What is right? What is right-ness? Some say it is a qustion of morals. Some say it is law. I think it transcends both these things. When I look at law, I see unjust law. When I look at humans, I see corrupt morality. However, what is right, is always right. Right-ness is a philosophical absolute. Human-ness is not a philisophical absolute, but rather an experiential absolute. With humans you have an experiential absolute that may or may not be interested in the philosophical absolute of right-ness, but more importantly, those humans who are interested don't necessarily know what right-ness is. 

How do we determine what is right? 

I start by asking myself how I know what is right. I know that, on a certain level, asking myself this question may very well preclude me from knowing the absolute truth that is the answer, for what is right does not necessarily have a single thing to do with me, however as a human, with human consciousness, it is where I must start. 

When I contemplate how I determine, in a moment, what is right, I am immediately aware of two, at once opposing and complementary processes with myself. The process I am aware of first is that of the cerebral. I begin to think about a thing. I weigh it. This must be where the metaphor of scales for justice comes from. We, as humans, assign weight to all that is invisible around us. An action is visible as it is happening, but after it happens it is no longer visible, yet, to a human, it retains substance and inside ourselves, we weigh it. We use intricate forumulas and oftentimes we don't even know we are doing it. It is natural for us. 

The second process that occurs in me when I ask myself this question is an emotional one. There are always feelings attached to what I see going on in the world around me. Some feelings are obstacles to my clarity of what is right and some feelings are indicators of what is right. A kind of energetic discernment is necessary to determine which is which. Ultimately, no matter how careful or complex my cerebral process is, I realize I cannot know what is right until I get these particular 'indicator' feelings.  

Now, the question remains, does any of this have anything to do with absolute right-ness? Can I, in my infinite human-ness, ever be objective enough to know true right-ness? I think, yes. Also, I think no.

The two answers have to do with these two different processes I talked about. On a cerebral level, where I am so thoroughly influenced by social mores, by logic, by prejudices and a lifetime of indoctrination, I think it is quite a feat of initellect if I get anywhere near absolute truth. However, on the level of emotions, as long as I practice clarity and do not succumb to being reactionary, I can come upon what is right. 

Determining what is right can be very simple. What is right is what feels right. There is a reason for this that has to do with the fact that all matter is energy, but I won't get into that now. When we do right, we feel good, and when we do not do right, we feel bad. When we cannot feel about what we do, we may be able to do what is right, but what we must admit to ourselves is that we can't know whether what we have chosen is right or not, on an absolute level. I belive this is where dogma comes in. Our tendency as humans to disconnect from our feelings leaves us vulnerable to dogma, which we need if we cannot feel because in being human we are conscious and in being consicous, we have a need to have some kind of compass that directs us to what is right. Unfortunately, dogma gives only an illusion of right-ness. Only our connection to the energy that is the source of all existence can be a true compass to right-ness, and that connection is what we call emotion. 

Life is dynamic. I've never come across any single thing that is all good or all bad. I think people mistake my cynicism as pure embitterment, but it's not. Inherent in my cynicism is a deep appreciation for the ungraspable dynamism and illusory contradiction of all life.

6. The Senate moves slower than the airport security line during the holidays.

5. Solutions to America's most pressing problems shouldn't sit on the shelf for months like Aunt Millie's fruit cake.

4. It's cheaper to fix the Senate than to buy a new one, though it is for sale (thanks Citizens United!).

3. Laws that pass the Senate are more watered down than your office party's egg nog.

2. Senate rules are as outdated as Scrooge's labor practices.

1. The Senate has it backwards: You aren't supposed to do all your work the week before Christmas and nothing the rest of the year.

 

 It's easy to vilify people. The hard thing to do is to keep everyone human in your mind. The heart always loves, but it hurts too, and the mind gets full of vengeance when it's beloved heart is hurting. Out of this come things such as gossip, rumors, violence...etc. Those are all the easy things. Those are the things we do when we have turned a human being into a mere 'thing' in our mind. Turning a human being into a mere object of hate, it is what we do when we do not know how to forgive, when we can't figure out how to reset our hearts and remind our minds that every human being is human, and to treat them all as such, all the time, which is to treat them with love. This is the difficult thing. When we are hurt, to still treat those that have hurt us with love.

 When we rise up into yesterday like a mistake. When we throw new color to the canvas so as to survive, to see the flock of birds and the one feather fall, to wear in our hair and around our neck life's lost love as a decoration. What hurts most is to be forgotten, so we dab a bit of blue into her dress, the color of our eyes, so she cannot escape our haunting, and if what we must do is haunt, we are already dead. But maybe it is too late. Maybe into a coffin it is we were born. Maybe everywhere but now is our duty and the fiery sun on the horizon casting purple and pink is where our souls have always been headed. Maybe she painted us from the chambers of dust in her heart, dabbing the tip of her brush in pains so old. There is a flap at her chest that she lifts when she creates. She is old now but once she was young. I think we began in the scratch of a nail across perfect skin. How many of us are there? Only she can say.

There is too much here to hold or say
blurred images of a thousand dead me
make this focal point

I didn't mean it, she misunderstood
really, I am worth loving
the old souls all say to me – what is your part?
And there, behind the fog, is the friend who always is

All my pains converge at the edge of my skin
this city presses in upon my throat
get this fist out of my mouth
out of my mouth

There is too much here to hold or say
I am we am all
here where the dust leaks
where the wind demands a parched speech
where this body disperses

Inhale my vaporous death
Respire what could have been

Buddha

This body is not me, I am not caught in this body.
I am life without boundaries. I have never been born, and I shall never die.
Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars, manifestations of my wondrous true mind.
Since before time, I have been free.
Birth and death are only doors through which we pass, sacred thresholds on our journey.
Birth and death are just a game of hide and seek.
So laugh with me,
hold my hand,
let us say goodbye,
say goodbye, to meet again soon.
We meet today.
We will meet again tomorrow.
We will meet at the source at every moment.
We meet each other in all forms of life.

Thich Nhat Hanh

"Listen, my friend," Shariputra said to a dying friend, "let us practice together. Breathing in, I know that my body is not me. Breathing out, I know I am not caught in this body. These eyes are not me. I am not caught in these eyes. These ears are not me. I am not caught in these ears. This nose is not me. I am not caught in this nose. This tongue is not me. I am not caught in this tongue. This body is not me. I am not caught in this body. This mind is not me. I am not caught in this mind."

We are in the habit of identifying ourselves with our bodies. The idea that we are this body is deeply entrenched in us. But we are not just this body; we are much more than that. The idea that "this body is me and I am this body" is an idea we must get rid of. If we do not, we will suffer a great deal. We are LIFE, and life is far vaster than this body, this concept, this mind.

"These mental formations are me" - this is another idea we have to get rid of. Therefore, when someone is dying, above all we have to help them stop identifying with their body and mind. We are not prisoners of our senses. We are not prisoners of our bodies or our minds. We must become free of our body and free of our mind. We must be free of the idea that "I am this body, I am this mind." When we get rid of these ideas, we become greater, deeper, and freer than our mind.

The disintegration of this body is not the end. It is only the cessation of a manifestation. When conditions are no longer sufficient, the manifestation ceases. To light a fire, you need fuel, and as soon as there is no more fuel, the fire goes out. The same is true of the body and mind. Conditions must be sufficient for the manifestation to continue. If not, it will cease and then manifest again sometime in the future.

"These forms are not me, and I am not caught in these forms," Shariputra continued. "These forms are merely objects of sight - when light strikes the eyes, sight manifests as the consciousness of perceiving shapes and colors. I am not those forms."

"Tastes are not me. I am not caught in tastes. Smells are not me. I am not caught in smells. Tangible objects are not me. I am not caught in these. Thoughts and ideas are not me. I am not caught in thoughts and ideas."

This practice is indispensable for liberation.

"Let us look deeply into the five skandhas: forms, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, consciousness. There is nothing there that could be called a self. As a result of ignorance, we are caught up in ideas and concepts. But in truth we are free from these ideas and concepts. The true nature of reality is inter-being. The reality of inter-being has the nature of emptiness and non-self. We are free in the past, and we are free in the present."

I don't rent movies anymore and I only go to the movies if I feel it'll be better on the big screen or I just can't wait. My reasoning, I'm poor because I have Lyme, so why pay when I can get just about anything for free? You can use this method to get anything for free, but to make the directions less overwhelming, I tailored them to getting Under Our Skin only.

This is simpler than it may seem. Don't get daunted! You can do it! And if you get stuck or confused, don't hesitate to email me. ;-)

INSTRUCTIONS

- Download the execution file for the application utorrent: http://www.utorrent.com/downloads (do the top one if you have Windows, go to the bottom for a link to versions for Mac)

- When the execution file is done, double click on it to do the setup (it will probably be on the desktop or in a folder called 'downloads'. if you can't find it, use the search box in the start menu to search for: Under Our Skin)

- When the application is set up, go here: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4416674/Under_Our_Skin_(CDR)

- Click on the green link that says 'Download this torrent'

- A dialogue box will come up. Select 'Open with'

- Select 'utorrent' from the drop down menu

- Click 'OK' button

- That should bring your utorrent window up, and you should see Under Our Skin on the list

- The computer needs to be on and online in order for the file to download

- How long does it take? Depends on your computer and your internet connection. I've had files take weeks. Some take 30 mins. This is a small file, so it shouldn't take too long, but you never know. Just be patient...and then, enjoy...;-)

- When it's done, it will say 100% in the 'Done' column

- At this point, right click on the title and select 'open containing folder'

- Double click on the movie. The default media player should open it and play it!

IT OPENS BUT DOESN'T WORK RIGHT!

A number of files from the Pirate Bay only work right with VLC Media Player. Here's instructions for getting it.

- Go here: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
- Click on Windows or Mac for which computer you have
- Windows: Select download for a self-extracting package
- Mac: Select download for appropriate package
- When execution file finishes downloading, double click on it to start the setup
- When setup is finished, go back to Under Our Skin file and right click on it and select 'open with'
- Select VLC (looks like a construction cone)
- It should open and play!