Off to NY, dealing with aftermath

I hadn't realized that my mother died right before John Daido Loori did.

The man had some good influence on my life.

With these deaths, and also with the death of my current teacher's brother it becomes clearer to me: this stuff about "we are the one's we've been waiting for?" Well, uh, now's the time.


I've had a middling impact in my life and my career, but life is rather serious now.

And also, somewhere along the way, I realized that preservation and transmittal of the tiny bit that I know and practice vitally depends now on me.

It's not a soft and gooey new age spirituality, it's that a lot more adamantine.

It's time.

And furthermore...

Please understand, I never had a secret chart
to get me to the heart of this
or any other matter
When he talks like this
you don't know what he's after
When he speaks like this,
you don't know what he's after.

To those very close to me, and also to my neice, this should be self-explanatory

Sometimes life compels you to do things that might not be socially correct, and grieve you to the marrow. And a loved one's death bequeaths to you a sedulous sense of duty, and the only way to honor their memory, is to be where you where born to be.

What is Glenn Beck trying to hide?

A lot of people understand that no one has found any proof that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990.

So why is Glenn Beck trying to shut down a web site just for asking the question?

All kidding aside (and nobody's found any proof yet that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990) this bit from lawyers protesting Beck's attempt to remove the domain name asking this question is one of the great laugh-riots of legal annals.

Just read it; it is the first legal document I've ever read that makes specific reference to Richard Gere and gerbils.

And if you're wondering what's this all about...

now know a wonk I know a wonk won

I've been away...

Due to family matters getting significant, the planning/reporting time of year, and just fall in general, I've been busy.

Hopefully I'll get back to the Lankavatara Sutra this weekend or so.

'Cause anybody knows Muslims ain't...

I never got Peter, Paul, and Mary....

Too safe.

Especially after they destroyed their images with PBS fund-raising specials (but now at least vicariously, Leonard Cohen's done the same.)

Any, RIP Ms. Travers...some people said you shouldn't have been in favor of civil-rights or peace.

Their sound may have been commercial and safe, but early on their politics were somewhat risky for a group courting a mass audience. Like Mr. Yarrow and Mr. Stookey, Ms. Travers was outspoken in her support for the civil-rights and antiwar movements, in sharp contrast to clean-cut folk groups like the Kingston Trio, which avoided making political statements.

I mean...I mean...the author of the what later became "Seasons in the Sun."

made this:






Does that sound like the work of the author of the Terry Jacks' song?

I realize this is not very Buddhist and relevant to almost no one but...

Rod McKuen is guilty of poetry's - or at least pop music's- equivalent of war crimes...

He made this:



into this:



And if you compare the Nirvana version of this to Jacques Brel's, it says several political psychology theses about the state of the American mind.




And, to top it off, consider a commentary on this song in Slate, blissfully unaware of the complete difference in meaning and mood between Brel's version and Jack's version completes the picture.

There's so much I can't tell you about what I do...

It's a pity, because sometimes, like today, I just so see the future, but thanks to certain agreements I have, I can't say a peep about it here.

It's not quite a Cassandra complex...but...

How can you not love that mandolin-like instrument?

And an older version...



I think "armes" (arms) is better enunciated as "âme" or "soul."

Of course I'm Buddhist and all that, I just think it'd be more uh, authentic in an existentialist kind of way.

It'd change the meaning of the relevant sentence from "I again took up arms" to "I have retaken my soul."

More poetic. Especially given the circumstances.

Lankavatara Sutra Chapter 2, Section XX VI

Still using this source...

Those skilled assume assume various personalities for the sake of benefiting others.

And...

When those who are born of the Buddha see that the world is no more than Mind itself, they will obtain a body of transformation, which has nothing to do with effect-producing works, but which is endowed with the powers, psychic faculties, and self-control.

I Get Ideas, Part II: Stanley Ho Appears Uninterested....

I still have yet to hear back from the biggest indigenous casino owner in Macau. I figured if Steve Wynn was elbowing his way into Macau, Mr. Ho might want to return the favor...

To: pr@sjmholdings.com
Subject:

To Whom It May Concern:

Recently, as a result of a visit to Shenzhen's Minsk World [let it fully load; you won't be disappointed!], my colleagues and I became interested in pursuing a project in the United States. It seems to us that the only way we in the US could have a project along the lines of the Minsk theme park, that truly reflected American ingenuity, was to build a casino based on an aircraft carrier on The Strip in Las Vegas. It turns out that the recently decomissioned aircraft carrier John F. Kennedy may be available for this purpose . To make a casino and luxury hotel from the John F. Kennedy would certainly ensure the city's place as a premier tourist destination.

We believe that this carrier, sited on or near The Strip, would:
a) provide educational value as a testimony to American ingenuity
b) encourage patriotism in Americans
c) provide a venue for unique military entertainment
d) allow people to visit the world's only non-floating nautical casino
structure

It would be the only casino in the world to be based on a ship that saw action in the Gulf War, as well as the only casino to have been christened by Jacqueline Kennedy.

We would like to know whether someone at SJM holdings could tell me if Mr. Stanley Ho was interested in such a venture; we would be very happy to collaborate with him on making this military themed casino a reality.

My colleagues inform me that it would also be the only casino on the strip capable of antisubmarine warfare.

To be continued...

I get ideas...

As I noted below, last Sunday I had the chance to visit Minsk World, a "military theme park."

While I get an aircraft carrier being open to visitors to build pride in the folks who put their lives on the line for the country, I still can't get over the schmaltziness of Minsk World.

I indeed respect the folks in the military who, despite the imperfection of American foreign policy vow to actually defend us with their lives.

But then again, I am a sucker for scheming a good practical joke, so please military folks, don't be offended by the following.

The tawdry schmaltz of Minsk World could only be exceeded in the United States in one place.

Las Vegas.

They've got a fake pyramid casino there.

They've got a fake Venice casino there.

They've even got a fake Eiffel Tower.

It occurred to some of my engineer friends (one of whom is a veteran) and myself that the one way we could beat Minsk world would be to locatre an aircraft carrier on The Strip and turn it into a casino.

But not just any aircraft carrier would do.

We would need the USS John F. Kennedy.

The USS John F. Kennedy weighs somewhere between 60,000 and 82000 tons, and is about as long as the Empire State building is tall, roughly, and about 19 stories tall.

It would be very difficult to get the USS. John F. Kennedy located on The Strip.

Here are the known alternatives:

1. Build a new aircraft carrier looking like the John F. Kennedy on The Strip.
   
   Pros:
   
   
   • You avoid doing the other alternatives.
   
   
   • It fits right in with the rest of everything else in Vegas being fake
   
   
   • It probably won't be bulit to Milspec.
   
   
   
   Cons:
   
   
   • It's cheating.
   
   
   • It gets expensive if you want realism.
   
   
   • The builder of the original probably can't do it (since they're Northrup Grumman Newport News shipbuilders, based in Virginia.
   
   
   
   
2. You can disassemble the JFK, and reconstruct it on The Strip.
   Pros:
   
   
   
   • You use the real thing.
   
   
   • You avoid transporting the JFK in once piece to Vegas.
   
   
   
   
   Cons:
   
   
   
   
   • Since the JFK is welded and riveted, you have to unweld and unrivet it to get it there.
     
     That almost certainly will compromise the structural integrity of the ship.
   
   
   
3. You can dredge the Colorado River from its mouth in or near Baja, Mexico, to Lake Mead, and then find some fantastic way to get it from Lake Mead to The Strip.


Pros:




• It's the sort of thing we can complain about when speaking about Yankee imperialism.


• It is a great public works project, rivaling the Panama Canal.




Cons:




• Well, isn't there a dam in the way? I thought there might be one there.



• It costs lots of money to dredge several hundred miles of a river to make it deep enough and navigable enough for an aircraft carrier.



• OK, suppose I can get it to Lake Mead, now how do I get it to The Strip?

More to come...

Travel Reading: "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" by Jeff Sharlet

Being in China, with its own news and its own spin, and then going back to the US and seeing the same spin, but in a different direction, one can get rather cynical.

But at least in the US you can readily find a book such as Jeff Sharlet's work on "The Family," which is readable, long (great for long flights from HK to SFO), and studded with footnotes, references, and so forth. The style of this book is restrained and sober; the only real quibble with the book is there is a bit of disjointedness between sections, that as a guy who writes mostly for business and technical applications I find, well, disjoint. Perhaps he's attempting a novelistic style of narrative, and perhaps getting to "business" about it might detract from the overall message.

The message written in this restrained and sober style is, however, quite shocking. It is nothing less than the fact that there has been a multifaceted attempt on the part of one particular cult to influence American domestic and foreign policy away from democratic rule and towards what can only be called despotism (and this cult is related to quite a few others, including but not limited to 12 Step Groups).

And a cult it is. Even some conservative Christians choke on their theology, which is basically an unslaked thirst for power hiding behind an amorphous Jesus.

This group is behind the National Prayer Breakfast, and recent (and historical) scandals "on C Street," . Mark Sanford the AWOL-for-an-Argentine-love-affair-but-it's-OK-because-God-loved-David South Carolina Governor hung with them.

But they are indisputably sinister aspects to them. The founder of the family was, for a time, a collaborator with the notorious Frank Buchman, who was the real spiritual father of 12 Step Groups, as well as an admirer of Hitler (no I am not making this up.) The founder of the Family, Abram Vereide, also infused his cult with a slavish subservience reminiscent of fascism, and, based on Sharlet's experience, those fascist tendencies persist to this day.

That such a group is so closely related to to so many at the levers of American power raises serious questions, including whether or not this group has been illegally lobbying at various times.

It is easy to criticize China for not having any Chinese versions of Jeff Sharlets.

But then again they don't have any quasi-secret cults trying to take over things. You kind of know who's running things in China.

What to do in Shenzhen: "Minsk World"

Shenzhen is a former fishing village that has grown so fast that 8 million people are living here, making stuff, and there isn't much here that's a natural attraction.

So the folks here invented some.

Among them is Minsk World, a "military theme park," as Wikipedia denotes it. Its centerpiece is an old rusting Russian aircraft carrier, The Minsk, as you would guess.

Crowds of people flock to it on nice days to take pictures of rusting military hardware...including those famous MiG jets. This stuff seems to date from the 1960s, and it's clearly not in great condition.



It's a real aircraft carrier, for sure, though there are numerous shops with military and Russian tchotchkes located within. For some reason they seem to think - perhaps rightfully so - that kids'll like toy planes made from what appear to be bullets.



Then there's the musical performances - kind of a military "It's a small world" kind of theme. Very strange. I'm sure Andrew Zimmern will visit soon enough. Here's their version of the musical British navy:



And yes, they have their version of the US marines:



I would like to meet the talent agent who staffed this.

Anyway, if you're ever here it's worth it just for the weirdness factor - it's a lot like Las Vegas, but in a Cantonese Russian military flavor.

As far as temples here go, there's only Hong Fa Si, but that's even more far out than Minsk World, and there are meetings to attend.

In Shenzhen

I've got to figure out how I can get some pictures uploaded here; my cell phone service is non-existent here (always seemed to be a problem with GSM in China, in my experience), but thankfully Wi-Fi sort of works.

Off to China for about a week...

Until I get back here, you can watch the townhall meeting I attended.

It doesn't embed, but I get to ask a question about 45 minutes into it.

Been there, done that...

Not in the Vipassana tradition, but Robert Wright pretty much sums up what happens when you're focusing on awareness and non-attachment for a few days with others doing the same.