thenatureofmind

Thought <---> Thinker

In our ordinary way of thinking, if a bad thought arises in our mind, one that is unpleasant or is offensive in some way, we might also think: why am I thinking this? If a great thought arises, one that seems insightful or brilliant, we might say: I'm really smart for thinking this. Invariably, however it seems that one lets call it a primary thought arises and that is that I am thinking this. There is always the thought that if a thought arises, there is a corresponding thinker, but "I am thinking" is just a thought. In fact "I am" codependently arises with thoughts, persists in the presence of thoughts, but disappears when the thoughts disappear. When there are no thoughts, there is no thinker. In fact, there never has been a thinker, the thinker is just another thought that arises.

The Issue of Regulation in the Financial Sector

I just want to share some insight about regulation in the financial sector. I worked on Wall St. during the 1980’s, in fact I worked at Bear Stearns which if you’ve been following the whole financial debacle of the past year, you know what happened to them. They were one of the most successful pioneers of derivatives. What derivatives are are securities that are based on other securities such as mortgages. What Bear Stearns did was to buy mortgages from mortgage consolidators such as Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. Because mortgages as a financial instrument are very unpredictable because you never know whether someone is going to live in a house forever and pay off the whole mortgage over 20 or 30 years or sell the house and pay off the mortgage. Such uncertainties drastically affect the actual value of the mortgage over time. So what Bear Stearns did was to create a secondary instrument that would contain for instance, all the first year payments from 100 mortgages. Because they have statistical data on prepayment of mortgages, having many mortgages in the instrument allows it to be more statistically predictable. So what happened on Wall St. is that the brokerage houses created these derivatives and sold them to investors many of whom were banks.

Despite Slump, U.S. Role as Top Arms Supplier Grows

From the New York Times:

Despite Slump, U.S. Role as Top Arms Supplier Grows

2 Architects of harsh interrogation tactics (Torture) were psychologists

Interrogation Inc.:  2 U.S. Architects of Harsh Tactics in 9/11's Wake

One World - The Choice Before Us

There seems to be a fairly large conservative group in the US who live in a state of fear. There is fear of the United Nations and anything related to trying to create some sort of global consensus. This group seems to be characterized by a total unwillingness to embrace progress as it relates to global governance. Fact: look at the history of the past 4000 years and notice that there is a continual movement to integrate smaller groups into medium sized groups and medium sized groups into large groups. Thus you now have China, Russia, United States, European Union, etc. Now the trend does have regressions, but the overall trend is in one direction. Due to our technology, the world is becoming one "country" at a rapid pace. There is no way to stop it except to use our nuclear weapons to bomb ourselves back into the stone age and that is a distinct possibility. I feel that there are those who occupy the right in the US who would prefer that rather than deal with the fact that all of the countries of the world are going to have to learn to live together in order for us to survive and for any sort of civilization to survive. This process is going to be a very painful one but things like increasingly deadly viruses, limited resources, global pollution, global warming, climate change, etc are demanding that we face these issues together. We have a choice to lead that process or to be the ones to start the war that kills 99% of the people on this planet and destroys for thousands of years this wonderful civilization we have created. This is the choice before us.

Buddha Mind

Buddha Mind
Originally uploaded by waywuwei

All Buddhas and all ordinary beings are nothing but the one mind. This mind is beginningless and endless, unborn and indestructible. It has no color or shape, neither exists nor doesn't exist, isn't old or new, long or short, large or small, since it transcends all measures, limits, names, and comparisons. It is what you see in front of you."

Huang Po (d. 850)

Senators McCain & Levin Release their report on the use of Torture

From the New York Times: "A report released Thursday by leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee said top Bush administration officials, including Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, bore major responsibility for the abuses committed by American troops in interrogations at Abu Ghraib in Iraq; Guantánamo Bay, Cuba; and other military detention centers."

Report Blames Rumsfeld for Detainee Abuses

Where are we now?

I am reminded of the title of a book from the late 60's entitled: "Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me". I never read the book, but the line captures the feeling that this time invokes. With world financial markets in free fall, there is the feeling that the chickens have finally come home to roost. The feeling of the pervasive ugliness of greed, self interest, hatred and other crimes of passion that have been not only condoned, but held up by political dogma as the highest reaches that we all can aspire to, have come crashing down in a collapse that these generations have not seen in their lifetimes. The bottom is still dropping away and finally the good citizens of this United States are asking themselves if indeed the past years have not been terribly wasted.

We have seen an economic ideology masquerading as science emanating from the Chicago School of Milton Friedman inspired by the likes of Ayn Rand that have glorified self interest, telling us that if self interest is pursued, that the group welfare will be adequately taken care of as if by some mysterious magic. That they were not only misguided, but horribly wrong is now obvious for all to see. Just as the Communist ideology was exposed by the failures of the Soviet Union and others, the right wing philosophies free market capitalism have brought the whole world to the brink of economic disaster. Luminaries such as Allan Greenspan who for so long hid behind reams of obscure language that dazzled his Congressional and Presidential audiences and hypnotized them into surrendering their fiduciary responsibilities to oversee and regulate the financial sector to protect the citizens that they were elected to represent now are discredited and will forever have their tombstones stamped with the finality of the word "Failure".

It is ironic to see the Republican candidate for president, John McCain continue to proclaim the free market ideological dogma as if he were unaware that the electorate at large, at least those who are intelligent enough to understand, finally see that this is a failed ideology and to re-elect another of its representatives is to ensure that this disaster will become the permanent state of the Unites States of America.

Wake up citizens! I don't know if the hole we have been dug into is too deep for us to dig out of or not, but if you don't wake up and try with everything you've got, your children and your grandchildren will live their lives in economic slavery. Vote! But don't just vote. Correspond with your elected representatives and tell them what you want, demand it, hold them accountable if they secumb to corporte interests. Corporations do not vote, they are not represented in Congress, you are. Take back your right to a government that represents you.

The Rise of the Fascist State

Join the ACLU and help restore the constitution of the United States

Exporters of terror

In 2005 the United States sold $12 Billion dollars in arms to the world. So far this year the United States has sold $32 Billion dollars in arms and the year is not over. This is almost a 3 fold increase. The United States is the number one exporter of arms to the world, the number one enabler of violence that kills innocent people. Who are the terrorists?

In 1960, Eisenhower warned us of the growing power of the military-industrial complex. By ignoring his warning we have arrived at a time when the future of the planet is in peril and a greater part of the gros national product of the United States and of many countries is devoted to destruction instead of saving the planet and its inhabitants. Are we at the end of the human experiment?

U.S. Arms Sales Climbing Rapidly