It took 150 years to blow up the banking sector – a brief history of a slow detonation. Article link

If anyone had hoped that the Arab Spring and Occupy protests a few years back were one-off episodes that would soon give way to more stability, they have another thing coming. The hope was that ongoing economic recovery would return to pre-crash levels of growth, alleviating the grievances fueling the fires of civil unrest, stoked by years of recession.

But this hasn’t happened. And it won’t.

Instead the post-2008 crash era, including 2013 and early 2014, has seen a persistence and proliferation of civil unrest on a scale that has never been seen before in human history.

This month alone has seen riots kick-off in Venezuela, Bosnia, Ukraine, Iceland, and Thailand. This is not a coincidence. The riots are of course rooted in common, regressive economic forces playing out across every continent of the planet – but those forces themselves are symptomatic of a deeper, protracted process of global system failure as we transition from the old industrial era of dirty fossil fuels, towards something else.

Even before the Arab Spring erupted in Tunisia in December 2010, analysts at the New England Complex Systems Institute warned of thedanger of civil unrest due to escalating food prices. If the Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO) food price index rises above 210, they warned, it could trigger riots across large areas of the world.

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A Winter Solstice Thought

There is no prosperity without harmony,

Not of the mind, and not of the body.

Not within a family, nor within a community,

And not with any other even less important thing.

Beware the thought you think.

Beware what you say that may offend.

A word is like a sword, and can wound deeply.

A word can also heal and calm a troubled soul.

Be aware of what others might feel.

Be sensitive to what they may think.

Your words or actions can make a difference.

Difference goes in two ways; as with all things.

The shortest day of the year has also the longest night.

It comes in the dead of Winter, marking the point where new life begins.

New life begins as the days grow long.

Harmony is therefore maintained; the cycle complete.

Seek The Way in all things and in all people.

It may well be hidden, but it is there.

Seek justice, as without it you have nothing.

Insist on your sovereignty, because you are free.

The Way says so.

© R.G. Crosbie 2013

Said the Buddha, “Learning is a good thing; but it availeth not. True wisdom can be acquired by practice only. Practice the truth that thy brother is the same as thou. Walk in the noble path of righteousness and thou wilt understand that while there is death in self, there is immortality in truth.”

A lesson on truth and self; from the writings of the Brotherhood of Nazarenes, the Brotherhood of Twelve and One

Kutadanta, the head of the Brahmans in the village of Danamati, having approached the Blessed One respectfully, greeted him and said, “I am told, O samana, that thou art the Buddha, the Holy One, the All-Wise, the Lord of the World. But if thou were the Buddha, wouldst thou not come like a king in all thy glory and power, and not as a pauper?”

Said the Blessed One, “Thine eyes are holden. If the eye of thy mind were undimmed, thou couldst see the glory and the power of truth that I teach to any who care to listen.”

Said Kutadanta, “Show me the truth, and I shall see it. But thy doctrine is without consistency. If it were consistent, it would stand; but as it is not, it will pass away.”

The Blessed One replied, “The truth will never pass away,”it needs no protection, and is not alterable.”

Kutadanta said, “I am told that thou teachest The Law, yet thou tearest down religion. Thy disciples despise rites and abandon immolation, but reverence for the gods can be shown only by sacrifices. The very nature of religion consists in worship and sacrifice.”

Said the Buddha, “Greater than the immolation of bullocks is the sacrifice of self. He who offers to the imagined gods his evil desires, will see the uselessness of slaughtering animals at the altar. Blood has no cleansing power, but the eradication of lusts will make the heart pure. Better than worshipping gods is obedience to the laws of that which is right and good.”

Kutadanta, being of religious disposition, and anxious about his fate after death, had sacrificed countless victims. Now he saw the folly of atonement by blood. Not yet satisfied, however, with the teachings of The Way, Kutadanta continued, “Thou believest, O Master, that beings are reborn; that they migrate in the evolution of life; and that, subject to the law of karma, we must reap what we sow. Yet thou teachest the non-existence of the soul! Thy disciples praise utter self-extinction as the highest bliss of nirvana. If I am merely a combination of the sankharas²¹, my existence will cease when I die. If I am merely a compound of sensations and ideas and desires, whither can I go at the dissolution of the body?”

Said the Blessed One, “O Brahman, thou art religious and earnest. Thou art seriously concerned about thy soul. Yet is thy work in vain because thou art lacking in the one thing that is needful. There is rebirth of character, but no transmigration of a self. Thy thought-forms reappear, but there is no ego-entity transferred. The stanza uttered by a teacher is reborn in the scholar who repeats the words. Only through ignorance and delusion do men indulge in the dream that their souls are separate and self-existent entities. Thy heart, O Brahman, is cleaving still to self; thou art anxious about heaven but thou seekest the pleasures of self in heaven, and thus thou canst not see the bliss of truth and the immortality of truth.

“Verily I say unto thee, the Blessed One has not come to teach death, but to teach life, and thou discernest not the nature of living and dying. This body will be dissolved, and no amount of sacrifice will save it. Therefore, seek thou the life that is of the mind, which is spirit.

“Where self is, truth cannot be; yet when truth comes, self will disappear. Therefore, let thy mind rest in the truth; propagate the truth; put thy whole will in it, and let it spread. In the truth thou shalt live forever.

“Self is death, and truth is life. The cleaving to self is a perpetual dying, while moving in the truth is partaking of nirvana, which is life-everlasting blood following blood, according to the teaching of the pentacle.”

Kutadanta said, “Where, O venerable Master, is Nirvana?”

“Nirvana is wherever the precepts of The Way are obeyed,” replied the Blessed One.

“Do I understand thee aright,” rejoined the Brahman, “that Nirvana is not a place, and, being nowhere, it is without reality?”

“Thou dost not understand me aright,” said the Blessed One, “Now listen, and answer these questions. Where does the wind dwell?”

“Nowhere,” was the reply.

The the Buddha retorted, “Then, sir, there is no such thing as wind.”

Kutadanta made no reply; and the Blessed One asked again, “Answer me, O Brahman, where does wisdom dwell? Is wisdom a locality?”

“Wisdom has no allotted dwelling-place,” replied Kutadanta.

Said the Blessed One, “Meanest thou that there is no wisdom, no enlightenment, no righteousness, and no salvation, because nirvana is not a locality? As a great and mighty wind which passeth over the world in the heat of the day, so the Brotherhood comes: to blow over the minds of mankind with the breath of his love, so cool, so sweet, so calm, so delicate; and those tormented by fever assuage their suffering, and rejoice at the refreshing breeze.”

Said Kutadanta, “I feel, O Lord, that thou proclaimeath a great doctrine, but I cannot grasp it. Forbear with me that I ask again. Tell me, O Lord, if there be no atman, how can there be immortality? The activity of the mind passeth, and our thoughts are gone when we have done thinking.”

The Buddha replied, “Our thinking is gone, but our thoughts continue. Reasoning ceases, but knowledge remains.”

Said Kutadanta, “How is that? Is not reasoning and knowledge the same?”

The Blessed One explained the distinction by an illustration, “It is as when a man wants, during the night, to send a letter, and, after having his clerk called, has a lamp lit, and gets the letter written. Then, when that has been done, he extinguishes the lamp. But though the writing has been finished and the light has been put out the letter is still there. Thus does belief cease and knowledge and reason remain; and in the same way mental activity ceases, but experience, wisdom, and all the fruits of our acts endure.”

Kutadanta continued, “Tell me, O Lord, pray tell me, where, if the sankharas are dissolved, is the identity of my self? If my thoughts are propagated, and if my soul migrates, my thoughts cease to be my thoughts and my soul ceases to be my soul. Give me an illustration, but pray, O Lord, tell me, where is the identity of my self?”

Said the Blessed One, “Suppose a man were to light a lamp; would it burn the night through?”

“Yes, it might do so,” was the reply.

“Now, is it the same flame that burns in the first watch of the night as in the second?” Kutadanta hesitated. He thought “Yes, it is the same flame,” but fearing the complications of a hidden meaning, and trying to be exact, he said, “No, it is not.”

“Then,” continued the Blessed One, “there are flames, one in the first watch and the other in the second watch.”

“No, sir,” said Kutadanta, “in one sense it is not the same flame, but in another sense it is the same flame. It burns the same kind of oil, it emits the same kind of light, and it serves the same purpose.”

“Very well,” said the Buddha, “and would you call those flames the same that have burned yesterday and are burning now in the same lamp, filled with the same kind of oil, illuminating the same room?”

“They may have been extinguished during the day,” suggested Kutadanta.

Said the Blessed One, “Suppose the flame of the first watch had been extinguished during the second watch, would you call it the same if it burns again in the third watch?”

Replied Kutadanta, “In one sense it is a different flame, in another it is not.”

The Tathagata asked again, “Has the time that elapsed during the extinction of the flame anything to do with its identity or non-identity?”

“No, sir,” said the Brahman, “it has not. There is a difference and an identity, whether many years elapsed or only one second, and also whether the lamp has been extinguished in the meantime or not.”

“Well, then, we agree that the flame of today is in a certain sense the same as the flame of yesterday, and in another sense it is different at every moment. Moreover, the flames of the same kind, illuminating with equal power the same kind of rooms are in a certain sense the same.”

“Yes, sir,” replied Kutadanta.

The Blessed One continued, “Now, suppose there is a man who feels like thyself, thinks like thyself, and acts like thyself, is he not the same man as thou?”

“No, sir,” replied Kutadanta.

Said the Buddha, “Dost thou deny that the same logic holds good for thyself that holds good for the things of the world?”

Kutadanta bethought himself and rejoined slowly, “No, I do not. The same logic holds good universally; but there is a peculiarity about my self which renders it altogether different from everything else and also from other selves. There may be another man who feels exactly like me, thinks like me, and acts like me; suppose even he had the same name and the same kind of possessions he would not be myself.”

“True, Kutadanta,” answered the Buddha, “he would not be thyself. Now, tell me, is the person who goes to school one, and that same person when he has finished his schooling another? Is it one who commits a crime, another who is punished by having his hands and feet cut off in this sad believer's world wherein we abide?”

“They are the same,” was the reply.

“Then sameness is constituted by continuity only?” asked the Tathagata.

“Not only by continuity,” said Kutadanta, “but also and mainly by identity of character.”

“Very well,” concluded the Buddha, “then thou agreest that persons can be the same, in the same sense as two flames of the same kind are called the same; and thou must recognize that in this sense another man of the same character and product of the same karma is the same as thou.”

“Well, I do.” said the Brahman.

The Buddha continued, “And in this same sense alone art thou the same to-day as yesterday. Thy nature is not constituted by the matter of which thy body consists, but by thy sankharas, the forms of the body, of sensations, of thoughts. Thy person is the combination of the sankharas. Wherever they are, thou art. Whithersoever they go, thou goest. Thus thou wilt recognize in a certain sense an identity of thy self, and in another sense a difference. But he who does not recognize the identity should deny all identity, and should say that the questioner is no longer the same person as he who a minute after receives the answer. Now consider the continuation of thy personality, which is preserved in thy karma. Dost thou call it death and annihilation, or life and continued life?”

“I call it life and continued life,” rejoined Kutadanta, “for it is the continuation of my existence; but I do not care for that kind of continuation. All I care for is the continuation of self in the other sense, which makes of every man, whether identical with me or not, an altogether different person.”

“Very well,” said the Buddha. “this is what thou desirest, and this is the cleaving to self. This is thy error. All compound things are transitory, they grow and they decay. All compound things are subject to pain, they will be separated from what they love and be joined to what they abhor. All compound things lack a self, an atman, an ego.”

“How is that?” asked Kutadanta.

“Where is thy self?” asked the Buddha. And when Kutadanta made no reply, he continued, “Thy self to which thou cleavest is a constant change. Years ago thou wast a small babe; then, thou wast a boy; then a youth, and now thou art a man. Is there any identity of the babe and the man? There is an identity in a certain sense only. Indeed there is more identity between the flames of the first watch and the third watch, even though the lamp might have been extinguished during the second watch. Now, which is thy true self, that of yesterday, that of to-day, or that of to-morrow, for the preservation of which thou clamourest?”

Kutadanta was bewildered. “Lord of the World,” he said, “I see my error, but I am still confused.”

The Tathagata continued, “It is by a process of evolution that sankharas come to be. There is no sankhara which has sprung into being without a gradual becoming. Thy sankharas are the product of thy deeds in former existences. The combination of thy sankharas is thy self. Wheresoever they are impressed thither, thy self migrates. In thy sankharas thou wilt continue to live, and thou wilt reap future existences of the harvest sown now and in the past.”

“Verily, O Lord,” rejoined Kutadanta, “this is not a fair retribution. I cannot recognize the justice that others after me will reap what I am sowing now.”

The Blessed One waited a moment and then replied, “Is all teaching in vain? Dost thou not understand that those others are thou thyself? Thou thyself wilt reap what thou sowest, not others.

“Think of a man who is ill-bred and destitute, suffering from the wretchedness of his condition. As a boy he was slothful and indolent, and when he grew up he had not learned a craft to earn a living. Wouldst thou say his misery is not the product of his own action, because the adult is no longer the same person as was the boy? Verily, I say unto thee, not in the heavens, not in the midst of the sea, not if thou hidest thyself away in the clefts of the mountains, wilt thou find a place where thou canst escape the fruit of thine evil actions.

“At the same time thou art sure to receive the blessings of thy good actions. The man who has long been travelling and who returns home in safety, the welcome of kinsfolk, friends, and acquaintances awaits. So, the fruits of his good works bid him welcome who has walked in the path of righteousness, when he passes over from the present life into the hereafter.”

Kutadanta said, “I have faith in the glory and excellency of thy doctrines. My eye cannot as yet endure the light; but I now understand that there is no self, and the truth dawns upon me. Sacrifices cannot save, and invocations are idle talk. But how shall I find the path to life everlasting? I know all the Vedas by heart and have not found the truth.”

Said the Buddha, “Learning is a good thing; but it availeth not. True wisdom can be acquired by practice only. Practice the truth that thy brother is the same as thou. Walk in the noble path of righteousness and thou wilt understand that while there is death in self, there is immortality in truth.”

Said Kutadanta, “Let me take my refuge in the Blessed One, in the Dharma, and in the Brotherhood. Accept me as thy disciple and let me partake of the bliss of immortality.”

© 2013 Four Elements Publications Ltd

From The Hallowed Book of Man – Chapter: The Truth Will Never Pass Away

News Article

The names of nearly three-quarters of a million individuals have been secretly added to watch lists administered by the United States government, but federal officials are adamant about keeping information about these rosters under wraps.

A report by the New York Times' Susan Stellin published over the weekend attempted to shine much-deserved light on an otherwise largely unexposed program of federal watch lists, but details about these directories ,” including the names of individuals on them and what they did to get there ,” remain as elusive as ever.

More than 12 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, federal agencies continue to keep lists on hand containing names of individuals of interest: people who often end up un-cleared to enter or exit the US due to an array of activity that could be considered suspicious or terrorist-related to government officials.

In 2008, the American Civil Liberties Union claimed that an Inspector General of the Department of Justice report found at least 700,000 individual names on the database maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation sub-office tasked with overseeing the “single database of identifying information about those known or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist activity.” Five years later, that number of suspicious persons is reportedly close to what it was at the time. Half-a-decade down the road, however, Americans and foreign nationals who end up on the government's radar are offered little chance to find out how they ended there, or even file an appeal.

According to some, that's just the start of what's wrong with these lists. …read more

Watching the Watchers

* Guardian cites documents leaked by Edward Snowden

* Report embarrassing for European critics of NSA

* German agency denies circumventing laws (Adds German reaction)

By Estelle Shirbon

LONDON, Nov 2 (Reuters) – Spy agencies across Western Europe are working together on mass surveillance of Internet and phone traffic comparable to programmes run by their U.S. counterpart denounced by European governments, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.

Citing documents leaked by fugitive former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, the Guardian said methods included tapping into fibre optic cables and working covertly with private telecommunications companies.

The Guardian named Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands as countries where intelligence agencies had been developing such methods in cooperation with counterparts including Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ.

The report is potentially embarrassing for governments, especially in Germany and France which have been the most vocal in protesting about U.S. mass surveillance of European communication networks revealed by Snowden since June.

Germany, jointly with Brazil, circulated a draft resolution to a U.N. General Assembly committee on Friday that called for an end to excessive electronic surveillance, data collection and other gross invasions of privacy.

There has been particular anger in Germany, a close ally of the United States, over the revelation that the NSA monitored the mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Snowden has written an open letter to Merkel and other German authorities to say he is counting on international support to stop Washington’s “persecution” of him.

Read more

Major telecom companies have been assisting the UK intelligence agency GCHQ by granting access to all the traffic passing through their fiber-optic cables ,“ and by developing Trojan software, leaked papers obtained by German media reveal.

The classified slides obtained by German news agencies Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and NDR list global telecommunication operators among the collaborators of the UK's Government Communications Headquarters. The documents are said to have been leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The 2009-dated GCHQ slides reportedly provide the names of the following companies, along with their agency's internal aliases: American provider Verizon Business (code name: “Dacron”), British majors BT (“Remedy”) and Vodafone Cable (“Gerontic”), as well as Global Crossing (“Pinnage”), Level 3 (“Little”), Viatel (“Vitreous”) and Interoute (“Streetcar”).

The listed telecom giants have allegedly been passing on details of phone calls, emails and Facebook entries to the agency in line with the GCHQ's operation Tempora. Snowden earlier revealed that Tempora was part of the UK's data collection programs dubbed ‘Mastering the Internet' and ‘Global Telecoms Exploitation.'

The seven providers named in the reports own tens of thousands of kilometers of fiber-optic networks, including the high-capacity undersea cables, and literally form the backbone of the internet's infrastructure.

According to a Guardian intelligence source cited in June, all such firms had “no choice” but to engage in spying, compelled by the GCHQ warrants. Until now, the companies' names had been strictly kept secret by the agency for fear of “high-level political fallout” and major market losses.

But the fresh leaks also claim to be showing another side of the secret deal, with telecom majors allegedly receiving rewards for developing the spying software for GCHQ on their own. Such software could come in a form of Trojan viruses installed on targeted computers, the reports say, stating that the companies' involvement in data collection is much larger and more complicated than previously thought.

The reports also list network attacks and deliberate disinformation as the tactics employed by the UK's intelligence agency in their task for ‘dominating' the internet.

Read more

Photo credit Businessinsider.com

Human beings are unfit for war, whether such wars are large, small or local. It is beneath their human dignity to do so much evil, or create such horror, regardless of excuses made up for them by those who rule them and desire war.

Rulers who create war are to be considered not actually human. Those who force, cajole, or encourage ordinary people to create such horror, can only be viewed as creatures so low that they cannot be accurately described or named.

© 2013 R. G. Crosbie

Numbers

At this appointed time, nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. The two cross-eyed kings shall bring about damnation upon the earth, for they are vile. They, as all men in his time, shall know not reason: for if I told you earthly things, ye would believe not; if you are told of heavenly things which are beyond all reason, why then shall ye believe? Are ye not mad?

And this is the condemnation: – that light is come into the world and he walks amongst you, and yet men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil and are more easily hid. They are all gone out of The Way because The Way is become unprofitable: there is none that doeth good because of right ,” no, not one.

And the law of The Way is not of faith, nor is it of belief: but the man that does them shall live within them with diligence and respect. Man heaps afflictions upon the head of his brother, and no man should be moved by these afflictions; for yourselves know that which you do is evil.

© 2004 From the Ciphers of the Son of the Widow

The Buddha

Without his knowing, certain members of the Brotherhood of Nazarenes watched him at all times, as had it so been since his sign was first seen in the firmament. Before his birth was due, and as his sign grew, Brothers had journeyed to the place where he would be born, and they were there. And because they were strangers they were not allowed to approach the palace or the queen whilst she was with child; and so he was anointed by them as a king at that time of his birth, but not as he should have been, for they did not possess the hallowed oils, as they were not known of in that place.

So they watched and they waited until they saw a safe opportunity. They knew that he would not receive them until his torment was great and his mind would be receptive to reason and the hallowed knowledge. They followed him in his footsteps wherever his feet did tread, for many years.

One day he was tired and was much disturbed, as he now felt that he was mad, as men did say of him; and he sat to rest beneath a Bodhi tree, in its shade.

One of the brothers who had been following him approached and spoke onto him, and asked him why was he troubled. This good brother showed him his own Caul, together with the brother's own Caul, as he began to speak unto him; and so did he impress him. He was receptive to him and to all that he did say onto him.

They were then joined by the other brothers there present; and Buddha knew kinship for the first time from the brothers and to the brothers; and they were overjoyed.

He listened to them and they talked to him for many days without rest or sleep. He did not tire, and he gained the power of true reason from them, and he gained knowledge of that which he was; and he was content with it. They took him with them; and so began his education for many years.

Again he did go amongst his people, and they were much amazed by his sayings, and he was full of the light of his knowledge; and this did he do for the rest of his life.

He healed the sick and performed great wonders; and as he did so he gained followers, and he taught them. Alas, to small avail, for upon his death all gain and reason lay twisted, and he was ill-used. Even whilst he lived was he ill used by lowly men who had knowledge only of lust for power, and lived in the darkness of their minds.

And the High Lord Buddha too was also exalted as a god long after he was dead and his children were dead; and the true greatness of him was lost. Men were still not ready for that which he had set before them. Again, men of greed for power used him and all that he was, to create something that was against all that he was, and all that he did, and all that he did say. And by the use of this vileness men did great wrong of him and his Caul, and they did believe whatever gave them power over his people. And they knew not anything except the vileness of belief and the evil of unreason.

And before he did die he did prophesy, and did prophesy of those High Caulbearers that would follow after him. And men heard his sayings not, for all was twisted, and his reason was not in their understanding.

He prophesied of another who would come after him and be sorely used, and would feign death to escape the evil of men in his time, so that he could prepare for the last and the seventh that was to come.

Again they heard him not, and all that was of him was dead to them, and all that he was not was breathed life into. He was as if risen from the dead of that which he was, to an everlasting life of that which he was not. Cursed are they who did this thing to this High Lord.

Extract from The Hallowed Book of Man – Chapter: The Buddha

Why Iran Already Has the Bomb

If North Korea has the bomb, as this week's nuclear test indicated, then for all practical purposes, so does Iran