buddhism

Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr.: Resurrecting The Cause For Which King Died

by Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr. on April 2, 2012

Huffington Post…

44 years after Dr. King’s death, jobs are still the No. 1 issue in America April 4 will be the 44th anniversary of the day Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stepped out on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel and was cut down at the age of 39. He had just asked that his favorite hymn, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” be sung at the event he was to attend that night; instead it was sung by his friend Mahalia Jackson at his funeral. Most people know the King remembrances. First, the day in January set aside as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration; and second, the April observance of his death date. King’s name is most frequently associated with civil rights, integration and nonviolent protest. What we should be thinking about, however, is what this preacher also was preaching: economic justice. In other words, jobs . It’s true that Dr. King had a dream about racial integration — hallelujah for that. Today I think he’d say: “Can’t you all get over this color thing?” In King’s speech against the war in Vietnam at the Riverside Church one year before his assassination, he said we cannot fulfill the American dream if we are using up all our resources in war, not just making that a dream deferred, but of the sin-sick soul: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift” he said, “is approaching spiritual death.” Integrate? Fine. Stop the war? Fine. But economic redistribution? Economic justice? Spreading the resources so that all God’s children have a place at the table? All good, all important. But neither racial discrimination or segregation nor war in Vietnam got him killed. It was the issue of economic justice. Oh sure, you could talk about economic justice, but King was getting ready to do something about it. The very week he died, he was in the process of planning the Poor People’s Campaign to go to Washington, D.C. to document that poor people in this nation are citizens just like everybody. He was reminding us about the Constitution of the United States that talked about inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and all God’s children ought to have food to eat and clothes to wear. They ought to have jobs and opportunity and some place to stay. All God’s children have a right. He was organizing to come to Washington and he said we will tie up the legislative process–we will bring white poor people from Appalachia, Latinos from the border states, bring poor people from the urban centers and say to our nation, “We are Americans too and we have a right to all of the wonderful bounty which God has bestowed on our great nation.” Dr. King was still committed to “I have a dream” when his life was cut short, but it wasn’t a black folk’s dream. It was an American dream — “a dream yet unfulfilled” — that is, the dream of reaching the Promised Land of economic justice as well as equality and peace. I would like to challenge citizens of today with this admonition. Every time you hear, I have a dream , please make sure people understand it’s not just about black folk and white folk getting together. Every time you hear it please make sure that folks know it’s not just about a war in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq or possibly Iran or North Korea. Please make sure that it’s a dream about King that has to do with economic justice. On April 4 this year, a group of us leaders on the Upper West Side of Manhattan are convening a coalition of local and national legislators; interfaith, labor and civil rights activists and leaders; and an esteemed panel of journalists and newsmakers for a symbolic evening of history, re-enactment, riveting discussion and healing songs. Our dedicated interfaith, inter-disciplinary group will pick up the piece of King’s mantle that people have let die — jobs. With more than 12.8 million Americans unemployed, jobs, economic freedom, living wage and worker justice remain the greatest challenges this country faces. The timing is prophetic. Dr. King was slain in Memphis where he had travelled to show his support for striking black sanitation workers. He was about jobs. We will mobilize churches, mosques and synagogues throughout the country, public and private industry, local governments and Congress to create jobs and to lobby for a comprehensive jobs solution by August 28, 2013 — the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. We will make jobs a priority in the American consciousness. We heard the “I have a dream” speech, but here is a speech not often heard, but deeply reflective of King’s commitment to economic justice: “This will be the day when we shall bring into full realization the American dream — a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few, a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determined the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of human personality — that is the dream. And as we struggle to make racial and economic justice a reality, let us maintain faith in the future. We will confront difficulties and frustrating moments in the struggle to make justice a reality, but we must believe somehow that these problems can be solved.” (December 11, 1961) RESURRECTING THE CAUSE FOR WHICH HE DIED Call-to-Action Wednesday, April 4, 2012 – 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (Specific actions at 6:02, when Dr. King was shot, and at 7:04, when he died) Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive @ 120th Street, New York, N.Y. 10027

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Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr.: Resurrecting The Cause For Which King Died

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Mary Hunt: Healthy Money Beliefs and Attitudes

by Mary Hunt on March 21, 2012

Huffington Post…

You might be surprised to know that the Bible contains more than 2,000 references to money. It’s a money reference guide. God’s Word, the source of all truth, is the place to find guidance for establishing our beliefs and attitudes. Money Is A Tool Money is a handy convenience. Without it we’d have to carry around chickens and pigs to trade for goods and services we need. Money is to be a non-emotional subject. We are not to love money or hate it, be fearful of not having enough or worried about having too much. We are to be comfortable with money, not anxious about it or careless with it. We are not to hoard it, nor are we to throw it away. That kind of financial balance is called solvency. Solvency occurs when money takes its proper place in our lives as a tool with which to serve God, not as a filler of empty souls. Money Is Powerless Money has no power of its own, in the same way a computer or a coffee maker has no inherent ability. The truth is that no matter how fancy, how turbo-charged, how modern or technically capable, any tool left in the closet or used contrary to the purpose for which it was intended is not going to produce the best results; and in some cases, the results can be negative. Money Is A Neutral Commodity It’s what we do with a tool that counts. The way we manage money is a direct reflection of our commitment to obey God and serve others. We are not to worry about from where money will come. Employers (or pensions, bonuses, real estate income, support, unemployment checks or any other entity) are not the source of our income. They are simply the conduits through which God delivers it. God is the source because He is the one who has given us the skills and ability to work. Jobs may come and go, stock markets may crash, real estate values may fall off the face of the earth, but the Source is the same yesterday, today and forever. Our job is to be faithful, diligent and trustworthy stewards. Over the years, I have taken the lessons I’ve learned, the mistakes I’ve made, the principles of Scripture and wisdom from experts, counselors and teachers whom I respect and boiled it all down to these simple money rules that changed my life. Rule 1: Spend Less Than You Earn Rule 2: Save for the Future Rule 3: Give Some Away Rule 4: Anticipate Your Irregular Expenses Rule 5: Tell Your Money Where to Go Rule 6: Manage Your Credit Rule 7: Borrow Only What You Know You Can Repay My rules are not seasonal, nor are they based on emotion. They work for people who have lots of money as well as those who are struggling to survive on a single income or are between jobs. Money Makes Us Happy I’m sure you’ve heard this, perhaps you’ve even said it a time or two. But it’s a little more complicated than that. Each of us has a body, an ego and a spirit. Our egos are in search of happiness; our souls long for contentment. Your ego is not a bad thing. It’s that part of you that includes your personality — your thinking, feeling and acting self. Your ego is responsible for your style and personal tastes. Your ego produces emotions and desires — and I mean all kinds of desires, from little, so-so ones to those that scream out to be satisfied. Some desires are for needs, others for wants. Face it. Satisfying a desire produces happiness and it usually takes money to fulfill desires. Anyone who says money can’t buy happiness has never bought a new car or gone on a shopping spree, or seen the look on a child’s face on Christmas morning. The frustrating thing is that this kind of happiness is temporary. It always wears off. Think back to a time when you longed for something. I mean really longed and yearned. You were nearly obsessed by your desire and could think of little else. Maybe it was your first car or certain article of clothing or a new piece of furniture. When you finally got it you were happy beyond belief. But the happiness wore off, didn’t it? That’s because desires once satisfied do not stay satisfied. Gratification received from fulfilled desires is, at best, temporary. That’s how our minds and emotions work. Your soul, your spiritual nature seeks contentment — satisfaction with what you have, whatever your situation might be. Contentment is a learned behavior, an acquired skill. It doesn’t just happen when you fall into the right set of circumstances. Contentment cannot be purchased, which is the best news because it means contentment is available to everyone, no matter what their financial situation. Longing for Contentment Once you understand that fulfilling the desires of ego produces temporary satisfaction and fulfilling the desires of your spirit brings lasting satisfaction, you can stop hoping to find lasting contentment in a new sofa, or joy and peace in new carpeting. Sure, your new sofa and carpeting will likely bring you happiness for some period of time. And that’s wonderful. But you will quit looking to material things to produce the contentment your spirit seeks. You will instinctively know the difference between momentary pleasure and deep-seated contentment. What a change that will make in your life. Contentment has a way of quieting insatiable desires. Contentment is the best antidote for an overly needy ego.

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Mary Hunt: Healthy Money Beliefs and Attitudes

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Rev. Richard Cizik: What War On Religion?

March 9, 2012

The fierce backlash from some evangelical Christian leaders to President Obama’s sensible decision to cover contraception services under the health care reform law brings to mind Groucho Marx’s definition of politics: “The art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.” Christian mega-pastor Rick Warren is willing to engage in civil disobedience. The National Association of Evangelicals is reportedly considering asking pastors of every evangelical denomination to read an open letter to their congregations calling the requirement to make birth control for women available without co-pays an attack on religious liberty — despite an exemption for religious institutions affiliated with faiths that forbid contraception. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, insists there is “no compromise.” As an evangelical leader, I’ve been involved in defending religious freedom for three decades. Compromise is not always a moral failure in a pluralistic society. In an election year, we must also distinguish between real attacks on faith and cheap demagoguery to score political points. GOP presidential candidates who have been assailing President Obama’s supposed “war on religion” should be ashamed of themselves. This irresponsible and inflammatory rhetoric makes a mockery of the victims of real wars and unconscionable religious persecution around the world. The fact is the Obama administration listened to concerns raised in response to an initial ruling that exempted houses of worship but not religious hospitals, schools or social service providers to the new contraception coverage rule, and crafted a common-ground solution that protects both religious liberty and women’s health. No religiously affiliated institutions will have to pay for these services or even refer employees to this coverage. Instead, if a woman’s employer is an objecting religious institution, her insurer will be the party required to enter into a separate contract to offer contraception coverage at no cost. Christian leaders concerned about protecting religious liberty rather than broadly restricting contraception should be satisfied with this accommodation. Remember that under the health care reform law all insurance plans are required to cover a host of preventive services at no cost — check-ups, mammograms, immunizations and cancer screenings. This will help save lives and control health-care costs. The non-partisan National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine recommended including birth control under these covered services. The Obama administration was wise to listen to the advice of the nation’s leading medical experts. While Catholic bishops and some evangelical leaders continue to thunder against even the revised solution that defends religious liberty and women’s health, other religious leaders have expressed appreciation to the Obama administration for acting quickly to address concerns. The Catholic Health Association, representing more than 600 hospitals and 1,400 long-term care health facilities, welcomed the revisions. Catholic bishops are now appearing to move the goal posts. They even want Catholics who own a business with no religious purpose — a Taco Bell, for example — to be exempt from providing contraception coverage under health care plans. Worse, the bishops and some of their evangelical allies even supported Republican-sponsored legislation that would have allowed all employers to refuse to cover any service they find morally objectionable. The Senate appropriately rejected this legislation that would have put the health of American families at the mercy of employers who have economic incentives to deny crucial medical services. Let’s not allow the political noise of an election year to distract us from basic facts or reject pragmatic solutions that will help the American people. Rev. Richard Cizik served for ten years as vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, a post he left in 2008. In 2002, Cizik was a participant in Climate Forum 2002, at Oxford, England, which produced the “Oxford Declaration” on global warming. In 2005, the New York Times dubbed him the “Earthy Evangelist” for his advocacy on climate change, and in 2008 he was named to TIME Magazine’s list of the “TIME 100″ most influential people.

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Tax The Catholic Church? Cash Strapped Italy Considers Options

March 2, 2012

Alessandro Speciale Religion News Service VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pinched by the global recession and tough-love budget demands of the European Union, the Italian government is looking for extra revenue, and has its eyes set on commercial properties owned by the Roman Catholic Church. On Feb. 15, the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti announced it wants to revise rules on the tax-exempt status of church-owned commercial property. Though the exemption also applies to other not-for-profit entities, such as trade unions, political parties and religious groups, the Catholic Church is its largest beneficiary. “Such a move would have been unimaginable six months ago,” said Francesco Perfetti, a history professor at LUISS University in Rome. “After all, no matter whether you are a believer or not, the church is an integral part of Italy’s culture.” The exemption, introduced in 1992, has sparked a heated debate, especially after the Euro crisis and Italy’s staggering debt forced the government to introduce sweeping austerity measures, including a sharp rise in the pension age. Critics say the current rules give church-owned businesses, such as hotels and restaurants, an unfair advantage over their competitors. Church officials respond that purely commercial church businesses must already pay taxes in full, and that the exemption is aimed at helping social institutions like schools and hospitals, not at giving the Catholic Church an unfair advantage. “We don’t ask for preferential treatment but just to be treated as other not-for-profit entities,” Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of Italy’s bishops conference, said in January. In fact, Italian church officials cautiously welcomed the government’s announcement, saying it would help “clarify” the situation. In a reflection of the sensitivity surrounding every issue related to the Catholic Church, Monti took the unusual step of personally explaining the sense and scope of the new rules in a speech to a Parliament committee on Feb. 27. In his statement, Monti avoided any explicit reference to the church, and stressed that the government “holds in high esteem the not-for-profit sector’s contribution to society.” Monti, a trained economist, said the new norms would clarify which commercial properties qualify as not-for-profit, in order to avoid possible sanctions from the European Union. Not everyone, however, was convinced by the prime minister’s reassurances. The Salesians, a large religious order, said they would be forced to close many of the thousands of private schools they operate throughout Italy if forced to pay property tax on them. Other church-affiliated bodies voiced similar concerns. Yet, despite the consternation the new law provoked, it might not change things dramatically. According to a government-mandated study, the current tax exemption costs the government about 100 million euros ($131.9 million) in lost revenue, a tiny amount compared to Italy’s public debt of 1.9 trillion euros ($2.5 trillion). Mario Staderini, secretary of the Italian Radicals party, which is highly critical of the church, said that, despite the promises, the new norm won’t deliver much: “Its effects will be small.” For him, property tax exemptions are just the start of the conversation. “Italy’s whole system of public funding for the church, which amounts to 1 billion euros per year, must be overhauled,” he said. For the church, too, the main result of the government’s initiative may be little more than a clarification of today’s somewhat obscure norms. Since it was first passed in 1992, the law has been modified many times by bylaws and government regulations, further muddling up the picture. That has led to a steep rise in the number of court cases in recent years, said Patrizia Clementi, a tax expert with the Milan diocese who also consults for the Italian bishops conference on the issue. A clearer law might also lead to a decline in tax evasion: In the city of Rome alone, greater scrutiny of church-owned properties has brought nearly 11 million euros ($14.5 million) in extra tax revenues since 2005. “Right now there are gray areas,” she said. “We hope the new norms will clarify the situation.”

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Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson: Helping Each Other Find The Way At Occupy Wall Street

October 19, 2011

“How can there be a march and I’m not there?” This was the question that came from my mother, a feisty but proper Southern lady, when I told her I was headed downtown to see Occupy Wall Street for myself. Her question was rhetorical since being in such a crowd would have exceeded the limits of her strength. And yet, it is what she, a civil rights activist in her day, has been asking for some time now: “How long will it be before people are marching in the street?” Marching for her was a default in times of national crisis, an appropriate collective cry of anguish “when the earth groans in travail and we ourselves” (Romans 8:22-23) and, in the same moment, an opportunity to draw energy and courage from the shared experience of being together. “You make the way by walking,” the saying goes. My mother, a Depression baby, remembers meeting her father on the streets of Wilmington, N.C., right after the 1929 stock market crash, when he reported that $100 was all the money they had. She knows something of the fear and want that many Americans are experiencing today. I guess it’s in my DNA because at Occupy Wall Street I found the crowd energizing and welcoming. “Tell me what democracy looks like?” “This is what democracy looks like,” was the through line of the chants and songs. And it was an apt description: a panoply of marchers of all colors and sizes, union members, nurses, students and organizers, talking about living wages, tax codes, corporate greed and the observation on a poster held by children who seemed to know from firsthand experience that “shelters are not family friendly.” The crowd was purposeful but not goal oriented, which seems right given the complexity of our current situation to which there are no easy solutions. We are beyond winnowing it all quickly down to bullet points and a neat list of demands. And it was heartening that though movements are aided by Facebook and Twitter, people need to be together in real time. What I fantasized about mid-march was a surprise appearance by Warren Buffet. I am aware that some of those who have made their millions on Wall Street have actually traveled to Occupy Wall Street, perhaps incognito. And I have spoken to other Wall Street people who are fearful, curious, disdainful or defensive about Occupy Wall Street, not knowing how to engage it. Many across the economic spectrum are wrestling with how to find our way back to valuing the public good over individualism; a just economy over unbridled greed; compassion enacted through public policy. The Christian tradition offers insight into the proper relationship to wealth: No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Wealth is not to be hoarded, either by individuals or institutions, but used productively for the common good. In a world of enormous poverty, wealth is relative, and we all have to make peace with how we define generosity individually and how we enact justice collectively. Whatever you think about Occupy Wall Street, people are talking about it — a lot. This was true for my colleague and her husband. Their conversation with their two kids was how was it that Dad was working on Wall Street when Mom was marching in Occupy Wall Street? It made for a complex, ethical, soul-deep conversation at the breakfast table. My hope is that the protest will be a rallying cry for all Americans to remind us of our shared values, not simply the occasion for replicating the political polarization that already grips our country, our neighborhoods and even our families. At a time when there are 46.2 million people in the U.S. living in poverty , we cannot afford to demonize, stereotype and dismiss each other. We need everyone to come to Liberty Square and help each other find our way to a future where abundance is shared, no one is in need and the future looks brighter than today.

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The Rev. Jacqueline J. Lewis, Ph.D.: God’s Economy

October 18, 2011

I grew up in the Black Church, where the milkman and the accountant sat together on Sunday. Singing spirituals and hearing scripture rooted us in God’s vision to end discrimination, share resources and promote peace. It was the vision that gave my parents and their parents hope; it inspired their struggle for civil rights. They taught their children how to be leaders on Wednesday, marched for racial justice on Saturday, and gave what they had of their time and their finances to make the church run. Once enslaved Africans were freed, there was always an economic gap. Some went to college, others took up the trades, and still others worked in menial but necessary jobs. As wealth increased, folk did not forget from whence they came; they reached back and pulled someone up and helped someone out. I have not forgotten those lessons of community and caretaking and pulling together as a village. The early church was like that as well, learning from its Jewish leaders -⎯ including Jesus himself -⎯ that in God’s Economy, the poor, the orphaned, the widowed, the sick and the lame were the responsibilities of the community. In our country, there are divisions and anger around class. I want to change the conversation from class warfare to class collaboration. A faithful coalition of people can have a greater impact toward a more just society when they pool resources, enact strategies, build bridges and challenge the status quo. In the early church conflicts arose about who should be first and who should go last, but they were resolved by evoking the teachings of Jesus: In God’s Reign there are new rules. Everyone is invited to God’s banquet, the first will be last and the last will be first. These radical teachings guided the first congregations; they shared what they had with one another and took care of the least among them. I think we need to resurrect these ideas and ideals and not waste time on us-vs.-them tactics. God’s Economy does not have to be a dream in our faith communities. This is, to my mind, what it means to be faithful. On several occasions, members of my congregation at Middle Collegiate Church have made donations directed to benefit someone else. “Give this to someone who really needs it,” they tell me as they quietly pass me a donation. All of us know someone out of work. Fifteen percent of Americans live below the poverty line. No one of us can do all of this, but churches and other faith communities, non-profits, private citizens and our government can partner to care for one another. We can adopt a family or a classroom. We can create jobs for teenagers and help them get ready for college. We can put people back to work as we build our infrastructure and create new technologies. We can restore the American Dream. But more importantly for me as a Christian pastor, we can live into God’s Vision, God’s Economy. The prophet Isaiah reminded the atoning faithful that the true fast that God desires is for us to share our bread with the hungry, to take the poor into our home, to clothe the naked and to not ignore our own families (Isaiah 58:7). When Jesus was teaching his disciples about the reign of God, he told a parable of an owner of a vineyard who hired laborers at various times during the day. At day’s end, he paid the ones hired early in the morning, the ones who were hired at noonday, and the ones hired at the end of the day the same wage (Matthew 20:1-16). The workers who came early were angry that those who came late to the vineyard received the same pay. How dare that landowner treat everyone the same! How outrageous is the kind of love in God’s Economy! I must admit the state of our present economy outrages me. And the Occupy Wall Street movement has our country talking about class and financial inequalities again. Many children eat only one meal a day through their school lunch program. It is not acceptable for a nation with this much wealth to threatened that program with tax cuts. Older people should not have to choose between medicine and food. I am less concerned about how we got here or whose fault it is. I am focused on what can we do now and how will we pull together to do it! The questions before us are not just economic, they are ethical and moral. Middle Collegiate Church is incredibly diverse around race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity and finances. Some of our members own several houses, some bring their belongings to church in a bag. Most of us are in the middle, struggling to make ends meet, or saving a little for our future and our children. No matter where we are on that continuum, we pool our resources to make sure we provide more than 1,500 meals every month to people who are hungry. We provide warm coats and back-to-work clothing for hundreds of people as well. We partner with programs that address homelessness in our city. But we want to do more. We want to change the systems and structures that make our programs necessary. In this rich nation, we have enough resources to care for all of us and then share with our global neighbors. We are calling for an interfaith coalition of caring people to join us. Students and senior citizens, homemakers and the homeless, brokers and bakers, clergy and computer software designers, teachers and technicians — if you are out of work but ready to work for systemic change, if you are tired of the bickering and ready to broker God’s Economy, we want you with us. Let’s put our minds and hearts together. Let’s talk and blog and ask the hard questions. Let’s recommend courses of action and then hold our leaders accountable. Let’s fuel our revolution with prayer and Spirit. It is too simplistic to demonize all of the people who make more money than we do. Good people with wealth share it every day. Wealthy people share my middle class critique of a system that allows lobbyists to protect corporations from the appropriate tax; a tax code with loopholes that poor people will never find or fit through; and a bailout that benefited banks while the poor are still poor. There has to be some accounting for that, some rectifying of this situation. Let’s turn our restlessness into revolution, our anger into action, our despair into demonstration. And let’s never forget the Power at work within us that is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. That Power is Love. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Cowardice asks the question — is it safe? Expediency asks the question — is it politic? Vanity asks the question — is it popular? But conscience asks the question — is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.” On Sunday, Oct. 30, join us online as we stream worship at 11:15 a.m. (EST) at MiddleChurch.org and then stay as we stream a town-hall conversation about God’s Economy. You can add your questions and ideas to our Facebook page or tweet @middlechurch for a town-hall conversation about God’s Economy. Let’s change the conversation.

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David Nichtern: Is Karma To Blame?

July 28, 2011

What is the law of karma? In Buddhism, the law of karma describes how causes and effects interact in our world. The point of understanding how karma works is to see the nature of things as they are, beyond any kind of delusion or wishful thinking. What does the law of karma have to do with the current economic crisis? Maybe our national economic policy could use a good healthy dose of seeing “things as they are”. In our individual meditation practice, there is no magic bullet, no fantasy transformation, no gimmicks — we have to work through our karma, brick by brick — it is manual labor. With meditation practice, we can see how our mind works — what creates positive karma (compassion and wisdom), and what creates negative karma (aggression, attachment and ignorance). That is how we get clarity about how certain causes create certain conditions — how did we get where we are and what we can do about it. With the same approach, with real scrutiny, perhaps our current debt ceiling crisis can be seen to be nothing other than our national money karma coming to fruition. There are some basic principles at work here, immune from any kind of fancy talk or manipulation. Certain basic causes and conditions have created the current situation: 1. We have borrowed too much money. Just as many of us have done as individuals, as a nation we have simply borrowed too much money, and now our creditors are knocking at the door. I don’t think you need an advanced degree in economics to figure this out. Sometimes common sense is more valuable than intricate theories. It’s time to pay some of this debt down, just as we would (and as some of us have) if this were our individual problem only. 2. We have been too greedy. As a nation (and many of us as individuals) we have been willing to sacrifice long-term prosperity for short-term gain, over and over again. Many of us are addicted to a hyper-extended materialistic lifestyle (certainly by global standards) and have been willing to go deeply into debt to maintain it. Additionally, a tiny percentage of extremely wealthy people are now in a position to manipulate our entire economy to further their own self-centered, limited agenda, which they are now doing on a global level. Gordon Gekko said “greed is good,” but now we will get to see if that will be his “final answer.” 3. Our national political arena has become overrun with personalized agendas and bad manners. We seem to have a chasmic divide amongst our so-called “leadership.” Creative friction can sometimes be very effective in flushing out different points of view and perhaps reaching a higher fusion. But we seem to have gone well beyond that kind of creative friction in our national politics to the level of some kind of permanently feuding mentality. Like the Hatfields and the McCoys, we now see our two “parties” immersed in an ongoing tit for tat, with nobody being very clear about the origin or the point of it all. There seems to be a crescendo of personalized agendas in the public sector. Temporal leaders, just like good spiritual teachers, could be invited to check their ego at the door. Wouldn’t that be refreshing? The solution? We need bigger vision. Let’s think about what would be good for ourselves and others. Are these really two completely different things? Perhaps we bring out the best in each of us and are also happier individuals when we have a feeling of contributing to a common cause beyond self-aggrandizement. If we are arguing about what would be the best outcome for the larger good, that could be a healthy argument to have. If we’re going to keep playing the “me, me, me” game, we might be spinning on this particular wheel of karma forever — like a giant Ferris Wheel with all of us on it. Follow David on his website ( www.davidnichtern.com ), facebook ( facebook.com/davidnichtern ), twitter ( twitter.com/davidnichtern ), or youtube ( youtube.com/davidnichtern )

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Eve Tahmincioglu: Beware the Brit Humes in your office

January 7, 2010

What if you were having trouble finishing a major project at work and your boss suggested you “come to Jesus” because it would help you deal with your challenge? And let’s say you were a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, or an atheist, and you really didn’t want to come to Jesus? In the workplace my friends, this is a big fat no no. Legally you are not allowed to push your religion down anyone’s throat at work. You also can’t put down a colleague’s religious faith and you can’t hinder an individual’s right to practice their faith if it doesn’t impede day to day business. Pretty simple, no? Well, not quite. Discrimination in the workplace is alive and well. Actually, it’s at record levels when it comes to religion and the disabled, according to a report on 2009 bias charges released yesterday by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And I recently wrote about how religious expression in the workplace is frowned upon. Are you surprised? Probably not if you had the pleasure of hearing Fox News newsman Brit Hume’s comments recently to Tiger Woods. Hume put down the golfer’s faith of Buddhism and suggested he turn to Christianity to help him deal with his philandering problem. “I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith,” Hume said. “So my message to Tiger would be, “Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.” The fact that a journalist — and I use that term loosely as it pertains to Hume — would go on a national news show and put down another high-profile individual’s faith should tell all of us that religious bigotry, and bigotry as a whole, is a growing problem in this country. The numbers released by the EEOC yesterday are disheartening. Religious bias charges increased to 3,386 in 2009, the highest number in the last decade. And charges for disability discrimination jumped to a record 21,451 last year, up from 19,453 in 2008. National origin bias is also on the rise, with charges climbing to 11,134 in 2009. I asked EEOC spokesman David Grinberg why he thought bias was on the rise. “The increases in national origin and religion charges may be an outgrowth of the fact that the American workplace has become more ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse,” he said. Clearly, people like Hume don’t seem to much like the diversity. And have you listened to the constant anti-diversity rhetoric oozing from a host of commentators since the Christmas Day attempted airplane bombing. This from Retired Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney: “If you are an 18-28-year-old Muslim man, then you should be strip searched. If we don’t do that, there’s a very high probability that we’re gonna lose an airliner.” When I hear stuff like this, I’m not surprised there’s discrimination in the workplace. Isn’t the workplace just a reflection of the country as a whole? If it is, it’s looking like a pretty ugly mirror image right now.

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Yakuza Bosses Sell Sex, Drugs, Finagle U.S. Liver Transplants: Book Review

November 24, 2009

Review by Rocky Swift Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — For the opening scene of a book, it’s hard to beat a hardened gangster calmly threatening to liquidate the main character, who’s furiously smoking clove cigarettes as he ponders his strategy. That’s how Jake Adelstein starts “ Tokyo Vice ,” his memoir of working as a police reporter for Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun , the world’s largest newspaper, and how his snooping landed him in hot water with a particularly violent faction of the yakuza. The story follows Adelstein through 12 years covering everything from roadside shakedowns to serial murder as the only American member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s press club. “Tokyo Vice” is bookended by Adelstein’s investigations into how a sickly crime boss named Tadamasa Goto and three other yakuza managed to get lifesaving liver transplants in the U.S., abetted by U.S. authorities. This story turned out to be the reporter’s savior, since once he published it Adelstein became too high profile to kill. Before he was “pissing off yakuza,” Adelstein was a student at Sophia University , a Jesuit-affiliated school in the center of Tokyo. On a whim, the Missouri native took a battery of tests to join the Yomiuri, a media leviathan that also owns a television network, a theme park and the Giants baseball team, Japan’s equivalent to the New York Yankees. Very Organized Crime Adelstein’s first glimpse into the world of organized crime comes from a mob boss worried that the local police won’t drink tea at his offices anymore. “Tokyo Vice” is a primer on such complicated relationships between Japan’s cops and criminals. The yakuza emphasize the “organized” in organized crime, earning toleration from the authorities and public by keeping violence low and providing the prostitution and drugs that some parts of society secretly desire. In the years Adelstein worked the crime beat, the yakuza evolved from extortion, prostitution and drugs to high finance, orchestrating real estate scams and manipulation of the stock market. Even now, the Tokyo Stock Exchange obliquely acknowledges the yakuza’s meddling in markets, calling them “antisocial” forces in official documents. The most famous case detailed in the book is that of Lucie Blackman , a British citizen found partially dismembered near the home of a man later convicted of multiple rapes. She had come to Tokyo to work as a hostess in Tokyo’s Roppongi entertainment district, and investigating the case drew Adelstein deep into the rabbit hole of Japan’s sex industry. Through it all, Adelstein was able to use his otherness as an advantage. Fear among the yakuza that a crackdown might result from wiping out an American probably saved his life, he writes, as did the mistaken suspicion that he was an undercover agent for the CIA or — because of his Jewish heritage — Israel’s Mossad. Backhanded Compliments Much of the book is made up of reconstructed, movie-like dialogue, with a jarring number of backhanded compliments for Adelstein, as when a thug says the American is “stupid, obtuse, stubborn and reckless,” but “I guess that’s what makes a good journo.” While his tale is gripping, it shows the strain of a writer rushing to the finish line. The Goto transplant saga, the most compelling part of the book, is teased in the beginning and doesn’t return for some 250 pages. Goto’s priest says the gangster has renounced his former ways to study Buddhism, Adelstein reports with skepticism. Still, that might be enough to rest a little easier in Tokyo. “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan” is published by Pantheon (335 pages, $26). It will be published by Kodansha in the U.K. on Jan. 1. To buy this book in North America, click here . ( Rocky Swift writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.) To contact the writer on the story: Rocky Swift in Tokyo at rswift5@bloomberg.net .

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