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Showing posts with label American culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American culture. Show all posts
Tiffany Hsu, Los Angeles Times (Nov. 20, 2012); CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly
Face it, or don't eat it. Or there's kindTofurky. By eating it one is complicit it its torture and gruesome murder.Americans will buy 581 million pounds of turkey flesh for Thanksgiving this year but will trash more than a third of it (keepitsimplesurvival).
American tradition means eating dinner at lunch set up to look like a big family supper near Plymouth Rock, which means inviting the neighborhood Native American family to sit at one end. In the center is a big dead bird. This is sad enough, but it gets sadder:
A third of all Thanksgiving turkey meat won't be eaten.
SAD: Standard American Diet
Americans will buy 581 million pounds of the fowl, but 204 million pounds will end up in the trash can, the Natural Resources Defense Council reports.
Some 204 million pounds of meat will end up in the garbage after the holiday feast, according to an NRDC blog post.
The waste is especially appalling given that the resources required -- including feed, water and transportation -- to produce each pound of turkey are equivalent to fuel enough to drive a car 11 miles and take a 130-minute shower.
Natives never wasted any part of an animal.
Overall, that equates to greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 800,000 car trips from New York to San Francisco and enough water to supply New York City for more than 100 days.
Over the full year, Americans chuck out $165 billion in uneaten food, according to the NRDC.
And turkey prices are not getting any cheaper. They are up 7% from a year ago, pushed by the severe summer drought... More
While failed-comedian Bill O'Reilly (FOX News) and faux-newser Jon Stewart (Comedy Central) duked it out, there was another much more serious alternative presidential debate presented by NPR (National Public Radio). It was between third-party candidates Jill Stein (Green) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian).
What's it like to be a third-party candidate running for president? Ralph Nader can tell us: "You're excluded from the debates," he says. "You spend an exhausting amount of time, until Labor Day, trying to get over the ballot access barriers. Your petitioners are harassed in the streets; you're subjected to baseless lawsuits by one party or another."
Nader has run for president three times -- four if you count the time he ran unofficially. In 2000, he managed to win almost 3 percent of the national vote.
To this day, getting a third-party candidate into a presidential debate is practically impossible.
[The one-party system we have, halved in two, has made sure of that.] The Commission on Presidential Debates says that to be included, you have to poll 15 percent with voters. That's why George Farah, founder of Open Debates, a group that wants the system reformed, thinks the commission is the main problem.
"This commission exists for the principle purpose of protecting and strengthening the two parties," Farah says. "Every four years they allow the major party candidates to negotiate agreements that dictate many of the terms of the debates -- including the exclusion of popular third-party voices."
So given the two major party candidates had 90 minutes and at least 50 million viewers for their debate last Wednesday, [NPR] decided to invite two of the third-party candidates to a debate of our own.
Gary Johnson is the Libertarian Party's nominee. Jill Stein is the Green Party's nominee. They joined moderator -- and host of weekends on All Things Considered -- Guy Raz for a debate focusing on domestic issues: the economy, health care, and the role of government. More
Yoga, as spiritual exercises and an ancient Vedic philosophy, was brought to the West from India by a lineage of male teachers (gurus) and their disciples (chelas). But now a generation of women are leading the way. They're strong, they're inspiring, and they're radically changing people's lives. "YogaWoman" is a groundbreaking film, uncovering a global phenomenon that has forever changed the face of yoga.
Comments
Shiva-Shakti, the masculine-feminine in everyon
(Notch76) I am a man, and I practice yoga, but my understanding is that a major aspect of the practice is the move toward dissolving the ego along with any attachment to one's identity (including gender) in favor of a realized oneness with all. That being said, I don't take issue with the fact many women find peace, comfort, and strength through yoga practice. I think it's beautiful when anyone makes such a discovery.
(Wendyness01 replying to MagicPonyRides) Unless you have "exposure" in the yoga community (the "casting couch" approach works), one's ability to make a living teaching yoga is VERY limiting. I know several yoga teachers who can't make a living teaching yoga so they "mate poach." Most yoga teachers that I know here in the West are female, NOT married, and DON'T have children. Not very empowering.
(ChannelStudioPeace) How fantastic! A film about yoga and women! Yoga's a wonderful way of entering sacred space, feeling your power, and experiencing the connection to yourself and the universe around you. It's interesting how the cycle has shifted from yoga being practiced and taught exclusively by men at one time to today it being practiced and taught almost exclusively by women. As a female practitioner and yoga teacher, I can't wait to see the movie!
(Wayne Barrow) As a male with only a cursory interest in yoga, I was blown away by this insightful film as it gave me a fascinating insight into this noble art from a female perspective. I wish the filmmakers and people involved in the production all the best for producing a quality and entertaining product. I wish people would actually see the documentary all the way through before passing judgment!
By and large, Who's enjoying gangster rap music in America? The question is answered in the opening scene of the classic MTV movie Office Space by Mike Judge (creator of "Beavis & Butthead") featuring Jennifer Aniston ("Friends"). The character Michael Bolton is observed rapping (Scarface "No Tears") in his car.
WQ READER: I thought I was the only one, a Buddhist and a rap fan. As a White male and a middle-class professional in the engineering field at a large Silicon Valley giant, I may not look the part, but I love gangsta rap.
I'm not the only one. The violence always seemed cartoonish and bigger than life, in spite of the fact that I drive through Oakland on my daily commute and either a car was backfiring or I once heard gunshots.
Being White means not thinking about race.
My Buddhist practice is largely confined to the East Bay and the City [San Francisco]. I rarely make it into Marin to sit vipassana. But Buddhism of all the world's religions most conforms to my reservedly skeptical scientific outlook. I'm not sure how I feel about my teenage daughter listening to rap. However, rap does beat her Deadmau5 and Skrillex.
"Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta" at "The Office"(chlcbuns)
Why are Whites so violent?
In this very violent scene from the comedy "Office Space" Michael Bolton and two of the other main characters beat a stolen FAX machine senseless and unwittingly inspire Family Guy's Stewie and Brian Griffin to exhibit the same level of aggression against a record. It even seems to have affected electronic dance music aficionados Deadmau5 and Gerard Way:
Here are two for your daughter courtesy of Deadmau5 and G3rard, "Professional Griefers," as well as Skrillex "First of the Year (Equinox)," which begs the question: Is EDM the scourge of the 'burbs?
"OBAMA — Racial barrier falls in decisive victory" was the New York Times headline four years ago after B.S. Obama won the election. But just how much have racial relations changed since 2008? That's one of the questions explored in a documentary on PBS called "RACE 2012."
Hipster racism: myth or fact? (Patt Morrison) The term "hipster racism" has been tweeted about quite a bit lately, prompting praise, debate, and a lot of head-scratching. What is it?
Racism for Dummies (Off-Ramp)(Feb. 2008) Two "Daily Show" alums take on bigots in a new book called A Practical Guide to Racism. As Jon Stewart says, "Read it with someone you hate..."
Un-Fair Campaign to combat racism focuses on whites (Feb. 7, 2012) The billboards are striking. Splashed across Duluth, Minnesota, they read: “It's hard to see racism when you're white.” That message appears over...
Move it or lose it! (Or move it and lose it sometimes. Build up slowly).
"Yeah we #1/Boo the color of mayonnaise/Tee the color of Akon/Trippin like a purpa haze/Got our tie we on/[Rap] her under the table/But babe she won."
The question arises around the campus offices of Wisdom Quarterly: Can someone be a Buddhist AND a hip hop gangsta-rap music fan?
What would Sid do? (weeklyvolcano.com)
"Of course," one might answer, "anyone who listens to the Beastie Boys might be both!" But "Brass Monkey" or even "So What Cha Want" is not what most people mean by "rap" nowadays. That's vintage hip hop. And it is now the gangsta rap genre that appears to be dominating the limelight and sucking all the air out of the room. Can those fans be Buddhists? We have already seen Buddhists in metal and punk genres.
WARNING: May trigger epileptic seizures. Explicit language! Earworm content.
There are far more US White and Brown rap fans than Blacks (not as a proportion but in total numbers). Boo and Tee are White-Latino, which makes sense in our increasingly blended Amerika, which manages to remain racist. They point out that rap superstarsCypress Hill happily combined the efforts of a Mexican (B'Real), Afro-American (Sen Dog), and Scandinavian (DJ Muggs), and whose final member (Bobo) had previously recorded and performed with the Beastie Boys.
"Latin Thugs" ft. Tego Calderon combines horns, beats, gang-violence
This popular sub-genre seems to glorify alcohol abuse, drug consumption and/or sales, "partying," casual sex, violence, sexism, gang banging, hyper-masculinity, false bravado, grotesque/comical conspicuous consumption ("bling") celebrating capitalism, and other realities of American society -- particularly the leisurely life of suburban denizens attempting to imitate their imaginary version of day-to-day urban survival.
On one extreme Tyga may be all about Rack City b-tches, but J. Cole likes the easygoing island version on "Can't Get Enough." Both appear to be obsessing.
Kanye West is much to blame in this regard with No. 1 hits alongside 2 Chainz, Katy Perry, JZ, and a whole stable of up-and-coming rappers -- and making Tadolf Swiftler cry by stealing her limelight that time.
QUESTION: Tee, are there any songs that you feel demonstrate this penchant of modern rap music to excess and heedlessness with regard to the Five Basic Precepts?
The original pompadour, hips, and showmanship
TEE: F@#% yeah, like, Kendrick Lamar, "Swimming Pools (Drank)." Y'know, White Man stole the Black Man's music. Called it rock 'n roll. Same thing happening here. They invent it; The Man reinvents it and cashes in. Elvis vs. James Brown, Eminem vs DMX. So who got more RAP IQ points than we do?
WARNING: Alcoholic themes, profanity.
QUESTION: Same question, Boo?
BOO: Sure 'nuff, totally, like "Bottoms Up" by Trey Songz featuring Nicki Minaj [ignores the precepts].
QUESTION: And you two are "Buddhists"?
BOO: Yeah. I guess. TEE: Yes, I am.
Cartoon simulation of Tee rapping ("Family Guy")
QUESTION: How do you reconcile the two endeavors?
BOO: What do you mean? TEE: I feel you, but it can be done. It's easy with Zen Buddhism. I don't drink anymore, but some Zen monks drink. What's up with that? Sake and sh-t... BOO: Oh, they go. I'm in recovery. I mean, I still clean the screen. That's medicine. But I quit everything else. The Dharma keeps me in check, meditating. Keeps my head straight. TEE: Think of it like this. Hey-Zeus [the Judeo-Christian Godman Issa] was preaching to who? The pimps and hoes, not the temple folk, right? BOO: It's the new "rock 'n roll," grand concerts, big stadium arena shows, same as seeing Lennon or Zeppelin.
WARNING: Explicit content, vulgarity, celebration of alcohol abuse, sexual situations!
QUESTION: Ah, then there's the gratuitous "n-word." Exceeded in frequency only by the s- and b- and f-words. It gets to be a bit much, no?
BOO: Yeah. But it's free speech. TEE: Yeah. Who needs political speech when we could be cussing? I'm sure that's what Founding Fathers like John Footpenis had in mind. BOO: *Laughing*
QUESTION: Then there's the whole Kim Kardashian connection, who seems to be a hybrid, more alien than human. Not only her but the Canadian cousins Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne, Ryan Gosling, and Celine Dion, not to mention unrelated unnatural (supernatural) artists like Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj. [See below and "Sex and Justin Bieber."]
TEE: Blame Seacrest for that. BOO: She's a st-pid h-. Kanye can't be blamed for that. He just capitalizing on her fame. TEE: Yeah, and he's not even a baller [sports figure] except in the sense that he's a player [street guy who made it]! BOO: He think he da new Sean "Puff Daddy Baby Jesus" Combs dating J-Lo. P!nk is embarrassing.
QUESTION: Is there a rap song that's not embarrassing?
TEE: Totally! What about "Cashing Out" by Ca$h Out? It's like [the movie] "The Secret." Fake it till you make it. Anything by Minaj may be silly, but it's hella popular among White moms and their [pre-adolescent] daughters [and ABCNews' GMA]. BOO: Yeah, yeah, and that's not all. Plenty a artists drop great joints [release excellent songs]. Karmin? Kidding!
All ages. Child safe. Karmin does her best Nicki Minaj on "Suiper Bass." QUESTION: Bottom line, Can a person be a hip hop (gangsta) rap fan and a Buddhist?
BOO: To be completely mindful is to be able to distinguish between what you like and what they want you to like.
It's the same with being a punk and a Buddhist -- a movement based on chaos and anarchy and destruction going hand in hand with the centered, mindful, and ultimately serene approach of Buddhists?
To listen to rap and know -- despite all the violence and drugs involved in the culture and the explicit content of the lyrics -- is to distinguish and enjoy the music. What they [the rappers] say has no destructive impact on you. That's one Buddhist's bumbling rap. I don't know.
TEE: Damn, girl, straight up. Testify! Swerve! I just like the beat mostly. And 2 Chainz's preposterous imagination:
WARNING: Explicit content, vulgarity, sexual situations, and gratuitous violence!
WARNING: Light profanity, violent situations, drug use! Gangsta rap has something for everyone. This one's for suburban dads: "Boyz in the Hood" (Dynamite Hack).
WISDOM QUARTERLY: Thank you for the discourse and your exquisite decorum!
The only race is the human race -- but it extends into space. Hybrid devic beings like Kim Kardashian and other sex-crazed "stars" are the main attraction/distraction. Asuras, nagas, yakkhas, and devas (titans, reptilians, ogres, and dubious "angels" or fairies) make their contribution as Kanye contributes genes on behalf of the terrestrial humans. All hail the "king"!
Pacifica Radio's Michael Slate Show delves into the new Occu Doc and the senselessness of our one party system with two wings, a moderate and a hard right. Choosing the lesser of two evils means we always end up with evil. If an incumbent is re-elected because the alternative is worse, it's no surprise s/he does nothing new the next time. Obama does not deserve to be re-elected, but Romney would be a disaster, a vulture capitalist in the hen house. Oh, what to do!? Listen as Slate breaks it down. The Occupy Movement is just one expression of a larger American discontent: PLAY NOW (download)
Barbara O'Brien (Buddhism.About.com), Special Correspondence to Wisdom Quarterly
The Americans are onto something. If there are Gateless Gates, why not wordless words?
Controversy? I don't see a controversy, although maybe that's because I've been aware for many years that every Zen center and monastery operating with the English language is using a different translation for the Four Vows and the rest of the chanted liturgy as well.
I hadn't realized this was bothering anybody. A big part of the Zen tradition is the understanding that the absolute truth cannot be contained in words and concepts, and so the wording is never perfect.
It's actually interesting to compare various translations to see how different people have struggled to get closer to what is being expressed. No one, however, will ever get it right. I don't see that as a problem; it's just how it is. My current sangha [practice community], which is in the San Francisco Zen Center lineage, chants the Four Vows twice in Japanese and once in English.
The English translation we use is different from the first one I learned, which was the one being used by the Los Angeles Zen Center in the 1980s or so. FYI: The Four Vows Controversy (Zen) Brian Eno, "Sky Saw," from the album Another Green World
The Final Word
Well now that the grande dame of lay American Buddhism has weighed in -- and Richard, Ron, and Don have had their say on behalf of the rebellious ZCLA crowd, a position WQ can cotton to, and Mara is finished researching -- there's nothing left to say. Case closed! Chant in Japanese, and leave it at that. When the words are meaningless, leave them alone. Brian Eno, the famous glam rocker, ambient innovator, and progressive producer for acts like U2, said it best in his abstract song "Sky Saw":
All the clouds turn to words All the words float in sequence No one knows what they mean Everyone just ignores them
Reliquary burial mound (stupa, dagaba, pagoda) in Sri Lanka (Digifancanon/flickr.com)
Nature's own little stupas
I recently came across the apparently defunct Conservative Buddhist blog, not realizing that my grouchy grandpa's friends could write.
Kindred spirits, I thought, curious curmudgeons with one eye on the Dharma and another on keeping the status quo -- "conserving" everything just as it is.
We at Wisdom Quarterly are more in tune with social liberals like American patriot and Transcendental author Nathaniel Hawthorne, who could have been speaking of serenity-meditation when he pointed out:
"Happiness is a butterfly which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
-Nathaniel Hawthorne
Poet Nathaniel Hawthorne, Salem
Being an American Buddhist is being a reader. It might be about being a practitioner in the future. But it goes with our laid back, easy going approach to not being Puritans anymore. Now as mild Unitarians or Spiritists we are free to investigate and explore the world's spiritual traditions as well as paranormal perplexities.
Imagine one day when we all share, care, and are fair. That will be paradise, bliss on Earth, a sparkle of sunshine for the morning of our humanity. But conservatives want to go backward to a time that didn't exist, when the American Dream worked, everyone lived in suburbia, and we were all uniformly homogenous.
One-in-seven Americans are now Buddhists. Most in the US are fluid and searching.
A month after a Pew Research Center report on Asians becoming the nation’s fastest-growing immigrant group faced criticism for downplaying Asian Americans’ diversity, Pew has come back with a new report that focuses on the diversity of their religious beliefs.
While it does not address the socioeconomic and educational diversity and disparities that critics pointed out in the last month, the report from the Pew Forum on Religious & Public Life does adjust some misperceptions, while revealing several facts that are not particularly well known beyond Asian American diasporas. Here’s [some]:
Asian Americans are neither predominantly Buddhist nor Hindu.
In the United States, there are more Asian Americans who are Christian (42 percent) than any other religion.
Many of these Christians are Filipinos, who are traditionally Catholic, and Koreans, many of whom are Protestant.
The percentage of Buddhists (14 percent), Hindus (10 percent), and Muslims (4 percent) is small by comparison.
Labels do not really tell us what people believe.
Still, as migration from Asia has increased, so has the the nation’s share of Buddhists and Hindus.
Buddhists now account for one in seven Americans, according to the report, and counted together, the share of Americans who practice Buddhism and Hinduism is about the same as that of those practicing Judaism (about 2 percent).
At the same time, in contrast, a large share (26 percent) of Asian Americans consider themselves “unaffiliated,” that is, not practicing any particular religion. More
We have a choice, even if our choice is "none."
Asian Americans: A Mosaic of Faiths
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (pewforum.org)
When it comes to religion, the Asian-American community is a study in contrasts, encompassing groups that run the gamut from highly religious to highly secular. A new survey report examines the Asian-American population from the angle of religious affiliation, highlighting the beliefs, practices and views of diverse faith groups. More
Sex addiction (whether called nymphomania or satyriasis) is a sad condition, but it is funny and entertaining as the topic of a Scandinavian teen sex comedy -- with all the neurosis and discomfort of high school.
TURN ME ON, DAMNIT! was awarded "Best Screenplay" at the Tribeca Film Festival 2011. It is a story about a group of teenage friends who feel trapped in the Norwegian small town they live in, which they constantly flip off. "D*ck-Alma" is experiencing desires she never felt before as she is discovering her sexuality. [No precipitating molestation is shown but it can be inferred.] Her sexual curiosity makes daydreaming and phone-sex an escape from everyday life. At a party, Artur -- the boy who frequents Alma's dreams -- makes a bold move on her, but everything seems to go wrong. The life Alma wanted to escape from has somehow become even worse. The film consists of beautiful frames and music, with dialogue that is careful but spot on. Jannicke Systad Jacobsen strikes against all the taboos surrounding young women's sexuality. The world has been waiting for a film like this. And we can only hope that we have evolved enough that fewer people will feel squeamish or shamed by something everyone goes through at a certain age. Starring: Helene Bergsholm, Malin Bjørhovde, Henriette Steenstrup, Beate Støfring, Matias Myren.
Laci Green saves the world (again)
Even with the success of Zen and Fifty Shades of Grey-- Catholic, Jewish, Christian fundamentalist America may not be ready for a light film on such a heavy topic. But since it comes from faraway Norway, it just might avoid protests, intolerant outbursts, and church condemnation. As Americans we are very confused about sex due to our hopelessly entangled Puritanical and pornographic roots.
