20 Feb

Posted at 10:09h in Anecdotes

Lying to a government official is a criminal matter. Yet, when governments lie to the public, that is not a crime; though it often leads to disastrous results like wars, wide scale prosecutions and poor health outcomes (drug laws) and political repression. If lies promulgated by governments were a crime, governments would dramatically shrink in size as many government workers and politicians would be imprisoned; especially the most dangerous ones, those who are truly sincere, the ones lying to themselves....

28 Jan

Posted at 10:16h in Anecdotes

In the early 1980s, I worked at Oppenheimer & Co, a medium-size stock brokerage firm in New York City. At year-end, employees were evaluated and given bonuses. However, for some, the news was otherwise; they were fired. John, with whom I was friends, was fired. This came quite unexpectedly to John who had envisioned a lifelong career at the firm. John, distraught, took to tears. John's empathetic friends were quick to console him. I didn't. I saw him as selfish, focusing on a small disappointment instead of being grateful for his good fortune relative to 99% of others living on this planet. I eventually came by and congratulated John at now having all sorts of opportunities he hadn't considered before his firing. As well, I thought we could figure a way John might wrangle some termination payments from Oppenheimer. But John would have none of this talk of making the best out of current circumstances. He wanted to continue wallowing in self-pity. He wanted empathy, not compassion. From my perspective, John was not in any immediate financial difficulties. He was a talented guy who could easily find another Wall Street job. As he didn't have a cancer protruding out of his ass, he had much about which to be grateful and happy. His sadness was about being fired, an event that seemed real as the self is obsessed with the past; not letting John accept it as passed. John was a prisoner of his self. That was sad.   Empathy is harmful, compassion is helpful. When someone is distraught, it is their self that has upset them. Empathy acknowledges the self's thoughts and feelings which encourages us to take the self seriously, allowing the self to continue wreaking havoc upon us. Alternatively, compassion comes from the Soul. Compassion dismisses the self and efforts to helping others make the best of their circumstances. Simply, empathy is consoling someone who's upset about having lost their job which keeps them from finding a new job and compassion is helping them find a new job....

22 Jan

Posted at 01:59h in Anecdotes

As a young child, I was told many stories, but only one I have never forgotten: "Ten Men And The Elephant." The "Ten Men And The Elephant" is a parable told in various forms. It originates from the Indian subcontinent and dates back more than 2,500 years. In a small village in India there were ten men who had heard of but had never seen the greatest animal in the jungle, the elephant. Determined to see an elephant, they hired a guide to lead them to one. After several days of trekking in the jungle, the guide saw an elephant and called forth the ten men. The men approached the elephant and in their excitement each touched a different part of the it. The man who touched its tail said the elephant was like a snake. The man who touched the elephant's leg said the elephant was like a tree trunk. The man who touched the elephant's tusk said the elephant was like a seashell. Each of the ten men described the elephant very differently. Soon enough, the ten men, each insisting that their view of the elephant was right, started to argue and eventually came to blows.   Clearly, the ten men were blind and didn't know it. As to the elephant, clearly it is big; bigger than one man can imagine it in the context of his previous experiences.   To me, the elephant was as is the universe, beyond my comprehension.   The moral of this parable is that: (1) When we assume our experience of a fragment of the whole is the whole, we cannot comprehend the whole. (2) When we are certain of the infallibility of our perceptions, we are blind and don't know it. (3) Our understanding of things is limited when we understand things in the context of our memories of other things. (4) Taking our perceptions too seriously, we can make fools of ourselves and at times come to strife. (5) Things appear one way up close and another way from a distance. Yet, all things are essentially unknowable. (6) Yet, the audience for this story of people taking their selves seriously find it funny....

16 Jan

Posted at 01:38h in Anecdotes

Robert Thurman is a scholar, author and academic who founded Tibet House and was in 1965 the first American Tibetan Buddhist ordained by the Dalai Lama. For many years, Thurman biannually lead groups on tours of holy sites in Tibet. In the late 1990s, I sought to join Thurman on such a tour. Geographic Expeditions (GE) is a tour operator out of San Francisco that organized Thurman's tours. Two years before his next trip, I contacted GE and was placed first on the list of those going. Periodically I called GE for an update on the timing and particulars of the trip. Finally, some months before the trip, I was told that as they were overwhelmed with interest from people than available slots for the trip, 15, everyone was required to write an essay as to why they wanted to go. My essay spoke about my collection of ancient Himalayan and Tibetan Buddhist art and that I had read a couple of Thurman's books on the subject. As the tour was coming together in final form, GE contacted me to say that Thurman was allowing only "serious Buddhists" and the trip. He deemed I was not; so my application was rejected. Upon further inquiry, I was told the number of essay applications was 16. I was the only application rejected. I was surprised and not surprised by this turn of events. Ultimately, I found it funny. "Serious Buddhists" sounded like an oxymoron. Yet, what's truly funny is that some people would have been upset or even angry had they been rejected after waiting two years and never doubting they would go as they were first on the list of reservations. It's hysterically funny when people get upset by essentially meaningless things in the scheme of things. Beyond a good laugh and story I can share with others which in turn will laugh, I felt good that now I had extra time and money to spend elsewhere. In hindsight, had I gone on the trip, some other attendees might have enjoyed by presence. But as only "serious Buddhists", maybe having a good laugh is not their interest.    ...

20 Dec

Posted at 23:15h in Anecdotes

When I was a child my parents, friends and teachers showed me the ways of this world. However, their perspectives  were not as interesting to me as the views of elders, my grandfathers. As my grandfathers' perspectives were from the end of days, I felt the light they projected from their position to mine would reveal the best way forward. My paternal grandfather came from Leipzig, Germany. He, my grandmother and father escaped to Israel in 1938, just before all roads out of Germany closed to Jews. My grandfather was a successful businessman in the printing business in Germany and the envelope manufacturing business in Israel. Yet, after 18 years in Israel, my father, who worked for my grandfather and had married my mother in 1950, yearned for the economic opportunities he envisioned in America. So in 1956, when I was 6 and my sister was 2, we moved with my grandparents to Brooklyn, N.Y. My grandfather opposed moving to America. Before leaving Israel, he told my mother to take a long deep look at the comforts she had in Israel because it would be a long time before she would have those comforts in America. He was right. My family arrived in America during a recession and struggled for several years. My grandfather went through many ups and downs in life. However, with his ability to see situations from many different perspectives, he always found creative solutions to whatever problems arose. Moreover, he always found a perspective that made a situation funny and was always grateful as every situation could have always be worse. Whatever his circumstances, he was not in a concentration camp. This was the foundation of his happiness. His attitude I naturally adopted. My maternal grandfather was a dry goods store owner in Haifa, Israel. His approach to life was to enjoy the physical pleasures of life; eating, talking and fucking. However, his lifestyle took its toll. In his last years, he was overweight, diabetic and unsteady on his feet. That taught me that getting fat is just deserts for eating just desserts. While he would likely have been in better shape had he restrained his desires, in his last days he felt the pleasures he realized were greater than their costs. He too was happy. Enjoy the physical pleasures of life is the teaching he gave me. My grandfathers made clear my way: to physically enjoy life, be grateful, and realize my potential by making the best of every situation. While my grandfathers would likely not have approved many of the choices I made on the way to where I am now, a grandfather now, their light guided my way on a happy life which is all my grandfathers wished me. Now, I'm no longer interested in the views of elders. I'm drawn to the energy of those younger,  especially my grandchildren. They are closer to where I'm going than I am. Maybe they can reflect the light from which they came to guide me to where I'm going....

31 Oct

Posted at 12:11h in Anecdotes

It was 1971, Victor was 20, sitting on a futon and waiting for the journey to begin, to see what the psilocybin mushrooms had to say. Soon enough, a painting on the wall was melting; colors spilling beyond its frame and onto the floor; brilliant colors bubbling and burping; paint dancing at Victor's direction to form abstract images beyond the confines of a frame. Then, Victor noticed he was elevated a few inches above the futon; weightless; every thing hilarious; peace beyond description.   It was all beauty-full and wonder-full. Yet, Victor long-wondered how to interpret this dream. Was it "psychedelic" -- meaning soul revealing -- or an "hallucination" -- etymology: to wander in the mind; insights or delusions?   The painting overflowing its frame suggests that our everyday world of independent things is an illusion the mind creates out of the abstract and everchanging chaos that is the now. I am not a thing. I am everything.   Being above the ground suggested Victor was outside the forces that affect material things in the now. Outside the now, we can observe the now like an audience watching a play. In the play, the actors are like emotional puppets reacting to their circumstances. For the actors, the play is a tragedy as every one is eventually scripted out of the play -- dies. As the audience, the play is a comedy; seeing the actors take their selves seriously.   Ultimately, Victor had a psychedelic journey. That I am Victor is just a dream....

30 Sep

Posted at 01:15h in Anecdotes

"I used to get a laugh from students by quoting a Soviet citizen I talked to once. He said to me, 'Of course we have freedom of speech. We just don't allow people to lie.' That used to get a laugh! They don't laugh anymore." -- Gary Saul Morson...

02 Sep

Posted at 10:15h in Anecdotes

When I was 13 I didn't need glasses but marveled at the experience of those who did. I thought people with myopia could see things two ways, with and without glasses. Poor eyesight seemed like a blessing that could lead to interesting insights. This might be the case. With myopia, one realizes they don't know what they are looking at. This arouses curiosity which exercises the mind. A well-exercised mind is fitter. Statistically, people who are myopic have a higher IQ than those who are not.  ...

06 Jun

Posted at 10:15h in Anecdotes

CAT is an acronym for a sheriff's Criminal Apprehension Team which tracks and arrests offenders wanted for serious felony crimes.  Cats don't scratch when they purr. Cats don't like any sort of water. Some years back, I lived in Westport, CT. One day, as I was driving to play squash, I was on a business phone call and startled by red lights in the rearview mirror. Soon enough, I was parked on the side of the road with a police car behind me. An overweight officer came out of his vehicle. He was livid, screaming: "You were on our cell phone." I said: "Officer, I know I was on the phone, I shouldn't have been, poor judgement on my part. But I'm a bit late for a squash game. How about I give you my license and registration and meet you back at the station house after the game and we'll sort it all out?" He then got even angier and screamed: "You can't do that." As our temperatures were rising, I said: "Officer, I see you are upset. I think you are upset with me. I feel terrible. We are here to take care of each other and I'm not doing a good job of it. Please, tell me, what can I do to make you feel better?" At that point, our minds calmed and he said: "Let's forget about it." A cat doesn't scratch when it's purring. I told this story to a lawyer friend from Spain. He said that he often gets stopped for traffic infractions but never gets ticketed. Simply, when stopped, as the police officer comes asking for his driver's license, my friend puts his right hand finger, which is out of the officer's view, to his nose. From his left side, it appears his finger is sloshing around in his nose. He then takes out his driver's license with his right hand and offers it to the officer who invariably refuses it and tells him to be considerate (perhaps prophylactically) of others. Cats don't like all sorts of water....

24 May

Posted at 10:15h in Anecdotes

By definition, a mutt is a dog of uncertain pedigree. A mutt is also a person who is stupid or incompetent. Those who don't allow a mutt to compete at a dog show are also mutts. Imagine an extraordinarily beautiful, athletic and intelligent rescue mutt; so smart, the mutt masters every trick in the book and even learns to play checkers competitively with a 10-year old. Surely, the mutt would win first prize at any accredited dog show, become instantly popular with the general public and be in great demand for breeding which would improve the genetic pool of dogs generally, be financially rewarding for its owner and allow the dog to have fun. Unfortunately, without a pedigree, the mutts who run dog shows wouldn't allow the mutt to compete, fearing the mutt would outshine them as it would do more to promote general interest in dogs than could they or any pedigree dog.  ...