over which MP3 player to buy to replace it. My main criteria for a replacement were:

1. Decent Linux compatibility. After my ordeals with the hideously incompatible and unstable iPod Touch, I refuse to use devices that require proprietary software. If it don't work with Linux, it ain't gonna fly.
2. Good podcast support. I hardly ever listen to music on the go these days; 90% of the time, I'm listening to podcasts like Buddhist Geeks, TWiT and No Agenda. Since most podcasts are 45-90 minutes long, my new player must allow bookmarking so I can pick up where I leave off if I turn off the player. Surprisingly, a lot of MP3 players don't do that very well, or at all.
3. Physical controls, NOT touch controls, for things like volume and changing tracks. Another reason my iPod Touch didn't suit me was the touch controls were impossible to use while riding a bicycle, which I do often for commuting to work. Ironically, players like the iPod Touch cannot be used solely by touch.
4. Price tag under $100, preferably under $75. Since I only need a few gigabytes to store my most recent podcasts & some favorite tunes, and since I virtually never use mobile video, it shouldn't be too hard to find an affordable MP3 player.

It didn't take much poking around to discover that the Sansa series of players, from Sandisk, tend to fit the bill best. Most (maybe all?) Sansas work with Linux, and all except the Sansa Express (which I really was interested in) seem to work well with podcasts. Also, the majority of Sansas range in price from about $25 to $80, well within my price range.

Which one did I settle on? Drumroll please...

The Sandisk Sansa Fuze

The 4GB model of the Sansa Fuze is about $50 on Amazon, with free shipping. It can do music, video, photos, FM radio, voice recording, and radio recording. I'll probably never use the video support, but since a Fuze is only a few dollars more than the Clip (which can't display photos or videos), why not go for it? And as a bonus, cute Japanese pop star Maki Goto did a promo video for the Sansa Fuze. How can any sane guy resist a cute j-pop girl?

Anywho... My Fuze was just shipped today by Amazon, and I should have it sometime next week. No doubt I'll be posting a "first impressions" review of it after I've had my hands on it for a little while. I'm just itching to get back into my podcasts, though...

Kick the Habit: Quit Samsara-ing!

Only three lines, hardly anything to it: Sabba papassa akaranam: refraining from all wrong doing. That's the teaching of all Buddhas. This is the heart of Buddhism. But people keep jumping over it, they don't want this one...

Most people just pass it by. They just want to perform good works, but they don't want to give up wrongdoing.
-- Venerable Ajahn Chah, "Making the Heart Good"

Buddhists talk a lot about "renunciation." What is it that we're expected to "renounce," exactly? Are we supposed to give up the things we love? Cute puppies, pizza, our spouses, our favorite movies? That's not what renunciation is. Sure, giving up those things could make some spiritual attainments easier. And those things must be given up eventually, either at the moment of death or earlier. But those things are not the point nor are they the source of what traps us budding Buddhists on our path.

"It is not the outer objects that entangle us. It is the inner clinging that entangles us."
-- Tilopa

So what do we renounce? We need to renounce samsara. Samsara is all the wrong-headed, tainted thinking and reacting that we do. Samsara is the world of suffering, but it is not so much a physical place as it is the mind we live in. As Thanissaro Bhikkhu says, it's not where we are, it's what we are doing.

The last few days have reminded me of that. Samsara is here all around us, and we (each of us, individually) perpetuate it with everything we think, say, and do. The urgent task for me as a Buddhist is to stop samsara-ing, to stop creating and continually inhabiting the world of craving, division into "self" and "other," suffering, etc. After a couple of particularly stressful days and very stressful conversations, I realized (yet again!) what I've always known but don't always face: the stress came from me. I made it, with my attachments. I was samsara-ing my way into the stress, building it and feeding it.

The amazing thing is just how much friggin' time I spend on this world-building, this identity-building. How much time and energy do we spend on building up our identities, on setting up dominoes that we think define us but in fact lead us to pain when things don't work exactly as we'd like? The dominoes weren't lining up in the way His Majesty Thomas had blessed them and directed them to. ARGH!

How wonderful would our lives (and the world) be if we could direct even 10% of that samsara-energy into something good? What if I could channel that 10% into meditation, or charity, or reducing the many ways my mind attaches to things and thwarts my progress in Buddhism? What if I could redirect that 10% away from creating suffering for myself and others, and into something much more beneficial for everybody?

This is the stuff that must be renounced. I don't have to give up my wife, or my bicycle, or the coffee I enjoy from time to time. I have to give up creating roadblocks in my own path. And that is the hardest thing to do, folks! Samsara is like an addiction, a bad habit. Smoking can pollute your lungs and bring suffering in this life, but samsara pollutes your mind and your heart, and can lead to horrible suffering in this life and far beyond. How hard it is to give up these addictions that plant seeds of negativity and pain for the future!

I'm just lucky I have an excellent guide (Buddha) who has put guideposts along a most excellent path (Dharma), and all of this is passed on and perpetuated by pretty amazing people (Sangha). The Buddha is the doctor, and Dharma is his medicine -- but I have to sign the consent forms in every moment, to allow that medicine to heal my mind and my actions.

The Buddha once asked his monks, "Which do you think is greater: the water in the oceans or the tears you've shed while wandering on [in Samsara]?" His answer: the tears.
-- Thannisaro Bhikkhu, Samsara

Obama Wins EVERYTHING

The Nobel Peace Prize is actually the latest in a long series of awards Obama has won. Go check 'em out!

Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism: Two Sides of One Coin

Today, I've been thinking a lot about the two major branches of Buddhism: Theravada ("The Way of the Elders") and Mahayana ("The Great Vehicle of Compassion"). Theravada generally sticks to the oldest texts and teachings of the Buddha while Mahayana embraces a wider range of teachings, mostly emphasizing universal compassion.

A lot of people unfairly accuse Theravada Buddhism of being cold and heartless, because it seems selfishly focused on attaining liberation for oneself. This ignores the obvious (almost too obvious) fact that the Buddha himself remained in the world to teach out of deep compassion, and he also gave the teaching on the Brahma-viharas (the "Four Immeasurables"):

1. Metta - loving-kindness towards all.
2. Karuna - the compassionate hope that others' sufferings will diminish.
3. Mudita - rejoicing in the happiness and virtues of oneself and others.
4. Upkekkha - equanimity; detached acceptance of praise and blame, success and failure, loss and gain, etc.

Compassion is also expressed in the Five Precepts, which are a core aspect of all Buddhist schools of thought, including the Theravada:

1. No killing/harming other beings.
2. No stealing.
3. No sexual abuse or misconduct.
4. No divisive/abusive/idle/harmful/etc speech.
5. No intoxication (drugs, alcohol, and so on).

I'd like to put forth the notion that Theravada and Mahayana differ not on the basis of the presence or absence of compassion, but on the place for compassion. I think I can clumsily show the difference like so:

• Theravada: Compassion is a step on the path, and a tool for working towards liberation from suffering. Here, the goal is liberation, and compassion is the method.
• Mahayana: Compassion is the goal of the path, with liberation being the method for bringing about the ultimate expression of compassion.

Maybe it works better if I put it in a table?

	Goal	Method
Theravada	Liberation/Enlightenment	Includes compassion
Mahayana	Universal compassion, end of suffering for all brings	Liberation/Enlightenment

Essentially, Theravada and Mahayana encompass many of the same ideals and steps (the Four Noble Truths, the law of karma and rebirth, the Four Immeasurables, the importance of compassion, effort to reduce self-grasping and delusions, etc. etc. etc.). They represent two sides of the same coin of enlightenment. In Theravada, compassion is an integral part of seeking enlightenment, and in Mahayana, enlightenment is an integral part of compassion.

Not so incompatible after all, eh?

(Photo courtesy of 2Lúa - Norway.)

Our First Ever Balloon Flight

We got up just before 4am so we could catch the first shuttle to the Balloon Fiesta park and meet with the crew who would be sending us up. As the hundreds of balloonists in the field got ready for the mass ascension, and as the dawn patrol balloon tested the winds, the sun's rays peeked out from behind the mountains...

Dawn spread across the sky, and more and more balloons started to inflate around us...

Our crew moved to an open area just south of the main field, and we had a great view of dozens of Special Shapes balloons that were just taking flight...

We found a good spot and set up shop, getting the balloon ready to go...

After a while, everything was ready, and the balloon began to stand upright on its own...

All the bases covered and the wind set to carry us south, Suzy and I (and our pilot, Ron) kissed the solid earth goodbye and prepared to launch...

Once airborne, we had a breathtaking view of the city around us. Equally breathtaking was this picture, allowing you to count all our nose hairs with ease:

Having picked out a suitable landing spot, our pilot guided the balloon down into an open field and we touched down with a soft bounce. Eager chase crew ran over and dog-piled onto the basket to weigh it down and keep us on the ground, so the wind wouldn't blow us away.

After the landing and the massive team effort to pack up the balloon, the pilot gave a prayer of thanks for our safe return to earth. And of course, we were initiated as first-timers, treated to all the champagne we could want...

(There are many more photos than just these, so if you're interested, please have a look at my Flickr photo set for the Balloon Fiesta.)

Buddhism 101

Before I get started, a few words about what this post is. I've had more than a few friends (and casual acquaintances) ask me about Buddhism. Some have been genuinely curious, others have been looking for avenues to convert me to Christianity (something I don't appreciate, coming from "friends"). It's really hard to give a simple summary of what Buddhism is, but I figured I'd give it a shot. This post is a very, VERY brief look at Buddhism as I've learned it and as I practice it. I'm leaving out a lot of details, and I'm not even touching on things like meditation, etc. which are also important. This is just the basics.

Now, what this post is not. It is not...

• An academic discussion of Buddhism. I've done that in school, and I'm not attempting to do it in the much more personal and limited space of my blog.
• An effort to insult, degrade, or discourage other religions. I have no problem with other religions, and in fact I respect them greatly on many levels. Please do not take my acceptance of Buddhism as some sort of attack on you or your beliefs; I do not take your acceptance of other paths as an attack on me.
• My attempt to convert anybody to Buddhism. I cannot and would not try to convert anyone, and I have never tried to do so. If you find Buddhism interesting or valuable, great! I will happily tell you more about it. If not, that's fine. Buddha didn't force anyone to follow him, and he never asked for blind faith or obedience. I would never ask for those things either.

Okay? Cool. Having said that, one more thing: I'm relying heavily on quotes from Access to Insight, a Theravada Buddhist web site. It is a phenomenal resource for traditional Buddhist scripture and contemporary articles discussing virtually every aspect of Buddhism. I highly recommend it if you want to learn more than the puny surface details I can give here.

Let's jump right in with...

The Four Noble Truths

Shortly after his Awakening, the Buddha delivered his first sermon, in which he laid out the essential framework upon which all his later teachings were based. This framework consists of the Four Noble Truths, four fundamental principles of nature (Dhamma) that emerged from the Buddha's radically honest and penetrating assessment of the human condition. ^[source]

1. All of life includes suffering. "Now what, friends, is the noble truth of stress? Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful; separation from the loved is stressful; not getting what is wanted is stressful." ^[source]
2. The root of suffering is craving. "If... craving overcomes you in the world, your sorrows grow like wild grass after rain." ^[source]
3. Suffering can end, when craving ends. "Among whatever qualities there may be... the subduing of intoxication, the elimination of thirst, the uprooting of attachment... the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation... is considered supreme." ^[source]
4. There is a proven practice to end suffering. "The noble truth of the way of practice leading to the cessation of dukkha [suffering]: precisely this Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration." ^[source]

From these four simple truths, a lot of misconceptions arise about Buddhism. Buddha did not teach that all of life is suffering; he taught that all of life in this world includes suffering and even the most pleasurable things can create suffering. Even the purest, longest-lasting worldly pleasures can only last till we die.

Buddha also did not say that we must give up all happiness, joy, and pleasure in the world; he taught that deep and lasting happiness is sustained by not being overly concerned with those worldly pleasures. We can still enjoy them, as long as we stop grasping at them so desperately. The Fourth Noble Truth, called the Eightfold Path, is the way to stop that grasping and end suffering:

Because the roots of ignorance are so intimately entwined with the fabric of the psyche, the unawakened mind is capable of deceiving itself with breathtaking ingenuity. The solution therefore requires more than simply being kind, loving, and mindful in the present moment. The practitioner must equip him- or herself with the expertise to use a range of tools to outwit, outlast, and eventually uproot the mind's unskillful tendencies...

The good qualities that emerge and mature from these practices not only smooth the way for the journey... over time they have the effect of transforming the practitioner into a more generous, loving, compassionate, peaceful, and clear-headed member of society. The individual's sincere pursuit of Awakening is thus a priceless and timely gift to a world in desperate need of help. ^[source]

God, Gods?

When asked, "Does God exist or not?" Buddha remained silent. "Does the universe have a beginning or an end?" Again, the Buddha remained silent. He did not feel that speculating about such questions greatly facilitates our progress toward freedom and peace.
-- Lama Surya Das, Awakening the Buddha Within (p.111)

The Buddha summed up his teaching as follows: "I teach about suffering and the way to end it." Since we create our own worlds of suffering (see rebirth, below), nobody but us can break that cycle. Others can inspire us and can support us, but that is all. Speculation on anything irrelevant to knowledge of suffering and how to liberate ourselves from it -- the Buddha kept silent on these things.

Karma

According to this immutable law, every action that one performs in the present moment — whether by body, speech, or mind itself — eventually bears fruit according to its skillfulness: act in unskillful and harmful ways and unhappiness is bound to follow; act skillfully and happiness will ultimately ensue. As long as one remains ignorant of this principle, one is doomed to an aimless existence: happy one moment, in despair the next; enjoying one lifetime in heaven, the next in hell. ^[source]

Karma is a simple law of cause-and-effect. It is not destiny, fate, punishment, or reward. If you plant apple seeds, you will get apple trees -- not lemon trees. Apple trees are not a "reward" for planting apple seeds, they are simply the natural effect of the seeds being planted in fertile ground. Buddha teaches us how to see the effects we create; along the way, we learn to reduce and eventually stop making negative causes for negative effects. Suffering ends when we become aware enough and awake enough to simply drop its causes.

Rebirth

The Buddha once asked his monks, "Which do you think is greater: the water in the oceans or the tears you've shed while wandering on?" His answer: the tears. ^[source]

We've "wandered on" in this world, called Samsara. Samsara is a process, an endless round of suffering created by our grasping minds. Because we crave, we live out lives defined by craving: we crave to exist, so we are born; we crave to have pleasure, so we chase after the fleeting and unreliable things of this material world.

If samsara were a place, it might seem selfish for one person to look for an escape, leaving others behind. But when you realize that it's a process, there's nothing selfish about stopping it at all. It's like giving up an addiction or an abusive habit. When you learn the skills needed to stop creating your own worlds of suffering, you can share those skills with others so that they can stop creating theirs. ^[source]

That pretty much sums it up. These kinds of lives we lead, they're like a bad habit. Buddha is our lifestyle coach who encourages us to kick the bad habit of living lives of suffering.

There's much more to Buddhism than what I've touched on here. There's meditation, the Eightfold Path, virtuous practices like generous giving, etc. But I hope this post gave you a basic taste for the flavor of Buddhism and its foundation. If you have questions about this post, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line on Twitter.

Sad News in the World of Zen

I woke up this morning and hopped on Twitter, and I was met with some rather sad news: John Daido Loori is dying.

Daido Roshi is perhaps one of the greatest Zen teachers, and certainly he's been a shining star of Zen in America. His book, The Heart of Being, has shaped my mind and heart in ways that few other Buddhist teachings have. My heartfelt gratitude to Daido Roshi is beyond expression. I know I'm not the only one, Buddhist or otherwise, who will miss him very much.

Google Sidewiki, Part II

Earlier today, someone anonymously submitted a comment on my post about Google Sidewiki and why I'm so opposed to it. I was wondering how long it'd take for somebody to call me out on the issue that Anonymous did. Namely, what gives me (the web site owner) the right to tell you (the visitor) what to do with your computer?

The answer: nothing. Anonymous correctly pointed out that he can use Adblock Plus to filter ads on web sites -- something that I do myself. I use Adblock, I use Greasemonkey. Hell, I've even posted Greasemonkey scripts on this site to show how I filter or block various kinds of web content that annoys me. And I've used the same argument: "Who are you to tell me how I should view the web?" It is a great point.

It's also not really a point that contradicts my earlier argument against Sidewiki. In fact, it supports it in a way.

In the same way that I (site owner) cannot force you (visitor) to view certain content you don't want (advertisements), Google should not be able to force me (site owner) to be an indirect host for certain content that I don't want (third-party comments).

What's the solution to the scenario I (and so many others) pointed out, where somebody could spam Sidewiki comments for my site that include child porn, computer viruses, or links to pirated movies? What is in place to make it very clear to Joe and Jane Web User that I a) did not put that content there, and b) do not necessarily approve of or support it? The way Sidewiki is right now, it's like putting a big whiteboard in front of everyone's house and handing out dry erase markers. You can come to my house and write "Thomas is a dumbfuck" in big red letters, and I'm not allowed to erase it.

If you as a user wish to use Sidewiki, go for it! I actually like the idea in a lot of ways. BUT... Why can't site owners opt-out? It's such a simple, braindead feature to offer. Or even just add some little flag at the top of the Sidewiki sidebar, warning users that Sidewiki comments are third-party hosted and the site owner does not necessarily approve of or moderate that content. I'd be satisfied with even that much.

So basically, the Adblock Plus argument works both ways. Web site visitors have the right to filter, enhance, and alter whatever appears on their screen -- awesome. I'm all for it, I do it, and I encourage you to go for it. But don't web site authors also have the right to limit what is published (and that's what this is, publishing content) on their own sites? I'm not opposed to users using Sidewiki; I'm opposed to a huge, influential company like Google offering it and pushing it out to users who may not even understand what it is or how it is related to my content (i.e. not at all).

Adblock Plus is on your computer, and it only affects your experience. You're not infringing on my rights as a webmaster/publisher/author by manipulating how things look on your computer. My content is still being pushed out the way I intended, and once that happens, you're free to see it or filter it however you like, because that's for you.

By comparison, Sidewiki has the potential to impact any visitor to my site, if they use Google Toolbar (and, eventually, Chrome). Sidewiki is not like a user changing stylesheets or filtering ads on their personal computer. It is a company, a very big company, adding a very public layer of content onto someone's site without permission. Until Google either provides a good opt-out mechanism or a very noticeable and unambiguous disclaimer about the nature of Sidewiki content, I just can't get behind it.

Commenter "Duncan" at Search Engine Journal:
I look at Sidewiki with the same “love” that I look at four-letter words sprayed on the side of buildings during the night. And Sidewiki is giving them free spray paint at my expense.

That webmasters are now expected to adopt Sidewiki to defend their site is just insult to injury. If this “feature” is so good, then Google should allow sites the option to turn it off — then we can see just how “valuable” it is to those creating content as opposed to those who want to just spout off at our expense.

Big Stick Buddhism

The non-doing of any evil,
the performance of what's skillful,
the cleansing of one's own mind:
    this is the teaching
    of the Awakened.
-- "Buddhavagga: Awakened" (Dhp XIV, 183-185)

I've often seen the above passage quoted as a bird's-eye-view of what Buddhism is all about. If you read it carefully, you will notice that there's nothing in those five lines about evangelizing or lecturing others. Yet how easy it is to use Dharma as a stick for clubbing others over the head!

Though we should encourage others to act positively and to avoid harmful actions, there is a fine line between doing that skillfully and being a busybody. There's also the ever-present risk of using the Buddha's teachings as ways to run down other people or to inflate one's own ego. I've caught myself doing that from time to time, or being tempted to do it. The result is never positive!

Using the Dharma like that can happen in very subtle ways we may not notice immediately. It's an insidious act that can worm its way into our conduct as a habit that goes unnoticed for some time. We might catch ourselves wagging a finger at somebody, saying, "Tsk tsk, the Buddha said you shouldn't do that!" It's easy to justify that by telling ourselves that we're just trying to "enlighten" the other person. How generous we are! The truth is, we're probably just using Dharma as a tool for criticizing someone else or making ourselves feel better about our own less-than-ideal conduct.

Alternatively, we may use Dharma as a way to justify laziness: "I don't need to wash the dishes carefully, because I'm a Buddhist. We all know that these things are transient and have no meaning when death comes to claim us."

It's often said that when you find yourself having to justify something you did, are doing, or will do, then that action is wrong or unskillful. Nothing at the core of spiritual practice needs to be justified; it is self-evident if you really take the time to reflect on life, and to reflect on the Buddha's teachings with mindfulness.

We don't ever have to justify avoidance of evil, performance of what's skillful, or purification of our minds. Can you think of any good reason to do evil, to act unskillfully, or to defile your mind? I cannot. If you and I can both keep those three key guidelines in mind, every action and every word will be performed with the spirit of Dharma.

Patient endurance:
    the foremost austerity...

He who injures another
is no contemplative.
He who mistreats another,
    no monk.
-- "Buddhavagga: Awakened" (Dhp XIV, 183-185)

Going Facebookless

Late Friday, I decided to ditch Facebook. Facebook has been pretty pointless for me for a long time, but it has become increasingly so in the last year. Some things that contributed to my desire to go Facebookless:

1. Most of the people I really am interested in talking to or keeping up with hardly even use Facebook anymore.
2. About 50% of my friends on Facebook live in China -- and Facebook has been blocked in China for the last 4 months.
3. I'm tired of getting invites to stupid stuff like farming games, or "Which of Justin Timberlake's nose hairs are you?" quizzes.

What finally pushed me over the edge: one of my "friends" spammed me with 10 quizzes in a row, and they were all in Chinese. I don't even want to see your 10 quizzes in English! That was the final incident that convinced me that Facebook is the new AOL, and an ultimate waste of my time.

So Friday night, I decided to ditch Facebook entirely. My experiment is to avoid Facebook completely for two weeks, and see if I miss anything worthwhile. My suspicion is that I won't. I can't think of a single significant thing of value that Facebook has given me in the last year, so why would the next two weeks be any different?

Besides... Every minute not wasted on Facebook is a minute I can spend writing things for my blog, or catching up with good friends on Twitter, or meditating, or just enjoying my life in general.

Today is day 2 of being Facebookless, and I have a feeling it will be a rather good day!

Best of Thomas Time #6

I've randomly decided it's that time again: the Best of Thomas Time! Here are some of my favorite posts from the last couple of months, including posts that have gotten a lot of traffic from Google searches, etc.

• Microsoft Decapitated a Black Guy - well, not really. But they did Photoshop a white guy's head onto the black guy's body before putting this ad up on their Polish web site. And they left the black guy's hand black. And the white guy's head seems to have no neck. Not the best photo manipulation I've ever seen...
• Converting an Atheist is Useless - finally, I have some scripture I can quote to get evangelizing Christians off my back! I'm not an atheist, but since I don't believe in the Christian conception of God, I basically cannot ever be saved (according to the Bible). Maybe now well-meaning Christian friends will stop trying to convert me away from Buddhism. I appreciate the sentiment, but I don't want to be converted. Thank you.
• The Government Can - probably one of the best videos I've ever seen. It's so catchy! Find out all the cool stuff the government can do for you!
• Darwin = Too Controversial for America - sad, but true. Only 39% of Americans believe the theory of evolution. And apparently, Darwin is responsible for the Holocaust. Who knew?
• Light The Night Thank Yous - my fundraising for the Light The Night cancer charity was a bigger success than I thought possible, thanks to the generosity of many wonderful people. I thanked them all in this post, though that's not enough to really express my gratitude for how much they helped.
• The Dorje Shugden Controversy - there's a less-than-well-known controversy surrounding the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism, and Buddhists who worship Dorje Shugden. I explored this controversy here on my blog, and I think it's a topic worth learning about if you have any interest at all in Buddhism or Tibet.

Google Sidewiki: Worst Google Product Ever

Update: Follow-up post, based on visitor feedback.

I've been hearing a lot about Google Sidewiki lately, and as somebody with his own site (this one!) I'd like to weigh in.

What is Sidewiki? Essentially it is a web browser extension which allows you to see what other people say about a web page while you're looking at it. It's built-in to the Google Toolbar, which millions of people use; soon it will be built into Google's Chrome web browser.

Sounds great, right? But there are some caveats. These caveats are huge enough that you could ram the Titanic through them without a scratch on the hull:

1. The comments people leave on Sidewiki are separate from whatever comment system exists on the web site already. Conversations on Sidewiki are completely isolated from the comments that may be left using the system on my site. So now instead of one place for comments on my posts, there's now a second place.
2. Sidewiki comments are hosted by Google, and will probably be used for statistics, advertising, etc. to benefit Google. That's not a problem, except for the next caveat...
3. There is (apparently) no way for a web site to opt out of Sidewiki. As yet there is no way to keep visitors from using it.
4. Also, there is (apparently) no way for the owner of a web page/site to moderate or reject comments made through Sidewiki.
5. Do you honestly think the average computer noob is going to understand the difference between Sidewiki (which could be filled with spam and illegal stuff) and the content I approve and put on my site? I sure don't.

So basically, here's what Sidewiki is from my perspective as a web site owner: it's an unmoderated discussion area that I can't control or opt out of, it's separate from comments people make directly on the site, and Google gets all this free user data from my site without asking me.

I use Google's tools for advertising and for web statistics, with the full knowledge that Google will use all that info for their benefit -- but I also get benefits, like maybe someday earning enough through AdSense to actually get some money out of my blog! I also get lots of statistics and feedback to help me figure out what people like on my site. That's a fair exchange which I have consented to. Sidewiki adds a layer on top of my site without my consent and with no way to opt out.

I haven't even really touched the social problems yet, either. Like any other social tool, it's only a matter of time before Sidewiki ends up being used for massive spam campaigns. And what if somebody out there decides Thomas Hochmann sucks? They can't cause problems on my blog because I moderate all comments, but now thanks to Sidewiki, they could flood the sidebar with "Thomas sucks" (or worse). And what can I do about such things? Diddly squat. Thanks, Google.

Average web user Joe Blow, with his pre-installed Google Toolbar, is not going to understand the difference between my site and what magically pops up in Sidewiki. If somebody spams child porn links in Sidewiki comments on my site, Joe Blow might actually think I tolerate or even endorse that shit.

I ask only one thing from Google: please make Sidewiki voluntary and 100% opt-in. Or if that's too much to ask, add an option for people like me to opt out. Hitching a free ride on my content and opening the door to spammers and internet thugs -- that is way not cool.

C'mon, Google. Make this shit fair for us. Y'know, the people who make web content. That's kinda sorta the stuff you index and thus make money off of when users search for it, isn't it?