Antonio Dias

Chogyam Trungpa, “The Razor’s Edge,” in Orderly Chaos: The Mandala Principle

…global peace relies on resolving our own internal struggles, as our view of the world is often a projection of our personal suffering and conflicts.

Stop Your Pain:Trungpa taught that to heal division, we must first directly confront and understand our own suffering rather than running from it.

Stop Your Version of War: This points to the concept of projection. Because we view the world through our own personal hurts and frustrations, we often create an adversarial "us vs. them" narrative in our minds.

Relate with Your Antagonism: Rather than projecting anger outward at "the enemy," we must look at the internal conflict between ourselves and our perceptions.

The "Razor's Edge": This state of quivering between clarity and neurosis is where we live. By working with our own minds, transmuting our antagonism into compassion, we can then more effectively address conflicts on a larger scale.

Alex McDonald reporting at Middle East Eye. US administration investigating Iran war critic Trita Parsi, says report

The Free Press reports officials in the US government are looking to deport the Swedish-Iranian analyst

I first heard about this story via Peter Beinart. My jaw dropped. Trita Parsi has written about what happened on his Substack, So they tried to deport me . . .

I am a light weight when it comes to the news, so won't offer comment on this flap, except to recommend the Quincy Institute's magazine Responsible Statecraft as a news source. It is not all Trita Parsi all the time. In fact the publication provides well sourced reporting and diverse views.

I think I'm like a lot of people in not being able to afford very many media subscriptions. It's really tough that so much is behind paywalls. So Responsible Statecraft is an important resource.

This week I posted a clip from a report on Kharg Island at Responsible Statecraft after President Trump posted that the US would occupy it. The clip contained a link to an earlier report containing a military assessment. I referenced that reporting with reporting at the Hudson Institute. a conservative think tank. The assessments were compatible.

Carole Maddux

Lesson learned. From now on, use velcro to attach his name to anything. (Photo from NYT)

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That which is measureless can only come into being, you cannot invite it, it will only come into being when the mind no longer demands, is no longer praying, asking, begging when the mind is free, free from thought. The ending of thought is the way of meditation. There must be freedom from the known for the unknown to be. This is meditation, and this cannot come through any trick, through any practice. Practice, discipline, suppression, denial, sacrifice only strengthen the experiencer, they give him power to control himself; but that power destroys. So it is only when the mind has neither the experiencer nor the experience, that there is that bliss which is, which cannot be sought, which comes into being when the mind is silent and free.⁠

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~ J. Krishnamurti⁠

Edward Hopper, Empty Spaces

“A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”

“the plight is beyond party politics: it is not a matter of having a president-elect whom many dislike, but having a president-elect whose explicit goal is to destroy the nation.”