Sex and the Protests (Part II)

PART II: Anonymous, Seven, Amber (Wisdom Quarterly)

TO BE CONTINUED

Sex and the Protests in Cartoons

PART I: Seven, Anonymous, Amber (Wisdom Quarterly)

• Cartoonists treading lightly when drawing Obama

Welcome Table. Occupy Los Angeles. "We are peaceful, but we are passionate" the hash tag under the FREE CONDOMS sign reads. All these liberals, all these tents, all these Anti-Sex League members.

To put it in context, in the book Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston lives in a future world, a dystopia. Big Brother is always watching. His job at the Ministry of Truth is redacting, rewriting, and sanitizing history for the current regime (inner party). His only outlet is cheap gin. But his mind is mostly on sex.

And there she was, Julia, beautiful but sporting an "Anti-Sex League" (ASL) sash. Why? Because Big Brother does not want anyone enjoying him or herself or giving allegiance to anything but the state. It's true of Communist regimes. It's true of fascists. It may even be true of über liberal protesters.

"The personal is political, the personal is political," and we are radicals. There she sat on the City Hall steps, cross legged and contemplating the tip of her nose. Pitzer College sophomore. A dreamy Age of Aquarius trippy hipster, a merry hempster, an occupation "hippie." What did I think would happen as rave music blasted from the now barricaded Spring Street next to the occupation?

"No, not again, O, what a man, just who I thought that I wanted to have. O, don't do that....that's all it takes to make me falling flat. No, not again, the loser I am. I love you tonight. You are my knight, pure and assured to make me feel all right, tomorrow you'll find I'm not around, but don't be uptight, because I loved you last night. Vacant and free, yeah that is me...." the Cardigans sing. Is that how it is at Occupy Scandinavia?

This is LA, and the ASL will not stand for it. Maybe in Claremont, but in the (western) Belly of the Beast? Downtown is no Greenwich Village. It's not even Podunk, USA. It is just a megalopolis city center with a City Hall next to a Federal Court building adjacent to a jail and a corporate skyline hovering over what was once a pueblo with a hegemonic church. Cartman was watching. Would we "respect his authoritay," or poke the eye of the War Machine?



"Make love not war, make love not war," I rooted inside my head. She was four inches from my face. Am I supposed to kiss her? Am I supposed to get a room (tent)? Am I supposed to suppose? I chose to just be in the moment. It sounds good. But a plan would have been better.

We'll march to the freeway overpass in the morning and remind commuters, wage slaves, that we're here for them. They'll honk. We'll hug. Maybe we can fingerpaint for freedom in the morning.... TO BE CONTINUED

Rioting is exactly what Police want (DK "Riot")

Wisdom Quarterly

(Chastrie) Police riot (provoking by strategy, brutality, and with undercover provocateurs) because they can't beat peace. All they need is an excuse. Rioting is what they train for with the help of consultants, lawyers, the FBI, and PR firms. Police want rioting.

"Riot" (Dead Kennedys)
Rioting, the unbeatable high
Adrenaline shoots your nerves to the sky
Everyone knows this town is gonna blow
And it's all gonna blow right now

Now you can smash all the windows that you want
All you really need are some friends and a rock
Throwing a brick never felt so [darn] good
Smash more glass
Scream with a laugh
And wallow with the crowds
Watch them kicking peoples' ass

But you get to the place
Where the real slave drivers live
It's walled off by the riot squad
Aiming guns right at your head

So you turn right around
And play right into their hands

And set your own neighborhood
Burning to the ground instead

Riot: the unbeatable high
Riot: shoots your nerves to the sky
Riot: playing into their hands
Tomorrow you're homeless
Tonight it's a blast!

Get your kicks in quick
They're callin' the National Guard
Now could be your only chance
To torch a police car

Climb the roof, kick the siren in
And jump and yelp for joy
Quickly, dive back in the crowd
Slip away, now don't get caught

Let's loot the spiffy hi-fi store
Grab as much as you can hold
Pray your full arms don't fall off
Here comes the owner with a gun

CHORUS

The barricades spring up from nowhere
Cops in helmets line the lines
Shotguns prod into your bellies
The trigger fingers want an excuse, NOW

The raging mob has lost its nerve
There's more of us but who goes first
No one dares to cross the line
The cops know that they've won

It's all over but not quite
The p[olice] have just begun to fight
They club your heads, kick your teeth
Police can riot all that they please

CHORUS

Tomorrow you're homeless
Tonight it's a blast

• Living in an American Police State
• Top 10 Signs we're living in a Police State
• 20 signs the US is becoming a Totalitarian State
• Only through direct action will change come
• LIVESTREAM: Global Peaceful Revolution
  

All the "change" we got

What is over-taxing the people in Buddhism?

Wisdom Quarterly

It may seem unfair to pick on mild mannered Obama's views on war and taxes. But by continuing Bush/Cheney-era policies while dressed as a democrat, he has betrayed the people who voted for him and even angered those who did not. The only ones who are happy are the clandestine services and business interests that got him (s)elected.

Taxes are an old money-raising scheme. Buddhism makes reference to them in numerous places. Why should this be so? The breadth of topics the Buddha covered is astounding leading Bhikkhu Bodhi to comment on the astonishing modernity of the information.

The Buddha knew as much as the number of leaves in a forest while only revealing in detail a handful. This was his own simile, explaining that his focus was enlightenment and extending the duration of the Dharma (the teaching of the path-practice that leads to enlightenment) in the world.

It is because of the latter that we have pearls of wisdom regarding many topics embedded in the discourses or sutras. Lay followers are guided to a good life, one not aiming at nirvana but at worldly success here and fortunate future rebirths hereafter, in the "Advice to Householders" (DN 31). It includes advice on Buddhist money management.

Ananda's Former Lives

Wisdom Quarterly explanation from Hellmuth Hecker, Ananda: The Guardian of the Dhamma (BPS)

A summary of Ananda's former lives shows that he was only seldom a deva, seldom an animal, but most often a human. One can see that his most important aspect was as a human, whereas his exemplary and infamous brothers, Anuruddha and Devadatta, had almost always been a deva and very often an animal, respectively.

Ananda's extraordinarily close connection to the Buddha is revealed by the fact that he was often his brother in former lives. The examples of former lives given here will be mainly those which exemplify that he, too, had to exert himself to attain virtue.

Hypocrisy is to be expected when the US figurehead is follow orders from unseen movers and shakers (the military-industrial complex with help from big pharmaceuticals and the entertainment arm of public relations. It's not the "change" we voted for, but it is the Brave New World Order we expected.

Birth Story (Jataka) 498. Ananda and the Bodhisatta (the Buddha-to-be) were born as cousins among the outcasts called candalas. Their job was the fumigation of malodorous places [or possibly sweepers]. In order to escape the contempt they were held in, they disguised themselves as young brahmin caste men who together went to the University at Takkasila (Taxila) to study and escape their low caste.

After the Bodhisatta became a great success and Ananda lagged behind in his studies, their deception was discovered. They were beaten by their fellow students and chased out of college. But a wise and kindly brahmin ordered the brahmin students to stop and advised the outcasts to become ascetics, the only upwardly mobile avenue open to them in ancient Indo-Afghanistan/Pakistan (a region in the western frontier of ancient India called Gandhara).

They followed this advice, and in due course passed away. They were reborn together as animals [some say as a karmic result or "punishment" for their deception, but this is highly speculative since karma works in mysterious ways], namely as offspring of a doe. They were inseparable and died together with by the single arrow of a hunter. In the next life [which the Bodhisatta remembered and the Buddha recounted in this birth tale] they were sea hawks and again died together at the hands of a hunter.

With this, their existences below the fortunate human level came to an end. Ananda was born as the son of a king and the Bodhisatta as the son of the priest at court. While Ananda held the higher position in a worldly sense, the Bodhisatta had more inner abilities. For one thing, he could remember all three of their former lives, whereas Ananda could only remember his former human life as an outcast in college. At the age of 16, the Bodhisatta became a sincerely striving ascetic, while Ananda assumed the throne.

Many years later when the time was right and the king amenable to advice, the Bodhisatta visited him. He praised the happiness born of asceticism and explained the unsatisfactoriness of the world of the senses. Ananda admitted that he realized this, but confessed that he could not let go of his desires. He was held fast like an elephant in a muddy watering hole.

Then the Bodhisatta advised him that even as a king he could practice virtue -- such as not levying unjust taxes, and supporting wandering ascetics and brahmin priests. He also taught him that when hot passions arose in him, he could remember his mother. He could recall how he had been completely helpless as a baby, and if his mother had not brought him up, he would never have become king. Thereupon Ananda resolved to become an ascetic; both attained to the brahma (divine) realm.

Mahamuni ("Great Sage") statue created by extraterrestrial devas.

What are Unjust Taxes?

But what are unjust levels of taxation for a ruler? One answer comes from Burmese Theravadan work. This translation was compiled by Roger Bischoff in Buddhism in Myanmar: A Short History:

The Visit to Arakan

In Dhannavati, whose walls are still partially visible today, the Mahamuni temple is located on the Sirigutta hill. In this temple, for over two millennia, the Mahamuni image was enshrined and worshipped. The story of the Mahamuni image, at one time one of the most revered shrines of Buddhism, is told in the Sappadanapakarana, a work of a local historian.

King Candrasuriya, who ruled Dhannavati, on hearing that a Buddha had arisen in India, desired to go there to learn the Dharma. The Buddha, aware of his intention, said to Ananda: "The king will have to pass through forests dangerous to travelers; wide rivers will impede his journey; he must cross a sea full of monsters. It will be an act of charity if we go to his dominion [modern Burma], so that he may pay [his respects] without risking his life."

So the Buddha went there and was received with great pomp by King Candrasuriya and his people. The Buddha then taught the Five and Eight Precepts and instructed the king in the ten kingly duties, namely:

1. universal beneficence
2. daily paying respect
3. showing mercy
4. taxes of not more than a tenth part of the produce
5. justice
6. punishment without anger
7. the support of his subjects as the Earth supports them
8. the employment of prudent commanders
9. the taking of good counsel
10. avoiding pride.

The Mahamuni Pagoda in Mandalay, Burma housing the magnificent figure.

The Buddha remained for a week. And on preparing for his departure, the king requested that he leave an image of himself so they could pay honor to him even in his absence. The Buddha consented to this and Sakka, King of the [near-Earth extraterrestrial] Devas, himself formed the image with the metals collected by the king and his people.

It was completed in one week. And when the Buddha breathed onto it, the people exclaimed that now there were indeed two Buddhas, so alike was the image to the great sage. Then the Buddha made a prophecy addressing the image: "I shall pass into nirvana in my 80th year, but you will live for 5,000 years, which I have foreseen as the duration of my Teaching (Dharma)."

[This puts us a little past the halfway mark because the Buddha passed into nirvana sometime between 2,600 to 3,000 years ago. This year, 2011, marks the 2,600th year since his enlightenment.]

Bush understood the revenue generating potential of war. It provides an excuse for endless taxation and fewer services that people fear to argue with. Peace is rebellious because we have been convinced by a PR campaign that war is "patriotic." Pres. Obama now apes and adopts all the same postures and platforms as Bush infuriated everyone by doing.