No thanks, non merci, nej tak, no gracias, etc

All of these 'nos' are to nuclear energy wherever it is being produced. I remember 'nej tak' being a slogan from the 80s (?). What has happened to our position on nuclear energy? It seems to have eroded, and sadly some influential Australians have participated in this process by proponing nuclear energy as the answer to the energy issues of our future (what future?).

Well with limited knowledge on my side to argue soundly, I still say 'no thanks'. The mistake we are all making in my eyes is to think our lives can be lived as they are now (why would you want to anyway but won't go there). We are putting our heads in the sand if we assume that. There are too many of us on the planet and a certain percentage of us are using far too much energy, and our 'needs' and lifestyles are destroying the planet, which, we should remind ourselves, is a living thing with innocent life that we are dragging down with us - no, pushing in front of us. As usual we are prioritising ourselves over everything else. Most humans would have to agree on at least this point. And most humans who are contributing to this waste of life are not admitting that they have a problem with species being threatened - they are able to avoid relating to the pain of an arctic bear that has to swim for miles simply to find somewhere to lob his beautiful white body, not to sunbake but to survive. It is harder to feel sorry for sharks perhaps as Australians have a fear of them and see them as the enemy, but the reality is that sharks play a crucial role in our ecosystem. It is big picture stuff and requires a very big step away from ego-driven needs and wants. And who wants to feel that world pain? I would rather not but it is always with me.

So what am I saying now that I have rambled down the path of love and emotion? That we must consider a different life path, one that is inclusive of all living things. At the moment we don't even include our own species let alone others. And saying yes to nuclear energy is not doing this, it is thinking we can solve a problem that is getting bigger and bigger. It is thinking we are smarter than we are. In fact a species that would 'progress' towards its demise is not smart at all. As the American Indians have said, No tree has branches foolish enough to fight amongst each other. (This is a quote from A Dare a Day)

Puja

In Buddhism, puja (Sanskrit & Pali: pūjā) are expressions of 'honour, worship, devotional attention'. Acts of puja include bowing, making offerings and chanting. These devotional acts are generally performed daily at home (either in the morning or evening or both) as well as during communal festivals and Uposatha days at a temple. (Wikipedia)

The practice
1. Clear the space – eg burn incense or chant Om
2. Ask for protection and guidance (to teachers, Buddha etc)
3. Do salutations (to Buddha, teachers, family members etc)
4. Ask for help to stay focused in your day/life (eg chant, do affirmations)
5. Practice prayerfulness – connection to spirit (eg meditation)
6. Express gratitude – for what you have etc
7. Say direct prayers for others (eg family members, enemies, for self) – watch the words you use
8. Do affirmations – remind yourself of who you truly are: ‘I am the essence of creation’

Wisdoms
Everyone you meet is a teacher.
Drop it all, choose again.
Read the book ‘The secret’ for words of wisdom.
We live in a desensitised world. As you operate from the spirit level, you become more sensitive to what is happening around you.
Vedanta means truth. These practices are drawn from Vedic texts.
Different beings/icons represent different aspects of God, so you might use Krishna, the elephant god and/or Buddha, or a photo of someone you know in your puja.

Bees and other insects (etc)

This could well be an Ode to bees. Bees are once again visiting my increasingly humble domain (1907 Edwardian-style house). They have a fascination for the mini-orb back wall because it is penetrable due to their size and its fissures, and because of its penetrability there have been bees nests/hives within the walls in the past. Bees have an appreciation for history. They began coming a few weeks ago and my human antenna said 'uh-oh, here's a problem I will have to react to'. Well they buzzed around for a week or so, and then one day around midday there was suddenly a whole lot more of them, like about a thousand! That night, they cuddled up together in a hive-like swarm, one on top of the other in a way that said they would not be lonesome that night. Time to act. We put a creosote laden rag in the hole that they were going through to the inner wall. They don't like creosote - who does? That stuff is so strong you can smell it up the street. That got rid of most of them. But a few hangers on are still persistently building a beautiful cone-shaped nest in which to lay their eggs (apparently, as I haven't done biology since my teens). It is white with cells that look like honeycomb, and a pure form. They will not leave this creation and I don't blame them. However this requires a further act from me, preferably one that is as guilt-free of harming them as possible. More to come...
My other thought extending from this is that there will be environmental refugees of the non-human kind as time progresses global warming and insects, rodents etc seek a friendly place to cool their feelers, legs and other body parts. I suspect that my house will fill their requirements because it is not of the concrete jungle variety that is more frequently being called a 'home' in my area.

Q&A or Slumdog Millionaire

I have just finished the book Slumdog Millionaire (originally Q&A). It was brilliant to use another two 'ls'. The film is a lot different, seeming to retain just the concept. This makes the book all the more enjoyable as there is no need to compare it to the film. The last line of the book is guaranteed to bring a tear to the eye - Because luck comes from within. Really though, Ram Mohammed Thomas is a character you have to like, because of his compassion for other humans. He chooses to help people rather than not, and connects with people in ways that affect his 'luck'. Because he is a communicator, he meets people who craft his ability to know the answers to quiz questions in the TV quiz show that is the backdrop to his life. Others would call it serendipity.

This is the third book I have read about India lately. The others being The White Tiger and Shantaram. The main character in The White Tiger is not likeable (rather, cunning and driven by circumstances), but a lot about India (particularly corruption, also a theme in Q&A) is portrayed in this novel. Whilst reminders of what India is are in Shantaram too, the main character is not (for me) charismatic, but has more of a gangster mentality. However, as with Ram in Q&A, he too connects with people. This can change the nature of your life. Being cut off makes less things possible. One thing that emerges from all three novels is that India is a place where things can happen by chance. In a country of so many millions living in close quarters with each other, unpredictability would have to be a key aspect of life.

King Lear - play with feeling

I saw King Lear in Adelaide the other night at Festival Theatre. The play was performed by the State Theatre Company and John Gaden played Lear. Gloucester was also brilliantly played. These two white bearded and old-enough actors were brilliant in their roles, conveying the frailty that comes with age and others' reaction to age. In the play, age is like walking a tightrope, being observed by an audience looking for false (perhaps fatal) moves. So the play is about, I now think - don't know what I thought it was about when I studied it at university years ago - old age and relationships with children, once those children are adults. Love and its changing nature in other words. It was very moving. The ad for the play has the line 'Be careful who you listen to' and certainly the two old men Lear and Gloucester seemed to be poor judges of character, but like all of Shakespeare's tragedies there is a considerable amount of conspiracy to wade through. Hopefully normal life is not like that but who knows? Loyalty and love, played by Cordelia (Lear's daughter) and Edgar (Gloucester's son) was very heart melting. One of the last lines was (in modern day English):
Speak what we feel , not what we ought to say
Good advice from Will who was about 40 at the time, about 10 years from his own death not in his 80s as with Lear but at 52.
Modern-day wise, there are many children who seemingly betray their parents by putting them in nursing homes and not giving them a return of care for what they received themselves in childhood, so it will be hard for many to view this play without thinking of their relationship with their own parents, whether happy or sad.

Humans vs non humans

This is an interesting quote I found in Earth Circles:

The deepest cause of the present devastation is found in a mode of consciousness that has established a radical discontinuity between the human and other modes of being and the bestowal of all rights on the humans. The other-than-human modes of being are seen as having no rights. They have reality and value only through their use by the human. In this context the other than human becomes totally vulnerable to exploitation by the human, an attitude that is shared by all four of the fundamental establishments that control the human realm: governments, corporations, universities, and religions - the political, economic, intellectual and religious establishments. All four are committed consciously or unconsciously to a radical discontinuity between the human and the nonhuman.

Thomas Berry, The Great Work (New York: Random House, 1999), 4.

Arborophobia

What a great word! It was apparently coined by Robin Boyd, an urban critic, and means 'hatred of trees'. You could certainly believe it in the urban Adelaide of today, where people use leave busters and other human-made objects to get rid of the mess made by trees which insist on dropping their leaves and generally doing what trees do. Palms are acceptable because they do not drop leaves and do not send roots into plumbing or lift up house foundations. 'Yuppies' are notorious for loving palms and they abide in many Adelaide gardens, along with the must-have urban pool.