mass destruction

wait :( I don't understand, why do we have to choose a weapon ?

well, you choose a weapon to see what kind of destruction you could cause if you dropped one of these particular bombs available in the US arsenal onto a specific address. It is a very scary idea. I tired my address and it did not look good. : |
(I probably should not have posted this one this late at night.)

O ....I am sorry :( I could not choose a weapon, I tried, but it seemed a bit difficult. It's quite sad, this war, and what they say "good and evil" it's really lopsided. An actor of Lord of the Rings compared U.S to Saueron. Our government is quite aggressive, and I somehow wonder can't we just not take some of the money used to build weapons and give it away to our enemies? We are all just surviving are we not ? what is the difference between our needs, and the needs of the people in the Middle East? O I should hide my face now, probably will be cursed out of witoldriedel.com

good night,

t rawks

I think this is very bad JuJu to enter an actual address very bad JuJu.

one thing about putting a familiar address in is that it makes it impossible to see it as just a map. you cannot help but realize what these types of weapons actually do to real people, real neighborhoods, real towns ....

T, you have a really good point there. If anybody wanted to curse you out for this statement can expect to get their IP banned. : )
Yes, it is very bad Juju to put in a real address into that thing. I am just worried that all weapons somehow are built with the intention to land on some address and so putting a familiar address into the thing really puts things in perspective. (As Rob mentioned.)
There is no such thing as a faceless enemy. There is not such thing as a good war. There is no such thing as a good bomb. Oh well.

I really wanted to keep any political opinion out of this blog. There is just so much more to this whole game of power than we can see from our pespective. I would much rather like to focus my attention of spreading good karma. (Is this possible?)
I was even considering pulling this post. Instead I will just post more of the honestly positive ones. How is that?

karma ? this post is good karma, because of all the caring responses that arose from it. I am sure you are correct, that there is much more to this than our perspectives, but these perspectives are important :).

someone once explained Karma to me in this way, it's a life force that is constantly evolving, and it gets added on and taken off as we go along, and one does not have to wait till the next life to experience karma. It's here this instant. And there are some called culmulative karma, such as natural disaster... oh :( no no I don't believe in that.

Oh, I am so glad you posed this comment T. (By the way, some people told me that they think your name is Tom, and I know it is not.) I do not believe in culmulative karma either. I do believe that our existence is divided into finer gradations than entire lifecycles. There is direct feedback for doing good things. And I mean really good things that help other people do good things.
I wish PBS had a map for Mass Enlightment, how a good thought or a good idea can inspire millions of people. (Especially is it is not “protected”, but that’s a different story.)

Tom ? I wouldn't mind being a Tom if I were tomaken

i think T rocks tooo!

and just who is the agent snipping around, posting under pseudonym... : ) hmm..

mass enlightenment project sounds good to me : )

and oh, dear, i very much believe in cumulative karma, that we all make. because everything we are seeing and experiencing is not only our own minds, but the minds of all sentient beings here in this plane of existence, and we all are creating all of this together, right this very second! and the reason the world doesn't blow itself to bits is because there are so many people with such very very good karma, intentions etc, they keep everything in balance, and even tilt towards things like (okay, yes, i believe in this, call me a weirdo) shambhala.

hooray again for T!

well... i think we can be pretty creative with our names here...

Therein lies the difficulity of studying Buddhism for me or advancing in it as I come across theories and I can't get past them and hence I take off. : )

karmic debts or mass karmic debts, I ... how does that apply to the children in Afganistan ? is Bush the one to decide they should pay their debt ? and in turn what does that do about Bush's karmic debt in the long run ?
see I am too clear on that.

:(
Hope you can light the way a bit K.
: )

T, not sure i can, but will try. first, a most difficult thing is to realize the vastness of possibility of meaning of things. meanings which we cannot know because we are not buddhas, though we have buudha nature as are very core, and in fact, are in essence buddhas, but our perceptions are muddied by obscurations.

first know that things are beginningless and endless. and all things interdependent, arising from a cause. karma is not a simple thing, and yet it is. it has, i believe three parts. The intent, the action and the result. First is your intention good or bad with the action you take? Is the action itself helpful or harmful? After the action, were you happy you did it or did you regret? All of these elements make up karma and determine whether the action's consequences. And know, too, that even the most terrible karma can be changed. there is a story of a yogini, who I believe is still alive, but one day she went into and smashed all of her father plates, ruining many of his fine things. That afternoon he got a summons to see the chinese authority, but the next morning it was for some reason called off. She quickly ripened his bad karma, and avoided a different circumstance that may have arisen. There is another story about a man with a son. It was harvest season and the old man's son broke his leg, and the old man could not harvest. Everyone said, oh that is so terrible, and the old man said, we will see, we will see. The next week an official came and collected all the able young boys to go to war, but the old man's son could not go because of his broken leg. And everyone said how lucky, and the old man said, we will see, we will see... and the story continues on like this.

I am not saying any children dying anywhere is a good thing. Suffering for any creature is a terrible, terrible thing and should be avoided, and helped and healed and dealt with and looked upon with only love and compassion. We should dedicate our lives to end the suffering of all beings everywhere in all times, all planes. But none of us can know the individual circumstances that brought each person to each place in time. the danger is people use this to think, oh, that person deserved it, but that is definitely not the point, and a gross perversion of bodhisattva nature. no one deserves death, or pain or suffering, even if in their last life they were a killer, or even if in this life they are a killer. everyone has the possiblity of enlightenment.

there is also the story of the mother and daughter, washed into a raging river. each was only concerned with the other's survival. they each thought only of the other, of saving the other, so they held tightly to one another. both died, but because their intention was so pure and good, they were immediately reborn in a 33rd heaven, where the dharma is always taught and practiced, and where they could continue their journey to enlightenment.

we don't know the circumstances of anyone's death, their last thoughts, anything. they say there is no nirvana. they say this is nirvana. they say buddhahood is unattainable, yet we vow to attain it in our bodhisattva vows. how can these paradoxes be? it is difficult, heartbreaking, yet so simple and joyful. so much of all of this is beyond conception, beyond what can be stated with mere words. it must be experienced.

don't hold things too tightly, don't try so hard to find out, yet don't just let things go thoughtlessly. it's like when we try to drink water with our hands. if we try to clench the water with our fists, we take none to our mouths. if we open all fingers wide, and hands as wide as possible, then too, we cannot hold water. it is only by gently cupping our hands that we can slake our thirst.

i don't know if that helped or made you more confused. i hope the former. there are others who can say this much more eloquently. and anyway, just saying what my teachers have told me : )

have a good night.

this is the most amazing comment ever written on this blog. I am stunned. Thank you, whoever you are. Wow.

goodnight : ) thank you.

aha, so it you know each other? A good sign. : )