Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: solitary

Showing posts with label solitary. Show all posts

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Rise of ‘Female Loneliness’ (Dukkha Girl)

This sucks so friggin bad and I'm all alone.

We miss our beloved, adopted (Shanghai victim) correspondent Dukkha Girl. She was on, she was gone, she came back, and now who knows where she is? So here's a replacement, Shoe0nHead, a clever allusion to that time someone asked the Zen master a koan and he "answered" by putting a sandal on his head and walking out. Ha.

But in a serious vein, if people only knew what dukkha is, they would have much more respect for what the Buddha found. What he taught, which made him so famous, is how to bring all suffering to an end. "Impossible!," people say, but it is possible, and a fraction of beings have already done it, giving the world the Noble Sangha, the community of those on the stages of awakening.

We would like to leave the term dukkha untranslated -- and nowadays not attempt to define "girl" either because of the libcon rancor and feminist hypocrisy that tends to engender -- because it's a multivalent Sanskrit word, having a range of meanings, with many shades and intensities.

Does the Buddha have advice for worldlings?

Translated, we prefer "disappointment," to show that it is much more than the common "suffering." Suffering sounds so bad that most of think we don't have that. But Tan Geoff is right to translate it as "stress" rather than distress, because even eustress (positive stress as comes from excitement) is included in this umbrella term. The best definition is long and comes from the Buddha:

It is not getting what we want, getting what we don't want, and all forms of ill and unease. It is pain, it is sadness, it is loss, it is ultimately that lack of fulfillment that drives us on to keep hoping and searching (craving) even though it continuously leaves us dissatisfied and off kilter and out of sorts.

No one gets me, except Grumpy Cats. He does.

The word dukkha at its root refers to an oxcart wheel that is off-center and therefore providing a bumpy, wonky, wobbly, uncertain, and unpleasant sometimes painful ride. All of life -- in all states of existence -- is beset by tinges of this. Hey, but what about the heavens? Even there, danger exists. They are not eternal, and they are certainly not fulfillment as they have been sold to us. They are temporary bliss, exalted, and that's the higher ones. The lower sensual ones seem little better than a good time on earth. Just ask the Indian, Greek, Sumerian, and Roman "gods" (the deus, devas) of the various pantheons, visitors from above acting like spoiled children with lots of power and beauty.

We ignore the danger of suffering, the misfortune others meet, until the S gets real (bad touch)

It is completely wrong to interpret Buddhism as saying there is no pleasure. If there were no pleasure, the Buddha explains, no one would stay in samsara. Of course, there's pleasure. It is our relationship to pleasure that is problematic. We crave, grasp at, and cling to the pleasant; we exhibit aversion and fear toward the unpleasant; we get bored or confused and fall asleep with the neutral, the neither-pleasant-nor-unpleasant.

F all y'all! Maybe pleasure's the solution

Moreover, there is a hidden danger in pleasure and attachment, like a flower or fruit with a hidden thorn. Or to use a now less familiar simile, which was popular and easier to relate to in the Buddha's ancient agrarian proto-India, it is like licking honey off the blade of a knife or razor used to gather that honey. It's sweet until it slices your tongue.

Females can get lonely? But they're always going to the bathroom together, going out in packs, being friends on the phone and on social media with their filters and clique parties, accompanying each other to venues, talking to everyone, and acting like the whole world is a popularity contest in high school!

Of course girls get lonely, and women have it even worse. Everything that happens on the HS social scene is temporary, even in college, but IRL? Whoa, suddenly it's all forevermore.

Females are pitted against each other by the society, treated in curious and crappy ways by males, misunderstood by a male-dominated medical field, psychologized, medicated (with most of them being put on antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs), and told to smile to make viewers feel better as if it were their job to make us feel good. Dating/mating in particular is a problem. Anyhow, who knows? Let's ask a woman. Dukkha Girl! Oh, she's not here. Um, Shoe0nHead, take it away:

The Rise of ‘Female Loneliness’ (How to Fix It)

Am I the problem because I feel like the victim in all of this, wahhhhh. Everyone hates me!

(Shoe0nHead) March 14, 2024: ♥ Patreon: donate $5 or up to join the discord server ♥ shoe0nhead ♥ Twitter: shoe0nhead. TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Happy International Women’s Day
02:27 All the single ladies [don't have the money or looks of Beyonce]
06:03 Why aren’t men approaching women anymore?!
08:51 129 Ways to Get a Husband
23:54 What have we learned?

♥ Sources used in this video ♥

Full "129 Ways to Get a Husband" list: inside.sfuhs.org/dept/history...
Men do not approach women study: datepsychology.com/risk-aversion...
Women being single article: eviemagazine.com/post/45-...

♥ Sponsored by Ridge. Save up to 30% on Ridge’s products with this link (ridge.com/shoe) through April 1st. ♥ Outro song: Marina and the Diamonds: Froot (Subscribe to them they make great remixes). If you're reading this, write "o w o" in the comments.

Shoe0nHead, 3/14/24; Ashley Wells, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; the original Dukkha Girl came back at ThisIsZen.com

Monday, November 27, 2023

Books saved my life in solitary (Booker Prize)

Anita Singh, Telegraph, 11/27/23; Dhr. Seven, Ash Wells, Pat Mac (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Reading The Handmaid's Tale and cutting up our prison orange as the new black in Iran...

'Books could take me to another world'

If I could read just ONE book...

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed that she was saved from despair during captivity in Iran by reading a banned copy of The Handmaid’s Tale.

Booker Prize

She said that she and other cellmates maintained a secret library in Iranian prison. She was speaking at the ceremony for the 2023 Booker Prize, which was awarded to Paul Lynch for Prophet Song.

Prophet Song is set in a totalitarian Ireland, where the government has embraced tyranny and families live in fear of the secret police.

Ms. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by Iranian authorities in 2016 on spying charges and spent almost six years in detention. She told the audience:

84,000 Tibetan Buddhist manuscripts found

“I spent nine months in solitary confinement with very little access to anything. Being claustrophobic, solitary was a horrific experience.

“After five months my family could bring me books. When the guard opened the door and handed over the books to me, I felt liberated; I could read books, they could take me to another world, and that could transform my life.”

Others left their books for us

In 2023 in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, 84 thousand unread manuscripts were discovered.

The books included War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope, and The Return by Hisham Matar.

But it was Margaret Atwood’s novel, belonging to a cellmate, which had the most profound effect.

“One day a cellmate received a book through the post [mail]; it was The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, translated into Farsi [Iranian language].

Who thought a book banned in Iran could find its way to prison through the mail?

“When we left, we all bequeathed books to the secret library in the ward to keep our stories alive for others to come, just like others left their books for us to survive,” she said.

Ms. Zagahari-Ratcliffe previously revealed that she watched Andy Murray’s 2016 Wimbledon victory while in solitary confinement....

‘Stunning’ use of language

Paul Lynch was one of four Irish authors longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, which he attributed to the island country’s proud literary history.

“Writers like Beckett or [James] Joyce don’t just produce great works of literature, they transmit into the culture a massive energy and we’re still drawing on that, whether we realize it or not,” he said. More

32 secret meditation garden ideas for a peaceful outdoor space

Sunday, April 2, 2023

Solitary confinement: Last Week Tonight (TV)

Solitary Confinement: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

(LastWeekTonight) April 2, 2023. John Oliver discusses solitary confinement, how prevalent it is in the United States, how damaging it can be and, of course, how to hit the woah.

Connect with Last Week Tonight online... Subscribe to the YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens, on Facebook like your mom would, on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news, or v Visit our official site for all that other stuff at once: www.hbo.com/lastweektonight

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

What PRISON is like in the U.S. (video)

Wes Watson of San Diego (watsonfit.com, GP Penitentiary Life, August 13, 2019); Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, Ashley Wells, Sheldon S., Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly Part 1

WARNING: Graphic language, gratuitous profanity, violence, sexual content, shocking stories!

We're racist because American prison is racist. The SHU (Security Housing Unit, aka solitary confinement, "the hole") is a part of a prison with further restrictions, where guards further mistreat prisoners to exact revenge or to control them and model brutal behavior for them, which prisoners in turn inflict on one another and then on citizens outside of prison.

What horrors happen in U.S. prison -- and there are many including rape, extortion, cruelty, lack of compassion or sympathy, and all the worst human traits imaginable (greed, anger, delusion) -- are spurred by the treatment and torture of prisoners by the facility, warden, and fellow inmates. Prisoners run prisons because guards are too cowardly, too underpaid. too poorly staffed to do it themselves.

Nazis, white supremacy gang, Aryan Brotherhood, forced racial segregation

The system is at fault. Guards are trying to survive, prisoners are trying to survive, and prison officials are trying to capitalize on a pre-existing system. One unfairness grows into another. The end product is a toxic system that poisons society. Whatever happens in prison gets to the outside world. Enlightened self-interest teaches us that when we say "we don't care" about prisoners then we must not care too much about the world outside prison.

When people call for harsher and more expensive punishment as the solution, they are contributing to the problem, hardening prisoners and turning them out on a world that did not prevent their severe torture, neglect, and abuse in prison. Many prisoners may be horrible human beings, victims of abuse turned abusers or PTSD-suffering torture victims from the way they are tormented in prison, but they are yet human beings. What we allow to be done to the least of our brothers we do to ourselves. The test of a society is not how it treats its privileged members but how it treats its prisoners.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Why do introverts tend to be highly spiritual?

Amber Larson, Ven. Nyanaponika, Wisdom Quarterly; Editor Gregg Prescott, M.S. (in5D.com)

A Manifest for Introverts (in5d.com)

Why do introverts tend to be highly spiritual? Society dictates that we follow specific images projected by the mainstream media, so why do introverts tend to rebel from these stereotypes?

Introverts tend to look within for answers versus having the need for societal approval. Often, extroverts will view the introvert as being antisocial, stuck up, or as a loner. But even with these labels, the introvert will stand his or her ground disregarding how others perceive him or her.

If you are an introvert, then you will find comfort in solitude. You often find yourself immersed in deep thought and contemplation. Your need for approval from others is significantly less than the extrovert as you realize that answers come from within.

While you may partake of social occasions, you often enjoy simply watching the environment around you versus being the center of attention, which many introverts try to avoid. On a metaphysical level, the introvert realizes how we are all connected and does not need the external approval and attention that is often sought after by the extrovert.

Approximately 75% of the world are extroverts, which makes the introvert the minority, yet the introvert will not succumb to societal pressure in order to conform.

While some introverts may be shy, there is a big difference between shyness and being introverted. More

Happily detached?

You know what's good about Buddhism? Viveka, mental and physical withdrawal to strive.

There is a kind of "happiness of detachment," aloofness. Whoever is addicted to society and worldly bustle will not partake of the happiness of renunciation (internal letting go), detachment, peace, and enlightenment" (AN. VII.86).

There are three kinds of "detachment" (viveka) or seclusion according to the Niddesa:

(1) bodily detachment (kāya-viveka), that is, abiding in solitude free from alluring sensuous objects;
(2) mental detachment (citta-viveka), that is, the inner detachment from sensuous things;
(3) detachment from the Five Aggregates of Clinging (upadhi-viveka).

In the description of the first meditative absorption,

the words "detached from sensuous things" refer, according to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. IV), to "bodily detachment";
the words "detached from karmically unwholesome things" refer to "mental detachment";
the words "born of detachment," to the absence of the Five Hindrances to meditation.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Resisting Putin and other dictators (video)

CC Liu, Irma Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly; DemocracyNow.org; Letters & Politics (KPFA)

Listen to this dumb B ('olshevik). We don't render, naked girl; the CIA renders!

Don't render me, bro, don't render me, bro! (F)

It is a day full of breaking stories in Crimea (Ukraine or Russia). Pres. Vlad the Invader Putin is pleasing the crowds in the capital of the former-and-future empire. And does anyone remember Iran's gambit to take three American hostages (later to be used as part of a pretext to invade and occupy Tehran, an inevitability according to John Lear)?

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/dont-tase-me-bro

The three were imprisoned and tortured (by extended solitary confinement as defined by the international community as literal "torture" despite the U.S. doing the same and worse to its prisoners on a regular basis) then sold back to the U.S. for a $1.5 million ransom.

LISTEN (KPFA, Berkeley): Prof. Paul Magocsi, Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Toronto, is interviewed by L&P host Mitch Jeserich.

"CIA Spies and Tortured Lies"

Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

This week’s public "spat" between CIA-loyalist and Spy Oversight Committee Chair Senator Dianne Feinstein (Democrat, California) and that agency (The Company, i.e., the CIA) might briefly upset the status quo. But they will soon make up. Sadly, it obscures a graver problem: the untold story of the United States’ secret policy of torture and "rendition" [White House code for “kidnapping” and sending captives to secret prisons and friendly states to do the dirty business outside of the purview of US oversight]. LISTEN

Snowden docs expose how the NSA "infects" millions of computers and impersonates Facebook server

They're trying to hack everyone on Facebook

(March 17, 2014) New disclosures from Edward Snowden show that the NSA is massively expanding its computer hacking worldwide. Software that automatically hacks into computers -- known as malware "implants" -- had previously been kept to just a few hundred targets. But the news website "The Intercept" (run by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and others) reports that the NSA is spreading...

READ: A Sliver of Light (excerpt)

Today Democracy Now! speaks with Sarah Shourd, Shane Bauer, and Joshua Fattal about their new book, A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran. Read an excerpt from Bauer about the day they were arrested on trumped of charges of trespassing into Iran and spying for the U.S.