LSD Articles

I read recently in the NY Times that people everywhere are making Life Lists, a contract with oneself to do meaningful things with this precious life before it is over; you can fill in the blanks on your own dreams and fantasies, wish-list, priorities and aspirations. One of the things you are supposed to do is to cross them off one by one as you achieve them. I’ve thought about it and found this a little hard, since I have already traveled almost everywhere and experienced almost everything, and my personal ideals and dreams tend now to aspire to large undertakings and abstract achievements,...

---

President Bush is the first U.S. President to appear with the Dalai Lama in public. This was a quite a big step. I suppose the President did it both for personal and political reasons, being a person of faith himself, as well as needing some good pr.  He has met the Dalai Lama on at least three other occasions, including privately on Tuesday at his White House residence. The Dalai Lama calls the President and First Lady his friends. The Dalai Lama received the Congressional Gold Medal, America’s highest civilian honor, at the Capitol building rotunda Wednesday afternoon. He was introduced by Speaker...

---

It's Columbus Day again, and the thought of discovering new worlds both delights and amuses me. Of course CC was not the first person on this continent, or even the first European–-Leif Erikson and other seafaring Caucasians almost certainly hold that distinction–-yet the quaint notion remains that our intrepid captain with his three little ships discovered America. Mistakenly, he took it for part of the spice-laden Asian Indies that he and his royal Portuguese patrons coveted and sought to connect with for trade purposes. Columbus did of course open a new era of history with his arrival in the Caribbean...

---

Dwight D. Eisenhower commented that each and every gun, bullet, warplane, and battleship produced represented resources stolen from the poor and hungry people of this world. As a two term American president, and former commanding general who’d led the Allied Forces in 1945 on D-Day, he knew from experience what he was talking about. This week the totalitarian military junta which rules Myanmar--formerly known as Burma--has cracked down and shot upon unarmed citizens and Buddhist monks protesting poverty and lack of the freedom of self-determination in Southeast Asia’s second largest country,...

---

It’s back to school week here, and the scent of autumn is in the air. This morning I am remembering that the sage & teacher known as The Buddha used to address all of ‘his students’ as worthy young’uns (being less mature in enlightened wisdom’s development and realization). Higher education is meant to educe the best in us; why settle for anything less? So, friends: What have we learned today? Answer:  If we don’t learn the lessons we might get left back, and even have to be reborn again and again until we do! It’s worth reflecting on the lessons now and then, I believe. Trying...

---

I spoke to attorney Alan Dershowitz at dinner the other night, who is strongly for Hillary and thinks she is electable, which I still have my doubts about. She is certainly qualified, but will the rest of our country vote for her? Is this country ready for a woman, a person of color, or a gay president? Although to be pessimistic runs against my nature, I have to admit that I doubt it. I recently read that 70-75% of Kansans would vote for creationism to be taught in the public schools of their state instead of Darwinian evolution! I consider this pretty unevolved, as far as intelligent modern...

---

No man is an island, as Milton sang. Isolationism is out, interconnectedness is in. We is the new I. Happy Interdependence Day! We all long for belonging. Who can go it entirely alone? It is incredibly difficult to accomplish anything much alone, either in the worldly or spiritual spheres. And if we don’t pull together, we pull apart. Especially today--in our rootless, socially mobile, fractured, violence-ridden and materialistic society-- who doesn’t need community of some kind in order to grow and flourish, and even to survive? Family, friends and colleagues, mates, neighborhood, local...

---

Nearly all spiritual teachers in the Western world today promise transformation through their teaching methods. Perhaps we should instead encourage more inquiry, awareness cultivation and self-observation. Transformation will certainly occur naturally as a natural by-product. In a narcissistic and driven culture obsessed with self-improvement, meditation and yoga are widely seen as a vehicle of change. Change is in any case part of the universal law; we ought to be intentionally involved in it. However, we ourselves might be better served by cultivating contentment and self-acceptance, loving...

---

Everyone is familiar with the adage that the optimist sees the glass half-full, and the pessimist sees it half-empty. Buddhism is neither pessimistic nor optimistic, altho hopes springs eternal in the human breast-- as Buddha (or someone) said. The Buddhist view is to see the glass as full enough, just as it is, not comparing it to anything else. While noticing the unfolding events in our country and around the planet with active concern if not dismay, we could also be aware of how much of that feeling comes from a sense of comparing to how we think it ought to be, or could be, if only people...

---

Today is Earth Day. Earth Day occurs each year on the vernal equinox. It is held annually in the (northern) spring, it's intended both to inspire awareness of and appreciation for the Earth's environment. Not only that, the spring equinox is also the New Year in Iran and other Islam countries, which makes possible collective attention for a common purpose -- the sustainable care of Earth, with justice and peace for all. Obviously, we must take care of our home. One can learn a lot by reading the book of nature, which is open right now quite close at hand, wherever you may be. Or watch our former...

---