Boy, that was pretty useless, wasn’t it? When I began, I was trying to be helpful, or at least compellingly sincere. But, it worked its way right into something else, insidiously, in the manner of Murphy himself, hiding the end result until too late to do anything about it. Funny how our own unconscious processes mirror the way reality works, isn’t it? And, so much for putting together the brilliant, gripping introduction that was my original intended start to today’s Pearl, eh, what? I’d say it was yet another small lesson in the hazards of engaging in vaulting ambition, I suppose, if I were in the mood to be pious, or even more ridiculous, morally instructive. Fortunately for all of us, I’m not, nor do I often fall into that absurdity. Lucky you.

Okay, we are quickly losing our way, so, perhaps it would be best to get on with the show for today. I find that’s usually the best way to preserve at least a modicum of dignity, even if we never actually display any at all. Oh, well, such is life in the blogosphere, ffolkes. You can never quite tell just what you’ll come across on any given day. I guess that just goes to show the nuances of human nature, which embeds itself in everything we do; in this case, it will allow us to escape into the wilds of the inner blog, without really even trying. In fact, we’ll just fake the whole process today, and do it like this…. Watch closely, or you’ll miss the change….

Shall we Pearl?….

From 12/16/2012:

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

This statement strikes a deep chord within me…. It comes to me upon reflection that there are basically two kinds of people in the world; there are those who will see a statement such as this, read it, think about it, and either accept it, or reject it, though it hardly seems possible to do the latter, given its degree of demonstrable truth. The other kind of person will start to read this, then give up after a few words, because the words have no meaning for them, beyond the word ‘treasure’. Once these folks discover that the ‘treasure’ isn’t jewels or gold, they stop all thought on the subject, and turn to anything else that will serve their self-interest.

In one sense, this dichotomy of nature is indicative of what is happening in the world at large today. On one hand we observe the people who reject the above statement, and live according to rules that are pathologically oriented to themselves, those who also believe in “do unto others before they can do unto you….”. Sadly, this group is the same one that the major percentage of elected officials and members of our beloved ruling class come from, along with all of those who spend their lives playing with money, i.e., the bankers. All of these folks refuse to acknowledge the veracity of any of the sentiments expressed by the Buddha above, and in many cases, do so with pride and arrogance…

Another group of folks lend their support to those in power, though they spend a lot of time trying to convince everyone that they are acting out of altruistic motivation rather than monetary. I call these folks preachers, for lack of a better word, and the group, in my mind, includes priests, pastors, vicars, sadhu, imams, Elders, or anyone else who considers themselves a holy man, with the right to interpret the words of gods for the rest of us. They want us to believe they are acting according to what Buddha has expressed above, but in reality, what they do bears no resemblance at all to virtue. They merely use the words to assume the authority by proxy.  In fact, their very insistence that they are acting in the interests of others, or are at all inspired to virtue, to me, is a foul lie, and worthy of their own judgment…..

I could rant for a long time on this subject, as I regard it as the most critical problem in human nature, the root cause of our current dangerous position as a species threatened with extinction. The callousness and self-aggrandizement that characterizes those among us who wish power over others will, in the long run, kill us all, if we don’t put a stop to it. Unfortunately, that would require making decisions, and taking actions, that would challenge our own virtue, and place us at risk of becoming that which we are trying to destroy…. a conundrum, for certain. Time will give us the answer, and I, for one, fear to hear it…..

Having completed my chosen duty for today, I can take a break, well-earned. Leelu will be happy about that; she gets antsy in the mornings, waiting for me to finish. She’s become an excellent companion, (not that she was ever anything else), and we are learning to adjust to each other’s habits fairly well. Now we’ve filled the standard requirement for chatty blather, which seems to have gone missing above, we may legally, and morally, take out leave, sans guilt (not that we ever feel THAT useless emotion…). As is our wont to comment on such occasion, so be it. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. Just try & stop me….