Trolling The Internet (satire)

Over the years, I have observed people online, mainly by trolling, and have found that the difference between ignorance and stupidity is that ignorance depends on the person's will while stupidity is bereft of it.

For example, an ignorant person can have a master's degree but be a right wing racist who has authored a lot of opinions to prove that a person's intelligence is determined by his race. However, a stupid person will use the ignorant author's words to bully anyone he thinks beneath him, regardless of color.

When caught, the ignorant will behave righteously but the stupid will utter threats until he is called out. Then they'll move on to easier pickings.

In the end, you shall realize you have been trolled if you ever took their bait.

Yet the intelligent of people will never reveal their biases and prejudices so candidly because the Internet appears to attract narcissists who desire attention (the more selfish of the trolls), empaths (the idolaters of trolls of all stripes), sociopaths of varying degrees of failure and success, and everyone else who display varying shades of normality.

Therefore, it is difficult to categorize people based on what they disclose online, since their candidness and subsequent ability to remain truthful is dependent on our ability to separate fiction from fact while dispelling rumors.

Yet the more intelligent the person, the more likely he may either be a successful sociopath or be merely an adorable eccentric. However, these labels of empath, narcissist and sociopath are not diagnoses but are descriptions of Internet personalities based on what each and everyone on the Internet have said and/or written.

Even so, I do not base my descriptions on chance conversations in an Internet community on Googleplus, except to test the waters. That is what a troll is: the online analog of a depth charge designed to stun your followers until someone who might be worthy of dialog comes along to troll me back!

Thus, I tend to believe that, regardless of whether they are aware of it or not, most people on Google Plus might troll out of ignorance, just to test the waters but most likely to reassure themselves according to their intelligence.

Think of the empath as little fish, the narcissist as tuna who subsist on the empaths' adulation, and sociopaths as the shark who only pick off the little fish but cull the narcissists when they get too full of themselves. Think of the sociopath as the fisher throwing depth charges to bring to the surface the (re)action of people, depending on their level of intelligence.

Then, when you find someone as intelligent as you, try not to project your empathy, your narcissism or your sociopathy on that person lest you scare them away.

For s/he probably is as intelligent as you, intelligent enough not to be deliberately ignorant and certainly not as stupid as you would like to think.


Why do you think s/he is here? Except to be entertained by the little fishies of the Internet and to make friends with the other big fish in this microcosm of the world we live in, wherever that may be.

Enjoy trolling, but remember: the Internet is not solely a catch and carry feeding ground. It is a little catch and release pond. The more you release, the more you get to troll.

This One's for the Atheists (satire)

It is because they fear nonbeing that certain people will try your patience when you mention God or even the Buddha. They who fear thusly deliberately remain ignorant. You cannot get any agreement from them because of that fear of death.

Yet I do not fear death because of having meditated on birth and death, being and nonbeing. Perhaps it is my faith in an imaginary friend that gives me hope beyond belief until fearlessness is my comfort and strength.

Those people who do not understand how belief and faith work are ignorant of both faith and belief. In their ignorance, their fears are revealed.

This state of being that their minds reside in is called doubt and is associated with faithlessness. I as one of the faithful shall not get an answer, were I to ask "what do you believe in and do you have faith in it?"

Gravity causes a stone to fall to the earth, but it is a man who throws it. "Let he who dares to cast the first stone be free of sin."

In writing this post, I cast no stone. It is a testimony of faith. Deal with it.

A Meditation on the Weird and Wonderful (satire)

Sometimes, out of fear a person would deem me weird, rather than acknowledge their fear and grow from that knowledge.

Labelling me weird means you are afraid of someone else being different from you.

It also means you do not care to know me, but wish to remain ignorant of the fact that I am mostly harmless and am a very loyal friend to those people who are willing to abandon their fear of me and to love me just as I am.

Knowing this, I understand why I have few friends because truth telling like this is certain to scare away people unable to handle the truth.
They will deny it to be true, and accuse me of insulting them, telling me "You don't know me."

Of course, I do not know you but the truth is, my own fear of you do not end with me projecting it onto you, and labelling you "weird". That would be too easy to do.

Instead, I would meditate on why people label other people they barely know as "weird", and come to realize that such labelling is based on ignorance about the "weird" person and the unwillingness to get to know the other person and truly acknowledge them as a human being.

Perhaps we project our anxiety about "being different" onto other people, mainly because we want to fit in, and keeping out people who we think don't fit in is for the greater good.

Sadly though, creating a "them versus us" scenario violates the human rights of the person who is merely different from you, even if it may be higher intelligence, being more patient than Job, or having the biggest collection of plush toys.

For myself, I find that I grow from the knowledge about other people who are my closest friends. This comes through sharing our thoughts about our lives, and overcoming our fears about what concerns us, such as food, shelter and entertainment. Often it requires promises of commitment followed by honoring that commitment.

Perhaps it is possible to be weird and wonderful. Perhaps weird morphs into a new kind of difference which arises out of love and respect for each other. Maybe it's time to embrace the fear and transform our inner weirdness into something wonderful.

For love conquers the fear of being different.

The Essence of Buddhism Reincarnation (satire)

In essence, the consciousness-stream is an evolving consciousness which on death, becomes one of the causes that contribute to the arising of a new aggregation.

Death is known as dissolution of the aggregates.

At the death of the previous personality, a new personality is born, like the flame of a dying candle used to light the flame of another. The new person's consciousness is neither identical to nor entirely different from that of the deceased but the two form a causal continuum or stream.

Transmigration is due to karma or volitional action and its basic cause is the abiding of consciousness in spiritual ignorance. When ignorance is uprooted, rebirth ends.

However, this consciousness-stream is not a soul and has no permanent existence apart from the body.

Since transmigration is due to karma (action), the stream is actually of a temporary spiritual nature. It is not the primary reason for meditation. Hence not all schools of Buddhism promote reincarnation.

As for spiritual ignorance, this consists of ignorance of the first Buddhist truth that life is full of suffering. Denial of this basic truth is what leads to ignorance. Acceptance of this truth leads to the second truth, that suffering is due to ignorant craving. Knowing that ignorant craving leads to suffering results in realization of the third truth, that suffering can be ended. In the fourth truth are the Eightfold Path in ending suffering. These truths are known as the Four Noble Truths.

In the Eightfold Path are the following divided into three parts, consisting of Wisdom (right view and right intention), and Ethical conduct (right speech, right action, right livelihood) and Concentration (right effort, right mindfulness, tight concentration).

Meditation is said to aid in ending spiritual ignorance.

---

Reference:

Reincarnation: Buddhism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation#Buddhism
Four Noble Truths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Noble_Truths
Eightfold Path: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eightfold_Path

Divine Wealth

Divine Wealth: "Fearlessness (Abhayam):Among the Divine qualities, Fearlessness stands foremost. Fear is an effect of ignorance. Identification with the body causes fear. Blind attachment to the body, wife, children, house, property etc. is the cause of fear.The sage who has realised the Self is absolutely fearless.
'He who knows the Bliss of Brahman (God) from which words as well as mind turn powerless, fears nothing.' -Taittiriya Upanishad

Fear can be removed by constant thinking of the immortal and all-blissful nature of the Self. If you lead a life of honesty and truthfulness, if you devoutly observe the precepts of the scriptures without doubting, if you lead a life of right conduct, and if you remember God always, you will become fearless."

It is through worship that the mind is focused on good that results from such devotion.

One becomes open-minded and one's heart is softened until a tiny raw edge of fearlessness appears to devour any fears you have. Fearlessness is ravenous in its pursuit of fear, because fear pollutes the stillness of the mind, and prevents the mind from hearing the voice of God.

Once fear is no more, fearlessness moderates bravery by leading one to be hypervigilant against even one thought of cowardice, which is the fear that wants you to retreat from a challenge because you feel unworthy of meeting it.

In having met your challenges, you uncover divine wealth which is worth more than gold itself. For the diamond mind which arises spontaneously due to meditation shines brilliantly and is the result of facing all challenges in life fearlessly.

Even if you are not a Buddhist or a Hindu, then the wealth uncovered by the diamond mind will never fade away as long as you practice meditation.

Such is divine wealth, lasting longer than all riches and material possession. She who realizes its true value early in life shall live a long life!

---

Originally written February 29, 2004 8:17 PM

The World Alight With Passion (poem)

A vision of beauty is like the sun.
Before seeing it, my world was dark.
Now it is alight with passion.

With the world alight with passion,
the dark of night no longer blinds me
to the true beauty of love.

Long is The Night

A verse from Dhammapada: Long is the night to one who is wakeful; long is (the journey of ) one yojana* to the traveller who is tired; long is sansara (round of rebirths) to the fool who is ignorant of the true Dhamma (the Teaching of the Buddha).

- The Fools 60

* Yojana: a measure of length, about twelve miles

On No-Thought Practice and the Five Poisons

I cannot see the point of sitting, trying to practice no-thought, when thoughts come and go.

Trying to stop my thoughts is impossible, and getting attached to stopping them only leads to mental unrest, which is what the First Noble Truth describes.

Thus, trying to stop thoughts is ignorance since it leads to the delusion that practicing no-thought leads to Nirvana.

Until a Zen master can explain how no-thought practice leads to bliss, I will stick to Buddha Recitation. It's easier to do, and practice helps me remember the Buddha.

Currently I have violated the precept on avoiding intoxicants since I am on Nicotine Replacement Therapy. Almost every time I lose sleep — often by spending more than 4 hours on the computer at a time — insomnia and the nicotine gum inspires me to write these blog entries which lack references to Wikipedia and other sources.

However, this blog entry is no different from my childhood memories: it offers no Buddhist philosophy, apart from the complaint about no-thought.

This may be how no-thought practice works: your stream of consciousness flows freely and thought come and go in your head. You make no effort to cling to a single thought. It also helps to sit quietly and not speak.

At first glance, this would be a put-off for most people who want to rein in their thoughts. It helps to treat free flowing thoughts that distract you as you do dealing with anger.

With patience and love, all the Five Poisons can be conquered. Once conquered, you control them by using them wisely. Wise use of your negative emotions requires being open about your feelings as required.

When anger arises, the wise man says:
"I am angry because of what I did not do;
This anger is transformed by love and patience
Into rising energy, leaving a smile on my face."

When fear arises, the fool says:
"I fear the consequences of what I did not do."
Then he grows quiet while awaiting punishment,
Thus causing his own suffering, needlessly.

When lust arises, the decadent hedonist says:
"Money buys me, not love. but a hooker and blow!
My motto is "Sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll!!"
This truly is the calling of a sentient being...

When sloth arises, the lazy fool says:
"I don't want to work; I just want to enjoy life."
The only time he is seen is when in the dole line.
Such a fool would vehemently deny that he suffers.

When greed arises, the miser says:
"Why should I pay taxes to the government?
It's my money, and taxation is thievery!"
He hoards his money and trades in used goods.
See how he suffers by not paying taxes.

The Root of All Evil

Those people who question basic goodness of people, yet are willing to assume all people are essential bad, see the cup as half empty i.e. wallow in their ignorant delusion called Ego.

It is egocentricity that blinds each of us to the goodness of other people. At the same time, the Ego arises due the lie that essentially all people are bad.

How then do we "cure" ourselves of seeing the cup as half-empty?

It cannot be done through intellectualizing a solution as that is merely the Ego's doing.

Instead the Ego must be pacified through love and patience, lest it wield anger to confuse each of us.

For anger is the root of chaos and confusion, and also death and destruction. Indeed, nothing can be accomplished while the mind is beclouded by anger. Any action done in anger will simply be forgotten, and each of us would have to search for the cause, which is merely the Ego vainly grasping, forming attachment to worldliness, rather than rising above it.

Though this be loathe to the religious, the Ego holds itself as God, not the person. When a person sees only evil in other people, that is a reflection of its own inherent evil. For no good thing comes from the action of the Ego.

Am I suggesting the Ego is "satanic"? No, not in the sense of Christian, Muslim or Jewish moralities.

For the Ego is free of "good and evil" yet each of us has the potential for great good or great evil.

Indeed, what we create may be deemed good if we benefit from such action, and evil, if we are consumed by the Five Poisons.

As well, the Ego is neutral throughout such actions, due to the subtle effects of the Seventh Consciousness. Thus it is innocent of evil karma, even though some of the actions of egocentric people may lead to worldliness rather than the Middle Way.

Anger/fear is the worst of the Five Poisons, and from it are derived the other four (attachment/desire, ignorance/delusion, pride, jealousy).

Anger is the root of anxiety with fear its companion. For what is done in anger is due to fear of non-existence of the Ego. Thus anger and fear are what drives a person to commit crimes and even murder.

Attachment/desire is the root of clinging to this world of birth-life-death, because it is based on the illusion of permanence i.e. the reified form of Ego known as the "soul", which is a hallucination about eternal life and immortality, both of which are superstitions.

Both attachment and desire leads to the carnal life of worldliness. It also motivates decadent hedonism, and thus promotes sloth and torpor when the Ego is not driving a person to live a hectic, fast-paced life which is unnatural.

In society today, productivity is deemed good or bad, based on the quickness to produce a marketable commodity. This commodity must be free of religion, and imbued with the essence of secularism. As well, it must have a short shelf-life. Otherwise, profits are lost when a product is long-lasting.

Ignorance and delusion are the root of the Ego's existence. As long as we remain ignorant of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path of the Fourth Noble Truth, we are "free" to become worldly yet become fearful of loss of wealth to the point of risking our lives just to accumulate consumer goods.

Pride is cause of the Ego's downfall. When everything is "me, mine, and I", that's due to pride. For a person filled with pride becomes a braggart, and in vain tries to make himself look good at the expense of others. A wise person would cure himself of pride by developing humility not only because it serves the greater good, but because by serving the good all sentient being by being humble, we generate compassion.

As for jealousy, that is the doing of the Ego, which leads one to fear sharing the limelight with other sentient beings For those of us who has not learn to control jealousy, everyone else is her rival. As well, jealousy unchecked may lead to much evil, including the willingness to harm a rival.

It is as though all the Five Poisons dance around the Ego, as though in worship of it. In actual fact, the Ego never existed in the first place!

For the Ego does not really exist. All that exists is the conception of the Ego. In its most evil incarnation, it is called the soul, and the Buddhist principle of non-self helps the disciple to see the soul as a figment of the imagination and as a reified mirror image of the Ego.

Since the Ego does not exist, so too the soul does not exist. To believe in the soul, one would have to call Buddhism a fiction. Yet all of the Buddhist sutras confirm that Sakyamuni Buddha lived over 2500 years ago.

For it is the Buddha who declared that belief in a permanent soul that reincarnates is tantamount to the root of evil.

Why? Because it leads to suffering.

If the disciple wishes to be free of suffering, then the Eightfold Noble path is the cure.

For the Eightfold Path is the way out of suffering, and relieves the disciple of mental unrest for good.

All it begins is with taking one breath...

Ignorant Craving (poem)

Ignorant craving is like being blinded
By staring too long at the sun,
Except you're addicted to worldliness.
Enlightenment is like being able
To run naked in a field with everyone.
Now that you know the difference,
Why would you still want to stay blind?

Virtue and Non-virtue Points to Self & Other and No-Self

Gewa == virtue

Mi-gewa == non-virtue

Virtue is when noble acts
performed spontaneously
prepare you for the good life.
Which one you for?

Avidya == ignorance
Vidya == wisdom

Ignorance is not seeing the truth;
Wisdom is seeing with a clear mind.
Which one you for?

Skandha == the five aggregates

When one believes he has wisdom
while faith in self and other is strong,
ignorance coalesces
in each of five simple steps of
form, sensation, perception,
impulses, and consciousness.
Thus is suffering understood
within the context of experience.

Experience thus prepares
each of us to realize
primordial wisdom,
the mind pure and serene.
All it takes is meditation.

Atman == self and other
Anatta == no-self

Smash faith in self and other
until it is like finely ground sesame;
this is the essence of no-self.
This is the reason for meditation.
Which one you for?

:updated 20111127.1041

The First Truth of Buddhism (poem)

Suffering and sorrow is
all this floating world knows.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow,
we have no concept of Now.

In our delusion, we think
we are free, caught up
in strife, ignorant of history.
No one knows what, when,
where, who, why, or how.

Yet there is a Light boundless
from across the Ocean of Peace,
a bright and shining beacon,
where both gods and men confess:
"Boundless Life is He."
With open arms does He beckons,
offering compassion and mercy to all.

All we need to do, all we need to say
to attain birth in the Pure Land, is:
"Namu amida butsu."
Then truly are we assured,
and all our worries cured,
that Nirvana is our path.

Suffering and sorrow is
all this floating world knows.
Forget yesterday and tomorrow!
Live for here and now!

Cut through delusion, and become free.
Take a hold of your life, and abandon misery.
For there is a cure to
suffering, and here is how:

All we need to do, all we need to say,
to join the land of Bliss, is:
"Namu amida butsu."
Then truly are we assured,
and all our worries cured,
that Nirvana is our path.

The Myth of Sociopaths As Soulless

Intellectualize it all you want, she says, but conscience is based on love. It's only a heartbeat from there to conjecturing that conscience — "the nexus of psychology and spirituality" — is science's name for the soul. Since her professional qualifications do not permit her to make pronouncements on metaphysical matters, Martha is skittish about coming out with it, but it's apparent from this equivalence that psychopaths must be soulless. Science has no cure for such a thing. -- Paul Kiel, review of The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout

While conscience is based on love, that love hints at "having a soul." However, to define "conscience" as "the soul," Kiel is muddying the waters.

IMHO the soul is that which is constructed by God, and loaned to a person at birth. By age 4, when the child has the theory of mind figured out, the soul has all it needs to develop conscience in the mind.

Thus conscience is "a sense of obligation ultimately based in an emotional attachment to others". Yet it is formed by the mind in response to both verbal and non-verbal cues.

Philosophically-speaking, a sociopath does have a soul. However, his soul is "obscured" by an ignorance about the ramifications of his inaction - given that all people are at heart good, and that evil is the result of inaction of inherently good people.

Likewise, it is possible for a sociopath to develop a conscience, but it takes longer for him to develop one than other people.

It can also be added that sociopathy is like a form of autism in that all the lies and manipulation obscure the sociopath's ability to empathize with other people.

Just think of it as a moral autism, or what the Buddhists call spiritual ignorance.

Thus sociopaths are not soulless.

War As a Last Resort

Why does the story of the Bhagavad Gita take place on a field of battle during the course of a war? Is the Gita advocating war as a valid means of settling a dispute?

This is a serious inquiry when conflict between various peoples and nations is often in the news. The answer has many related threads.

First of, the war between the cousins was morally justified. The Pandav brothers had declared war on their cousins, the Kaurav brothers, because the latter refused to give them their rightful half of their grandfather’s kingdom.

To further aggravate the Pandavs, the Kauravs used deceit to cheat them out of their wealth. They had even hatched a plot to have the Pandavs assassinated.

In spite of all this, the Pandavs, including Krishna himself, had attempted to convince the Kauravs through diplomacy to return to the Pandavs what was rightfully theirs. Having failed to convince their cousins, the Pandavs had only declared war as a last resort.

Thus the Gita does not suggest that war be undertaken lightly or indiscriminately, but be resorted to only when all other means have been exhausted.

As the leader of the Pandav army, Arjun as a seasoned warrior deeply respected the righteousness of war, but wondered how to approach this particular battle in which he had to fight against his own relatives and friends.

Krishna uses this crisis to teach Arjun about his own deathless nature and about the nature of the immortal Self which resides within one and all.

In times of war people are stretched to their limits and seek the ultimate answers to ultimate questions about birth, life and death.

For Arjun and Krishna found themselves between two armies whose weapons were at the ready and who were bent on annihilating each other.

Krishna’s teachings about birth and death, deathlessness and immortality, and killing and non-killing were entirely appropriate in that context.

The war in the Gita may also be viewed as symbolic, representing the battle in the mind of a sentient being between knowledge and ignorance of one’s true nature; between individual consciousness and universal consciousness; between darkness and light.

Each sentient being struggles to realize his or her highest nature, but is pulled back, by the force of human habit, towards limited thinking that is body-centered (egosense).

In this symbolic tug-of-war, Krishna represents the divine understanding that is ever pure, free, and forever, while Arjun represents humanity which strives to know its divinity.

In the war between knowledge and ignorance, knowledge will always be victorious in the end.

Where's the Horse?

Q: I can observe anger and work with greed, but how does one observe delusion?

A: You're riding a horse and asking "Where's the horse?" Pay attention.

-Ajahn Chah

In this quote by the Buddhist monk Ajahn Chah, the horse refers to the fettered mind, full of delusion.

For the purpose of meditation is to relieve the mind of spiritual delusion, leaving it unfettered.

Thus, the question - "How does one observe delusion?" - shows inattention.

Like a rider on a horse,
I ride in control of my mind.
I rise above anger, greed, and delusion
with attentive concentration.

Like a rider on a horse,
I ride in control of my mind.
Free of fetters, the mind cares
for the body to become as one.

Like a rider on a horse,
I ride in control of my mind.
In taking care of the body,
the mind discovers unconditional love.

How to Master Fear

The cause of all fear is self-grasping ignorance, and all the delusions, such as selfishness, attachment and anger, arise from that ignorance, as well as all the unskillful actions motivated by those delusions. --From Tharpa.com

Thus, the antidotes to the delusions of selfishness, attachment and anger are
selflessness, detachment and unconditional love.

Selflessness is best achieved by helping people without expecting reward, to give of ourselves without thought of being a giver.

Detachment is known as letting go, i.e. to not hold onto something as though it were near and dear to you, even when this turns out to be your own life.

Yet to throw away your life needlessly is not detachment, but foolhardiness.

With a healthy sense of detachment, one learns to balance self-preservation with self sacrifice.

Unconditional love is also known as compassion, the kind of love which makes no exceptions, such that one may love another, regardless of whether s/he is friend or enemy.

It may be that selflessness, detachment and unconditional love are the greatest tools a person may develop to remove all delusions, and even ignorance itself.

And no one is excluded from developing their skills in use of these tools.

Yet, only the good of us continue to use them to benefit us all.

Boundless Way, Boundless Truth

The Zen master Yun-feng wrote:

The way is the perennial Way,
the truth is the perennial Truth:
don't misapply body and mind
chasing after sayings.
This is why it is said that
"even the slightest object is dust;
as soon as you arouse intent,
you’re confused by hallucination."

To which I humbly reply:

The boundless Way leads
to the boundless Truth!
For the well-applied body-mind
follows the Buddha,
not the sayings of heroes.

---

Originally posted: February 18, 2005 1747H
Update posted: March 6, 2013 0033H

Reference:

Yun-feng quote:

http://www.beliefnet.com/Quotes/Buddhist/General/Y/Yun-Feng/The-Way-Is-The-Perennial-Way-The-Truth-Is-The-Per.aspx