Inspiring Speeches on Martin Luther King Day

Listening to the Dharma talks today from both Jordan Thorn at the San Francisco Zen Center and Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center I was inspired to watch Dr. Martin Luther King give his 1963 'I have a Dream' speech again in Washington. This in turn inspired me to watch Charlie Chaplin's very inspirational speech in the film 'The Great Dictator' released shortly after the start of WW2. In it he is a Jewish barber and is somehow mistaken for 'The Great Dictator' (In this movie called 'Henzel'). 

Organic Agriculture and Sustainable Development

The debate continues about the sustainability of Organic agriculture as compared to conventional.

It seems that the best way to move forward is to spread the word and the science. It is critical that we spread the word that unsustainable yields of GM crops will not solve food shortage issues. Organic is a much more sustainable solution for agricultural production in developing countries. Organic often out performs conventional and it creates opportunities within the development context. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) has a brief on food security and Organic agriculture which lays out the basic facts. The research clearly shows that Organic is a viable and sustainable solution. A study done in 2008 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP-UNCTAD) Capacity-building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development found that Organic has great potential and actually contributes to food security in Africa. The Environment and Natural Resources Service Sustainable Development Department found that Organic is a viable solution for development as it contributes to to ecological health, international markets and local food security. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Food Security in 2007 pointed out the many facets of the potential for Organic to contribute to food security around the world.

The following literature offers more support for Organic in a development context:

Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems

Organic agriculture and the global food supply

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Here is a regularly updated list of other things Cory writes

Milarepa's Song on Having no Posessions

The Economic Times of India are running a post today pointing out the current struggle of the monks of Tibet. - China is now comparing them to Li Hongzhi's Falun Dafa and the monks are reacting with suicide by self immolation.

In the midst of all this I was reading some works from Milarepa. Here is something I came across this morning; a meeting with the King of Kathmandu; something to think about amid all the talk about Tibet and China, Dharamsala and the world.

Where is Tibet?

Milarepa's Song:

"I have no desire for wealth or possessions, and so I have nothing. I do not experience the initial suffering of having to accumulate possessions, the intermediate suffering of having to guard and keep up possessions, nor the final suffering of loosing the possessions. This is a wonderful thing. I have no desire for friends or relations. I do not experience the initial suffering of forming an attachment, the intermediate suffering of having disagreements with friends and family, nor the final suffering of parting with them. Therefore it is good to be without friends and relations. I have no desire for pleasant conversation. I do not experience the initial suffering of beginning conversation, the intermediate suffering of wondering whether to continue the conversation, nor the final suffering of the conversation deteriorating. Therefore I do not delight in pleasant conversation. I have no desire for a home land and have no fixed residence. I do not experience the initial suffering of partiality of thinking that 'this is my land and that place isn't.' I do not experience the intermediate suffering of yearning for my land. And I do not experience the final suffering of having to protect my land. Therefore I do not have a fixed abode."

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Here is a regularly updated list of other things Cory writes

Global communications and personal freedom

There is a new message moving through riseup.net. to warn internet users about the evils of Google, Facebook and Paypal. They encourage the use of non profit Firefox http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/ rather than Google Chrome.

The gist of the email is that the corporate interests are using our information for marketing. "Email companies such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc. offer great free services, but in exchange, they sell all information sent through their service (through emails, passwords, attachments, etc) to top marketing firms around the world, who then use this information to bombard and pollute our lives and the world with GARBAGE."

However, I am skeptical of the evils of the internet data. - Isn't it possible that if we collect enough data on spending and activities we begin to learn a lot about who we are? - With the steering of the MDG and well intentioned governments, activist groups and NGOs, it could be that the data gathered through the internet can help us to make the world a better place.

See GapMinder.org for more on the amazing power and potential good of statistics.

The internet is possibly the biggest thing humans have come up with since religion and it might soon become smart. Maybe we can use that smartness to make real positive change - groups like Avaaz, EnvironmentAmerica and 350.org (today's victory with the Keystone pipeline is a great example of the power of good use of the internet) and the collective organization and networking of riseup.net and couchsurfing.org are all examples of how the internet is making big positive changes, transforming lives!

As Al Gore pointed out with his Internet 2.0 idea the internet can also be a tool for good. The internet is helping the environmental and social justice movements in a HUGE way!

In the late 1990s and early 2000s we were networking through the post. It was expensive and slow. I was getting a few bits of mail a year from many organizations with as many as one a week from the well funded groups like Habitat for Humanity, WWF and Greenpeace. I signed the petitions and sent what little money I could to support the campaigns.

Today I am informed about issues as I sit at my morning coffee... Sometimes I sign a few petitions a day and make donations (still small but) on a regular basis to all the movements I feel strongly about..

So I would ask riseup.net of they are being properly precautionary or paranoid. Is the internet really a problem or could it be a boon‽

The Facebook group "Hurricane Island Outward Bound School"

The Hurricane Island Outward Bound School is changing the world one incredible experience at a time. 

When I was there as an instructor I had my world completely transformed and saw a lot of people turn their lives around, young and old. 

Check it out. 

facebook Hurricane Island Outward Bound School has been upgraded to the new groups format, which makes it easier for members to connect and share. Visit Group What can you do in your group? Members can post and comment on updates, chat with everyone at once, schedule group events, create shared docs, and more.

Kuan Yin's Prayer for the Abuser

We just listened to a Scottish Zen buddhist Minister Jana Drakka giving a talk at the San Francisco Zen Center.

She spent some time being homeless with PTSD after a bad relationship and spoke from her experience and from her practice about how to practice loving kindness even with difficult people. 

This seemed an appropriate poem, a kind of meditation to start the fire breathing dragon year. 

Kuan Yin's Prayer for the Abuser

To those who withhold refuge,

I cradle you in safety at the core of my Being.

To those that cause a child to cry out,

I grant you the freedom to express your own choked agony.

To those that inflict terror,

I remind you that you shine with the purity of a thousand suns.

To those who would confine, suppress, or deny,

I offer the limitless expanse of the sky.

To those who need to cut, slash, or burn,

I remind you of the invincibility of Spring.

To those who cling and grasp,

I promise more abundance than you could ever hold onto.

To those who vent their rage on small children,

I return to you your deepest innocence.

To those who must frighten into submission,

I hold you in the bosom of your original mother.

To those who cause agony to others,

I give the gift of free flowing tears.

To those that deny another's right to be,

I remind you that the angels sang in celebration of you on the day of your birth.

To those who see only division and separateness,

I remind you that a part is born only by bisecting a whole.

For those who have forgotten the tender mercy of a mother's embrace,

I send a gentle breeze to caress your brow.

To those who still feel somehow incomplete,

I offer the perfect sanctity of this very moment.

Compassion

Lately I have been listening to a lot of Thich Nhat Hahn ('Being Peace' and 'Touching the Earth') and have just read His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 'How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships'. These works have made me aware of a meditation on love and kindness called Metta. According to the research of Karen Armstrong's 'A History of God' and the work of the Dalai Lama, Metta, or loving kindness, is the basic teaching of all major religious traditions.

Karen Armstrong was recently awarded the TED Prize and is asking for people to affirm the 'Charter for Compassion'. The charter is a call for morality and compassion to return to the center of spiritual and political activity. According to the teachings of Armstrong and H. H. Dalai Lama compassion is actually the heart of religion and politics. The golden rule, for instance, was taught by Confucius 500 BC. He said: "Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself."

Watch Karen Armstrong's TED Talk:

http://www.tedprize.org/karen-armstrong/

Affirm the 'Charter for Compassion':

http://charterforcompassion.org/share/the-charter/

Read more about 'How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships'.

http://www.amazon.com/How-Expand-Love-Widening-Relationships/dp/0743269683

Read excerpts from 'Being Peace':

http://www.cit-sakti.com/peace/peace-being-peace.htm

Check out the guided meditation from 'Touching the Earth':

http://touchingtheearth.posterous.com/

Finally, here is a quote from 'The Confucian Analects':

"Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness."