Speaking of strangeness in the blogosphere

First Things evidently thinks it's OK to lie about Buddhism, and then to "moderate" comments pointing out the lies. Well, we'll see if my comment gets published.  I'm not betting the farm I don't own on it.

However, I would encourage anyone reading it to realize the intended purpose of that article is to distract, divide, and engage in some kind of ego trip (a.k.a. "My religion or lack thereof is better than yours.").  It's important not to be the counterparty to that trade.

A Stroll Around the Blogosphere

• Remember Genpo Denis Merzel, and his, "It's OK to charge a few folks $50K to be with me for a few days!" interview on Buddhist Geeks?

Vince: Cool, maybe we can get into that a little bit too because I think that be an interesting thing to explore. But first, you kind of point to this, but I think a lot of people assume when they hear about this type of thing that they assume that you’re basically taking all the money yourself. For some reason people go there immediately.
Genpo: Actually just let me say I take none of this money. Absolutely zero pennies of this money, do I make. All my money comes from the workshops that I have been doing with Bill Harris and other workshops that I do on my own. And none of the money from 5 / 5 / 50 goes to me. It all goes… It does go for staff salaries, for getting the work out there, and it does go for scholarships and it does go for equipment, but none of it goes to my salary, and we’ve been clear about that from day one, which I would take none of this money because I felt that was going to be a criticism. Our books prove this and it’s very clear that none of the money goes to me or my wife or anybody else in my family.
Vince: Interesting. I think that’s an important clarification especially for people that may just hear about the idea, like five days, five people, $50,000. And then they just, from there… people just make up what they will.
Genpo: Again, I’m going to say, I frankly don’t give a shit how they feel about it. It isn’t even an issue for me. It just shows to me they’re stuck somewhere. But no, none of that money goes to me. I have a very small and comfortable little house in the Zen Center and I drive normal cars and I don’t have Mercedes or, what was it that Bhagawan had? His Rolls-Royce’?
No. I’ve never had been interested in wealth or being rich in any way. I don’t have a lot of desire. My biggest desire has been to get the teaching out there and this has made that possible. The money that we receive really just goes to get that teaching out there to the world. We’re live at least two times a week all over the world. And then when I do these conferences, we’re live on internet TV for free where people were tuning in the last two weeks, twice a day, all over the world. 450 people sometimes at a time are able to watch it. This is all paid for by the generosity of these very large and, frankly, very, very giving people, generous people. Their interest is in the work. Of course they reap and feel they get a lot of benefits from the events and that’s why they keep coming back. And they all say this: I’d be giving this money away anyways. I really appreciate getting this time with you and with the teachings.
Vince: Nice. I feel like I’m personally following you on all of this, and have no problem at all with what you’re saying. But I feel that I would be doing a disservice to the people that might be hearing this and still their sensibilities are still offended in some way. And so I just want to ask one more question.
Genpo: Can I just say one thing. You can ask me a question. I really don’t give a shit at this point in my life. I really don’t. I had a big breakthrough in June around the issue of caring and not caring and I feel I deeply, deeply, deeply care about all sentient beings. And all my work has evolved all sentient beings, where you have to become more conscious. And healthier and with less shadows. And the other side of this triangle, I really don’t give a shit. But go ahead and ask your question.

Well, for some reason - I can't say why! - but evidently they've either figured it out or somebody's told them that it's gauche to bandy about prices like $50K to get a "chance to work directly with one of the greatest Zen Masters of our time."  I totally didn't see that coming!  Yep. It's true - there is no mention whatsoever of that magic $50K number anymore on Merzel's "Big Mind"  site.  Well, I guess he had another breakthrough.  Good for him!

• Tom, being human is even spongier than you think.  Not only do we think differently than before, not only are there different chemicals coursing through us than in our grandparents' time, but we're actually only transitional forms to something else that might evolve beyond humans in the slight chance we don't go extinct.
• Speaking of spongy humanity, when Barbara O'Brien quotes Norman Fischer as saying "he said that often a 'false' story can be just as useful as a 'true' one to help us move on to the next phase of our lives,"  it seems neither of them realize that pretty much everything we tell ourselves is "false" in the sense that it's a low-fi simulacrum of reality.  That's why you don't want to be accused of murder wrongly and have nothing but sympathetic to the jury  "eyewitnesses" testifying against you.  
• Here is an embarrassment to not the most flattering portrait of Zen practitioners, courtesy of the Zennist.  Unlike Barbara O'Brien, who will engage a critic, the Zennist, when pointed out that his train of logic has derailed,  responds by deleting the comment.  For the record: Aggregates being impermanent + nirvana being permanent ~ → a permanent self (where "~" means "does not" and "→" means "imply.")    I could go on about the Zennist; suffice it to say that his teaching reminds me a great deal of Genpo Denis Merzel's, and not in a good way.
• Don't get me wrong. I think some Buddhists' hearts are in the right place. But I did have to chuckle seeing this yesterday after I'd posted this.  I mean, has there been some weird kind of postmodern devolution post Alex Keaton?  Why is Ballad of a Thin Man whining in my memory? (You gotta hyperlink these things today.  Back in my day, we remembered crap like that!)

Update: Evidently, as Duff pointed out in the comments, Genpo & Friends still are asking for a specific amount of money, namely, $5000, for 10 people for 2 days.

It is simply unbelievable to me, a man who has trained under a real Zen master doing real Zen,  that this man can get away with nonsense like this.

Income, Class, and What Engaged Buddhism Doesn't Teach

I got a raise recently.  It was a real raise - not one of those "Oops! Eaten by Inflation!" raises, but an honest-to-goodness increase above the cost of living. So it was interesting to me to read Nicholas Kristof's "Our Banana Republic" from yesterday's New York Times.

In my reporting, I regularly travel to banana republics notorious for their inequality. In some of these plutocracies, the richest 1 percent of the population gobbles up 20 percent of the national pie. 

But guess what? You no longer need to travel to distant and dangerous countries to observe such rapacious inequality. We now have it right here at home — and in the aftermath of Tuesday’s election, it may get worse.

The richest 1 percent of Americans now take home almost 24 percent of income, up from almost 9 percent in 1976. As Timothy Noah of Slate noted in an excellent series on inequality, the United States now arguably has a more unequal distribution of wealth than traditional banana republics like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Guyana.

C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent.

That’s the backdrop for one of the first big postelection fights in Washington — how far to extend the Bush tax cuts to the most affluent 2 percent of Americans. Both parties agree on extending tax cuts on the first $250,000 of incomes, even for billionaires. Republicans would also cut taxes above that. 

 Three or so weeks back I noted that the United States reports a higher poverty rate than Vietnam, a country which Americans don't tend to think of as richer than we are.   And with this raise, it seems that I'm approaching the ranks of "not doing badly," or, to put it another way, the unfashionable end of the top 10%

± 2% or so.

But my life aside, this stuff is real, for as Kristof points out:

In the past, many of us acquiesced in discomfiting levels of inequality because we perceived a tradeoff between equity and economic growth. But there’s evidence that the levels of inequality we’ve now reached may actually suppress growth. A drop of inequality lubricates economic growth, but too much may gum it up.

Robert H. Frank of Cornell University, Adam Seth Levine of Vanderbilt University, and Oege Dijk of the European University Institute recently wrote a fascinating paper suggesting that inequality leads to more financial distress. They looked at census data for the 50 states and the 100 most populous counties in America, and found that places where inequality increased the most also endured the greatest surges in bankruptcies.

Here’s their explanation: When inequality rises, the richest rake in their winnings and buy even bigger mansions and fancier cars. Those a notch below then try to catch up, and end up depleting their savings or taking on more debt, making a financial crisis more likely.

Another consequence the scholars found: Rising inequality also led to more divorces, presumably a byproduct of the strains of financial distress. Maybe I’m overly sentimental or romantic, but that pierces me. It’s a reminder that inequality isn’t just an economic issue but also a question of human dignity and happiness.

This rising inequality engenders obstacles - it is a manifestation of dukkha. I can already see that I can do things with money that I could not twenty years ago, and I can do it because I can effect a multiplier effect on others and their work from  I do that others cannot. (Do read Noah's piece on income inequality.)

Now, with the exception of NellaLou's blog, (especially here) this particular issue isn't getting much attention in the Buddhist blogosphere. And it kind of tells me how really alienated we as Americans in particular are (I beg the understanding of all you European readers & bloggers for the moment, but it's an American, and to a lesser extent, UK problem).

You know folks - and you know to whom I'm referring - you can can the "Free Tibet!" and "Free Burma!" and the latest outrage du jour platitudes etc. and so forth.  I am mildly amused at one site that boasts "Made on a Mac" - now don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone too,  especially the fact that it uses patents on technology I developed back when I wasn't approaching income levels that were comfortable. Plus, I'd actually buy Apple stock if I didn't think it was a tad overpriced at the moment.   But the same site seems to be ignorant of the word "Foxconn," or, for that matter, terms like "Taft-Hartley."

I'm not saying this as any kind of a boast, but to note that although my boat's rising in the tide, too many folks in America are drowning, and that's just not good.  It's not good for me, it's not good for them, it's not even good for  the plutocrats.  Eventually this economic and political system will be come highly unstable, and I think the recent elections are the reflection of that.  Our system's out of balance, and the rebalancing will  likely anything but  painless, and to minimize the discomfort and suffering it's useful to approach this - like everything else - mindfully.

All of which is to say, Dudes, Tibet is here  Burma is here.  Those younger folks that go those your meditation seminars that aren't investment bankers, lawyers, or high priced creators of intellectual property? They're Tibet. They're Burma. They're Vietnam. 

Swimming Zen

I've been doing quite a bit of swimming of late; I had been somewhat overweight, and the place to which I go to exercise has an outstanding aquatic center.

I'm not really very good at swimming at all though. In fact, how do they say? I suck at it. I never had a lesson, except whatever my parents might have taught me in the backyard suburban pool of yore.   But that's not the point.

The thing about swimming is, once you can keep yourself from sinking, it's pretty much a situation of building up endurance, and I had at least enough of backyard suburban pool experience to not sink.  And, to suck at swimming merely means that one is swimming highly inefficiently.  But...

Whether one swims well or badly, it can be like aquatic Tai Chi. There is - by necessity, 'cause you might drown otherwise! - a cultivation and honing of awareness that is, in my experience, that is more intense than other forms of exercise (with the exception of the martial arts, of course), though such cultivation is present in any exercise, I'll grant.  

There is a certain elegance and sublime quality to swimming - it's due to the fog streaming off the pool at 5:30 in the morning; it's due to the viscosity of the water itself, it's due to the fluid motions that are essential to moving in the fluid. 

Moreover, there's a certain degree of accomplishment to such exercise as well, though of course such thoughts - them ol' gaining ideas, you know - are pretty much poisonous if you're in the water doing that kind of thinking.  But, once out of the water, to know, that in at least some not-too turbulent bodies of water such as lakes, that one could swim 100 or 200 meters to shore if necessary  engenders an appreciation for the everything associated with the activity that one just doesn't get working on an elliptical trainer or treadmill.

Anyway, I would recommend some kind of athletic practice into your practice, however little you can do; I would  not recommend that  as a teacher of course, but as a guy who sucks at practicing what he preaches.

A bit more on the experiences of the 20th Century Chan Masters

Information related to this particular post seems to be like Brigadoon - it seems to appear in some places in some searches but then disappear.  But Wikipedia has the information I wanted to note about Hsu Yun:

After returning to China, During the Master's fifty-third year, he joined with the Venerable Masters P'u Chao (Universal Illumination), Yueh Hsia (Moon Aura) and Yin Lien (Lotus Seal) to cultivate together. They climbed Chiu Hua Shan Mountain and repaired the huts on Ts'ui Feng Summit, where Dharma Master P'u Chao expounded the Mahavaipulyabuddha Avatamsaka (Flower Adornment) Sutra ^[11].

When the Master was fifty-six, the Abbot Yueh Lang (Clear Moon) of Gao Min Monastery Gaomin Temple, 高旻寺)in Yangzhou was going to convene a continuous twelve-week session of dhyana meditation. Preparing to leave, the group asked the Master to go first. After reaching Ti Kang at T'ung (Great Penetration), he had to cross the water, but had no money. The ferry left without him. As he walked along the river's edge, the Master suddenly lost his footing and fell into the rushing water, where he bobbed helplessly for a day and night ^[12]. and was caught in a fisherman's net. He was carried to a nearby temple, where he was revived and treated for his injuries. Feeling ill, he nevertheless returned to Yangzhou. When asked by Gao Ming whether he would participate in the upcoming weeks of meditation, he politely declined, without revealing his illness. The temple had rules that those who were invited had to attend or else face punishment. In the end, Gao Ming had Hsu Yun beaten with a wooden ruler. He willingly accepted this punishment, although it worsened his condition.

For the next several days, Hsu Yun sat in continuous meditation. In his autobiography, he wrote: "[in] the purity of my singleness of mind, I forgot all about my body. Twenty days later my illness vanished completely. From that moment, with all my thoughts entirely wiped out, my practice took effect throughout the day and night. My steps were as swift as if I was flying in the air. One evening, after meditation, I opened my eyes and suddenly saw I was in brightness similar to broad daylight in which I could see everything inside and outside the monastery..." But he knew that this occurrence was only a mental state, and that it was not at all rare. He did not become attached to this achievement, but continued his single-minded investigation of the topic, "who is mindful of the Buddha?" over and over again, he delved into this topic without interruption ^[13].

During the twelfth lunar month, on the third evening of the eighth week of the session, after six hours of sitting meditation, the attendant made his rounds, filling up the tea cups. The Master's hand was burned by spilling boiling water, and his cup fell to the floor. At the sound of the crash, the root of his doubt was instantly severed. He was joyous beyond words at having fulfilled his lifelong ambition. It was as if he had just awakened from a dream, and he observed how the conditions of the past unravel. If he had not fallen into the river and become gravely ill, if he had not met good advisors who plied him with both adversity and felicity, how would this present experience have been possible?

The Master's verse explanation says:
When a cup fell down and struck the floor,
The sound of the crash was distinctly heard;
Emptiness was pulverized
And the mad mind stopped on the spot.
Another verse by the Venerable Master Hsu Yun says:
The hand let go-the cup was shattered.
Family broken up, people have died-there's no way to talk about such things.
Spring arrives, flowers are fragrant, and everywhere is infused with splendor.
The mountains, rivers, and great earth itself are just Tathagatas.^[14].

All of the above evidently comes from here. 

Oddly enough, links related to this - as well as an inquiry about this - keep appearing and disappearing.  Perhaps what's written here is embellished.  Perhaps not.  But what is clear is that despite perceived hardship, like other masters and seekers who find, Hsu Yun persevered. Oddly enough though, it appears that his successors' sites are a bit less Chan flavored, at least as far as the public is concerned. That is why, as many before me have said, Great Determination, along with Great Faith and Great Doubt is necessary.

I might have more to say on this later.

Inner Critics: Should something be done about them? About what?

Duff over at Beyond Personal Growth has an interesting post on the "Inner Critics."  This is something I've wanted to mention on this blog for a while, as it sounds a bit like the Genpo Roshi nonsense, and is also something that pops up at the Zen Community of Oregon from time to time.  Duff writes:

In Tibetan Buddhism, there are references to a spirit world full of various dieties and supernatural beings. The various dieties of Tibet are not all love and light however. For instance, sometimes nice guy Avalokiteshvara—the bodhisattva of compassion—gets all pissed off at how ignorant and deluded we are and shows up as Mahakala. His left hand holds a cup made from a skull and is filled with the blood of his enemies (and people think Buddhism is all about being peaceful!). Keep in mind that this is still the bodhisattva of compassion though. He only turns wrathful if there is no other way you will listen.

The same is true of our inner critics. If you don’t deal with your car’s inner critic, it may turn wrathful too, exploding with a bang in a fit of rage, so to speak. If you don’t regularly give the attention your body needs, your back pain may increase until it’s so unbearable you simply must deal with it. If you don’t listen to those inner voices and integrate the positive intention and information they hold, they can get sometimes get downright abusive. In other words, it’s better to deal with problems when they’re small and relatively nice than when they become overwhelmingly painful. The good news is if we really do deal with the intensely painful problems of our life with courage and compassion, our suffering decreases.
Mahakala doesn’t really want to kill us, but to give us a wake up call. Our inner critical voices don’t really want us to die or feel like crap, they want to make us more aware of something we’ve been leaving out. The way of communicating this information may not always be something we like, but we can always find a positive intention if we look for it.

I have a few responses to this:

• I inherently don't really like the narrative of an "Inner Critic."  I suppose that is my "Inner Critic" commenting on itself.  But I also suppose not.   Most of the thoughts we have during the day, or at least those of moi, consist of "junk" transmissions of signals amongst neurons.   Well, that's what it is.  To make more of a story about it, one might label at least some of  such thoughts "Good" and at least some of those that one might not like "Critical."  As the namesake of the temple of my lineage declares: forget both.  Thoughts just are. 
• Maybe some of these thoughts are critical (one way or the other: rants or raves), and maybe some are worth acting based on awareness of them.  But maybe not.
• I wholeheartedly agree with Duff that these thoughts, like the sounds of others, like their body language, like their smell, like their demeanor, like the sound of the wind, like the wetness of the rain, like relief of a good dump are worth being given attention.
• Maybe some of those thoughts are like the "prizes" that American cereal manufacturers sometimes put in boxes.  Whoever came up with the idea of putting some cheap piece of crap in a cereal box? Only an American could have thought of something as odd as that; in that way Americans are exceptional.  Though somebody in Asia came up with the idea of sweets based on water-soluble fiber that can choke a young child under the right circumstances.   It's a good thing nobody's thought yet to take a dump in cereal boxes.  Nobody's done that  yet, at any rate, although perhaps the election yesterday is another metaphor for dumps taken in manufactured cereal boxes.  Maybe though, your kid might really want that piece of junk in the cereal box, and maybe he'll be tempted to eat the cereal based on the junk in the box.  At least that is the fervent hope of some of the purchasers of cereal, perhaps, as well as the marketing department of cereal companies.   But when your kid has outgrown the need for cheap plastic toys that come in cereal boxes, it's important to remove the junk before you put milk in the bowl.
• So, basically: pay attention. But don't take everything so seriously.  Not everything needs a story. But some things do, and are worth action based on awareness of them.
• This post, and everything in it, especially the bullet item digressing into "prizes" in cereal boxes is obviously self-referential, at least insofar as my "Inner Critic" is concerned.  Your mileage may vary.

I don't have that much to say today...

It's a rather busy day, and I'm afraid there's nothing profound or insightful coming from me.  Elections are today, of course.  I voted by mail, as is the custom here.

But this seems to be one of these sets of days when everything happens at once. 

One odd thing I'll report though: for years I could not sit in the Full Lotus Position - it was always 1/2 Lotus.

But my lower back has been hurting me, and - amazing! - sitting in the Full Lotus Postion, uh, relieves my lower back pain!

True, I've been exercising a lot lately...

Buddhism and the Liquidity Trap and the Election

I have a couple of colleagues, one of whom with which I presently work (not closely) who is, um, let's say an avowed right wing extremist.  Tomorrow, right-wing groups are expected to make large gains in the American elections, which I attribute to  reasons known only to elites which don't admit Paul Krugman to their inner sancta, or perhaps naked, abject greed on the part of oligarchs playing a game (in the game theoretic sense) in which they adopt a  strategy by which they individually seem to benefit in the short term but wind up with all being harmed in the long term.

The ideologues have their reasons, and that's where I would say Buddhism enters into the picture,  though again, as a compact explanation I'm still led to think of the Tao te Ching:

When the great Tao is lost spring forth benevolence and righteousness.

When wisdom and sagacity arise, there are great hypocrites.

When family relations are no longer harmonious, we have filial children and devoted parents.

When a nation is in confusion and disorder, patriots are recognized.

Where Tao is, equilibrium is. When Tao is lost, out come all the differences of things.

Do away with learning, and grief will not be known.

Do away with sageness and eject wisdom, and the people will be more benefited a hundred times.

Do away with benevolence and eject righteousness, and the people will return to filial duty and parental love.

Do away with artifice and eject gains and there will be no robbers and thieves.

These four, if we consider them as a culture, are not sufficient.

Therefore let there be what the people can resort to:

Appear in plainness and hold to simplicity;

Restrain selfishness and curtail desires.

But - to put a more Buddhist spin on it, all dharmas are fundamentally empty.   In Buddhism, we start from a few positions - very few, compared with Christianity or other montheisms.   Our "noble truths" are realities, that are experienced - the aren't things that can't be really refuted from observation.  There is suffering or discomfort at least that all beings experience.  There is a a cause to that suffering, there is a way to transcend that suffering, and the eight-fold path, when followed works. 

But all dharmas are fundamentally empty, as the Mahayana tradition asserts.

Early Buddhist schools of Abhidharma , or scholastic metaphysics, analyzed reality into ultimate entities, or dharmas , arising and ceasing in irreducible moments in time. The Mahayanists reacted against this realistic pluralism by stating that all dharmas are "empty," without self-nature ( svabhava ) or essence. This was a radical restatement of the central Buddhist teaching of non-self ( anatman ). It was declared that not only ordinary objects, but the Buddha, nirvana , and also emptiness itself are all "empty." The teaching attempts to eradicate mental attachment and the perception of duality, which, since it is a basis for aversion to bondage in birth-and-death ( samsara ) and desire for nirvana, may obstruct the bodhisattva's compassionate vow to save all beings before entering nirvana himself. Wisdom ( prajna ), or direct insight into emptiness, is the sixth perfection ( paramita ) of a bodhisattva. It is stressed by both Buddhist writers and Western scholars that emptiness is not an entity nor a metaphysical or cosmological absolute, nor is it nothingness or annihilation. "Empty" things are neither existent nor nonexistent, and their true nature is thus called not only emptiness but also suchness ( tathata ).  

Politically, the state of affairs in which we find ourselves is but a singular instance of tathata amidst myriads of others.   The ignorant and greedy and hateful may yet cause a reply of the 1930s, including but not limited to a major war breaking out to decide the fortunes of those few who've been playing the game  but risk losing their piece of the Empire.   And, barring ill health or severe misfortune, folks such as myself might yet profit from it one way or the other, but at the end of the day, it is all without substance and form.  No doubt the triumph of greed, hatred, and ignorance will cause a pandemic of dukkha, rife with opportunity to help the benighted in ways which were not previously possible, simply because you words cannot really help much at the end of the day.

So there is a good chance that the American elections will bring an exacerbation of the liquidity trap - a situation where there will be no government intervention in the economy to protect people's livelihood.  And that will mean that incomes will fall, unemployment will be high and likely increase, and that most of the world will experience greater impoverishment.

Like Krugman, it is hardly the outcome I would have the world choose,  but it appears that many are hell-bent on going down this path.   But, as Leonard Cohen wrote, "Every heart to love will come, but like a refugee." 

Get ready for a flood of refugees if the pundit predictions come true.

Another post on "nurturing" versus "marine boot camp" Buddhism

I have sat with two teachers who are women in my days...two of which were in the same general lineage as Barbara O'Brien.  And I am very grateful for their teachings. 

But...also...

My doctoral thesis adviser was a Holocaust survivor.  Another teacher at Polytechnic routinely failed 2/3 of his class - from him I truly learned how to bring elegance, beauty and clarity and discipline to real world engineering problems.  There's a guy mentioned on the Tricycle blog who says wisdom isn't found at universities, and I call BS on that. If you are in the right place at the right time you may meet a real teacher, even if he's not a Buddhist.

Teachers in my lineage had to endure much in Japan during and after the war.  They had to practice amidst those conditions.  As I noted on Barbara's blog, the great mainland Chinese Chan masters of the 20th century endured unspeakable hardships both in and outside  the temple and not only due to the Communists. 

That's why eventually on Barbara's blog I wrote that the experience of these people - and their students make Nomura-san's experience at Eihei-ji, even if true, seem like a paper cut by comparison.  It seems self-evident to me that there is a point to the hardship at these temples, and it is to teach the student that the hardship ain't nuthin' compared to the unspeakable hardships untold millions of beings have faced and do face.

It is true that, um...hardship is hard.  And not everyone can pass through it - or should.  But to those who can and do, to those who can meet their greatest fear and pass through it, in the midst of it,  there is a skill given that enables one to help.

 Barbara wrote,

But the point is that this monastery -- an all-male enclave in a patriarchal society-- sounds out of balance; way too much yang, not enough yin. It seems that the old boot camp feel was an echo of hyper-masculine qualities of Japanese Zen, and now that echo is fading away.

That sentiment can't help but seem to me to be "out of balance" itself; it seems like she is practicing a feminist reaction to perceived and actual injustices of a patriarchy rather than Zen.  And I'm sorry if she's offended but Zen will still be Zen and the Dharma will still be the Dharma no matter how much there is a Yin/Yang "imbalance." 

Although it's Taoist, and not Buddhist, it seems fitting to quote Lao Tzu here:

When the great Tao is lost spring forth benevolence and righteousness.

When wisdom and sagacity arise, there are great hypocrites.

When family relations are no longer harmonious, we have filial children and devoted parents.

When a nation is in confusion and disorder, patriots are recognized.

Where Tao is, equilibrium is. When Tao is lost, out come all the differences of things.

Do away with learning, and grief will not be known.

Do away with sageness and eject wisdom, and the people will be more benefited a hundred times.

Do away with benevolence and eject righteousness, and the people will return to filial duty and parental love.

Do away with artifice and eject gains and there will be no robbers and thieves.

These four, if we consider them as a culture, are not sufficient.

Therefore let there be what the people can resort to:

Appear in plainness and hold to simplicity;

Restrain selfishness and curtail desires.

Sometimes it isn't a bad idea not to try and fix and improve everything.  The Dharma will still be the Dharma whether we practice in a way too much "Yin" manner or way too much "Yang" manner.

Spiritual Materialism, slapping, punching, hitting, ...is it always abuse?

This post is a bit of an expansion of comments made on Barbara's blog post on women in Soto Zen.  I think she equates some of the more harsh-sounding experiences at Eihei-ji with the kind of testosterone fueled stuff that goes on in football training, in which (full disclosure) the author has never participated, save for quite a bit of touch football games in my youth, and, I suppose the beer-swilled game watching of my later youth.

But what is it then?  And is one way "good" and the other way "bad?"

First of all, let's consider the background of what Barbara takes to be the state of things at Eihei-ji in Japan. Now I have never trained at a Japanese temple; I've sat at Japanese temples (Rinzai),  and stayed overnight at one, but I have never had the experience of Nonomura Kaoru, author of Eat, Sleep Sit.  Nonomura-san writes:

When we arrived, we each laid our cushion and bowls at our assigned place on the platform before carefully seating ourselves in the prescribed way. First you drew your cushion up to the edge of the plat¬form and set your buttocks on it; then, supporting your weight on your fingertips (using all but the fourth and fifth fingers of the left hand), you hoisted yourself into place and crossed your legs, taking care that your feet and buttocks never touched the wooden edge. Under no cir¬cumstances was stepping up permitted, even if you could do it with¬out coming into contact with the edge. The practice of eating is such an important part of Zen discipline that you assume the same formal cross-legged posture for it as for sitting in meditation.

As we clambered awkwardly up on the platforms and settled into place, a small door opened and, one after another, in came monks bear¬ing buckets and trays. Without a word they went straight to work, draw¬ing out shelves along the far wall, setting down the buckets and trays, and laying out small tables on the floor. I watched them, entranced, until suddenly the sound of the wooden gong at the entrance announced the start of the evening meal...

In a Zen monastery the evening meal is not a formal meal, and so does not involve the sacred Buddha bowl. The procedures for the
evening meal and the morning meal differ considerably. Back in the temporary quarters we’d been drilled in all the fine points, but it was so complicated that we were thrown into hopeless confusion and no longer had any idea what to do or which rules were for when. Yet here we were, about to be put through our paces.

Five or six instructors stood planted in front of us with arms folded and eyes gleaming, on the lookout for miscues. In this tense, forbidding atmosphere, drawing on indistinct memories, we proceeded cautiously to lay out our things.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Somebody was getting yelled at before his bowls were even out of the wrapping cloth. It was Daikan, at the other end of the row. Arms crossed, the monks all went over and glared daggers at him.

I managed somehow to spread out my kit and put the bowls where they were supposed to go. But I was stiff and clumsy with nervousness, and when I took my chopsticks out of their bag, I almost dropped them.

Daikan still hadn’t got it right. Now, with all the instructors lined up in front of him observing his every move, he was falling completely apart. “No! You’re the only one who can’t do it! Pay attention!” Another vicious slap across the face. Helplessly, he pressed his shaking palms together. “What do you think you’re doing? Fine, stay like that till you die. If you can’t lay out your bowls, you don’t eat. Remember that!” As this little drama unfolded, the servers went quietly about their business,, oblivious.

Daikan wasn’t the only one to earn the instructors’ wrath. “No! No, no, no! Come on!” As the meal progressed, the yells grew steadily louder and more menacing. The sound of slaps rang out ceaselessly...

For all of us, the acts of eating and drinking were carried out in a state of abject terror. The least mistake brought an instant cuff from one of the eagle-eyed senior trainees standing watch. The food had no taste; there was no sense of enjoying a meal. The pace was fast and it took intense concentration to keep up. Now the chopsticks. Next the lap cloth. You had to confirm each step mentally before you could act.

If you paused to savor the food, before you knew it, second helpings were being served and you had to rush to get your share. If you took time eating that, next thing you knew the servers were coming around with tea, then hot water. Even after we’d memorized exactly what to do and the routine grew familiar, there was never any time to linger over our food.

Eat carefully and you fell behind. Rush and you ran the risk of drop¬ping your chopsticks or bowl. Washing up was fraught with danger, too. You had to turn each bowl in hot water with one hand while scrub¬bing its sides and bottom with the other, and the slippery bowl was in constant danger of skittering from your grasp. When wiping and stacking the bowls, if you got them out of order they wouldn’t nest properly. I have to say that when I finally tied the wrapping cloth I felt intense relief, nothing more.


Our first meal using the bowls, conducted in this highly charged atmo¬phere amid the unceasing scramble to keep up, was over before we knew what had happened. It left us in the state of mental numbness that follows extreme tension. Amazing feats of physical strength may be possible under duress, but the human mind, by contrast, shuts down to the most primitive, instinctual level. Extreme stress and fear had instantaneously frozen the minds of some of us, leaving us literally at wits’ end, unable to do a thing In the end it was not with our minds but with our bodies that we memorized the compact and intricate form and motions, clenching our teeth as we were slapped and knocked about.

Now on reading this, a quite a few warning lights flashed in my head:

1. Did these novices think this was somehow a vacation? I mean, if you're going to spend a year as a monk at a Zen temple, wouldn't you, you know, read up on the policies and procedures and disciplines involved in a Buddhist temple? I  have worked for an employer whose company is based in Japan for over 13 years, and I assure you that I took quite seriously the act of reading all about my employer and the customs of the company to which I would be employed.  It would seem to be common sense to do this if you're going to stay, full time, at a temple for a year.

2.  One of the things that most anyone who's read anything about a temple knows, the evening meal is not supposed to be that important; there is no big deal about not eating an evening meal or only a very light evening meal if you've had your nutrition at the other two meals.  The actions described here are the actions at the evening meal.  In fact, as I'd recently posted here, it's not a bad way to moderate one's eating. And that leads to my next point:

3. That whole description of the rate at which the monks ate rings completely false to me, and I would submit, to anyone who has ever eaten with Japanese in a work setting, except, for business trip situations or where  the -kai meals eaten in celebration of something: see Jake Adelstein's description of the ryonenkai in Tokyo Vice for the exception that proves the following rule:

In a work setting in Japan, all meals are eaten quickly, and in such a way as that all finish their meals at roughly the same time.

That Nonomura-san is decrying  the rate at which the meals were eaten - what is plainly typical behavior for millions of Japanese -  must have brought quite a chuckle to them.

But, what about the slapping, hitting, punching, kicking, etc?

It does sound over the top to me, but then again, so does the complaining about the rate at which the  meals were eaten, so I'm not sure this is completely credible.  But even if it were, what about the tales of the ancient masters, and even the Chinese Chan masters such as Lai Guo and Hsun Yu?

Master Lai-Guo liked to compare Chan sessions to ancient China’s Civil Service Exams. For the exam, a scholar would study rigorously for years, come to the exam, do their best and… Bam! The next thing he knew, he was up in the Imperial Court working with the Emperor and his ministers. The rules in the exam room had to be strict so people could concentrate. Similarly, Gao Min Monastery is well known for its rules. Master Lai-Guo is also famous for being strict in the Chan hall and hitting people with his Chan stick to help them in their practice. Once, a wealthy lay person offered Master Lai-Guo 7 gold bullions (equivalent to US $200,000~$500,000) if he would hit her with his Chan stick to help erase her karma. He refused, saying, “My Chan stick is reserved for people with the potential to become patriarchs.” 

 

There are a lot more severe things described in the lives of these two Chan masters, but it is clear that the aim of the training is to persevere despite the circumstances.  Nomura-san describes being "numbed" into just reacting with the body to the forms given.  That may well be true, but, so what? It is what the marines do in basic training, to be sure. Perhaps another way of looking at it, is at a certain point it all simply doesn't matter. And that's perhaps the point, perhaps crudely delivered of this kind of rough training.  And the ancient Chan masters, breaking legs, slamming doors, etc., made Nomura-san's experience seem like a walk in the park...but then again, perhaps those stories were over the top, too.

The older I get the more I realize that there's a lot of things that just don't matter that much.  And, as a guy who majored in Electrical Engineering at one of the (at the time) 10 best schools in the country, where we were told in the orientation meeting meeting "Look to your left and your right. Two thirds of your classmates will flunk out," I can't help but think that this sort of thing as described by Nomura-san does not matter that much if the point is transcendence of suffering.

So to a certain extent, at least what is here, the descriptions of "boot camp" at an Asian monastery versus "nurturing" of the Western Zen tradition rings somewhat like spiritual materialism on the part of those who would immediately decry such practices instead of spiritual abuse on the part of the Asians...and of course if you decide otherwise, it does call into question how much else of the Asian's tradition might be fought with ignorance that only the enlightened Westerners can bring to the unenlightened Asian Zen and Chan practitioners!

So, call me skeptical on some of  these points, and somewhat indifferent on some of the others... and, as I noted on Barbara's blog, it's a matter of taste, ultimately.  My own lay parent practice is demanding enough, and frankly, there's much more to deal with than a slap or a punch or a kick, and it's not all touchy-feely "being vulnerable."

I have some good posts to make

I have a post to write in response to Barbara's reply to my comment here. 

I also would like to have more of a reply with the Zennist, particularly this post.

Stay tuned; hopefully I'll get a chance in the next day or two.

10% of the people do 90% of the work...

It is amazing to me how income, wealth, talent, and um...a spirit of enterprise (?) seem to be exponentially distributed...

MOSCOW — You may not have noticed, but since late last month, the world supply of Viagra ads and other e-mail spam has dropped by an estimated one-fifth. With 200 billion spam messages in circulation each day, there is still plenty to go around. 

But police officials in Russia, a major spam exporter, say they are trying to do their part to stem the flow. On Tuesday, police officials here announced a criminal investigation of a suspected spam kingpin, Igor A. Gusev. They said he had probably fled the country.

Moscow police authorities said Mr. Gusev, 31, was a central figure in the operations of SpamIt.com, which paid spammers to promote online pharmacies, sometimes quite lewdly. SpamIt.com suddenly stopped operating on Sept. 27. With less financial incentive to send their junk mail, spammers curtailed their activity by an estimated 50 billion messages a day.

 There's always someone who's "more"...we seem to have evolved to structure everything we do this way.

Lankavatara Sutra, Chapter 6, Section LXXXII

As usual, I'm using the translation here. First though, it's useful, as I did here, to reiterate Suzuki's introductory material on Buddhist psychology...

What may be termed Buddhist psychology in the Lanka consists in the analysis of mind, that is, in the classification of the Vijnanas. To understand thus the psychology of Buddhism properly the knowledge of these terms is necessary: citta, manas, vijnana, manovijnana, and alayavijnana.
To begin with Vijnana. Vijnana is composed of the prefix vi, meaning "to divide", and the root jna which means "to perceive", "to know". Thus, Vijnana is the faculty of distinguishing or discerning or judging. When an object is presented before the eye, it is perceived and judged as a red apple or a piece of white linen; the faculty of doing this is called eye-vijnana. In the same way, there are ear-vijnana for sound, nose-vijnana for odour, tongue-vijnana for taste, body-vijnana for touch, and thought-vijnana (manovijnana) for ideas—altogether six forms of Vijnana for distinguishing the various aspects of world external or internal.
Of these six Vijnanas, the Manojivnana is the most important as it is directly related to an inner faculty known as Manas. Manas roughly corresponds to mind as an organ of thought, but in fact it is more than that, for it is also a strong power of attaching itself to the result of thinking. The latter may even be considered subordinate to this power of attachment. The Manas first wills, then it discriminates to judge; to judge is to divide, and this dividing ends in viewing existence dualistically. Hence the Manas' tenacious attachment to the dualistic interpretation of existence. Willing and thinking are inextricably woven into the texture of Manas.
Citta comes from the root cit, "to think", but in the Lanka the derivation is made from the root ci, "to pile up", "to arrange in order". The Citta is thus a storehouse where the seeds of all thoughts and deeds are accumulated and stored up. The Citta, however, has a double sense, general and specific. When it is used in the general sense it means "mind", "mentation", "ideas", including the activities of Manas and Manovijnana, and also of the Vijnanas; while specifically it is a synonym of Alayavijnana in its relative aspects, and distinguishable from all the rest of the mental faculties. When, however, it is used in the form of Citta-matra, Mind-only, it acquires still another connotation. We can say that Citta appears here in its highest possible sense, for it is then neither simply mentation nor intellection, nor perception as a function of consciousness. It is identifiable with the Alaya in its absolute aspect. This will become clearer later on.
Alayavijnana is alaya+vijnana, and alaya is a store where things are hoarded for future use. The Citta as a cumulative faculty is thus identified with the Alayavijnana. Strictly speaking, the Alaya is not a Vijnana, has no discerning power in it; it indiscriminately harbours all that is poured into it through the channel of the Vijnanas. The Alaya is perfectly neutral, indifferent, and does not offer to give judgments.

The gist of this section can be extracted from the text as:

[T]he Tathāgata-garbha holds within it the cause for both good and evil, and by it all the forms of existence are produced. Like an actor it takes on a variety of forms, and [in itself] is devoid of an ego-soul and what belongs to it. As this is not understood, there is the functioning together of the triple combination from which effects take place. But the philosophers not knowing this are tenaciously attached to the idea of a cause [or a creating agency]. Because of the influence of habit-energy that has been accumulating variously by false reasoning since beginningless time, what here goes under the name of Ālayavijñāna is accompanied by the seven Vijñānas which give birth to a state known as the abode of ignorance.

 And once more, the theme of the externally perceived as "what is seen of the Mind itself" is repeated:

As to the other seven Vijñānas beginning with the Manas and Manovijñāna, they have their rise and complete ending from moment to moment; they are born with false discrimination as cause, and with forms and appearances and objectivity as conditions which are intimately linked together; adhering to names and forms, they do not realise that objective individual forms are no more than what is seen of the Mind itself; they do not give exact information regarding pleasure and pain; they are not the cause of emancipation; by setting up names and forms which originate from greed, greed is begotten in turn, thus mutually conditioned and conditioning.

Difficult start to the day...

I guess it goes with the territory...hopefully I'll have a substantial post coming soon...but it always seems to take a while after international travel to get back into the swing of things....

Side by side reading...

A bit of gushing over the Dalai Lama over at the National Post... along with...what's this? a column by Conrad Black? Who's Conrad Black again?

Conrad Black is the founder of the National Post. From 1996 to 2000, he was chairman of the Southam Company, Canada's leading newspaper company. Mr. Black is also a writer and commentator, the author of Render Unto Caesar (the life of Maurice Duplessis), the autobiographical A Life in Progress, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Champion of Freedom, and numerous articles in the National Interest, Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, and many other publications. He was a member of the steering committee of the Bilderberg Meetings for twenty years, a member of the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations, and of the Americas Society (New York), and remains a member of the Trilateral Commission, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (London), and a trustee of the Hudson Institute (Washington). He is a life peer of the United Kingdom (Lord Black of Crossharbour, since 2001), a member of the Privy Council and Officer of the Order of Canada, and a knight of the Holy See. He has been a director of many prominent companies, including Brascan, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, CanWest, and Sotheby's.

I could swear they left something out....

Oh...they let him out?

 

Black was convicted in Illinois U.S. District Court on 13 July 2007 and sentenced to serve 78 months in federal prison, pay Hollinger $6.1 million, in addition to a fine of $125,000.

Black was found guilty of diverting funds for personal benefit from money due Hollinger International when the company sold certain publishing assets and other irregularities. For example, in 2000, in an illegal and surreptitious arrangement that came to be known as the "Lerner Exchange," Black acquired Chicago's Lerner Newspapers and sold it to Hollinger.^[21] He also obstructed justice by taking possession of documents to which he was not entitled.^[22] The case is still under appeal.

The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal of his case on 8 December 2009^[23] and rendered a decision in June 2010. Black's application for bail was rejected by both the Supreme Court and the US District Court judge who sentenced him.^[24]

On June 24, 2010, The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the definition of "honest services" fraud used in the trial judge's charge to the jury in Black's case was too broad and ordered the Illinois appeal court to review three fraud convictions against Black in light of the Supreme Court's new definition. The appeal court will review Black's case and determine whether his fraud convictions will stand or if there should be a new trial.^[25] The jailed former media baron's obstruction of justice conviction, for which he is serving a concurrent 6 ½ year sentence, remains in place.^[26] Black's lawyers filed an application for bail pending the appeal court's review.^[25] Prosecutors contested Black's bail request arguing in court papers that Black's trial jury had proof that Black committed fraud.^[27] He was granted bail on July 19, 2010 by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and will be released on a $2 million unsecured bond put up by conservative philanthropist Roger Hertog.^[28] Black has been released from custody and has ordered to remain on bail in the continental United States until at least August 16 when his bail hearing shall resume,^{[2][28][29][30]} and the same day by which Black and the prosecution have been ordered by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to submit written arguments for that court's review of his case.^[31][32]

Until July 21, 2010,^[28] Black, Federal Bureau of Prisons #18330-424, was incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Low, Coleman,^[33] a part of the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex^[34][35] Prior to being granted bail, his scheduled release date was October 30, 2013.^[33]

 

Hsu Yun, Lai Guo, and Chinese Chan Buddhism

It is not often known in the West, especially with all the Dalai Lama Hoopla, but in fact one of the founders of the PRC-run Chinese Buddhist Association was, in fact, a legit, real-life, legendary dyed in the wool Chan Buddhist, Hsu Yun. This was despite the fact that like many Buddhists, Hsu Yun was mistreated and tortured by the Communists at that time.

Both Hsu Yun and Lai Guo (whose Dharma heirs were also mistreated or killed) are today both revered as ancestors at temples such as Wolong-si.

This site recalls some of the hardships they faced:

Master Lai-Guo was one of the great masters of the early twentieth century. He preside over Gao Min Monastery during one of the most difficult times in China, yet he was able to maintain all the rules of a traditional Chan "Forest" Monastery. He refused to hold any non-Chan-related activities (Fo Shi), the traditional way monasteries generate income. Often the monks only had rice bran to eat. Once, on Buddha's Birthday, they had no food to offer so they boiled hot water, offered it to the Buddha, drank some themselves, and went back to meditate.

Master Lai-Guo passed away in the early 1950s, a few years after China's "liberation". The lineage was passed to his disciple Master Chan-Hui, who was later classified as a "Rightist". I never found out what happened to Master Chan-Hui. Perhaps he was beaten to death. (Master Hsu-Yun was severely beaten during this time, and his only written work, an annotated Surangama Sutra, was burned. A few of his disciples were executed after being classified as a "Rightist").

During the Cultural Revolution, Gao-Min Monastery was bitterly attacked. All was destroyed including the famous Chan hall where numerous masters became enlightened and which housed five “Flesh Body Bodhisattvas” (Ro Shen Pu Sa i.e. “whole body relics”). Like Master De-Lin told us, “Gao Min Monastery had disappeared.” The place was turned into a sweater factory. Only the old mountain gate, a gift from Emperor Kang-Xi, survived, perhaps because it was made of stone and would be too difficult to destroy. During the revolution, despite the enormous destruction, many things were spared because they were far away, made of stone, covered by pictures of Mao, or protected by monks willing to burn themselves to scare away the mobs.

In 1985, several years after the revolution ended, in accordance with Deng Xiaoping’s “Reform and Open” policy, the local government decided to restore Gao Min Monastery. Elder Master De-Lin was invited to take care of business. He was already 72 years old. “People retire in their 50s. I started working in my 70s,” he said.

It does appear that some of Hsu Yun's teachings survive, however, thanks to Charles Luk.  Reading these teachings one does indeed find strong parallels with Rinzai teaching from Japan.

That Lai Guo and Hsu Yun are revered in China today amongst Buddhists is certainly true, and yes, at Wolong-si, there are people, ordinary people who are learning Buddhism again.

Came back home yesterday... so read about Sedona...

And I am still quite jet-lagged. So I doubt I'll be writing great profundities for a day or two...but...here's a "one year later in Sedona" article in the NY Times:

Nobody is sure exactly what is keeping people away from Sedona’s four vortexes, swirling energy sources emanating from the earth, but the effects are clear: far fewer crystals are being bought, spiritual tours taken and treatments ordered, from aura cleansings to chakra balancings.

That an earthly power — the economy — is a culprit is not in doubt. But some do not discount the effects of an awful incident from a year ago that put Sedona’s New Age community in a bad light and that, to some degree, still lingers, despite efforts by metaphysical people to cast it away.

Last October, a celebrated New Age practitioner held a sweat lodge ceremony that ran dangerously amok, shattering the tranquillity of a spiritual center hidden in a forested valley here.

Packed into a circular hut on the grounds of Angel Valley were red-hot rocks, seething steam and scores of followers of James A. Ray, a California self-help guru. He encouraged them to finish the final test in his “Spiritual Warrior” retreat, participants told law enforcement officials, even though they might feel as though they were going to die.

Three of them did. Numerous others were rushed to hospitals.

And the lawsuits, naturally continue.

More on "Tokyo Vice: : Jake Adelstein with Jon Stewart

I'm sure my post didn't do his book justice...

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Jake Adelstein
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Travel Reading: Tokyo Vice

Since I travel a lot, and follow my father's tradition of taking "junk reading" where I go, I often read to pass the time in Economy Class.  I heartily recommend "Tokyo Vice" by Jake Adelstein as an accurate snapshot of recent years in Japan, though, frankly, it's a Japan with which I am most decidedly not well acquainted.  I am no angel by a long shot.  But I never liked Roppongi (too much like Time Square before Mickey Mouse infested it), and as Adelstein notes, we foreigners aren't always welcomed in Kabukicho.

That said, it is an amazing read.  It follows the early career of Jake Adelstein, a Japanese language reporter for the Yomiuri Shimbun, culminating in his standoff with yakuza boss  Goto Tadamasa,  head of the Goto-gumi, which was affiliated with the largest Yakuza group in Japan, the Yamaguchi-gumi.

This book has it all for someone who might write a blog like mine. It has organized crime (yes, I often quote Goodfellas and Christopher Walken parts to my co-workers). It has Buddhism (Adelstein evidently studied Zen Buddhism while in college, and  Goto Tadamasa has, according to the latest info, become an osho, at least to my knowledge).

It even has the "Burning House" parable from the Lotus Sutra.

What is most important to me is the sense of loss. You cannot read Adelstein's book without sympathizing with his sense of his own wrongdoing, and his taking the responsibility for it, without hope of a "Get out of jail for free card."  Jake Adelstein moved far and wide from the temple in which he used to stay, but wound up doing great good in exposing the very real issues of human trafficking in Japan while still managing to keep himself from being whacked by the Yakuza that was not widely known. And it's written by an American with Buddhist sentiments.

Anyway this book is a great read; it's part "subculture of Japan" you probably never heard about, (OK, maybe Brad Warner did) , it's part Raymond Chandler, and it's part the honest feelings of someone with a target on his back because he knew stuff about the Yakuza

I still have a very good post about the issues of Chan and Buddhism in general in China, and the amazing story of the people involved. 

Whoa...wait..the US is poorer than Vietnam?

While the devil is surely in the details (that is, it surely depends on economic factors such as the definition of poverty as well as the issues of location and economic status and availability of goods and services), anyone that doubts the US is in decline ought to see what our equivalent of the People's Daily has served up on Hanoi's 1000th birthday party...

Vietnam remains a poor country, with most people earning about $1,000 a year, but it has made tremendous strides since opening its doors up to capitalism in the mid-1980s. Economic growth has averaged more than 7 percent annually over the past decade, and the rate of people living in poverty has dropped from 58 percent in 1993 to 11 percent last year.  

 It may also be true that the government of Vietnam is under-reporting poverty rates for propaganda purposes...but perhaps that is also true of the United States?

In the 2009 [ US Census's American Community Survey ], 14.3 percent of the U.S. population had income below their respective poverty thresholds.  The number of people in poverty increased to 42.9 million.