Turmoil in Iran

There is a complicated web of problems with the power structure in Iran. I won’t here repeat or explain the structure but rather point to where its shortcomings lie.

The first problem is that the first Supreme Leader was indeed as the name suggests. Hence he set up a power structure that put himself numero uno. This meant that the legacy of the power structure is with the next supreme leader having a lot of power.

The second problem is that the central hub of the system – the Assembly of Experts – is comprised only of clerics. This means that there is a lack of input from various other intellectual fields to bring about balance in society.

The first two problems are almost intractable legacies of the religious revolution. These two problems can be addressed in time if the third problem is tackled.

The third problem is the vetting power giving to the Guardian Council. These ‘guardians’ have the power to exclude people from running in elections for parliament, president, and expert assembly.

It could be argued that the Iranian people democratically elect the supreme religious leader (via electing the assembly of experts, who inturn elect the supreme leader), a parliament, and a government. However the reason for democracy, just the same as the reason for limiting terms in office, is to reduce the corrupting force of holding positions of power. The problem is that by giving the guardian council the power to vet all candidates at the input side of the power structure, this council by default gets the power to hold themselves (and others) in office. They have the power to entrench themselves in power. In principal this is the fundamental power of (and reason for) democracy. The door is opened for the possibility of temptation.

The first time the Iranian political system operates (with the death of the first Ayatollah), all seems well. However on successive occasions, a feedback loop comes into play that restricts the functioning of the input side of the system. The people in power get more power and the Iranian people get less say. The end result is the possibility of a brutal dictatorial regime that on the surface looks democratic. This is what has happened in Iran.

Much effort in recent years has focused on reducing the vetting power of the Guardian Council. This council does not allow almost all opposing party members to run in elections, and certainly not a single woman is allowed to run for any office.

Today Iranian people are risking their lives - indeed giving their lives - in support of freedom and a better way of life. Brutality, corruption and inequality in the current system are revealing themselves through the benefits of modern communications technology. Indeed the current Supreme Leader yesterday sanctioned the bloodshed that today has eventuated. Yet the ugly face of religious hypocrisy is not hidden.

Meditation is Life

Meditation is life in its essence. Modern daily life is often described as a rat-race. Modernity unchecked can envelope our soul, consume our hearts, and spit out piles of rubbish: the tread-mill of hot-wired hearts in tension until suddenly our heart conks out or our brains blood vessels explode.

Modern psychology has transcended the idea of unconsciousness. There are indeed unconscious thoughts it takes hold. However to extend this description to the concept of unconsciousness itself being an entity is an erroneous transgression along the slippery slope of ill-informed sects, cults, and weirdos. Man is conscious: the defining characteristic that impales man on the cross of righteous domination of all that lies belittled below. This I have always found amusing, when we spend so much time asleep, and probably about the same time day-dreaming.

It is true that modern humanity functions at more than a sluggish level of consciousness. However it is not the quantity but rather the quality of this consciousness that it is strangely incumbent upon me to so clatter out on this electronic type-writer. Strange indeed you may or may not wonder – the explanation is that I am weary, yet all day an incessant nagging prods me to crunch these numbers. I shall do this and thus attain relief and sleep. Perhaps it is a looming volcanic vitriolic vestibule.

Notice what it is like when you are in a state of extreme stress. You may be achieving much in the limited slot of time. However what is this state of mania actually like? What is its quality? In this state it is essentially skimming across the surface of life. There is no depth to your experience; neither is there any understanding.

The ancient Buddhas speak of meditation as a tool for calm, and then insight. A consciousness that is tense is like a mirror; ever so prone to shattering is its brittle nature. There is no possibility of penetration, of depth. Techniques of concentration create a state of increased calm. In this state the experiencer tastes each experience in an increased fullness or depth. The calm awareness of a meditator leads to the quality of experiencing known as insight. A person who sees deeply through experiences knows the subtle nuances of life that are seemingly mysterious or unknown to the manic wave surfer.

There are always two sides to a two-sided coin. It happens to be that some people trudge through life like a dull sponge. In the list of sticky mucky smelly citizens are none other than those holy heroes of the great religious dogmas. The dogged dogmatic dodos are drowning in their own dull delusions. They save the immoral and condemn the amoral. They repeat well the scriptures that are ingrained on the mental rail-road of their predecessors and fore-fathers. There is nothing new or vibrant or insightful in their holy chants, nor in their dull eyes. Their conscious experience is like jumping on a trampoline made from a mat of boiled lettuce leaves, with jelly-fish for springs.

Yes the other side of the coin is a feasty gluttony of calm, with a malnourished consciousness. There can be nothing to challenge one’s spirit into aliveness if the path taken be the holiest of holy; except of course the ‘inconsequential’ transgressions of for example a boiling sexual repression.

Life is a quandary, not a quagmire nor a quip. With neither foggy eyes nor those wired by the drug of neediness, those who experience the richness of each moment, the fullness of each breath, are the few that are both sane and human. This is life, this is living, and this is meditation.

Concentration leads to calm, and calm leads to increased awareness and insight. How can a person return to an object of concentration if this person is not aware of a distraction?

How to Lose Weight?

Weight Loss

How to lose weight: the essential focus is on the simple fact that humans are animals who require food and water for nourishment and survival. We do get hungry, and there is a feeling in our stomach when we get very hungry.

The other part of the approach is that we all have a natural weight, and this may mean that we look like a stick-insect or a circus tent.

Food is an obsession in the mind that covers up the basic truths that we are not all ‘thin’, and that food is a natural and healthy biological function.

Firstly, take time throughout the day to take general notice of how much you worry about food – how much you think that you are eating too much, and how guilty emotional and thought patterns repeat themselves afterwards.

When you have a sense of this pattern, also bring awareness to how your stomach feels at different times throughout the day. Along with this, are there any basic patterns that emerge: when is it for example that you are really hungry; what is it like to feel hungry; and what is it like to feel that you are very low on energy because of a lack of food?

Are there times throughout the day when you feel so hungry that this hunger would fit nicely with a main meal. How many times throughout the day does this occur (two or three for example)? How many times throughout the day do you feel that a snack will be the natural order? Please note that this process of identifying your natural rhythm will refine as you bring awareness and (possibly) changes to the way you eat. Also perhaps your rhythm changes throughout the years and with the seasons. In other words the emphasis is on a balance of flexibility and regime, couple with increased awareness.

The idea of bringing awareness to the process is a natural one. If you spend a lot of time worrying about food, your weight, and your image, then would it be worthwhile making a decision to have a good objective look at what is going on – if you are the type, maybe keep a log throughout the day, and over a period of some days, detailing your different emotional states, level of cravings for food, and what you eat (perhaps just one of these elements is your key). You may like to give a particular factor a rating (say from 1 to 10).

With a more objective look at food in your life, you can than make conscious decisions about what changes you would like to make, if any, to the way you approach food. Be prepared throughout the process for general ideas and fresh insights to flow. If you make any startling findings, see how they can become a practical force. Experiment with what you eat and when you eat, and find out what works for you. If you think you have found your golden key to conquering obsessions with food and weight, be prepared for this to change (even if subtly).

In the end you may find that you simply eat when you eat because you are hungry, and that you simply eat what you eat because you like it. This leads you to being the shape you are and this is your natural shape. It is part of your nature and it is the outward expression of your natural beauty. So even if nothing changes physically, to drop all the worry and to accept your natural body shape can bring about tremendous change in you well being.

If you lose weight that may well be great. However the key is to realize that we eat because we are hungry. Also, our body naturally knows the right things to eat and in what quantities if we develop the sensitivity. Ultimately, becoming more aware of the process can give us the distance to see our patterns, even if we feel they are wrong and for now we are not capable of changing these entrenched patterns. This keen observation can also in time create the understanding to slowly bring about change in our physical habits, and send our emotional patterns on a healthy turn towards healing.

How to Meditate?

What is meditation?
How do I meditate?

People tend to turn to meditation for relaxation and to de-stress. With this in mind, the principal meditation is that of concentration. Sometimes our minds may be going so helter-skelter that even a simple mental task seems daunting. In this case, taking our body out for some physical exercise, and then sitting down and reading a book out loud may help calm your mind.

When there is too much tension in the mind, it is not wise to try and tackle it head on. The issues may not be clear to you, but they will keep pushing themselves into your conscious mind. If you therefore concentrate on something that is not of high emotional value to you, then this seeks to block out the emotional noise that is creating tension.

If your mind runs to the stressful issue, which is presumably inevitable, turning you attention back to the chosen object of concentration reinforces the calming process. If the worrying issue is incessant, try ignoring it while still concentrating on the chosen focus. If this doesn’t work try something else. Even this trying is a concentration on trying and is therefore a help. Perhaps you might like to do some physically exercise rather than sitting like a buddha and watching your breath in some way (maybe on the rise and fall of belly). Is there something in the physical exercise that draws your attention and you enjoy focusing on it? Perhaps you just want to do something, and immerse yourself fully into it? Perhaps you just want to do something?

The idea of concentrating our attention for calm is like generating a powerful spotlight. Simply by turning our mind repeatedly to an object, the mind becomes stilled, and the awareness increases. With shades of grey, we reach a state where there is a sense of being very alert, yet relaxed or calm. Also, the mind is not excessively focused in a manic way on some issue. The mind is calm and quiet, and we have a relaxed awareness.

If you feel sufficiently calm and aware you might like to allow the spotlight to disperse its light in a spherical manner: opening your awareness to allow different aspects of the body-mind system to come and go freely in this expanded awareness.
After some time, and generally after it has already happened, you may realize that this state of relaxed and open awareness with mental and physically events passing untouched through it has given way to tension and particular mental or physical events pressing repeatedly on your consciousness. If you feel uncomfortable you may then like to make the consciousness choice to return to concentrating on a emotionally neutral object.

Meditation is the rhythm of moving back and forwards from a state of focused attention to a state of relaxed and open awareness. It is about being here-now, while choosing what to be here-now with. Sometimes the here-now is a little overwhelming. In this case choose a friend to be here-now with. If that is overwhelming just give-up and go with the flow. What ever you do and don’t do, you are in the here and now. This is reality. If you can’t find the truth, the truth will come and find you. It will set you free.

Meditation can seem confusing, and here are two areas that may prove to be a puzzle.

Firstly, sometimes we feel calm yet we are not particularly aware – something like day-dreaming. In this case you may find that if you decide to concentrate on something you can’t. Actually by doing so, this increases the awareness and brings us to an issue that we may have been avoiding by dulling our awareness (going to sleep to avoid a problem for example).

The second puzzle is that of what is the difference between concentration, attention, mind, and awareness. When it is said turn your attention towards something, is that the same as turning your mind towards it? Is this different to someone saying concentration on something? How does this fit with someone saying turn your awareness towards some object?

The confusion becomes cleared up by understanding that if you turn your mind towards something (lets say you chant a holy scripture), this concentrating your mind also concentrates your awareness. You become aware of what your mind is concentrating on. You become aware of the process of chanting, the sound of your voice, the way it makes your body feel, the way your mouth moves to create sound etc.

A person might say they feel so crazy they can’t seat down and read a complicated book. If they still want to read, they may be able to read a simple book. This focusing or concentrating the mind also focuses or concentrates the awareness. The result is an increase in relaxation or calm.

A person might feel so cuckoo that they can’t do their normal task of fixing rocket engines. If such a person is on mental sick-leave, such a person may be able to enjoy fixing car engines. This concentrating the body on a particular task also focuses or concentrates the awareness. The result is an increase in relaxation or calm.

Sri Lankan Crisis

If there was ever a clear indication that the future of the new world risks either a world war or destruction of the planet, it was in the majority vote handed down by the United Nations human rights council.

We have emerging and emerged powers and super-powers coming out of the developing world that will create a new global landscape in the 21st century. A combination of these new players secured a majority vote to not only reject a call for an independent investigation into the final stages of the Sri Lankan civil war, but also to endorse a resolution praising the Sri Lankan government.

I am not here taking a position against the Sri Lankan government. The simple fact of the matter is that the truth of the situation is not known, and further that there is a reasonable possibility of civilian deaths on a massive scale, and of serious crimes by both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The United Nations was the only independent authority to have collected information (not only anecdotal, but also satellite imagery of craters emerging in civilian safe zones) to get closest to the truth. The United Nations accepts that it does not have sufficient evidence to draw conclusions, but has made it clear that there are sufficient grounds for an investigation. In fact the news accounts that have managed to flow out from the war-zone makes a prima facie case for investigation obvious to any rational person.

How is it then that delegates from a majority of countries managed to conclude that there was no case to answer to (from either side), and that situation was an internal matter? As I said previously, the United Nations had much more information than any other independent organisation. On what grounds did delegates reach their conclusions? Where did they get there factual information as a basis for their decisions?

Adolf Hitler, perhaps the world’s worst known tyrant, was elected into power by the people. The UN Human Rights Council operates under basic democratic principals, and concluded against the evidence. To be sure, the evidence was not sufficient to draw concrete conclusions, but it was certainly sufficient to necessarily warrant investigation into the possibility of serious humanitarian and war crimes.

Conceive if you will a scenario where planet Earth has a democratically elected global government. The democratic vote of the UN HRC is testimony to the logical possibility of this planet being headed by an oppressive and criminal government. If you think I am crazy, consider a super-power like China. China has of course its own internal matter of Tibet, not to mention the Tiananmen Square atrocity, its allies in Burma and Sudan - and the list goes on. The negative influence throughout the world of China’s totalitarian political party is significant, and may therefore continue to do so. If China continues to grow as a super-power, and continues to be run as a dictatorship, it is not very difficult to imagine very grave scenarios some decades down the road - whereby a majority of oppressive states create a scary new world.

A little note here on torture. Sure some of the so-called enhanced interrogation methods used by the United States have occupied the grey area between right and wrong. However even the slightest reading into the torture methods used by the Chinese against the Tibetans leaves no shades of grey for quandary. The level of interrogation used by the United States against indeed the shadiest of characters cannot be compared with state sponsored torture that has occurred in recent times in innumerable countries.

The majority ruling of the UN HRC was indeed a watershed moment in the divining of future global possibilities. It is the clearest warning yet to Western powers such as the United States and various countries in the European Union that they indeed need to take defence and national security as a fundamental necessity for the foreseeable long-term future. A few decades from now, the idea of lending a hand to oppressed minorities in other parts of the world may give way to national defence and national allegiances.

That there is a reasonable possibility of civilian Tamil deaths in Sri Lanka to the level of not just thousands, but tens of thousands in the last weeks and months of battle, and that that goes unquestioned by the international community leaves me with a feeling of utter disgust. I am sure that many countries that voted in accord with the head of the United Nations and the chief of the UN HRC, will indeed take very serious note of the very grave outcome.

The outcome, just like democratically elected Hitler, Hamas, and the new Israeli government, is democracy at its worst. Democracy is a principal that offers hope for a humanity that has since the dawn of time fought against the will to power of tyrants. Democracy is however a principal conditioned by the principal that the majority of civilians are in fact civil: are in fact sane. The barbarian in man has yet to emerge fully from the jungle. The tiger may well be in the Tamil militant group. However it is lurking live and well in other places as well. May this planet prosper and not be consumed by darkness.

Soft Wind

Love shall not come from you
in your time of need.

You who shall for now not sing
thy song of dreams so sweet,
will in time be folded into
the dawn of timeless wonder.

Fear not your journey my friend;
fear not your dreams nor your foe.

Timeless is your night-time.
Endless shall be thy dance.

Why in times gone past?
Questions raised with no answers.
Indeed movement sways the weary.

Untold shall be sung.
Forever is not your time.

You are here as the source of all.
Can you not here the rhythm?
Can you not smell the sweet wine?

So many journeys unfold
in a criss-cross of tumbling twine.
Unfolding yields not to those
who puzzle over it.

Forgive me once and
in time we shall proceed.
Forgive me twice and
I have erred again.
Shall I learn in time
thy song from on high.

Is it not silence that speaks
through the highest winds.
Shall I rest tonight, unyielding
to the forces of peril.

Sleep with me and
we shall arise anew.

The old is reborn and
the days are clean.

Sing yea to the unborn.
Sing yea the unsung.

We shall listen and
many shall dance.

Joy comes to the joyous.

Sheep follow the shepherd
into the shearers shed.

Magic shall not come to me
if I remain unseen.

Majesty stands tall
in an empty sky.

Passing clouds pass by.

This is all there is.

This is all.

Sweetness shall touch the sensitive:
those who dare to search the soft winds.

Cloudless mist passing
without the winds of time.

Good may your journey be;
good may be your night be;
good may you be.

You be already that which you are.
You be not your dreams of passion.
You the passing trees on the highway.

Can you not ask me why?
Will I not answer yes?

Trees are passing shades of life;
flowers are passing shades of colour.

That which sees the passing
shall dance forever:
enduring beyond the
veil of dreams.

Who are you my beloved friend?
From whence you have arrived?
To hence shall you go?

I am where I am.
That is where I have come from.
That is where I shall go.

Comings and goings are like waves.
I come and go, yet endlessly I arrive.
I am arriving yet I am already here.
I have gone yet I am still here.
Can you not see me?

I can see you.
In fact I can
see your dreams.
In fact I am you.
Fear not though,
for you am I.

Together shall be this journey of ours.
Lonely shall the alone not be;
it is nigh on impossible my beloved.

Ancient scrolls yield not to your deceptions.
The truth in words is a door.
The doorway is amongst the words,
hidden between the lines.

I pass by you as you pass by me.
I am unseen to those who look away.
I am seen to those who open their hearts.

That which you have done wrong
may in fact be a misunderstanding.
Pass by again when the mind is calm
and your awareness is clear.
You may be surprised.

The answers are hidden;
the dreams are many.

The truth is the unsurpassed.

Crime and Punishment

That which you do unto others shall be done unto you.

Are you sure who you are, where you have been, and where you are onwards journeying? Who is? Indeed what is onwards, what is now, and what is backwards? Are you sure that your memories are indeed yours? Are you sure that you have even lived this life, let alone a past one?

What if you had dreams or nightmares or visions or intuitions about past lives, and they turned out to be the unlived energetic memories of other people who are living now or have lived in the recent past?

Often people who experience deep trauma go through a period of being in shock, and then have significant gaps in their recollection of the trauma. Just maybe the experience is stored somewhere in the universe, as a compressed energetic experience.

It would be reasonable to assume that initially the trauma is stored in the persons unconscious. However what if the traumatic event never gets recalled, and the person eventually recovers from the trauma (a happy war veteran for example). A believer in past-lives is a believer in future lives. Hence the happy war veteran has some karma to process through a future life in a higher state of penetrating consciousness. However what if there is a collective unconscious – a kind of storehouse for all of humanities nasty stuff. Now in this case when a major life event is buried deep enough, it may (probably at the time of death) merge into a collective quagmire of humanities negative energies.

Conceive if you so choose an event say of someone being raped, tortured, or murdered. Although such a person may in some way attract a negative event - let’s say a person with deep hidden rage attracts a murderer - I would argue that the victim is still not necessarily receiving karmic justice. Further, there are many instances of deep tragedies in this world where innocent victims are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Now imagine that a person recovers as best they can from a traumatic event, but still their memory of the incident did not get retrieved. The energetic experience is one of peak human potential. What I mean by this is that during momentous life-changing events people often tap into enormous energy reserves: for example in fighting off or running away from an attacker. This compressed, stored energy one day has to see the light of day.

How is it that mystics say that karma is inescapable? Every negative action will attract a negative consequence; conveniently the reverse is also true. One theory is that when a tyrant of a being is available for learning, and has sufficient consciousness to not in general act on the tyrannical desires, the following occurs.

A stored event in the collective unconsciousness becomes tuned with the tyrant, at the very instant that the tyrant has the negative desire revealed. The stored event (a victim’s painful experience) becomes implanted in the tyrants psyche. It is a perfect meeting of polarised energies; a perfect magnetic fatal attraction.

Karma seems to carry itself out in a vague way in this world, with seemingly innocent victims meeting misfortune in an unfair world. However at a deeper level it just might be that karma is entirely perfect, and entirely inescapable. Also, in this way, if an innocent person can grow from a horrific event, then this journey can in some way be said to be immensely beneficial. Whatever part of the horrific event cannot be consciously witnessed, consciously relived, and ultimately let go of (or dropped), will one day be attracted to either its creator, or a person who has committed a criminal and unethical act of the same type and magnitude.

In this way, at a deeper level, the workings of the universe are perfect. The sentence always fits the crime because the perpetrator one day inescapably adopts the worst part of a victim’s experience, and then has to relive this experience. In this way the tyrant finds out exactly what it is like to be the victim, and in this way those of thick skin learn, and also in this way burn down the storehouse of collective ‘live’ latent energetic memories.

How to act in a complicated world? The wise say that right conduct is not an exploit of intellectual analysis; rather it is conduct that grows in the womb of an accelerating awareness.

The wise say that there are not just two levels of unconsciousness, but three. The third level may be referred to as cosmic unconsciousness. In Christianity it is known as Hell!

That which you do unto others shall be done unto you.

From my experience I firmly believe the above to be true, though not for sure.