Last Day in Galveston for Ghost Dog and the Buddha
The next day we started our drive back to Kentucky….
Galveston Day 7
Month: April 2021
The Three Bodies of Buddha
Buddhisim by the Numbers
The Buddha came to be represented as having “three bodies”:
- Dharmakaya – the source of enlightenment and happiness.
- Sambhogakaya – the body of bliss or enlightenment.
- Nirmanakaya – the historical embodiment of the Buddha.
When he was about to pass away, the Buddha told his disciples, “Dear friends, my physical body will not be here tomorrow, but my teaching body (Dharmakaya) will always be with you. Consider it to be the teacher who never leaves you. Be islands unto yourselves, take refuge in the Dharma. Use the Dharma as your lamp, your island.”
The original meaning of Dharmakaya, the way to realize understanding and love.
Based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hahn
Photo by Benn Bell
Generation of Swine
Let’s face it. The only way Republicans can win is to cheat. That is what is behind the voting rights restrictions which affect mostly people of color who are most like to vote Democratic. The Republicans simply don’t have the numbers to win so they suppress the vote in order to improve their chances. We can’t let this happen. The Republicans want to hold onto power and rule by minority. They don’t care how they do it or how many lies they have to tell in the process. The image of a group of all white men signing a bill into law in Georgia restricting the right to vote with a picture in the background of a slave plantation while a black female senator is being arrested and put in handcuffs just outside the door who is demanding transparency, tells you all you need to know about the racist white supremacist ideology that these Republican swine are vomiting onto the body politic. Any person of conscience will reject these acts and if they are a Republican, they will immediately resign from the party which is now more than ever completely morally bankrupt. Furthermore, I urge all people who care about the right to vote to boycott products and service that emanate out of Georgia.
Blood and Soil
According to Karl Popper, writing in his The Open Society and its Enemies, The Myth of Blood and Soil was originated by Plato and detailed in The Republic. Plato freely admits that the myth is a lie. It was a propaganda ploy used to bolster his idea of the ideal state which is totalitarian in nature ruled by a philosopher king and a racially pure elite.
The Myth of Blood and Soil is based on two ideas: 1. In order to strengthen the defense of the mother country men are born of the earth of their country which is their mother. 2. Racialism: “God has put gold into those who are capable of ruling, silver into the auxiliaries, and iron and copper into the peasants and other producer classes.” These metals are racial characteristics. Any admixture of one of these base metals must be excluded from the higher classes. In other words, only those with racial purity may rule. Plato goes on to say that any mixing of the metals will lead to the fall of man. “Iron will mingle with silver and bronze with gold, and from this admixture variation will be born and absurd irregularity; and whenever these are born they will they will beget struggle and hostility; the city (state) must perish when guarded by iron and copper” and lead to the degradation and the fall of man. Remember, Plato admits that the Myth of Blood and Soil is a propaganda lie useful in persuading his rulers to follow his racial policies.
Fast forward to Germany in the late 19th century where the phrase Blood and Soil was appropriated by the Germans to signify and glorify racialism and nationalism. The German translation reads: “Blut und Boden.” Rural life was idealized and combined with the ideas of racism and anti-Semitism. “Blood and Soil” became a key phrase of Nazi ideology.
This phrase has been taken up and by neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups here in the United States as a rallying cry. Nazis could be heard chanting the phrase, “Blood and Soil” on the streets of Charlottesville as they marched carrying their torches.
Ghost Dog 