Lesson is Simple; Student is Complicated

Wisdom Quarterly; Dan Millman (PeacefulWarrior.com); Laura Murphy
What can just one person do?

Mark Twain once said about worrying, "I've had a lot of problems in my life, most of which never happened." We get in our own way. The Path is there. The Path is clear. Wherever we step, it appears underneath our feet -- if that is the direction we have set ourselves in. The Path is not the problem. The student is.

The student is complicated. The world spins around us. Occupy this, occupy that, Occupy Samsara. We already here, being crushed by the Wheel of Death and Rebirth. We are suffering. And it need not be that way -- except for the craving, hate/fear, and delusion that overwhelms us and gets us to buy in.

"I always wanted to be someone," Lily Tomlin observed, "maybe I should have been more specific." Today Foley Square is on fire (Occupy Wall Street's massive protest). Berkeley is burning (after being doused again).

Burma, paradoxically, is cooling. And taking a stand is Los Angeles means going to UCLA, Occupy LA, or Cal State University Dominguez Hills. I want to sit down, not by going to work, to take a stand.

"It begins on the ground. Strong roots help a tree to bear fruit; the same is true of human beings. Magical thinking is popular, always has been. But reality rules. Observe and listen to nature's whispers, and all will be well."
- Dan Millman

Wisdom Quarterly invited Amma, and a dozen meditators crowded into Magdha Rod's Meditation Temple at Occupy LA to hear Amma speak and lead meditation.

What Can One Person Do?
Laura Murphy, CC Liu
The Buddhist nun Amma (Bhikkhuni Thanasanti) has been in Los Angeles.

Wisdom Quarterly along with the Occupy LA Interfaith Council and Against the Stream, she was brought down to speak at City Hall and lead a meditation.

It has been an honor to meet and share space with her and other engaged Theravada Buddhist meditators.

Her efforts and willingness to be of service have inspired. Her presence has benefited many. She moves on to Santa Barbara as the movement expands or breaks with a 1,000+ SEIU (union) members, students, and LA occupiers.

Occupy LA may expand to an additional site. Nonviolence may provoke police to behave like soldiers on foreign soil. It has elsewhere -- in a nationwide sweep of Occupy Movement encampments and preemptively violent police tactics.

Hold the ground for a more mindful, peaceful, safer movement to benefit all (even the 1% who benefit when the 99% benefits).

What can I do? Walking meditation, water-only fasting, refrain from speaking in observance of nonviolence (ahimsa), when even words may do harm.

I am inspired to investigate true freedom and how I may achieve that in my own way, in my body, using my mind, and filling my spirit with breath.

"The First Law of Planning:
Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything."
- Arthur Bloch

• [Totalitarian] Burma generals inch towards reform
• A Hopeful Sign: Burma wins ASEAN chair
• Burmese refugees get help
  
• UC Berkeley Student Protest UPDATES
• Introduction to "healthy skepticism"
  

JoAnna Harper and Amma's meditation/dialogue at ATS, 11-16-11

What are the Buddhist precepts for?

Amma chants to close a mindful exercise of deep listening she led.

Occupy LA Calendar Actions (video)

Occupy UCLA, Occupy Los Angeles, Wisdom Quarterly, Occupy CSUDH

Channel 5 (FOX Channel 11 local affiliate KTLA.com/local) Los Angeles news coverage

There are fresh and exciting actions afoot. There are two BeGrouped text groups -- one for the Action Committee (discussiion) and one for Action Updates (strictly updates, no chatter). There is also a Twitter feed @OccupyLAAction and spying through Facebook.com/groups/215029945237006

Wednesday:
What: Mic Check at UC Board of Trustees Meeting
Where: Long Beach
When: Bus leaving OLA (Occupy LA) 1st & Main at 8:15 am.
Why: Tuition Hikes

Protesters Arrested at Massive "Occupy L.A." Rally
LOS ANGELES (KTLA) - Union and Occupy LA demonstrators staged a massive
march and rally in downtown LA as part of Thursday's "National Day of Action"

Thursday:
What: Occupy the Bridge
Why: Corporate greed is killing good jobs. L.A.'s bridges, roads, parks, and schools are outdated and crumbling. We're losing firefighters, police, and good school jobs in our communities due to budget cuts. But Congress refuses to tax millionaires and super-wealthy corporations to pay for legislation that will create 125,400 good jobs in California. Wall Street banks were in trouble, Congress rushed to bail them out with billions in taxpayer money - but now Congress and corporations are turning their backs on our schools and communities.
When: Meet at Spring and 1st at 6:00 am for breakfast and to march over. March begins at BofA Plaza at 7:00 am!
Where: 4th & Flower St.

Local Channel 5 Los Angeles News (KTLA.com), Nov. 17, 2011

What: USWW March
When: Noon
Where: Leaving from City Hall South Side



OCCUPY UCLA @ 12:30 pm
What: One-Day Strike, all day picket line at CSU Dominguez Hills, Carson
When: 6:00 am - 7:00 pm (or whatever portion of the day you're available)
Where: Campus Main Entrance (Gate E), 1000 E. Victoria St, Carson 90747
Why: Support Quality Public Higher Education
Stop the Corporate Takeover of the CSU! Help Save Middle Class Jobs!
Faculty Want to Provide Quality Education & Support Our Families. Join us!
Facebook.com/event.php?eid=219712158099755



Saturday:
What: Health & Wellness Fair
**MORE INFO COMING ASAP**

What: Aerial Photo of Occupy Los Angeles
**MORE INFO COMING ASAP**

Occupy Wall Street New York, SEIU, and Occupy Los Angeles (KTLA.com)

What: Power of Comedy Event
When: 8:00 pm (leave from City Hall at 7:00 pm)
Where: Meet at northside OLA steps; event is at the Hollywood Palladium
Why: to encourage comedians to avoid working with stations who misrepresent the movement
**This is a ticketed event. OLA RSVP contact TBD -- stay tuned!**

Tuesday Nov. 22nd:
What: Teach-In & March to the Fed
When: Teach-In at 2:30 on northside steps, leave from Fountain Box at 4:00 pm for March
Where: Federal Reserve Bank
**Please let me know when we have a Facebook event for this, waiting on that link to print flyers**

UC Berkeley administrator misspeaks about a peaceful worldwide movement involving students that is repeatedly the victim of police and state-sanctioned violence.

Saturday Dec. 3rd:
**Still in Development**
What: Occupy Union Station -- joint action with Occupy Long Beach and Occupy Pasadena, likely other Occupy SoCal groups as well
When: 11:00 am -2:00/3ish
Where: Union Station
Why: Skits and so on to creatively reach out and gain public awareness and support
More details to come

**Still in Development**
What: Official LA Day of Non-Violence
Where: Southside steps OLA
Presentations/Speakers/music/etc. Presented by Interfaith Community, Quakers, and UCLA Center for Study of Religion.

More details to come



Tuesday Dec. 6th:
What: City Council Meeting
When: 10:00 am
Where: City Hall
Why: Resolution to end Corporate Personhood

Saturday, Dec. 10th:
What: March for International Human Rights Day
When: 10:00 am-1:00 pm
Facebook.com/event.php?eid=229528123768777

Cal State Long Beach police pepper spray abuse as tuition is hiked

"Police are not my friends" (video)

Wisdom Quarterly interview with "Caroline" (Occupy Cal)


"Police are not my friends."

If police are not your friends, why are you their friend?

"Because I'm a Buddhist, and we don't expect to succeed acting the same way as they do. They drag people to jail by the hair like cavemen. It's sexism. There's racism. It's a police state."

Why are you participating in tomorrow's campus strike and teach out?

"We want student loan gouging to stop, bank greed, police abuse, endless war, fee increases, cut courses... There are so many issues that anyone not participating has to be questioned for apathy or ignorance."

Police drag demonstrators away by the hair
There is a lot of controversy at UC Berkeley after two videos surfaced showing law enforcement officers dragging two "Occupy Cal" demonstrators by their hair. The images triggered outrage among the faculty at Cal. Officers forcefully yanked people from their huddle, eventually forcing them to the ground. At one point in the video, an officer is shown pulling Prof. Celeste Langan by her hair and then arresting her. More

The Buddha on Friendship
Sharon Salzberg (adapted from The Force of Kindness, Sounds True, care2.com)

The Buddha often emphasized the characteristics of a good friend. He spoke about a good friend as one who gives a kind of happiness based on knowing our interconnectedness. Learning to be a good friend to ourselves and being one to others is really the same thing. Here are wise words about friendship from the Buddha as we approach Thanksgiving: He spoke about a good friend, a true friend, as being someone who is a helper, who protects us when we are unprotected, surprised by life in some way. The friend is a refuge when we are afraid. A good friend is constant in our time of happiness and... More

Interfaith Community, which has joined occupations, is being arrested.

• Police to conduct review after "Occupy Cal" arrests
• CHP officer shot near Sac; police execute suspect
• Police (LAPD) shoots man in downtown
• VIDEO: Raided Oakland demonstrators chant
• Occupy Yale, the Ivy League, and New Haven
• Student loans add to angst at Occupy Wall Street
• Brilliant students seek jobs beyond Wall Street

• VIDEO: fully armed SWAT used to evict Occupy Philly
  
• Police investigate officer involved shooting
• Police shoot, kill armed man in Green Bay
• Story, photos: Police shoot, kill man outside tavern‎
• Elkridge man dies after police shoot him 8 times
• Report: Hoboken man almost gets shot over bottle of beer
• Campus police shoot man at Elizabeth City State Univ.
• Police shoot man carrying assault rifle on N.C. campus

VIDEO: Portrait of a protest

• 
  Panorama: 360° view of L.A. City Hall encampment
• 
  Audio slide show: Through the words of an artist
• 
  Audio slide show: Nightfall to daybreak

• SF police shoot, kill man after foot chase
• Police dismantle "Occupy Oakland"
• Cain accuser's lawyer says witness to speak
• Public money expected in 49ers stadium
• AUDIO: Taliban stones, shoots mother/daughter
• OH, AND, BTW: Banks quietly ramping up costs

What police are capable of (graphic video)

WARNING: Graphic police state violence against innocent civilians

East Timor massacre: US-armed troops kill demonstrators

DemocracyNow.org
This weekend marked the 20th anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor. On Nov. 12, 1991, Indonesian troops fired on a peaceful memorial procession in the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, killing more than 270 East Timorese. Two decades later, Amnesty International has called for a judicial inquiry into the massacre, noting that the failure "to hold all the perpetrators to account highlights a wider problem of impunity for crimes under international law and other human rights violations committed during the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste (then East Timor) between 1975 and 1999." We play an excerpt from the 1992 documentary "Massacre: The Story of East Timor" produced by journalist Allan Nairn and Amy Goodman on dictator Suharto's Bush and US-backed crimes. More

Massacre: The Story of East Timor (See PART 1)

Real Video-Real Audio-MP3 Download-More

"Imagine" - Joan Baez visits Occupy Wall St.

(michouberlin) "Imagine" (John Lennon) by Joan Baez

Folk singer Joan Baez serenaded hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters Friday, most of whom weren’t even born when she became famous for singing out against the Vietnam War.

Folk singer Joan Baez, #OWS, Foley Square, Manhattan on 11-11-11 (Enid Alvarez/NYDN).

The irony of Baez performing on Veterans Day was mostly lost on the demonstrators, who had marched from their base in Zuccotti Park to Foley Square, just up from City Hall, for the concert. More

12,000 protesters surround White House

Protesters unite, President responds
(treehugger.com/HuffingtonPost.com)

Obama delays Tar Sands oil pipeline decision until 2013

(Democracy Now!) Environmental activists are claiming victory after the Obama administration announced Thursday it will postpone any decision on the proposed 1,700-mile Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline until 2013.

The announcement was made just days after more than 10,000 people encircled the White House calling on Pres. Obama to reject the project. This was the second major action against the project organized by Bill McKibben’s 350.org and Tar Sands Action.

(thinkprogrees.org)

In late August and early September, some 1,200 people were arrested in Washington, D.C., in a two-week campaign of civil disobedience.

"We believe that this delay will kill the pipeline," says the Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein. "If it doesn’t, if this pipeline reemerges after the election, people have signed pledges saying they will put their bodies on the line to stop it." More

• Next: Fracking wells in Delaware River basin
• What is "Fracking"? (hydraulic fracturing)
• VIDEO: Gasland report now on PBS
  
• 12,000 wrap White House in demonstration
  
• Occupy Cal: police crackdown on massive protest
• Occupy Your Block: stop home foreclosures
  
• Penn State riot, child rape cover up, Paterno fired

Gasland the Movie (other trailer)

Occupy Wall Street's permit to protest

Wisdom Quarterly
Solidarity strike with Oakland to stop corporate corruption and its maintenance through police brutality (OccupyWallSt.org)

Forty+ Days at Occupy Wall Street

#OCCUPY WALL STREET is a leaderless, people-powered movement for democracy that began in America on Sept. 17 with an encampment in the financial district of New York City. Inspired by the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising and Spanish acampadas, we vow to end the corruption by money of our democracy… It is now Day 46.

(RT) Movement is spreading across US to hold Wall Street accountable.
Christina Gonzalez beaten by police and arrested for filming abuse.

• Join your local #OCCUPY!
• Winter donations needed
• Are police part of the 99%?

This proposal was passed by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on Oct. 26, 2011 in the reclaimed Oscar Grant Plaza. Paramilitary troops and various police agencies violently evicted occupiers and attacked Marine veteran Scott Olsen, but the occupiers returned. General Assembly: 1,607 people voted with 1,484 voting in favor of the resolution, 77 abstaining, and 46 voting against, which passed the proposal at 96.9% agreement. The GA operates on a modified consensus process that passes proposals with 90% in favor with abstaining votes removed from the final count. More

The Bill of Rights permits the people to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances (Liza Sabater/Flickr).

• St. Paul's problem: 3rd cleric resigns over Occupy London
  

Top 10 Demands at Occupy Protests

The Activist Beat with Rose Aguilar (Your Call, KALW) is a roundup of activism the mainstream media ignores, under covers, or misrepresents (UprisingRadio.org)

TOP 10 DEMANDS

1. Jail the banksters
2. Help folks stay in their homes
3. Stop the buying of politicians
4. Corporations are not people
5. Support public education
6. Put the unemployed to work
7. Assist the less fortunate
8. Health care for all
9. Stop the wars
10. Love our mother!
    

After spending the last year covering under covered activism, it’s heartening to see the Occupy Wall Street movement gain so much [mainstream] momentum.

While the movement is getting the coverage it deserves in the national media, several talking heads still can’t seem to figure out what the people want. They’re either really good actors or even more disconnected than I thought.

All they have to do is venture out and ask questions.... John Sutter, a building contractor, held a professional looking “Top 10 Demands sign.” More

• Listen: segment - entire program

Dr. Gabor Mate @ Occupy Wall Street (video)

Democracy Now!, Occupy Wall Street
LINK (Bigsteelguy3, Oct. 11, 2011)

On a trip from Vancouver, Dr. Gabor Maté stopped by Occupy Wall Street. He talked to "Democracy Now!" host Amy Goodman and observed:

"50 percent of American adults have a chronic medical illness. And much of that has to do with stress. And if you look at the literature of what causes stress, it's uncertainty and lack of information and loss of control, and lack of expression of self.

"And the uncertainty that has been forced upon the American population by the recent economic crisis -- the loss of control as power has flown into the hands of very, very few people, and the absolute powerlessness of the many in the face of all that, and the lack of expression through the ordinary political process -- people are totally disempowered and deprived of their voice.

"This protest addresses all those issues. So I can only say that this is an extraordinarily healthy thing to happen. People who participate here will be healthier as a result. And maybe society in general as well."

• Complete transcript, podcast, additional reports
  
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Confessions, Questions, Time for Change!

Culled from the beautiful archives of ShambhalaFreeRadio.org

Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist

Dan Montgomery, Buddhadharma, Comments
Stephen Batchelor wrote a particularly interesting book called Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist. In it he tells his own story of embracing, then rejecting, both Tibetan (Vajrayana) and (Zen) Buddhism.

He weaves in his interpretation of the life of the Buddha. He attempts to strip it of all the elements that Siddhartha would have received from his culture. In this way Batchelor shines a light on what may have been truly original about his realization in becoming a buddha.

I find Batchelor a bit too much of a rationalist for my taste, but his critical framework is interesting and useful as a starting point.

• Interview with Tami Simon

Batchelor examines the Pali Canon [Theravada, the oldest form of Buddhism, which survives in Southeast Asia, surrounding India] in detail to learn what we can most reliably say about the life of the Buddha, based on the earliest records that were written down.

What emerges is a very human portrait.

This Buddha rejected his own kingship. He lived in the forest. He rejected all credentials other than his own insight, and the wisdom of the Earth herself. After his enlightenment or great awakening, he dealt with the politics of the day but never assumed any kind of temporal power or wealth. The Buddha taught, gathered a community (Sangha), but purposely did not appoint a successor other than the Teaching (Dharma) itself.

When his time came to pass, his last words were very simple. There are a number of translations of the Mahaparanibbana Sutta ["Discourse on the Great Passing into Final Nirvana"] out there, but here is a well-researched favorite:

Now the Blessed One advised the monastics: Well now, practitioners, my counsel is this: Experience is disappointing, success comes through vigilance.

[Other translations usually run, "All phenomena is hurtling towards destruction; work out your liberation through diligence [constant mindfulness according to the four foundations]." Other translations place more emphasis on sosotharpa -- individual effort towards liberation -- such as translating the bit about vigilance as “work out your salvation with diligence,” emphasizing the need to, in the end, practice mindfulness and do it yourself.

Also, most other translations make the first statement more objective and philosophical, that is, “Decay is inherent in all component things.” But there’s something much more powerful in the more subjective and psychological statement…. “Experience is disappointing.”

Most of us reading this site likely feel that Buddhist view and practice has had a tremendous positive impact on our lives. At the same time, there is much concern about the relevance of some elements of the Tibetan cultural and political overlay that has developed around Buddhism over the past thousand years. Some of these elements are at best distracting, and at worst corrupting... More

Pönlop Rinpoche — Time for a Change

Commentary by Barbara Blouin (Buddhadharma, Comments)

I just read Dzogchen Pönlop Rinpoche’s new book, Rebel Buddha: On the Road to Freedom (Shambhala Publications). When I read this short passage from the final chapter, I thought it could prompt some interesting discussion here.

The pioneers of Western Buddhism had to overcome certain barriers in order to make sense of this “new” tradition and practice it. They were not only meeting a foreign culture, they were also meeting alien concepts like selflessness and emptiness that made little sense to the Western mind. But they said yes to meditation and working with ego.

Now, roughly fifty years later, it’s time for a change. We’re stuck at a certain level of our spiritual development. What at first woke us up now barely stirs us from our thoughts. What supported our inquiry into who we are now blocks our realization of that. Now we have to ask ourselves how to break through again. This time we’re challenged to break through our attachment to all that brought us to this point -- the spiritual cultures that we so respect and emulate that they’ve become another trap for us.

The Role of Questioning in a Spiritual Community
Anonymous (Radio Free Shambhala, edited by RFS staff)
Spiritual communities vary of course. But there is a history, with its corresponding literature, of how some of them have not only abused power but also undermined the confidence and goodness of their members.

Most of us enter a spiritual path with curiosity, openness, and a willingness and desire to be genuine. We may be searching for answers to deep, existential questions. It might be a transitional time in our lives or a time of crisis, or maybe we just want to make the world a better place.

The spiritual group may promise us hope for a happier life and answers to the world’s problems -- if we follow the program and spiritual advice of the leader and his close associates.

Our new spiritual family also provides an instant social network and feeling that we are part of something bigger, such as working towards world peace, saving the environment, or another good cause. More

Woman dragged in bank then arrested (video)

Wisdom Quarterly, AboveTopSecret, MSNBC, Inc.

It is not enough not to protest. The secret police (undercover agents infiltrating peaceful movements) will drag you into the bank then arrest you for protesting in the bank.

It sounds Orwellian. It sounds impossible. It happened recently at CitiBank, Inc.

A plainclothes policeman dragged a woman into a bank protest to arrest her as an occupier of the bank. What was she doing? Was she trying to help the "occupiers" inside the bank get media attention or legal help? That will not be tolerated in Bush/Cheney/Obama's America! No, actually, she was a Citibank customer trying to close her account.

Corporate crime is organized, the best organized crime there is.

Close Your Account, Go to Jail
AboveTopSecret.com FORUM (edited)
I can not believe what I have witnessed in this video. Will they be showing this on the mainstream news?

People went in to close their Citibank accounts. But instead they were locked in the bank and arrested. Citibank claims they entered the bank as a large mob screaming and chanting. However, things appear to be very quiet and civilized until the police show up.

There is a female Citibank customer still outside trying to get her account closed. She is talking to a few of them from outside the glass when an undercover cop grabs her and with the help of a banker and police with clubs forcefully drags her in the bank. A man who tries to help her gets dragged in, too.

The Koch Brothers love what corporations are capable of.

She screams and clearly looks distressed, not understanding why she is being manhandled. The police HELP drag her into the bank! Then everyone starts yelling "this is wrong," "shame," "you are disgusting!" I found it highly disturbing.

Police are the Troublemakers at Peaceful Protests


Citibank knows he [yes "he," Mr. Citibank is a "corporate person" with more rights than you or I] can do whatever he wants under the present system.

He is an organized criminal, more umbrella than person, for criminals wearing suits. And the people's police are little better. Citibank supports its local police the way Wall Street donated to have the Occupy Wall Street movement kept as far from Wall St. as possible. More

Forget the People, Power to the Banks!

Occupying US with Glover and West (video)

Wisdom Quarterly: Voices for Change, Voices of Freedom

"Poverty is the greatest violence of all." Princeton University Prof. Cornel West laid it on the line protesting at the Supreme Court this weekend (Occupy DC, Oct. 16, 2011). Along with radio host Tavis Smiley, Prof. West recognizes that B.S. Obama is NOT the fulfillment of Martin Luther King's dream.

The fact of the matter is that "Barack Obama is the Black mascot of the Wall Street oligarchs."

Prof. West is not alone in recognizing the situation for what it is. The whitewash has fooled no one. Where is the "change" we voted for, we believed was coming, we were promised. Obama lies like a Bush -- and has successfully put through Bush policies Bush could not push through. "The new NAFTA" is further proof that Bush-Cheney are still in office in disguise. The CHANGE we voted for never came.

Actor Danny Glover delivers an impassioned, impromptu speech to peaceful demonstrators giving voice to a movement that encompasses ALL Americans, not simply taxpayers, youth, veterans, minorities, gays, union members, parents, teachers, police, firefighters, and mortgage holders.

Dr. West addresses crowd at Occupy DC on corporate greed.

Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West tell it like it is: "Barack Obama is NOT the fulfillment pf Martin Luther King's dream!"

"Black Power Mixtape" is a Scandinavian exploration of African American voices of struggle during the 1960s on into the tumultuous '70s. Sweden sent a team of investigators to document and try to understand what the hippies, Black Panthers, civil rights movement members, and radicals were protesting and trying to accomplish during the greatest generation so far in our country's short history. More

• AUDIO: Berkeley Liberation Radio.net
• Free Radio Berkeley alongside Pacifica
• OccupyTogether.com