If it’s against the law to abuse cats & dogs (and children), then that shows humans understand what’s right & wrong. Brother & sister dolphins in prisons…more abuse. It’s easy – set them free.
SOSdolphins from Fundación FAADA on Vimeo.
In phones, in conversations, while dancing & in life:
From Randall, at xkcd.com:
“Samsara literally means “wandering-on.”
Many people think of it as the Buddhist name for the place where we currently live — the place we leave when we go to nibbana.
But in the early Buddhist texts, it’s the answer – not to the question, “Where are we?” but to the question, “What are we doing?” Instead of a place, it’s a process: the tendency to keep creating worlds and then moving into them. As one world falls apart, you create another one and go there.
At the same time, you bump into other people who are creating their own worlds, too.
~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Close your eyes & listen to your heart, with Deva Premal & Miten:
Thirty metres long, blue whales are immense…and they travel great distances. Except for these…they (far as any people know) hang around Sri Lanka & don’t appear to go anywhere. With only 10K left worldwide, they are on most countries’ endangered list, and their recovery from whale hunting is going slowly.
This video is an exploration of that, and some of the obstacles to studying them – some in science, some in the environment, and some in the way our society does things. Amazing video & amazing photos of amazing friends in the water….
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Then there’s more – here’s a story you have to hear on NPR (here’s the audio):
Blue whales are updating their playlist, according to new research on the huge mammals.
It’s not quite West Side Story, but male blue whales use songs to warn away other males and attract females. It’s a pulsing sound, more like a large piece of machinery than the Jets and the Sharks.
But that song has been changing.
John Hildebrand of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography studies whale sounds and says he’s been hearing something new lately.
“They’ve been shifting the frequency. They’ve been shifting the pitch to be lower each year. And that shift in pitch has resulted in song that is now about 30 percent lower than it was in the 1960s,” he says. He says the change is happening in blue whale colonies all over the world.
Hildebrand believes the change is tied to the elimination of blue whale hunting. Before hunting was banned in 1966, the numbers of blue whales were dangerously low.
“Worldwide in the early ’60s, there probably would have been a few thousand,” he says.
Those low numbers meant there were few females available to hear a male’s come-hither song. For males in that situation, “there’s a push to have the sound go to higher frequency so that more of the girls can hear it.”
In other words, the guys had to shout to be heard. But now that blue whales are more numerous, Hildebrand thinks the males have gone back to singing bass because it makes them sound bigger and more attractive to females. He says males of many species use lower tones to attract mates.
“In fact, human females, if you put some headphones on and play a bunch of male voices and you tell them to pick out the sexy voice, do they pick the weak little voice or do they pick the big booming voice?” Hildebrand says. “You know the answer.”
No one disputes the finding that blue whale songs have gone down in pitch. But Hildebrand’s theory of why it’s happened has raised some eyebrows.
“It’s a great anthropomorphism to suggest that the whales have thought this through,” says Richard Ellis, a whale expert at New York’s Natural History Museum.
“I really don’t think that the whales — for all their big brains and everything else — I really don’t think the whales think about this,” Ellis says.
Still, Hildebrand says, if a lower tone becomes an advantage to some males, it will be copied by others.
I have always thought that the story of the Good Samaritan is cool, in that it suggests it’s a good idea for us to help one another when someone is seriously down & out.
The amazing thing in it, of course, is that the teachers of truth & compassion (the priest & Levite) pass up the chance to help, while the guy you least expect to help steps up.
There are so many angles to the story, hey – is it about the way we label people (and ourselves) and hope that does the job, in deciding who should be helping? How many times have you heard someone (or me) say, “Well, THEY should help.” Maybe, just maybe, we are THEY.
Or are we the busy folk who blow on by? How busy are you now, really?
Maybe we think we’re being prudent when we tell our kids not to get too close to someone on the street….
Maybe can we pop the story ahead a couple of thousand years & discover that we haven’t changed much in all that time. Maybe we have a ballgame to get to, and we can’t help. Maybe we don’t have enough money to share, with someone who has none. Maybe the way we close our eyes to the situation is to watch TV all night. Out of sight, out of mind.
Or…maybe we think up folks who we know need a hand, turn off the TV, and get in motion.
You know who they are, and you know who you are. Time to share & heal. (You knew I was going to say that.)
Barrel on through – they’re waiting for you!
Love you,
Brother Ian
My friend Carmen shared this, from Thay:
This silence is called Great Joy
There are two kinds of truth,
Conventional and absolute truth,
But they are not opposites. They
Are part of a continuum:
“All transformations are impermanent…
They are subject to birth and
Death, and this silence is called
Great Joy..”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Those of you who follow Brother Ian know that we here at the monastary are big fans of Arlo Guthrie, so it was a treat to hear his posting for this American holiday… I love the notion of the “gift of hesitation,” and the idea that we might make the world a better place by waiting, just a moment.
He’s right – it makes all the difference in the world.
Thanks, Arlo, and thanks for helping re-shape the idea of service into something we can all share & celebrate:
From Housatonic, MA – The Church: After three nights of our semi-annual revival, I had a wonderful morning this Memorial Day, which is also the birthday of my beloved Guru, Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati – or more universally known simply as Ma.
We did a simple memorial meditation with about 60 people sitting either on the floor or in chairs – It was back in the saddle again as far as teaching goes (something I haven’t done for a little while).
The basic idea this morning was to honor those who have given their lives in service – whether that service was for a nation or a larger community, whether they passed away on a distant shore or here at home.
For some the sacrifices made by others in the past are not very different from the little sacrifices we can make every day – to make this world a little better place. Every act of kindness is an offering on the alter of our lives. Every moment we sacrifice our instinct to lash out in judgement we bestow on the world the gift of hesitation – every expectation of ourselves and others sacrifices ultimate disappointment and disillusion and substitutes gratitude and thankfulness.
These are little things – but they make all the difference in the world.
Judgements and expectations inevitably lead to anger and sorrow. Giving them up is not a commandment, it’s more like a recipe – you get out of it what you put in to it.
That was essentially the theme of our morning – I think we’ll have to do this again sometime. It was so good to see so many friends from so many different traditions come together and spend a little silent time together… Until next time…
adg
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Here’s Arlo in the ’80s, with “All Over the World,” and his thoughts about foreign policy, and the president’s appreciation.
And here’s Arlo in July 2012, because sometimes you just gotta keep singing’ & tellin’ stories about this stuff:
When tv writer & actor Charlie Day was asked to address this year’s grads at his alma mater, Merrimack College, they probably didn’t expect him to say, “I don’t think you should just do what makes you happy. Do what makes you great. Do what’s uncomfortable and scary and hard but pays off in the long run. Be willing to fail. Let yourself fail. Fail in the way and place where you would be proud to fail. Fail and pick yourself up and fail again. Without that struggle, what is your success anyway?”
He puts the spotlight on the rewards of being scrappy. You can watch it here, or read it here. You’ll like this:
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Good morning, Merrimack. I’d like to thank President Hopey, trustees, faculty, students, parents, and my apologies to all the grandparents in the audience who have absolutely no idea who I am.
You are graduating from an excellent school today. Alumni have gone on to be CEO’s, doctors, politicians, professional athletes, however this year you get to receive wisdom, knowledge and life lessons, from a man who has made a living pretending to eat cat food.
I do however have some qualifications, some insight, because I, like you are becoming today, am a Merrimack College graduate. I know what it took to get here. I was in this very room. I sat in those uncomfortable chairs. I dressed like some sort of medieval pastry chef and I too desperately hoped my hangover would wear off. If you can just make it to brunch you should be alright.
Take note. A quick observation.
Apparently the higher in life you climb in life the more ridiculous your hats become. Like the one I’m wearing today, or the pope’s or Pharrell. So if in some way you fear success, just think of the hats and that alone should motivate you.
This may be hard to believe but it was roughly twenty years ago that as a freshman I first set foot on this campus. I remember it well. My parent’s eyes filled with tears. My own nervous excitement. I entered the Ash dormitory. I walked to my room. My heart was pounding with what the future might hold. I reached for the door handle, grabbed it tight, only to discover it had been covered with Vaseline.
Read the rest of the address here.
Read more “Writings: Charlie Day’s graduation speech, 2014: Have the courage to fail”
Over the centuries, Brother Ian has been collecting stories & information & discourses for the purpose of elevating the human condition as needed, dissecting it when necessary, and building the case for hope.
In the spirit of noting that organized crime, organized baseball, organized labour, and organized religion tend to engender controversy & occasional discord, I promise to be neither organized or critical of those who are.
