Posts filed under 'Freedom'
May 9th, 2008
Pain conspires to separate out our constituent parts and experience them as unassociated. Pain proposes a symptomatic view that can lead us away from our holistic memories. And as in the bodily organism so in the communal organism. Pain will plot to part us. But it will fail. The anonymity that pain desires, that would also lead to its intensification, will be overcome by the interconnection of compassion. The suffering of one will be borne by others, and the healing of the others will be transferred back to the sufferer. Just as a touch, a slight loving pressure, an acupuncturist’s needle in an extremity, will free an endocrine gland for proper secretion, or move the liver to synthesize, or strengthen a heart. Truth is found in the interconnected whole.
March 15th, 2008
Two stories from the Reuters news service, reprinted in today’s Edmonton Journal, should bring a measure of hope to our tattered world. (These are Grow Mercy news stories.)
The first story is about Senegal’s president, Abdoulaye Wade. His county is hosting the world’s biggest Islamic conference, the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). And in Abdoulaye Wade’s address to the Islamic organization he said believed the past antagonism between Islam and Christianity should be consigned to history, and not be allowed to trigger a clash of civilizations. “The era of crusades and jihads is over and Muslims and Christians should strive to coexist and not allow extremists to drag the world into a war of religions.” Senegal practises a tolerant brand of Islam and Wade publicly opposes those who wage war in the name of Islam. It’s moderate leaders like Abdoulaye Wade that desperately need to be heard, and it’s a news story like this that needs airing on networks like CNN.
The second story is about “atheist China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs issuing a licence to the Taiwan Buddhist charity group Tzu Chi.The Buddhist group has been quietly conducting charity work in China for almost two decades. This is the stuff of history because Tzu Chi is the first foundation in China in which a non-mainland resident serves as the legal representative.
Of further interest to me is that the main reason China’s “atheist Communist rulers” have made the “landmark concession,” is so they can “use Buddhism to help curb rising social unrest and help fill an ideological vacuum which has spawned corruption and eroded ethics in the post-Mao era.”
Is this a recognition that atheism, without something like a humanist manifesto, without something that points beyond itself, without something like a transcendent view–something which according to Richard Dawkin’s et al, is not atheism–is in the end impoverished and socially debilitating? Or is this just China’s experience of imposed atheism?
But the real story remains the work of the Tzu Chi Foundation. For those of us who used to think Buddhist philosophy always mitigated against any real efforts of social compassion and practical relief, the Tzu Chi foundation should put us straight.
(Above: Tzu Chi relief team caring for maimed Palestinian refugee children.)
March 4th, 2008
Cuba is built on the cigar. And not just any cigar–on the cigar of Che Guivera. The cigar of the revolution. The Montecristo. (Fidel always smoked Cohiba cigars, a cigar tailored, at first, just for him.)
Their is an aura of divinity around Che and his perpetual cigar. And the pictures are everywhere. But the pictures have lost their intended inspiration, the aura has faded. Now Che lives on post-cards and tee-shirts.
Only in Revolution Square (where Castro, in 1961, proclaimed Cuba a socialist nation and abolished elections) does Che loom somewhat larger. His ironwork image is bolted to his building, where he was appointed Cuba’s Minister of Interior.
But Plaza de la Revolucion is a bleak and ash-grey field of concrete some 15 acres square. You need to keep reminding yourself of the historical importance of the place in order to give it its due. Walking in the square I tried to imagine the annual celebrations, where Fidel, with commandante’ Guevara at his side, spoke for hours to throngs of (initially) exited Cubans. But there is a weight to the place, many weights, and you sense far too many disappointments, too much loss. As if the dreams of the revolution have gone up in cigar smoke.
September 28th, 2007
This morning I found this posted on a couple of Myanmar/Burmese Blogs.
BaganNet, Myanmar’s main ISP has been shut down for so-called “maintenance reasons” and most of the telecommunication services have been cut off or tapped. Information flow out of the country has been strictly monitored and even the amateur photographers are warned to be very careful as the Junta is hunting down the sources.
Numbers of blog posts have been reduced tremendously these days; nevertheless it’s very encouraging to see that some freedom bloggers are still in contact with the outside world and are working their best to keep the world up-to-date with latest Myanmar news.
The marches begun by monks and nuns, are still going on even as the crackdown has begun. That the telecommunication links are being cut is an ominous sign.
Small things still count. You can sign a petition to support the people of Burma here. The petition will be sent to United Nations Security Council members (including the dictatorship’s main backer China) and to media at the UN, while also alerting the Burmese to our support:
September 10th, 2007
Walking in the predawn this morning, the signs of fall of hidden from view, you could have thought you were entering early summer. The slow warm breeze anticipated a clear, sun-soaked day. The air was temperate, beach-buoyant, welcoming. Even the pavement seemed content, distant from any contracting, crack-inducing cold.
This kind of warm-dark covers you like a blanket. It keeps out the ice chips and bayonet wind; it keeps out the tempests and mortal fears.
If I had a baptized or even anointed imagination I’d say it was like walking in Divine wing-shadow. Where, on reflection, we all should walk, at least once a day. Because in this foreshadowing of eternity we are free of the constricting day ahead, and free from any controlling past.
Those who imagine themselves here, who ”image” themselves here, are doing dress rehearsals for eternity–maybe more. Maybe they are actually stitching a piece of eternity into the temporal rising and setting of our day. And in this space we are free and safe.
A safe place is soul refuge. And “safe” is one of the three things we humans need. Safety, belonging and a measure of respect, will see us through, see us grow into brothers and sisters, see us see in the other the best kind of sibling.
God bless free and safe people, who in their presence, make others free and safe.
The Veranda collapsed under the weight of a winter snow, so I built a Front Porch.
