Good Vs Evil

I've been watching The Atheist Experience lately on YouTube.  It occurred to me:

What is the definition of evil?

Evil is the opposite of good, right?  But evil can only be evil if you know what good looks like.  So a person's perception or understanding of good determines what the opposite might be.

Do we not have different opinions and tastes in all areas in life?  Would those leanings of mind therefore define what is good or evil?

Without anyone else to educate you or to tell you what good is, how do you know what evil is?  Organised religions go a long way to address this problem but they do so in a destructive way because the rely on the supernatural, superstition, deception and threats of violence or torture to achieve this.

The solution from the teachings of the Buddha revolves around the cessation of suffering for all sentient beings.  If the cessation and reduction of suffering is the number one priority in your daily life, you suddenly see perspective and positive ethics come naturally.  Like putting your hand in the fire.

That really, for me, makes all the Christian, Muslim and Jewish approaches to ethical living redundant.  It becomes obvious to you in a flash what your actions and speech ought to be.


Peace and joy everyone, peace and joy.

A New Age Of Sticking It To The Man

It occurred to me just now.  People view you and they form opinions of who you are and what you know or stand for.  

It brings me back to the story of the respected monk who was invited to attend a function and arrived in the shabbiest, most tired robes he could find.  

When he arrived they turned him away as they thought he was just some horrible stinking vagrant.

They became concerned that their star guest has not shown up and made their excuses.

When the monk returned in his best robes he asked if there was anything wrong.

They told him about the vagrant monk who troubled them earlier and with that he began to remove his robes.

"What are you doing??" They asked.

"I was that vagrant monk you spoke of.  Now did you invite me or my clothing?"

This is an example that is alive and well to this day.  People think I'm a clean living, diligent person and always have been.  Just because I'm in a position of perceived responsibility they assume I have always been the same.  Not true.  I developed and evolved over a long period of time.  This is based only on their understanding of me as they percieve me since they've known me.  Everyone is a product of his or her past I know but don't get hung up on appearances as this is dangerous territory.  As the story suggests, and it is a non superstitious story, anyone could be anything.

A Buddhist tale about vanity and why vanity is unwholesome.

Phones and TV services

Earlier this month I acquired Virgin Media TV, Broadband and phone. I'd always been a Sky TV man and still like what they do tremendously. Unfortunately, where we live the satellite dish could only be fitted to a wooden fence which meant any disturbance to the fence would result in a weaker signal. This was irritating when the problem would occur at a time when I wasn't in the mood to go out there with the satellite finder and tools and start readjusting.

I decided after a while to go ahead and get Virgin cable TV, the 30 mbps broadband and phone and save money at the same time. With £70 credit on the bill and half price TV for 6 months it was a sensible offer.

The two young guys came and installed everything cleanly and professionally and all is well. I didn't choose to take as many channels as with Sky but frankly I didn't watch them a great deal anyway. Since the Virgin TiVo box has 10 mbps broadband as standard I spend more time watching TV on demand and catchup TV now. Searching the backlog has resulted in a greater quality of programming to choose from and something my Sky setup was unable to do (easily) since my broadband was on the other side of the room.

Now although I have fewer channels I am less reliant on recording and watching from the schedule which means manually searching what is on or coming up, and now I can access more choice with fewer channels. Not only that but I have YouTube on the main TV screen.

One issue I had was the phone charges. Looking on the online itemised bill I noticed that an unanswered call to a mobile phone lasting just two seconds cost us 39 pence!

Now I have put a headset on to my PC and will make calls using Skype if my mobile signal is no good at home. Currently the signal is very poor in our house on O2 so we used to use a landline just so we could hear the other person and not get cut off. This is also beneficial for us as we used to phone abroad with an 0844 number. This was supposed to be 1p per minute but over the Virgin line it is a lot more than this!

So to summarise: Virgin is a quality service in my opinion and I'm enjoying the TV a lot more than I expected. The broadband is the best I've ever had. But beware of how much phone calls cost!

Fish and Plant Keeping

I have a small nano fish tank of 30 litres and it brings me a great deal of pleasure.  It's a Juwel Vio 40.  I have aspirations to upgrade and almost went to a much bigger setup a couple of months ago.  My other big interest is growing plants.  Chillies, herbs, orchids and draceana marginata at the moment.

The process of taking care of the fish and plants brings me a great deal of peace and helps me feel tranquil at home.  If you need a hobby that is totally absorbing then try plants or fish.

When I set about working on the fish tank, that is all I think about.  Nothing else.  I use it as a mindfulness exercise.  Similarly when I work on the orchids that is all I concentrate on.  Shut out the problems of your work or whatever and absorb yourself in the moment of the task i.e. cleaning the fish tank inside with the sponge.  Up, down, up, down, left, right and so on.  This way you can achieve first class results and reach a level of relaxation that you wouldn't have otherwise found.

Musa Basjoo Cuttings

Today I took 3 cuttings of my banana plant.  The biggest one (in the foreground) was left with one root barely hanging off.  The smaller two have a lot more roots left so they may have a better chance of taking.  I decided to sprinkle rooting hormone on all three to help things along.  Well...if it works, it works.

I suspect the biggest one with no roots will fold but hope the other two will take.  Either way I'll show pictures of the disaster (or triumph) unfolding.

My thoughts on retirement

It is something I think about regularly and a very important part of my life.  When do I stop work?  What is the strategy?  I look around at my workplace and see men over 60 (my father included) and I wonder what they are in it for?  The simple answer is money of course.  I've seen some wonderful colleagues die in service before they had even one day of retirement.  What an injustice.  The pension companies talk to us about our target age of retirement.  60? 62? 65?  They seem to suggest we are guaranteed to live this long.  We aren't.  If I was told my death age was 53 what reaction would I have to this news?  This is my point.  I consider each day spent beyond 50 years old as a slave to the wage packet one too many.  This is my goal: retire before I'm 55.  I don't care if I'm not quite rich enough.  As far as I am concerned when you don't want anything you're the richest man in the world.  The training therefore is: reduce your cravings and desires rather than working to achieve material wealth and property.  Simplify and declutter yourself.  With each possesion you get rid of you feel more and more freedom.  The trappings of the modern upbringing slain like a dragon.
In Buddhism the 'middle way' is not being a strict ascetic monk taking yourself to the extremes of sensory deprivation, hunger and thirst; nor is it overindulgence in food, drink and luxuries.  Therefore the average person should try to see what is reasonably attainable and stick to a realistic and sensible plan for retirement.  If you become comfortable with reducing down to the 'monk level' then this is great but the average person may not want to go that far.  The tendency should be to scale down in my opinion.

If feathering your nest is your thing, and it is mine at this point in my family's life, do it whilst you're young enough to put the long hours in.  These old men working full time really have either missed the boat in their younger days or are deluding themselves into believing that the extra 2 years service will be worthwhile.  You're a long time dead.

Polish snags

If you're into smoked gammon get some of this Polish sausage. It's a beautiful cold cut.  Since the inclusion of Poland into the E.U. in 2004 some unreal meat products are readily available in the corner shops.  Take advantage maaaann!!!!

This beauty I paid £3.49 for and it is good for a week's worth of sandwiches.

 

Mike's one pot curry.

I have been cooking Indian style curry for 10 years now and employed various methods over time trying to hit the perfect blend.

The other week I was in a lazy mood so took out the food processor and a single saucepan. What came was a different method entirely dispensing with the stir-fry beginning that is common in most recipes. It was a cold start with the raw ingredients whizzed up into a thinnish, pinky soup and when cooked and simmered down over an hour or so it produced a beautifully balanced dish. Try it:

2 medium onions
6 garlic cloves
1 thumb of ginger
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Green coriander
1 heaped teaspoon Madras powder
1 heaped teaspoon Garam masala
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
250/300ml Water
About 5 tablespoons of oil
Veggies
Meat

Roughly chop the onion, ginger and garlic. Get a food processor and put in and pour the tinned tomatoes in on top. Blend until smooth for 2 mins.

Put the oil in a big saucepan and pour in the blended mixture. Add water, bring to boil and simmer. Add the spices, salt and sugar and stir. Add meat and veggies and simmer for 35/45 mins. Stir the green coriander in near the end of cooking.

My thoughts on dukkha or dissatisfaction

Just a quickie: 

It is evident that by clinging on to that which brings misery will bring yet more misery. Don't keep your hand in the fire if it hurts! Don't take ownership of the past; let it go! Hanging on to it will lead to more of the same! This is what the Buddha teaches.

A good story is the monk who carries the woman across the muddy road from 101 Zen Stories site:

______________________________________________________________

Tanzan and Ekido were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.

"Come on, girl," said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. "We monks don't go near females," he told Tanzan, "especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?"

"I left the girl there," said Tanzan. "Are you still carrying her?"

_______________________________________________________________

This is a simple lesson in life.  Sometimes you break the rules.  Yes we can accept that.  The moral is:

a) What was the intention behind the act? If breaking the rules is based in wisdom and compassion or metta then it is common sense.

b) The monk Ekido was clinging on to the past.  Once Tanzan had left the situation he moved on.  This teaches us not to keep re-living the past in our heads over and over again.  It is done and dusted.  Drop it and move on!

The Only Way Is Dukkha (in Essex.)

I was watching The Only Way Is Essex recently and it struck me how they behave. They seem so jumpy and filled with simmering frustration. I know we all experience dukkha it's only natural but they seem to make it a way of life. I think it's directly linked to how wealthy they are. The more the rely on wealth and status, big houses, flash cars, fine wines, designer clothes and make-up, the more they enter into a competition with their peers. The struggle to keep up appearances is at the root of their misery. No one I know is that breathtakingly competitive and edgy. They are headed for heart attack land and don't even realise it. This is proof positive that striving for wealth and material possessions and being vain is unwholesome and counter-productive to a person's happiness and well being.

Chilli Progress

Well I started out a blog over a year ago specifically for chilli growing but never really got it established.  Now with a broader subject range I'm hoping to give it more mass appeal.

Anyway here's the chillies as they are today.  You may remember we had a dreadfully cool and rainy May, June and July with the tail end of July and August the only time the chillies have had to catch up.

I'm happy to report that the Trinidad Scorpions are up and running at last.

The Trinidad Scorpions

A Trinidad with a reassuring stinger

The Trinidad Scorpions

The Trinidad Scorpions

Asian Birdseyes "capsicum frutescens."

The Trinidad Scorpions

There is still 5-6 weeks of reasonable temperatures left so should have something to play with this Winter.

Banana plant progress

I've been growing this banana plant for two years. It was destroyed by frost last Winter but recovered. Hoping to get some suckers off it before the year is out.

Today We Begin

Today I start a new blog currently titled "Mike's Musings."  For a long while I've had the urge to create a fleshier version of my Twitter feed and this could be it.  Tied in with my Twitter feed, topics can be explored in depth and hopefully I can help myself and others along the way.

Right now I work on the layout.  Do excuse me.