Cause and Effect, Dog Eat Dog

They say that a sure sign of insanity is continuing to do the same thing while expecting a different result. If this is true, then the country, or at least its government, is pretty nuts.
Looking at the recent tragedy in Boston, the lives destroyed or wasted, it's clear that the Salafi/Wahabbi strain of Islam is a clear existential threat. Tamlan Tsaraev wasn't a real threat to anyone until he came into contact with and under the sway of this intolerant, vitriolic, and hatefully violent strain of Islam. Salafists don't even like their fellow Muslims very much, destroying as they do Sufi shrines (Rumi, for instance, was a Sufi), attacking Shiites, and even other Sunnis that they just don't like, or that they deem "not religious enough."
Yet, this country, as well as others in the West, continue to support and send petrodollars to the giant of the Wahabbi world, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia sends Wahabbi missionaries throughout the Islamic world, and the result is always trouble. Salafist/Wahabbist radicals have stirred trouble in Morocco, Indonesia, Tunisia, metastasizing and doing their level best to warp Islam in such places. Look at Timbuktu; a center of Islamic learning for centuries, what happened when Salafists gained control of it from the Malian government? They started systematically destroying shrines that were centuries old, attacking imams that were Sufi/non-Salafi, and generally made life difficult for the people there. Bear in mind, the people of Mali are Muslim. Even so, they weren't spared the violence of Salafist/Wahabbists.
The men who flew the planes into the WTC were Saudi. Saudi Wahabbist missionaries spread their liturgy of hatred and violence in the Islamic world, quietly and not-so-quietly, yet we and Israel are fixated on Iran as the enemy. Iran engulfs our attention, because of their designs of hegemony in the region, because they want to be taken seriously. Well, duh, everyone wants to be taken seriously, and exercise some form of influence. Why should the Iranians be any different? We do it all the time.
Someday, Israel and the West are going to have to wake up to the fact that Iran is not the real threat. Yes, Ahmadinejad is loud, but that just means he's goofy. Saudi Arabia's Wahabbist missionaries, meanwhile, continue to spread their vile message, funded by our petro dollars.
The Buddha warned that all actions create kamma, that the law of cause and effect is one that we all follow simply by virtue of acting. We have to start acting more intelligently, with wisdom, so as not to sow seeds that will bear bitter fruit later.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Recently, I've been reading a lot of posts by friends whom I always thought of as, "having it together." I've always admired their ability to get things done, to organize, to be positive. They've always made me feel, I have to admit, slightly ashamed of my perceived lack of ability. My inattentiveness to my own life.
The posts I've been reading, however, show that sometimes even the most positive of people go through their own personal trials. Feelings of discontent, malaise, and outright dissatisfaction with life. For all their "togetherness," they don't seem to be any happier than I am.
This goes toward something talked about in Buddhism; the levels of suffering. The most gross is, "the suffering of suffering." Suffering with an illness, a major problem, a sick relative, being assaulted. Then there is the suffering of change, wherein a person, any person, feels overwhelmed by the changes in life. Nothing is permanent, and people like permanence, or at least want pleasurable things to last. Finally, there is all-pervasive suffering, a sub-conscious dissatisfaction with life, and existence, itself. Because we all want to be free of suffering, and the ego clings to the phenomenal world. But since everything is impermanent, the world is incapable of satisfying permanently. So, we make demands on the world, changing it ourselves as we do so, and speeding our journey into dissatisfaction.
Pema Chodron writes of an image of the Buddha, where he's seated under the bodhi tree just before his enlightenment. The forces of Mara, the illusory world, are attacking him, trying to stop his ultimate Awakening. The demon army of Mara fires many weapons at Siddartha, arrows, spears, and swords. Yet just before reaching the meditating Siddartha, the sharp points of the weapons transform into lotus flowers. Chodron writes that one meaning of this image is that the very things that one experiences as a sharp sword could also be experienced as a flower; the very thing meant to cut you down can wake you up, if you pay close attention.
Easier said than done. My normal reaction to such problems has been to shut down, and let someone else take over. Ultimately, however, no one can take over your life for you. You have to live it to the best of your ability.
Life is short. Make the most of it while you can. What is this suffering, this dukkha, pointing to? Knowing that, you can perhaps start to make life your friend, and not feel so oppressed.

Gratitude

Hi folks. I know, I know, I've been a very bad blogger, leaving lots of time between posts. I'm going to have to amend my peripatetic ways. 

In fact, I'm grateful to have the opportunity to fix my said peripatetic ways. Which is the purpose of this little post, I suppose. To express my gratitude.

My mom, as many of my friends know, had a stroke in 2010. Not entirely debilitating, it nevertheless deprived her of her prized independence, forcing her to rely on help and considering moving from her home in Puerto Rico into an assisted living residence.

Last week, she interviewed at such a residence. In two days, we got the response; not eligible at this time. My dad took that news kind of hard, but my mom took it with grace and aplomb. She told me, "Things happen for a reason. We always have to be grateful, even when bad things happen, because we don't know what it ultimately leads to." 

How often are we actually grateful? How often do we actually just go about our activities, all the while complaining to ourselves, in our minds, about life's injustices? Able-bodied, well-off, and complaining. This can describe a lot of people, I think. My best friend, who works on Wall Street, talks about co-workers who pull in huge salaries complaining that it's never enough. That they've been rooked. That they deserve more. 

Perception is a funny thing. Here are people with everything, acting poor. My mom, not wealthy, not hale, acting as if she's rich. Well, at least acting content. I find a lot of inspiration in that. 

Cicero said that gratitude isn't only the greatest of all virtues, but is the parent of all others. I think that's very profound. Do you?