Isn't it time to bring down those walls?

[His Highness the TibetanMonkey, the Beach Cruiser Philosopher]

That's something Gorbachev would recognize. Now the situation is a bit
more complicated. There many more walls to bring down. And they seem
to conform to the "laws of nature," which say that some animals are
better than others. But a fat cat is no better than a mouse. We all
protect the cats and chase the mice but that's part of a cultural
bias. I have a chat here with a Buddhist follower that may be
enlightening for the world. It takes place in a hypothetical
Palestinian ghetto. Yes, the word has been carefully chosen.

Are you always on the side of the big fish?

I tend to be on the happy side
of most schools of thought.

Remember a bad karma may make you reincarnate into a small fish...

Exactly.
You tend to be on the sad side.
An unhappy small fish.
Your doing got you a ticket.
Your obsessive compulsions
lead you to do as you do.
With an about-face
you might have the behavior
instead of the other
way round.

Another way to look at it is that people live like robots in order to
avoid reality. That's the way people are around here. The affluent
community next door puts a barricade on an intersection that blocks
cars and bikes, and we live in something very similar to a Palestinian
camp, but we can pretend to be happy.

That would be pretentious.

Maybe even the Palestinians
should benefit from your wisdom to ignore their sad fate.

You see their fate as sad. Me too.
But what do I know? And how do I know it?
Many of the down-trodden do feel sad.
And it is sad, when seen through sad eyes.
Rightfully so. There is plenty of bad to be had.
Extremists of the reactionary sort think
the clock ought be turned back to pastoral daze.
Do away with all modern industry. Then
there will be peace once and for all.
Each fantasy is fantastic.
Each has its limits.
There is some truth in what you point out.
There are many wrongs to right if you care to.
If you feel called to enter that arena
then that's your number
one priority.
However, if you were to take a sample of children
from the gated communities and from the walled cities,
each fenced off from some other portion of reality,
as you call it, and see how sad or happy
the little kids are, you may find that both are
as happy as little kids tend to be.

I think you have raised some good point. Maybe the children of the
Palestinian ghetto will be happy because they have plenty of friends --
perhaps riding bikes-- while the children of Gated Communities will be
alone. But when they grow up their destiny will place them on
different sides of the fence. They'll look at each other and see how
much they are missing. The grownup man in the Gated Community would
love to ride his bike all over the place without fear. And the grownup
man in the ghetto will be plotting to get what he feels is his.

Isn't it time to bring down those walls? Aren't the walls the problem?
What is the problem?

Ignorance can indeed be bliss.
Knowledge often breeds unhappiness.
If you know green, you may desire greener.
If you didn't know greener, you could be happy
with the green your green happens to be.
Shades may wear one out on the inside.
Whether it's more money, a bigger lawn,
or whatever greener monster possesses you,
if you're not happy with what you have
there is no guarantee more is a better way
to bring you to a more happy state.
If you lose what little you think you possess
and then it returns to you, you might be happy
with what you previously were not happy with.
There can be many ways to see
what can be called reality.
What you cling to may catch
on what you think.

Why should they be unhappy when there's Buddhism?

Once children have been taught to be unhappy,
they may desire to again regain a joy of youth.
If so, Buddhism could provide an answer.

They can go and join
a yoga class so fashionable around here.

Yoga might be a stretch
of a progressive relaxational way.

Funny thing is it's mostly
the middle class that joins such pursuits. Eastern Philosophies an
instrument of power?

Religion may be an opiate.
Materialism might be an addiction.
Little children could be naturally happy.
Being in the moment, without clinging to desires,
much suffering is avoidable. It's the wanting
which induces pain in the brain.
When you let go of what you don't have
some of the pain is released as well.
Being attached to the fruit of labor
is different from a labor of love.
Trying to change the world
isn't necessarily bad, however futile
it is from some vantage points.
If you're happy in your struggle
then you're happy.
A wise one may have said
there will always be struggles
to struggle with if that's your idea
of having a good time.
If you want to do good
then you need to find some bad
in order to feed your want.
When you let go of the good-bad ball
it bounces only so far before it stops
all by itself.

I think we all have the capacity to change the world. Maybe we can
change ourselves, maybe we can change others. Did Gandhi change the
world? He was a man of great wisdom who said "be the change that you
want to inspire."

(It was a rather enlightening post --not enlightened certainly-- but
not concentrating on personal attacks. I think we are getting
somewhere. We must move or fall off the bike)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

http://webspawner.com/users/BANANAREVOLUTION

[His Highness the TibetanMonkey, the Beach Cruiser Philosopher]

On Jul 9, 12:23 pm, "TibetanMonkey, the Beach Cruiser Philosopher"

Post by His Highness the TibetanMonkey, the Beach Cruiser Philosopher
That's something Gorbachev would recognize. Now the situation is a bit
more complicated. There many more walls to bring down. And they seem
to conform to the "laws of nature," which say that some animals are
better than others. But a fat cat is no better than a mouse. We all
protect the cats and chase the mice but that's part of a cultural
bias. I have a chat here with a Buddhist follower that may be
enlightening for the world. It takes place in a hypothetical
Palestinian ghetto. Yes, the word has been carefully chosen.

Are you always on the side of the big fish?

I tend to be on the happy side
of most schools of thought.

Remember a bad karma may make you reincarnate into a small fish...

Exactly.
You tend to be on the sad side.
An unhappy small fish.
Your doing got you a ticket.
Your obsessive compulsions
lead you to do as you do.
With an about-face
you might have the behavior
instead of the other
way round.

Another way to look at it is that people live like robots in order to
avoid reality. That's the way people are around here. The affluent
community next door puts a barricade on an intersection that blocks
cars and bikes, and we live in something very similar to a Palestinian
camp, but we can pretend to be happy.

That would be pretentious.

Maybe even the Palestinians
should benefit from your wisdom to ignore their sad fate.

You see their fate as sad. Me too.
But what do I know? And how do I know it?
Many of the down-trodden do feel sad.
And it is sad, when seen through sad eyes.
Rightfully so. There is plenty of bad to be had.
Extremists of the reactionary sort think
the clock ought be turned back to pastoral daze.
Do away with all modern industry. Then
there will be peace once and for all.
Each fantasy is fantastic.
Each has its limits.
There is some truth in what you point out.
There are many wrongs to right if you care to.
If you feel called to enter that arena
then that's your number
one priority.
However, if you were to take a sample of children
from the gated communities and from the walled cities,
each fenced off from some other portion of reality,
as you call it, and see how sad or happy
the little kids are, you may find that both are
as happy as little kids tend to be.

I think you have raised some good point. Maybe the children of the
Palestinian ghetto will be happy because they have plenty of friends --
perhaps riding bikes-- while the children of Gated Communities will be
alone. But when they grow up their destiny will place them on
different sides of the fence. They'll look at each other and see how
much they are missing. The grownup man in the Gated Community would
love to ride his bike all over the place without fear. And the grownup
man in the ghetto will be plotting to get what he feels is his.
Isn't it time to bring down those walls? Aren't the walls the problem?
What is the problem?

Ignorance can indeed be bliss.
Knowledge often breeds unhappiness.
If you know green, you may desire greener.
If you didn't know greener, you could be happy
with the green your green happens to be.
Shades may wear one out on the inside.
Whether it's more money, a bigger lawn,
or whatever greener monster possesses you,
if you're not happy with what you have
there is no guarantee more is a better way
to bring you to a more happy state.
If you lose what little you think you possess
and then it returns to you, you might be happy
with what you previously were not happy with.
There can be many ways to see
what can be called reality.
What you cling to may catch
on what you think.

Why should they be unhappy when there's Buddhism?

Once children have been taught to be unhappy,
they may desire to again regain a joy of youth.
If so, Buddhism could provide an answer.

They can go and join
a yoga class so fashionable around here.

Yoga might be a stretch
of a progressive relaxational way.

Funny thing is it's mostly
the middle class that joins such pursuits. Eastern Philosophies an
instrument of power?

Religion may be an opiate.
Materialism might be an addiction.
Little children could be naturally happy.
Being in the moment, without clinging to desires,
much suffering is avoidable. It's the wanting
which induces pain in the brain.
When you let go of what you don't have
some of the pain is released as well.
Being attached to the fruit of labor
is different from a labor of love.
Trying to change the world
isn't necessarily bad, however futile
it is from some vantage points.
If you're happy in your struggle
then you're happy.
A wise one may have said
there will always be struggles
to struggle with if that's your idea
of having a good time.
If you want to do good
then you need to find some bad
in order to feed your want.
When you let go of the good-bad ball
it bounces only so far before it stops
all by itself.

I think we all have the capacity to change the world. Maybe we can
change ourselves, maybe we can change others. Did Gandhi change the
world? He was a man of great wisdom who said "be the change that you
want to inspire."
(It was a rather enlightening post --not enlightened certainly-- but
not concentrating on personal attacks. I think we are getting
somewhere. We must move or fall off the bike)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://webspawner.com/users/BANANAREVOLUTION

OK, it seems nobody wants to tear down those walls, but look what came
up in the news today. A new train goes through the middle of
Palestinian territories uniting people that don't like each other.

"for a few precious moments it seems like everyone’s in this
together."

http://www.theworld.org/2012/07/jerusalem-new-tram/

Did I mention that barricades are going up in my community dividing
people? I must have forgotten. But I had a blast today on my monkey
bike. A bike unites people but not to the point that we smell each
other. I think that's what we need.

[His Highness the TibetanMonkey, the Beach Cruiser Philosopher]

Post by His Highness the TibetanMonkey, the Beach Cruiser Philosopher
Did I mention that barricades are going up in my community dividing
people? I must have forgotten.

You suggested streets were being blocked
to keep through-traffic out of neighborhoods.
Through-traffic can be very annoying
and dangerous for little kids.

The problem is they make it safer for their kids while ignoring the
kids in the surrounding areas. They use their power --the power of
money-- to secure their own backyard and support the status quo. My
community, on the other hand, must live with drivers who laugh about
the law. Taming traffic is the answer, but the people in power don't
hear.

On top of that, the barricade has now been set up to block bicycles as
well as cars. They don't want the monkeys there.

Post by His Highness the TibetanMonkey, the Beach Cruiser Philosopher
But I had a blast today on my monkey
bike. A bike unites people but not to the point that we smell each
other. I think that's what we need.

Yes. I think probably everyone
who has been reading your messages
knows that is how and what you think.
A problem arises in your thinking however
in so far as where you live is not conducive
to how your mind tends to create walls.
Instead of seeing all things as natural
and accepting them for what they are
your brain compels you to want to try
and change the way things are.
If you really did live in a jungle,
full of snakes and tigers and rhino,
you would try to make the rhino and
the tiger and the snakes behave
as you would wish them to.
If you really lived in a jungle
where the pathways were how they were
because the jungle itself fostered those paths,
you would never-the-less not approve.
The jungle can be an excellent metaphor.
Instead of trying to change the jungle
you could simply figure out how it is
and adjust to be in accord with it.
On three days out of the week
you could allow the jungle to be itself.
On three days out of the week,
you could try to change it to suit you.
On one day of the week, you may
forget about both of those ways
and see how ways are ways
but none are a Way
which transcends all ways.
Then the walls
will have been removed.

The metaphor of the jungle suggests two solutions, and both require a
game of wits: SURVIVAL or TAME THE BEASTS.

Maybe the beasts will realize that there's life on the other side, and
that the status quo is unsustainable. Actually it leads to a mass
extinction, not unlike that of the dinosaurs.