Mandy Kahn: Peace not opposite of war

(Sum of Some Books) Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace explained in 7 minutes (War and Peace)

Peace is not the opposite of war

Mandy Kahn (edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly)

We went LIVE in person in the PRS Library for the first and only time so far.

Inner peace begins when... (Tiny Buddha)

Peace is not the opposite of war. When true peace is present, war does not begin. When people who live in a war-ravaged society arrive at a place of true peace, they first tend to notice the absence of war. They are surprised to see that war is not there, so they say: "This state is the opposite of war."

But peace is not the opposite of war. What they are noticing when they enter the state of peace, the peace state, is the absence of war. We use this shorthand until we are hamstrung by it, defining peace as absence. But to define peace by what is not there is to fail to understand what IS there.

What is there? In the peace state, what is there is the experience of honoring all beings.

Let's bury them alive? War gives IDF meaning

What is there is an experience of deep and sustained compassion—a caring for all others as well as self.

What is there is an awareness that one’s true nature is loving and peaceful with a conscious, vibrant experience of one’s loving and peaceful nature.

What is there is a deep remembering of the interconnectedness (intermeshed oneness) of all beings.

When genocide is caught on film (NYT)

What is there is a natural honoring of our earth.

In this loving experience of compassion-without-end, war simply does not begin.

It is not that war is not allowed in the peace state—it’s that no one in the peace state ever chooses it. War not beginning is a result of what is present in the peace state. It is not that the "absence of war" is present, it’s that compassion-for-all-beings is present. And when compassion-for-all-beings is present, war is never present.

Definition

War Force  Gives Us Meaning

Defining peace as the opposite of war is like saying, "What’s notable about Los Angeles is that it’s not San Francisco." It’s like saying, "What we know about Los Angeles is that it is the place where the Golden Gate Bridge is not; therefore, Los Angeles is the opposite of the place where the Golden Gate Bridge is." This is nonsense.

This would be like teaching our children, "There is the Golden Gate Bridge, and there is Los Angeles, which is where the Golden Gate Bridge is not." Then our children would grow up to say, "Yes, Los Angeles, that’s the place where the Golden Gate Bridge is not!"

To associate peace with one thing that is not present in the peace state is to be distracted from what is there.

What is inherently present in the peace state is compassion-without-end, the honoring of all beings, the honoring of earth, a sense of the connectedness of all human beings, the knowledge of one’s inherent true nature, and the feeling of love-without-limits and without-end, unconditional love (Buddhist metta, Ancient Greek love).

These presences are all inherent aspects of peace. When we begin to think of peace in terms of its presences, we begin to understand what peace is, how to build it, how to sustain it, and how to share it.

An experience of peace

Then a wave of bliss came over me: metta

How do we know that we are having an experience of peace? We know we are in the peace state when we feel peace’s presences—love-without-end, compassion-without-end, a connection to all others, an awareness of our own loving and peaceful true nature, and an inherent honoring of the earth.

As a result of these presences, we act in ways that are respectful of self and others concurrently. These actions are a result of what we know when we are in the peace state, what we remember we are when we are in the peace state.

Misdefined peace

"Let that sh*t go," the Awakened One might say

When we make the mistake of defining peace as "the opposite of war," what is really happening is that we are confusing peace, a state in which war does not begin, and a ceasefire.

A ceasefire is an action taken as a step to end a war. Peace and ceasefire are two very different things. The fact that we have used one word to mean both indicates our fundamental confusion about the true nature of peace.

A "ceasefire" can only exist in a place where fighting is a possibility. In the peace state, fighting never begins. Therefore, a ceasefire cannot exist in the peace state. Conflating peace and ceasefire has created profound confusion—one of the greatest of our time.

That’s what makes this moment so powerful. We can begin, right NOW, to learn what peace is—to learn what is present when peace is. We can begin to understand the difference between peace and ceasefire, and to separate them as distinct. Once they are separated, we can begin to learn about peace free of confusion.

See you Wednesday for a guided meditation

Once we have begun to separate peace and ceasefire, we can begin to engage with true peace, as it is, without its power being dampened by the idea that it is a dance in-and-out of war.

A ceasefire is simply a part of the cycle of belligerence. The peace state is infinitely more powerful than any ceasefire. To equate peace with a ceasefire is to reduce peace’s power. To separate the concept of peace from the concept of a ceasefire is to return peace’s power to us.

• Mandy Kahn (mandykahn.com)

Mandy Kahn's Peace Class goes live every Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm (Pacific Time) on Zoom. It is free to attend. To sign up, visit: eventbrite.com/e/peace-class-with-mandy-kahn. To get Mandy Kahn's free weekly peace emails, visit: mandykahn.com.

• Mandy Kahn (text); Sum of Some Books (War and Peace summary); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Don't buy love: Rent-a-Grandma 👵

(Solace Fox) Nothing changes until we do this. (Just do this)

Granny, can you get us some chocolate?

Motherhood is strange. It leads to motherhood. Every mother has a mother, who for the next generation is called the grandmother. But not every individual has the luck, karma, or good fortune to have a Grandma to rely on. Thems is the breaks.

"Always Trust Your Grandma" childcare, nannies, and pet care to the rescue. Welcome to Rent A Grandma (RAG), which provides vital, healthy, safe "care providers." RAG specializes in placing caring women, possessing deep life experience with families as nannies, babysitters, and in-home care providers, as well as chefs, cooks, and highly experienced domestic staff.

Learn more about RAG's services or contact the with any questions or comments. Check out Rent A Grandma in the App Store. Browse grandmas and create an account from an iPhone or iPad.

Remember, these Grandmas offer excellent care as: babysitters, nannies, baby caregivers, after school care, special needs care, housekeepers, senior care/companions, personal assistants, pet care/sitting, cooks, tutors [but not call gals, dates, or Vegas ranch workers, so don't ask, or ask very gingerly because it's not legal outside of Nevada]. Subscribe to mailing list: rentagrandma.com

Find Calm on Election Day: cute animals

Meditation + confidence = calm.

Calm.com and the San Diego Zoo are providing a peaceful diversion on Election Day with cute animal videos. 

Why it matters: It's important to find ways to de-stress and stay calm during election season, which won't be over on Nov. 5th.

Driving the news: Calm is hosting a live stream from the San Diego Zoo on Instagram so we can take a break from political doomscrolling to watch capybaras, meerkats, penguins, and other beautiful wildlife.

It starts at noon PT until polls close across the country.

• 7 best places to go in the US in case of a societal collapse

Those humans are so full of fleas, ticks, and bugs because they won't clean each other.

.

Between the lines: Calm also has free "Election Season Support" content with breathing exercises, meditations and other mindfulness tools.

🐅 The intrigue: While he won't be featured on the livestream, a new tiger cub is out to play at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Baby Barong, which means "king of spirits," stepped out of his den for the first time last week. Watch him here or visit him in person at the park this weekend. More

• How to get through Election Day (The Atlantic)

Real life kindness caught on camera

Real life super people caught on camera

(#Mind Warehouse) Jan. 11, 2024: Rescue a kitty, stop a rolling car with bare hands, prevent a fight with pizza, it's metta-motivated super heroic magic. Let's discover the many ways to become a real-life superhero or heroine in this latest compilation!

BRAIN TIME ► goo.gl/tTWgH2. SLICED ► goo.su/v3QLR. For copyright matters, please contact: copymanager.mn@gmail.com. #MindWarehouse #IncredibleMoments #CaughtOnCamera  #MindWarehouse #IncredibleMoments #CaughtOnCamera #incredibleindia.

"Karma is my boyfriend": Taylor Swift loses b/f

E! News, 6/5/23; Jen Bradford (DBM), Sheldon S., Crystal C. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Three Fates? Haters in Hades hate goody two shoes Taylor Alison Swift? ("Karma")

• VIDEO: Taylor Swift discovers "Karma"

Cling, lose, repeat: Taylor and Matty break up after short, whirlwind romance | E! News

Wait, T-Swift is human not just an empty shell?

(E! News) [Another one bites the dust, not just Matty but Joey, too. Oh, boy, this star cannot hold a man.] Taylor Swift and The 1975 frontman Matty Healy call it quits [after bragging that "karma is her boyfriend" on her new hit song "Karma"], just weeks after seemingly confirming their romance with outings in New York City and appearances at her Eras Tour. This loss comes on the heels of her recent loss of Joe Alwyn. Someone (looking at you T) needs therapy real bad. Full story: eonline.com #TaylorSwift #MattyHealy #JoeAlwyn #ENews

• Taylor Swift, Matty Healy break up | ELLE Australia

Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn break up after he cheated

(SLOAN) May 9, 2023. Taylor is trying to move on with the lead singer of The 1975, Matty Healy, after she caught her boyfriend Joey Alwyn creeping around with another woman. Credit: Pattypopculture (tiktok.com/@pattypopculture...)

Will "Nazi Barbie" ever find love?

OMG, my life is over. I've nuthin to live for

Oops, she spoke too soon. Schadenfreude is an almost entirely terrible thing. It's anti-mudita or the "rejoicing in the happiness of others." If we rejoice in others' happiness, we will always be happy. But if we rejoice in their misery, we will only rarely be happy. And if we rejoice only in our own happiness, well, that's the source of just about all our threefold karma-based problems in life:

Why can't I find love?

1. greed (lust, selfishness),
2. hatred (fear, disliking), and
3. delusion (wrong view, ignorance).

So let's not celebrate that the wunderkind and music-corporation that is Taylor "Nazi Barbie" Swift, Inc. just got her @$$ handed to her or at least the pieces of her broken heart. It hurts, even if one is a jerk up the goosewad, as TayTay allegedly is.

• Taylor Swift cried during ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Forever’ breakup song on Eras Tour | ELLE Australia
  

I don't cry. I'm too rich. I have managers and handlers to tell me what to do online and on tour.

Karma? Kindness to animals? (video)

Good Deeds (YouTube); Wisdom Quarterly COMMENTARY

Who taught nonhumans to use cameras? Monkey selfie copyright dispute

Mmm, pork chops and bacon. Slaughter him!

What, if anything, did the Buddha have to say about kindness to mere animals? Surprisingly, what we do to living beings -- human, animal, or otherwise -- is significant in a moral dimension. That is, it will follow us and have consequences, good and ill, desirable and undesirable, wished for and otherwise. Animals count.

You want bacon, don't cha? It's sliced stomach.

Providing or making allowances for their safety, protecting their food sources (the environment we share), abstaining from the use of poisons and toxins, all of these are merit. Raising them for slaughter, paying someone to slaughter them, depriving them of environment and therefore of natural food sources, or praising and/or rewarding those who do these things, this cannot be for the long-term good.

There may be short-term profits, to be sure (or why else would anyone do these things?) But the resultants will be very unwelcome. If one cannot help them, leave them alone. They have instinct and each other to sustain themselves.

As humans, as another species, we do not have "dominion." We have responsibility and stewardship. That is the correct translation of the biblical term thrown around in the West to justify animal abuse (hunting, killing, caging, trapping, chasing away), use, and consumption.

Rescuing farm animals: The sad Ram saved

Lonely ram had no friends for 10 years. This woman gave him a family.

(GeoBeats Animals) Nov. 15, 2022. Lonely ram had no friends for 10 years. This woman gave him a family. Check out Huxley's story: instagram.com/uncleneilsh... #bekind #animals

Addiction Recovery: "One Breath at a Time"

Kevin Griffin, One Breath at a Time (excerpts), BuddhistRecovery.org; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

What would the Buddha say to an alcoholic or drug addict? What can the Recovery Movement offer the Buddhist path? Author Kevin Griffin immersed himself in the Buddhist and Twelve Step traditions, and in One Breath at a Time he gives some surprising and inspiring answers to these questions. As a Buddhist meditation teacher and longtime Twelve Step practitioner, he weaves his personal story of recovery with traditional Buddhist teachings, taking us on a journey through the steps

“Six months before the holiday retreat with [enlightened lay Buddhist meditation teacher] Ruth Denison [as confirmed by living Buddhist master  Ajahn Jumnien, who is profiled in Jack Kornfield's classic book on Buddhist greats], I went on a solo retreat for a week at a Buddhist monastery in the hills above Santa Cruz.

Living Buddhist Masters (Jack Kornfield)

“The first couple of days of sitting I continued my usual prayer rituals, morning and evening. But as I got deeper into practice, I found praying to something or someone outside myself started to feel false and artificial. I asked myself what 'God' felt like.

“As I meditated day after day, the idea of a being called God faded and was replaced by a sense of spirit that was in me and in everything. The name Great Spirit sprang to mind. This sounded almost silly, as if I were adopting a Native American belief system and yet, these words best fit my sense of a Higher Power: a vast, subtle energy pervading all things – a Great Spirit.”

[A better "Higher Power" than God]

I'm your Highest Power, goddammit!

“So for some years I adopted these words when I prayed. My Higher Power was both inside and outside. Today, verbal prayer sometimes falls away entirely, replaced simply by the effort to be aware and awake, to be mindful in each moment. At other times I use Buddhist forms of prayer (which I’ll explore in Step Eleven).”

“I don’t mean to say that I’ve got the Higher Power thing all figured out and I’m on the right side. Rather, this is where I’ve come to. Buddhist practice, in one way, strips everything away, so it’s hard to hold on to concepts like 'God.'

“On the other hand, the practice gives you such powerful inner resources that another kind of trust may supplant the formal faith in God.”

“The idea of a Higher Power changes; like everything, it’s impermanent. We learn to trust our understanding and let it evolve. Sometimes our inner landscape is so parched, there’s no sense of power or life; at other times we feel a gentle hand guiding us.

“Mindfulness, developed in meditation, helps us to see our relationship to our Higher Power in this moment and to work with that relationship in the most helpful way. In fact, mindfulness itself can be used as a Higher Power, as we shall see in Step Three” (pp. 41-42).

“Looking back, I see how in meditation it was possible to deceive myself. In silence, in my own mind, what appeared and disappeared, was not seen or heard by anyone else. I got no feedback, and besides that, I didn’t recognize the “nature of my wrongs,” the destructive and dysfunctional quality of my thinking – not to mention my behavior. This is where the Twelve Steps have something to offer Buddhism.”

[Is it any easier in Asia?]

Sons of the Buddha (Kamala Tiyavanich)

“In Asia, the monastery is the center of social life for many people. The monks are teachers for the lay people, even confidants. They offer guidance on matters large and small. Buddhism acts as a social and spiritual support system. However, for lay Buddhists in the West, we’ve largely lost this element...”

“What’s difficult to achieve is the kind of support that those in Twelve Step groups give each other. This may be because of a central difference in orientation between Twelve Step groups and Buddhist groups.

“In the Twelve Step groups, what brings people together is a common affliction, be it alcoholism, drug addiction, codependence, overeating, or something else. The members of these groups share a struggle, and also the willingness to engage that struggle with tremendous honesty.

“The Twelve Step tradition emphasizes the need for support, for “carrying the message”, for an ongoing fellowship as we deal with our failings. People in recovery also have the sense of having survived something together, and like any group of survivors, they share a bond forged in pain, struggle and eventual redemption.”

“In contrast, a Buddhist group is filled with people who, in some sense, are striving for Buddhahood, for perfection. Everyone is trying to learn Right Speech, Right Effort, Right Concentration, and on and on.

“In that context, there isn’t the same tendency to talk about one’s failings. You’re 'supposed' to be meditating right and being a good little Buddhist. There’s a striving for this ideal. And in that striving, there may even be a touch of competitiveness.

“So although the Buddhist teachings emphasize compassion and interconnectedness, in many Buddhist communities we haven’t found ways to bring the kind of immediate bonding that newcomers to the Twelve Steps can feel after their first meeting when they are surrounded by people offering their phone numbers and asking how they can help” (pp. 124-125). More

• One Breath at a Time
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part One: Surrender
• (Step 1; Meditation Exercise: Vipassana; Step 2; Step 3)
• Part Two: Investigation and responsibility
• (Step 4; Meditation Exercise: noting the Hindrances; Step 5; Step 6; Step 7; Step 8; Step 9)
• Part Three: Fulfillment
• (Step 10; Step 11; Meditation Exercise: cultivating the wholesome: mudita and karuna; Step 12; Back to Step 1)

RecoveryDharma.org is a recovery movement based on Buddhist principles.

Science: Secret to Popularity discovered

Ellie Zolfagharifard (dailymail.com, 4/15/15); Crystal Q., Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

It's not about wearing the latest fashions but about having enough empathy to "read minds."

.

There are Four Bases of Popularity

The secret of the popular kids: Researchers find "mind reading" abilities make children more likeable. The research looked at 20 separate studies involving 2,096 children.

Empathy [feeling others' feelings with them, what the Buddha referred to as mudita, "empathetic joy," "happiness in others' happiness"] was the common factor in making and maintaining friendships. This is especially true for girls, whose friendships usually involve more intimacy.

"Wipe your butt, Stinky." (The Rut)

It's not about wearing the latest fashion or being on the football team; the secret to being popular at school is "mind reading." This is according to an Australian study that found popular children are better at knowing what others want, think, and feel.

The same goes for pre-schoolers and young adults, suggesting that empathy is one of the most important skills for becoming part of the "cool crowd."

"Our study suggests that understanding others' mental perspectives may facilitate the kind of interactions that help children become or remain popular," said Virginia Slaughter, professor of psychology at the University of Queensland.

• "Tinder for stoners" goes global: High There!
• Forget smiles, a simple sniff will tell you if...
• Self-control is the most important skill to learn...
• Our politics are in our genes? Twin study suggests...

The ability to find out what other people are thinking and feeling is called "theory of the mind" and helps people distinguish, for instance, between sarcasm and insult.

While individual studies have shown an association with popularity in the past, this research looked across the findings of 20 different studies.

Together, the studies included 2,096 children from 2 to 10 years old from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. More

• Comments

Divine Ways to Abide (The Brahma Viharas)

Elizabeth J. Harris, A Journey into Buddhism; A. Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Chp. 3: The Four Divine Abidings

A professor of Theravada Buddhism once asked me, "Why is it assumed, at all the interfaith gatherings I attend, that God is the uniting factor among the religions? We should be concentrating on humanity rather than divinity."

When it is taken for granted that all people of faith worship a Supreme Creator and Sustainer God, Buddhists and Jains [two of the great Dharmic religions] are excluded.

Although Buddhists believe that there are gods [devas and brahmas] living in many celestial planes of existence, they do not ascribe original creative power to them [in fact, there are many brahmas, "supremes," wielding a power of creation or power over other's creations], nor do they believe that these gods have any influence over ultimate human liberation.
 
Belief in God cannot, therefore, provide common ground between Buddhists and religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. But can common ground be found in what religions say about humanity or about how we can work for a humane society? I believe the answer is "yes."

• [In the past Buddhist and Catholic ecumenical gatherings have agreed on the centrality of the cause and cessation of suffering (dukkha) as common ground for discussion.]

What are the best ways to abide?

Buddhism speaks of four Brahma Viharas, the "Divine Abidings" or "Supreme Attitudes," and these qualities permeate the whole of Buddhist teaching. They are metta (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), mudita (sympathetic joy), and upekkha (equanimity).
 
Metta is boundless loving kindness radiated to all beings -- friends and enemies, strangers, the loved and unloved. It is an action-changing mental orientation.

Karuna is seen where people are so sensitive to the sufferings of others that they cannot rest until they act to relieve that suffering. To a greater degree than metta, karuna involves action or intercession.

Mudita is a quality that challenges me greatly. To show mudita is to feel joy over the successes of others, free of jealousy, envy, and bitterness, to actually celebrate or rejoice in their happiness and achievements even when we are facing tragedy ourselves.
 
Upekkha is equanimity but has often been misunderstood as indifference or lack of caring when it is actually looking on all things free of bias. It is not apathy in the face of pain, which would be the very antithesis of compassion.

Divine beings abide in mental peace.

Upekkha is really freedom from the self-centeredness that clouds understanding and destroys true discernment and wisdom. People who cultivate upekkha are no longer pulled this way and that by emotional reactions that have more to do with the ego than with actual concern for others. They can see right from wrong and can act with wisdom.
 
The Brahma Viharas speak to me of the ideals that should direct our lives -- the ideals that can create the kind of society any truly religious person yearns for.

Such a society would be one where loving kindness and compassion triumph over greed, where the success of one person does not mean the demeaning or exploitation of others, where rulers are guided by clear principles of right and wrong rather than hunger for praise or power.

These "Divine Abidings" -- or the way that Maha Brahma [the "Great Supremo," the first born in a world system based on its previous karma in former cycles of existence, being neither male nor female but beyond sexual dimorphism] spends its time -- give us a picture of merit and mundane good.

They touch the hope of all religions and can bring unity of purpose independent of a concept or idea of God.
 
So let compassion for the good of humanity be at the forefront of religious encounters. May those who come from the monotheistic traditions discover that they can share their hopes for a righteous society with their Buddhist neighbors.

May Buddhists find themselves united with their Catholic, Jain, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim friends in working for a world where loving kindness takes the place of greed. More

• NASA reveals a mysterious 'energy trap' at the center of our galaxy
• EXCLUSIVE - The man who wants to bring the BRAIN DEAD back to life: Scientist whose life's work will be used...
• Tunnel to the other side of the world: Fascinating interactive map reveals where you would end up if you dug...
• 'Was he for real?': The internet erupts as a US congressman asks a senior Nasa panel if aliens lived on Mars...
• The incredible 'vein maps' maps of the world that reveal rivers as you've never seen them before
• Have YOU spotted it? Russia's 'artificial star' set to light up the sky reaches orbit (but nobody seems to...
• Elon Musk calls for a moon base to be built to fire up public interest in space - and admits SpaceX's...
• The £75bn makeover: How Amazon boss and soon-to-be world's richest man Jeff Bezos has gone from IT geek to...
• British conspiracy theorist who predicted the end of the world would begin in the Northern Hemisphere goes...
• Rare human genetic syndrome that causes people to 'love everyone' could reveal why dogs really ARE man's...
• Living together means sharing more than the bathroom: Researchers find couples end up sharing MICROBES
• Apple's new handset will be called the iPhone Pro and WILL go on sale in September (although it may set you...
• Humans have produced 9.1 billion tons of plastic since 1950 - enough to cover Manhattan in TWO MILES of...
• New date rewrites history of man's migration out of Africa: Artefacts reveal humans arrived in Australia...
• Last month was the third warmest June in history putting 2017 on track to be one of the hottest years ever...

• MORE HEADLINES