Always 2 wars, never 1 (Peace Class)

Friends, this is the talk I gave last week presented here edited by Wisdom Quarterly:

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The War of Opinions

Should I write DC a strongly-worded letter?

When we are belligerent and violent, there are always two wars happening simultaneously, the War of Bombs and the War of Opinions.

 

The War of Bombs requires the War of Opinions as its fuel. If we end the War of Opinions, we simultaneously end the War of Bombs.

 

Is this what John Lennon and Yoko Ono meant?

We are all responsible for the War of Opinions, so we can end it at any time. The way we end the War of Opinions is by thinking then saying this: "Whatever opinion you hold, I have compassion for you, and whatever opinion I hold, I have compassion for myself."

 

If we choose these mental positions, we will never have to agree with each other to see the end of belligerence, violence, war, disputes, arguments, and doing harm.

First we disagree then we go to war

(Maron in the Garage) I can no longer talk to my Trump voter friends

 

Talking is easy; doing is a little harder.

The true cause of violence is not disagreement; it is how we think about each other and feel about each other when we disagree with each other.

 

Violence can only happen if it is acceptable for us to withhold compassion from those with whom we disagree. This is the cause of war.

 

Our differences of opinion do not cause violence. What causes violence is that we are willing to withhold compassion from others, any others, because of their opinions.

Jewish Pres. Bernie wants war

(The Financial Express) Independent/Democratic presidential candidate

Bernie Sanders declares political war against Trump and U.S. oligarchs

 

As soon as we become unwilling to withhold compassion from anyone, we will see the end of violence, immediately, at that exact moment.

 

When our compassion ends nowhere, there will be peace on earth.

 

Opinions (holding views)

It's you, Bibi. - No, Donny, you're the War Prez

We are taught to use the opinions of others to justify withholding compassion from them.

• Views (Buddhism)

There is only one reason to withhold compassion from anyone: to actively build more violence on this planet. That's what our withheld compassion does.

 

If we are trying to accomplish something other than that by withholding compassion, then we are using the wrong tool. If we want to build peace, the tool that will build it is compassion-for-all.

Bob Dylan "The Times They Are a-Changin'"

 

These times

Peace Class meets Wednesdays on Zoom at 6:00 pm (PT) Zoom ID: 821 5047 2713. 

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It's a dog's life these days.

The trouble with these times [is that they aren't a-changin' enough] is that many are trying to build peace by withholding compassion from those who disagree with them. That action builds war. So they are trying to build peace with that which only builds war.

 

That is like saying, "I'd like to build a house to sleep in, a good strong dwelling, so I'm going to build it out of water." [What do we think we are, fish, mermaids, aquatic plants?]

Man builds Water House, uses wood

(President Chay) I built a [waterproof] house and filled it with water

 

Now if we could just nail into sheet water.

Water is useful for many things, but we can't cut it into blocks and build shelters with it. [What if we freeze it first? Igloo ice, sure, but this is water we're talking about, not permafrost ice in the arctic.]

 

Our misunderstandings are so basic to our belief system that we do not see that we are trying to build a house with something we cannot build a house with. That's how elemental our misunderstandings are. But that's also how powerful our opportunities are.

 

All we need to do is say, "Now that I can see that I've been trying to build a house with blocks of water, let me try again, but with blocks of wood, and see what happens." Voila: a beautiful, solid house.

A house made of water would not be nearly so nice or durable...or livable at all.

 

Not by hatred but by...this is an eternal law.

And so it is with peace. We can say, "Let me try using compassion-for-all to build peace, and see if that works any better than withholding compassion." And it will work every time. That is an eternal and universal law.

One can't build walls with wet fluid water; one can't build true and lasting peace with hatred of the people who disagree with us.

 

I had a water house once, called the Sea

Our hatred builds something: It builds more of the Era of Belligerence.

It does not build peace in the world. It also does not build peace for us personally — in our day-to-day experience, our family and circle of friends, our workplace and our minds/hearts.

 

What builds peace for us, in our personal experience, is to say this: "I disagree with that point of view yet still have compassion for the person who holds it."

 

That builds the kind of deep peace that makes it easier for us to do everything we have to do throughout the day. It makes it easier to be a parent, easier to be a friend, easier to be a whatever.

Buddhist/Shinto real "mermaid" from Japan: Ningyo-no-zu (Bunka 2, 1805)

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A war brings these forces to our attention, but they are always at play, in smaller ways, within our lives. Disagreements break out in the home and the workplace. And we always make more peace for ourselves when we feel and think this:

 

"I disagree with the way my boss (spouse, child, friend, whoever) sees this situation. Still, I hold deep compassion for this person."

The War of Bombs

Pentagon lies, manipulates U.S. press

(The Young Turks) Leaked documents reveal hidden U.S. deployment to Iran for Israel

DIMMU BORGIR "Puritania" (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)

That'll teach 'em to disagree with us, eh, John?

The War of Bombs requires the War of Opinions to exist. Without our War of Opinions, their War of Bombs will very quickly lose steam and peter out.

 

A fire requires fuel -- such as wood and oxygen, plus certain conditions, like heat and the absence of rain.

 

War is a Racket. Just ask Fatty Fatpants

Similarly, the fire of war requires certain conditions to ignite and burn and grow.

Remove the War of Opinions and, no matter how many lit matches are thrown onto the fire of war, it will not ignite.

 

Compassion-for-all is like soaking fuel used in the fire of war. No matter how many flames are dropped on wet wood, it won't catch on fire. Our compassion-for-all ends this war and every war.

 

I serve my king with no question, Sir. - Good boy

When our compassion ends nowhere, there will be peace on earth. When our compassion goes everywhere, there is no ready fuel for war.

 

What will happen when we start to pair compassion-for-all with whatever opinion (view) we hold?

 

Could we eat our way to peace, Will Tuttle?

What will happen is that we will spend more time in our Peace Mind, which is the higher portion of our consciousness. And when we do this, we'll see new solutions—solutions that already exist, except that we cannot see them yet because they can only be seen from the more loving portion of consciousness.

 

When we have compassion for others, we free them from our hatred, vitriol, animosity, belligerence, so they visit their Peace Minds more often, too.

 

Republican gals love soldiers who kill for God.

And when we are all in our Peace Minds, new solutions will be so easy to see that we almost won't be able to comprehend how we ever stayed at war or disagreeing for so long.

 

Solutions to our problems already exist. Whether we can see them yet depends on our perspective. Where are we placing conscious attention in our own consciousness? Is it our Peace Mind?

 

It's not that this conflict, or any conflict, is based on an unsolvable problem. It's that we cannot yet see a solution that will resolve this issue from our current perspective.

 

Move our perspective, and the preexisting solution becomes apparent.

 

What's the one thing we can do to serve the world? We can learn to transition our own perspective upwards so we can see more solutions and bring more innovations to humanity.

 

What's another thing we can do? We can pair compassion with everything we think and feel. Compassion can be added to any thought, like this:

 

"I greatly disagree with what that leader has done, and I have compassion for everyone who lives in that country, even for the leader herself," or "I think that's a terrible thing to do, and I have compassion for the person who has done it." Just add one in.

I love you, Yoko. - STFU, John. (Peace❤️Truth)

No consensus of opinion needs to be reached to end the War of Opinions. We can end war without a single opinion ever changing.

 

We end it by adding our compassion-for-everyone to any opinion we have.

 

That ends the war, because now it's not a War of Opinions that we're seated within—it's simply a landscape of opinions that are allowed to exist.

 

It's not a War of Opinions when there is compassion-for-all present. Now it's a community of unique human individuals who compassionately respect each other. We came here to be unique.

 

We did not come here to create a consensus of opinion. We came here to be in a vibrant (lively and diverse) community of original thinkers, coexisting, more than tolerating but appreciating differences.

Peace Class, free, Wednesdays on Zoom

We came here to learn how to do that in peace.

 

What makes that possible is this phrase: Regardless of how we see things, we have compassion for one another. That choice-of-thought builds the kind of peace we came here to build.

In peace, Mandy

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• Mandy Kahn (PRS.org), edited by Dhr. Seven (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

A star is born: Yoga, dancing; Pilates...

An Experience of Enlightenment

Anyone who has ever danced or done yoga postures (asanas) has to marvel at the impossibility of Assam's 8-year-old BINITA CHETRY, who blows even jaded judges away with the most flexible dancing audition ever on the show.

It's one thing to be able to bend. It is a whole 'nother to have this much poise, balance, creativity, and élan. Is this what ancient dancers did to bedazzle visitors in far-flung kingdoms?

Do frog pose for 100 years to get ready to dance. - Next, let's work on strength and balance.

Hobert: Hey, I can dance AND sing.

In the little book An Experience of Enlightenment, there is a kingdom at the nexus of two great rivers in Northern India (perhaps the Brahmaputra and Saraswati). And there a temple dancing girl lives until a handsome traveling stranger comes through the area and wins her heart. But her jealous handler won't stand for it. One is reminded of that strange tale retold by a European after a seance in the book's true story.

• How does she do it?! | Britain's Got Talent | Facebook

BOOK REVIEW: I read this little book in Finnish, and it was a vivid, charming, and interesting experience of [spiritual] search[ing], enlightenment, and meditation. The book was published a long time ago, and it seems rare to find personal experiences of women of this age on the path of meditation (without being lifestyle-obsessed). Source (rare book)

• 8-year-old wonder dancer from Assam sets British talent show on fire and earns plaudits from judges
• What happened? Did Binita Chetry win Britain's Got Talent Series 18?

Aubrey Hobert: "Sue Me" Pilates

AUBREY HOBERT (born 1999) is an American singer and songwriter from NYC. After co-writing several songs with Gracie Abrams on her 2024 album The Secret of Us, Hobert released her debut single, "Sue Me," in 2025. Her debut album, Who's the Clown?, was released on Aug. 15, 2025. More

Yeah, but can a girl play a guitar?

(Tina S) Ludwig van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (3rd movement)

Yeah, Aubrey, okay. Thank you. Next. NOBODY was prepared for this 8-year-old's power on Britain's Got Talent Replay. Aug. 23, 2025: An 8-year-old dancer from Assam, India, may look sweet, but she performs with the power and ferocity of a tigress. Her unique routines combine breathtaking yogic acrobatics with fierce martial arts moves, set to epic, cinematic music. From embodying "Wonder Woman" to unleashing her inner feline power, she takes control of the entire stage, even dancing on the judges' desk in a stunning display of girl power.

• Who is Binita Chetry? Meet the 8-year-old sensation taking Britain’s Got Talent by storm

Mermaid Island: "Freaks"

• Who's your favorite punk band? Mermaid Island. Why? Heard them on Heidi and Frank: Stay or Go
• Heidi and Frank Podcast - Podcast - Apple Podcasts
• What about "Sicko Mode" as trap-metal by trans MaryJaneDaniel?

How to breathe and live underwater (video)

The answer, in brief, is join this tribe and do what they do. Become a master diver by epigenetics -- kickstarting our natural human capacity that mostly goes unprompted and dormant.

7 days with the tribe that BREATHES underwater (Bajau Sea Nomads)  

(Joe HaTTab) The BAJAU (Sama-Bajau): Sea Nomads of Southeast Asia. 🌊 Meet the Bajau — the “Sea Gypsies” who have lived in and on the ocean for centuries. With a population of about 100,000 people across Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, they are legendary free divers (70 meter + depths with no oxygen tanks). Let's visit their stilt villages in Tawi-Tawi, Philippines, and North Sulawesi, Indonesia, to uncover their survival secrets — and find out why their ancient way of life is vanishing.

(March 2025) We didn't know white people existed (ABC Australia)

Mermaids were once real?

Young men, beware of selkies, beautiful but vicious

Mermaid princess Suvannamaccha (Thai สุพรรณมัจฉา, RTGS Suphannamatcha or Suphan Matcha, Khmer សុវណ្ណមច្ឆា, ALA-LC Suvaṇṇmacchā, Pali सुवण्णमच्छा, suvaṇṇamacchā, literally "golden fish") is a daughter of Ravana (Thotsakan), appearing in the Thai and other Southeast Asian versions of the Ramanaya [1].

Suvannamaccha tries to spoil Hanuman's plans to build a bridge to (Sri) Lanka but falls in love with him instead [2].

• The figure of Suvannamaccha is popular in Thai folklore and is represented on small cloth streamers or framed pictures that are hung as luck-bringing charms in shops and houses throughout predominantly Theravada Buddhist Thailand.

Story

A mermaid charm in Thailand

[The Hindu monkey-headed god] Hanuman, while building a causeway [that has really been found to exist], discovered that he was hampered by mermaids underwater.

• Hanging wall mount: Suvannamaccha luck bringing charm (amulet) in a riverside shop in Nonthaburi, Thailand.

When the divine Mother Goddess Sita is kidnapped, her husband [ET] Lord Rama enlists Hanuman's help in rescuing her. Hanuman learns that Goddess Sita is being held captive on the island of (Sri) Lanka.

Hanuman informs Lord Rama, her husband, who orders him to build a causeway to Lanka from Proto-India Jambudvipa so that Rama's army can attack.

Chris Columbus reported seeing mermaids.

Hanuman collects his band of Vanaras and they begin placing huge boulders in the sea [between the tip of the subcontinent and the teardrop shaped island to the south] to make a foundation for the causeway.

After a few days, they notice something is wrong and call Hanuman to report that matter to him. They tell him that each day they throw rocks into the sea and the next day they are gone. Hanuman asks for volunteers to join him while he instructs the others to continue throwing rocks into the sea.

When several volunteers step forward, Hanuman leads them into the waves. They find a large number of mermaids living underwater. As they watch, a new rock is tossed in. The mermaids underwater take the rocks and carry them away.

Golden Fish, you're real! Every Thai knew it!

Hanuman looks around for their leader. He spots a lovely mermaid supervising the others. He swims towards her, but she skillfully evades him. Time and again he begins an attack, but it comes to nothing. Hanuman soon finds he is falling in love with the aquatic creature.

He changes his tactics and begins to silently woo her. She responds to him, and soon they are together at the bottom of the sea.

• When Maha Moggallana, the Buddhist monk the Buddha declared "foremost in psychic powers," looked into the sea, he saw a delightful world of mermaids (sea nymphs) dancing and existing by what sounds like advanced technological means:
• "In the middle of the ocean/ There are mansions aeon-lasting,/ Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming/ With a clear translucent luster,/ Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance/ In complex, intricate rhythms" (MN 50.25, trans. by Ven. Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi).
• "Mansions stand for an eon in the middle of the sea,/ The hue of beryl-stones, brilliant, glowing, radiant;/ There dance full many nymphs in divers hues" (Isaline Blew Horner, born 1896, trans. of MN 50).
• "There are mansions that last an eon standing in the middle of a lake./ Sapphire-colored, brilliant, they sparkle and shine./ Dancing there are nymphs shining in all different colors." (Bhante Sujato, trans. of MN 50). More: Are mermaids manatees?
• PHOTOS: We are MERMAIDS!

Later, Hanuman asks the mermaid why she is stealing the rocks. She tells him that she is Suvannamaccha, a daughter of Ravana (the "demon" who had abducted Sita).

When Ravana saw Hanuman's Vanaras building a causeway, he instructed Suvannamaccha to stop it. Hanuman tells the mermaid why he is building the causeway.

He tells her of the abduction of Sita, the battle between Rama and her father Ravana, and why they started to build a bridge to reach Lanka. More

Dubbed. 👇🏽 share.epidemicsound.com/joeha... Add this code JOE50 on the above link for Epidemic Sound and get 30 days free then discount 50% for two months for all new users. ♦️🤍⚡️ ● Instagram انستغرام ➭ joe_hattab Team 🎥 🌊 Underwater Cinematographer KevShen. 🌊 Cinematographer TOMMY VISION 🌊 Assistant Camera Ourty Mohamed 🌊 Graphic Anouar Ozgar 🌊 Research Nada Hammouch. Playlist of more great documentaries: • 🌳 Playlist of the most interesting islands: • 🌊 Playlist of prison documentaries: • 🪐

• Joe HaTTab, March 23, 2025; Mermaid (Sea Devi) Kelly Ani, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Star people visit Ireland, Africa, and Japan

In Ireland there are Tuatha Dé Danann, the "folk of the Goddess Danu," and reptilian Dragons

Ancient Aliens: The star visitors who shared the secrets of civilization (S14, E4) | full episode

Japan's Shinto priest handle kami

(HISTORY) Did humanoid space aliens (akasha-devas, asuras, brahmas) from the tiny star Sirius B visit earthling humans in the distant past, imparting the knowledge of civilization to peoples thousands of miles apart? The evidence suggests that this is exactly what happened, as they are describing the same types of beings with variations of their name sounding more like a matter of pronunciation.

See more in Season 14, Episode 4, "The Star Gods of Sirius." Watch all new episodes of Ancient Aliens, Fridays at 9/8c, and stay up to date on all favorite shows on The HISTORY Channel website at history.com/schedule. #AncientAliens

• HISTORY, Aug. 28, 2024; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Mermaids on Manatee Appreciation Day!

Portrait of a selkie "A Mermaid" (by artist John William Waterhouse, 1900)

Why are boats so mad at our kind, cutting us up with their metal teeth and racing away?

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Manatee Appreciation Day: protecting the gentle giants of the sea

"The Mermaid's Rock" by Edward Matthew Hale, 1894 (thevintagenews.com)

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Buddhism says mermaids live under the sea

Celebrated annually on the last Wednesday in March, "Manatee Appreciation Day" is more than just a tribute – it’s a global call to protect the gentle giants [related to elephants] of the sea. 

Manatees have no natural predators [other than motorboaters swinging brutal propeller blades], which contributes to their serene demeanor. However, this does not mean they are without threats. 

Human activities pose significant risks to manatee populations. Despite these challenges, manatees have shown remarkable resilience, with conservation efforts playing a crucial role in protecting them.

A childlike heart will yet believe even as adults scoff at ancient lore.

I know what I saw! (Cristobal Columbus)

• MERMAIDS (mythical half-female, half-fish creatures) have existed in seafaring lore at least since the time of the ancient Greeks. Typically depicted as having a woman’s head and torso, a fishtail instead of legs, and holding a mirror and comb, mermaids live in the ocean and, according to some legends, can take on a human shape and marry mortal men [as in the selkie lore of Ireland, Manx, Scotland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, the British Isles]. Mermaids are closely linked to sirens, another folkloric figure, part-woman, part-bird, who live on islands and sing seductive songs to lure sailors [like Homer's Odysseus and his crew] to their deaths. Mermaid sightings by sailors, when they weren’t made up, were most likely manatees, dugongs, or Steller’s sea cows (which became extinct by the 1760s due to cruel human over-hunting). Manatees are slow-moving aquatic mammals with human-like eyes, bulbous faces... (HISTORY*)

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  Psychic Maha-Mog' was dark

  SUTRA: In a very strange Buddhist sutra, Great Moggallana, the male disciple declared by the Buddha as "foremost in psychic powers" mentions that at the bottom of the sea, there are indeed mermaids who dance seductively. A reference to shapeshifting space aliens living in bases below the ocean? There is worldwide awareness that at some point in the past, there really were vicious creatures who swam the seas, just as reports of harpies and others were reported by many cultures. Let's examine what one of the Buddha's four chief disciples said of these mysterious creatures from MN 50:

"In the middle of the ocean

There are mansions aeon-lasting,

Sapphire-shining, fiery-gleaming

With a clear translucent luster,

Where iridescent sea-nymphs dance

In complex, intricate rhythms"

(MN 50.25, translated by Ven. Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi)

"Mansions stand for an eon

in the middle of the sea,

The hue of beryl-stones,

brilliant, glowing, radiant;

There dance full many

nymphs in divers hues"

(Isaline Blew Horner, born 1896, translation of MN 50)

"There are mansions that last an eon

standing in the middle of a lake.

Sapphire-colored, brilliant,

they sparkle and shine.

Dancing there are nymphs

shining in all different colors."

(Bhante Sujato translation of MN 50)

• 

  The Connected Discourses of the Buddha
  with the manatee's land cousin on the cover

  Alas, no further mention of the sea-nymph mermaid selkies is made in this sutra, Is it reasonable to think the great monk was simply repeating Indian or Scythian lore? He was addressing Mara, to warn him what was to happen for bad karma of the sort this mara was accumulating. Modern people don't believe in Mara, despite the Mara Samyutta, and all those references to him by the Buddha. There's a thick translation of The Connected Discourses by American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi that includes it. So if Mara, a kind of Tempter -- Lucifer, Cupid, Eros, Devil -- figure in Buddhism could be real, are mermaids so hard to believe in, existing underwater by inhabiting vimanas ("mansions" that are USOs) so hard to swallow?
• MN 50: Māratajjanīyasutta—Ven. Sujato (suttacentral.net)

The plight of the manatee

Boat strikes are a growing threat (earth.com)

Human activities have not been kind to manatees. Boating, pollution, and habitat destruction stand out as the three greatest threats.

Despite legal protections against hunting, manatees continue to be poached for their meat and hides. Furthermore, their natural habitats, crucial for their survival, are being decimated by human development and intrusion.

Boat strikes are particularly alarming, leading to tragic injuries or even death for these gentle creatures. This dire situation underlines the urgency of increasing awareness so that manatees will continue to exist in the future.

Getting to know sea cows

Secret places, Mexico's cenotes, near Belize

Manatees, also known as the cows of the sea [even though their closest relatives are elephants], are a marvel of marine life, characterized by their gentle nature and slow-moving grace [which caused people like Christopher Columbus to report mermaid sighting, possibly with the intention to violate them as he was planning for the gentle Indigenous humans he met].

These large, aquatic mammals belong to the order Sirenia [which is interesting because the Spanish word for "mermaid" is sirena], which also includes three species of dugongs. 

• *VIDEO: Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids [or did he see mermaids that get written off as manatees?] Jan. 9, 1493 (HISTORY)
• A bilingual brain maintains its youthfulness with age

Vegan diet

One of the most captivating aspects of manatees is their all-vegan herbivorous diet, as they feed on a wide variety of submerged, floating, and emergent plants in fresh and saltwater environments. More

• TEXT: Staff writer Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com, 3/27/24; Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Shauna Schwartz (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
• ART: Boat strikes were apparently a problem even in ancient times ("The Mermaid’s Rock" by Edward Matthew Hale, 1894 (thevintagenews.com).