Tannishblog

December is the slow season at work. I sit and browse on the computer to fill my time some days. I get lots of time to ponder, or gaze at my navel, or whatever it is that we Buddhist-types do. As I write, I find myself alone in the office awaiting the mail carrier. The loudest sound is me chewing gum (disgusting habit, I know.) While searching my brain for a quote or an insight of Zen clarity, I see the small picture frame on the wall in front of my desk. Beside the wallet sized photos of my wife and daughter wedged in the corners, the frame holds a computer print out in green and yellow to remind me to recall a Buddhist concept called Metta, (as the Tibetans say) or Loving-kindness.

The Metta Sutra

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways,
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
Wishing: In gladness and safety,
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be,
Whether they are weak of strong, omitting none,
The great of the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near of far away,
Those born and to-be born,
May all beings be at ease.

Let none deceive another,
Or despise any being in any state,
Let none, through anger or ill will
Wish harm upon another.
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world
Spreading upwards to the skies,
And downwards into the depths;
Outwards and unbounded,
Freed from hatred and ill will.
Whether standing or walking, seated of lying down,
Free from drowsiness,
One should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.
By not holding to fixed views,
The pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
Being freed from all sense desires,
Is not born again into this world.

Perhaps it's a bit early to convey; but in the waning weeks of a year of contention and animosity, as we look forward to traditional years-end festivities and the fresh start of a new calendar, should we find ourselves as I do now - with too much time to think - perhaps we could attend to our legacies as an individual and as a member of the dominant species on this singular planet, and ponder the meanings and consequences of our actions, inactions and indifferences. Ask ourselves, too, if we have shown living-kindness, not just our small circle of family, friends, and associates, but to society, to mankind, and to the planet.

Please re-read the Metta Sutra. Disregard the closing notion of rebirth if you don't accept it. Instead, open your mind to all the properties espoused, the dignity and the grace of the language. Note the universality of the message, be you Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Jew, there's much here to emulate for us all. Not just during the holidays, but during everyday. That's what Buddhism brings to the world: the art of Being Human, and a method of peace.

Namaste.

Today’s Washington Post has a lengthy article on a local area charter school recipient of a Gates Grant. The details are interesting. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation "doesn’t give all that much money to a school just because it’s good and they want to make it better," according to the article. Instead "They give money to the school because it’s an exemplar and they want to have it reproduced." In the case highlighted by the Post, several tough administrative conditions, dubbed "Deliverables," are tied to the money.

That’s good, right? Some kind of return of investment is needed to ensure the money is not wasted. We’re talking education, the foundation of a nation’s GNP, and the single most important indicator of successful children. A system needs to be in place to monitor the effectiveness of the grants, and to hold recipients responsible for the money.

Does anyone besides me note "what’s wrong with this picture?" Why must it be the providence of a charitable foundation to overhaul the educational system in the world’s richest nation? Isn’t the government supposed to be supplying funds for education?

Here’s a thought exercise: According to the US Census Bureau 2000 statistics, Eight million children were enrolled in nursery school or kindergarten, 33 million in grade schools, sixteen million in high schools, and another fifteen million attended college. That’s 72 million school aged children and young adults attending classes in 2000. We can assume the number has grown a bit since then, but working with that number and the current cost of the war in Iraq, we can see that if we had used that money for education reform, we could have spent over $4,800 per student.

Not very much, you think? We’re talking about 72,000,000 students! And that doesn’t take into consideration the needs of the at-risk student population.

If we factor only the college aged demographic (15 million), the resulting expenditure would rise to over $23,000 per student. compare that with the average cost of college this year, as provided by FinAid.org, of $26,304 for out of state students, and we can see that for the price of an un-winnable, economically indefensible, and politically irresponsible war, we could pay almost a full year’s tuition for millions.

Instead, we finance an astronomical increase in the value of Dick Cheney’s Haliburton portfolio. Talk about priorities!

It's snowing hard today. My usual early morning routine was altered by my shoveling my neighbors walkway at 6AM. She's over 80 and has a doctors appointment later. Then I dutifully drove the thirteen miles to work.

There's something calming about driving in relatively light traffic in the snow. One must concentrate, sure, but when there's no sense to hurrying, the mind can relax and focus on the task at hand, namely getting myself and my vehicle across town in one piece. All distraction fades. It's almost like meditation.

It's the focusing that the mind likes. Scientists have measured endorphin levels in the brain during certain activities and found that moments of concentration will produce pleasure-related compounds. That would explain my preferences for activities like writing, playing music - even playing computer games - that force the mind to a singular activity or to a series of decisions. Then the brain relaxes into a state similar to meditative absorption.

I have time to blog while at work today because no one else made it in. Our office only has four people, anyway. Being a roofing company, we're virtually at a stand-still this time of year regardless of weather. I'm sure my roofer friends are snuggled nicely this morning as the storm front that crippled Washington State last weekend is blowing through the Windy City today.

Query to self: Why am I still here?

Today is World AIDS Day. While America sleeps, tens of thousands of people are living with a highly transmittable disease of which we aren’t supposed to speak.

It’s sad to think that such a pervasive disease cannot get the airtime and attention given to breast cancer. I remember the outcry many years ago where a few prominent televangelists labeled AIDS "the gay disease," and summarily doomed any effort to combat the problem in the USA. Others of similar beliefs dismiss AIDS as a heavenly retribution for promiscuity. Or for poverty, as if that is ever a conscious choice. I can’t help wondering how those same people would react if their virginal daughters contracted AIDS through a blood transfusion, for example. Would they then believe their own rhetoric?

Meanwhile, over in the UK, they’re seeing RED and organizing fund raising in harmony with the single thing people share in all the affluent, industrialized nations: shopping. Buy a RED product, wear a red ribbon. Force the world to acknowledge a disease that affects us all.

While AIDS is the Disease That We Must Not Mention, breast cancer, by comparison, is widely publicized. Everybody worries about breast cancer these days although fewer women die from it than from AIDS. Even conservative ministers like tits, it seems.