I would submit that it's respect for cockroaches and vermin that especially mark the buddhist POV.

It's easy to love a cute puppy, or to feel bad for a bear.

For Westerners, and others, there's a cultural subset of species that are dishonored for various reasons: flies, roaches, snakes, and spiders for example.

Indeed, many carry diseases and others are just pests, but all are critters with lives.

It's a bit like people, actually.

We want to try to love each and everyone, and especially those who are annoying and even dangerous.

They need love the most.

Read what Juan Cole said about that, about motive for attacking the satirists:

Joe Sacco. That needs to be an Original Post, KittyWampus. Thank you.

Excellent. Bookmarking!

Thank you!

The ownership numbers are suspect. People unlikely to self-report ownership, distrustful of Gov.

But even if they are true, correlation is not causation. Also, I suspect the MOE weakens any conclusions drawn from the "General Social Survey".

Finally, other studies show conflicting data (OMG this is so easy to refute your sorry data):

Looks pretty steady for the past 18 years:



















There's more where these came from: http://www.gallup.com/poll/1645/Guns.aspx

Good post. Every day is Thanksgiving Day!

It's a great chance to practice the Eastern philosophy that is the foundation of the Japanese Tea Ceremony: "Ichi-go ichi-e":

Ichi-go ichi-e: This is the moment
Each moment is unique, the sights and sounds and especially people surrounding you, savor these!

But it's not only about the specialness of each moment in the moment, but that every moment is eternal, too:

Ichi-go ichi-e: Forever but never again
Every moment is at once fleeting and permanent in our hearts and souls.

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2008/07/ichi-go-ichi-e-this-is-the-moment.html

Ichi-go ichi-e, my friends!

Thank you for posting!!!

See what I did there?



Quite and interesting and timely topic!

It seems that in our culture, or maybe it's part of the human condition, we often need to be deliberate in showing gratitude.

We have set aside one day a year to formalize this, after which one might think we can go back to the daily business of making ends meet, not getting hit by a bus, and all the rest.

Other cultures have more regular and periodic practices and traditions. Saying grace before a meal can, for example, also be used to recognize and honor that one has food to eat and is with loved ones.

Once a day or thrice a day, that beats once every Autumn!

My favorite cultural acknowledgment of the special quality of every moment is the Japanese Tea Ceremony, more specifically, "the Ichi-go ichi-e":

Ichi-go ichi-e: this is the moment

Tea Following up on Benjamin Zander's inspirational teachings on the art of possibility (and performance), allow me to share a simple idea from the art of tea or Sadou, "the way of tea." You may think that the traditional art of Sadou (茶道 is a strange place to glean lessons that can be applied to various aspects of our daily lives, but the simple practical lessons from the Zen arts run deep and wide. Ichi-go ichi-e (一期一会 is a concept connected to the way of tea; it expresses the ideal of the way of tea. Roughly translated the phrase means "one time, one meeting" or "one encounter; one opportunity." In the way of tea we should respect the host and the others in the garden and the tea room and honor the moment as if it were a once-in-a-lifetime gathering. That is, we should cherish every meeting for it will never happen again. Ichi-go ichi-e is a reminder that each tea ceremony is unique even though the elements are familiar.

I consider myself mostly agnostic, unknowing but respectful of ALL other religions....

And for the purposes of consistency, I have decided to include atheism and anti-theism as forms of religion or systems of belief.

And accordingly try to be sympathetic. But if engaged in debate, I seldom let their absurd statements go unchallenged.

I learned over the last few years that some number of atheists, hopefully not representative of atheists generally, are really defensive and exhibit many of the same signs we see in cases of child abuse, spousal abuse, and PTSD generally.

These include:

Screaming, shouting, yelling

Exhibit distrust of others

Exhibit emotional outbursts

Have low self-esteem or confidence

Express feelings of hopelessness

Exhibit self-injurious behaviors

Refuse offers of assistance

Be fearful of intimacy and touch

Express self-hate, self-blame, guilt or shame

Have attention and learning disorders

Engage in destructive activities

Learn passive/aggressive behaviors


Agnosticism seems to me to be the most passive and tolerant position to maintain. It takes a strong and confident person to admit that they aren't sure and don't know while not objecting to others' insistence upon a different POV.

I agree with Hannah; "Love" is a really loaded term. I would agree that "respect" or "accept" are better terms us use.

K/R

Be well. Best wishes.

The offer stands, and, more often than not, advice has been sought for loved ones, not for DU members.

My friends here know of my background working with incarcerated youth with manifest challenges including being victims of molestation, beatings, and even rape.

You know you have a sad group of age 14-18 children when on one day three are in tears simultaneously during class, one of whom suffers from incontinence of his bowels.

In respect of him, I won't share publicly the personal history that this boy bears that lead to such lack of control of his bodily functions.

Many of us here struggle with life's challenges and sometimes that comes out as expressions of belligerence and anger.

Depression and despair know no theistic or gender or other demographic bounds, I think you know that.

Finally, there is no new group, simply a discussion about a forming a new one.

If one is formed, I imagine membership would be open and voluntary, consistent with the Apatheistic point of view.

Good night to you.

Jail Doesn't Help Addicts. Let's Stop Sending Them There.

We need to offer a range of inpatient and outpatient recovery services, not jail time.

Jail Doesn't Help Addicts. Let's Stop Sending Them There.



10/17/2014

By Kara Dansky, Senior Counsel, ACLU Center for Justice at 11:17am

Misti Barrickman has scoliosis. Since she was a teenager, it's been debilitating. It hurt to lie down. It hurt to stand up.

She started taking Oxycontin to help with the pain and became addicted. She came to Seattle to find large quantities of the drug. Unable to find it and feeling increasingly desperate, Misti tried what was readily available: heroin. For the next seven years, she struggled with addiction. She lived between a tent and a jail cell, racking up charges for possession and prostitution.

Her story is all too common.

Almost 30,000 people were arrested for drugs in New York in 2012. Over 117,000 people were arrested for drugs in California in the same year. Nearly 10,700 people were arrested for drugs in Washington that year.

More at the link: https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform-prisoners-rights/jail-doesnt-help-addicts-lets-stop-sending-them-there