Well, I finally upgraded my PC the other day and I’ve got Ubuntu 6.10 back! Know what? It feels good to back on Free Software, I much prefer using Ubuntu to Windows any day of the week!

For me, one of the unexpected bonuses was a music player called “Banshee”. It’s a very good music player, but also contains social aspects in that it talks to the Last.fm social music site about what you’re listening to. The result is on the new box on the right hand side of my blog, it’s the top 10 artists I’ve listened to recently. What the heck, at least you can all have a giggle at my musical tastes now!

Some friends and I paid the Glee Club in Birmingham a visit last night, as I was driving back home, I was thinking about comedians and the truth.

Now, I posted a quote recently about violence, swearing can easily be equated as verbal violence. I also think that comedians are one of the few groups left with a license to tell it like it is, yes they can offend and swear, but at the end of the day their observations are often based on reality.

So, it’s easy to dismiss them for it, but like some many other things, isn’t it more about “Right Intent”? It’s the old adage of the finger pointing at the moon, we’re criticising the finger for having a bit of dirt under the nail, while we’re doing that we’re missing the view of the moon. Whose loss is that?

I don’t think swearing is the problem, I’ve seen some versions of the Buddhist eightfold path where it’s explicitly prohibited, but I feel that it misses the point. Language is a human construct, it changes over time as does what is considered profane, we should be more concerned with the underlying reality of the message and less concerned with the impermanent medium of the delivery.

I’ve been looking more and more at Buddhism of late, I can certainly see the Buddha’s point with the four truths and in light of that, I’ve decided to give the eightfold path a try.

I was thinking about right view as it seems to underpin the rest of it.  It seems that the meaning of “Right view” isn’t quite what we’d think.  It’s more like “Accurate View” or “Complete View”, a large part of it is the understanding that everything is in a constant state of change.  That the person who started the day isn’t the person who’s reading (or writing) this post, the only truth of any situation or system is change.  And that doesn’t even begin to cover it,  I’m constantly being amazed at how much depth the Buddha got into just one principle.

So what good is it to hold particular views in light of that knowledge?  I can’t see how any given position can be anything more than a temporary reference in light of that, rules that look set in stone are show to simply be flimsy and arbitrary.  It seems very wrong to me that we put so much of our faith in such things.

I came across this quote on the subject of violence and non-violence, I’d never thought of it like this before being focussed more on the physical side, I thought I’d share this quote as I found it very insightful.

“What is violence and what is non-violence? We can’t make a clear
demarcation between violence and non-violence on a superficial basis, since
it is related with motivation. Out of sincere motivation, certain
verbal actions, as well as physical actions, may look more wrathful, more
violent, harsher, but in essence, because these activities come out of a
sincere motivation of compassion, or sense of caring, they are
essentially non-violent. On the other hand, with negative motivation, try to
cheat, trying to exploit, trying to deceive, and using nice
words-although with a big artificial smile and with a gift- might look like a
friendly gesture, but because of the motivation, it is the worst kind of
violence. So I feel that in certain cases violence can be said to be a
manifestation or expression of compassion. Nevertheless, non-violence is
the basic expression of compassion, therefore, the concepts of
non-violence and compassion are very, very close.”
– His Holiness the Dalai Lama

A while ago, I expressed the idea that working out in the gym wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.  My position was based on one or two experiences coloring my perceptions and also a few things I’d read.

I rejoined a gym recently and have found I feel better for it.  Previously I’d done myself a little damage doing Body Combat, which I allowed to colour my view of the gym.  I still think the machines themselves are boredom incarnate, and nothing has happened to change that view so far.

I think the lesson I’ve learned here is to be careful of how much I allow my perceptions to colour my judgement, also to listen to my own instinct and experiences over other peoples intellectual views.  As a book on Buddhism I’m reading advises, the final authority on what you will accept or believe is you, not a book or priest or the government, or whoever.  I’ll try to bear that in mind a bit more.

Well, this (courtesy of the BBC) is interesting.

Both Buddhism and Taoism make the point that all things are temporary and nothing lasts forever. It seems nobody thought to tell this music industry, until now. An unsigned band called Koopa is about to enter the top 40 without any music industry deals.

To quote a band member, “If we can get enough exposure and get in the top 40 by the end of the week, do we necessarily need a large label? Probably nowadays, no you don’t.” The music industry has fought long and hard to try to stop this change from happening, but you can’t stop change, delay it maybe, but not stop it.

This more than anything makes the point that all things are temporary, if a huge powerful monolith like the record industry can have something like this happen, despite all their power. This is going to be interesting to watch!

You Are Jean Grey

Although your fate is often unknown, you always seem to survive (even after death).Your mind is your greatest weapon, literally!Powers: telepathy and telekinesis, the ability to project thoughts into the mind of others, communication with animals

Which of the X-Men Are You?

Let me start by wishing everyone a Happy New Year, a bit late I know, but my home internet is still down so it had to wait till I got to work.

I went to a party for New Years Eve, it was good to get out, though I wasn’t drinking as I was driving.  I was reminded of a lesson that stemmed from my Buddhist meditation experience.

With the right frame of mind you can be happy wherever you are.  So, as I wasn’t drinking, and I do normally need a few drinks to get into things, I decided to give it a go and see what a change of mental attitude can do.  It does work, I even got on the dance floor for a few minutes, and I normally need to be half ratted before I do that!  So I’ll chalk it up as a limited success story, I can feel the shapes of questions rising from this, but I’ll let them take shape but I start wondering.