Layer 226 . . . The Thick of It, The Game of Politics, Refraining From Harm and Modern Beauty

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There's a beating-up in the press today for Brown and Cameron, and it's forced both of them to apologise for their actions. Namely? Using Remembrance Day for photo-opportunities - behaving like publicity-crazed actors on a poppy-strewn stage in the so-called 'Field of Remembrance' outside the Abbey last week.

Without proper permission they both went into the 'Field' in order to “inspect” the crosses and poppies that had been put there to commemorate those who have died in the Middle East wars. Cameron went in first with his personal photographer, prior to the service, and having got wind of this Brown scuttled in there when the service was over, accompanied by his wife and a film crew, which was shooting on behalf of the press corps. “Inspecting”. Gazing earnestly at the crosses and the poppies.

Thanks to “The Thick of It” on the BBC we have a much sharper appreciation of what goes on within the inner circles of the political leaders. The sense that even the senior members of the government and the opposition are just actors and performers, acting to scripts provided by strategists, speech writers, political analysts, image makers, PR consultants, rapid response units, private secretaries, press secretaries, focus groups, pollsters, and assorted over-opinionated dickheads.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgrd

This, of course, doesn't invalidate the view of politics given by “Yes, Minister”, which made us aware that government ministers are also manipulated, maneuvered, thwarted, hoodwinked, fed bullshit and led astray by devious professional civil servants up to the level of Permanent Secretary.

What we now understand about politics is that it is indeed the 'art of the possible', and that honesty, integrity and good intent will always be trumped by ambition, competing egos, deviousness, ruthlessness, stupidity, vested interests, and the  hunger to have and to hold power.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229917/Brown-Cameron-apologise-Abbey-turning-Poppy-Day-contest-photo-ops.html?ITO=1490&referrer=yahoo

The Thick of It last night showed the Minister and her Tory opposite number taking part in a Radio 5 Live debate, with them and their various advisors and hangers-on being viciously verballed and bullied by their respective handlers, strategists and spin supremos. The sheer awfulness and nastiness of it all is brilliantly portrayed. And let's not kid ourselves that this is an exaggeration and a caricature. It's not. This is how the game's played in our sophisticated times.

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Refraining From Harm.

How To Practice – Chapter 4 – The Dalai Lama

Buddha teaches us how to find refuge from suffering and limitation, but the chief refuge, or source of protection, is found in the states of realisation achieved through practicing morality, concentrated meditation, and wisdom.

Buddhist scriptures recommend that you hide your good qualities and achievements like a lamp inside a vessel. You should not advertise them unless there is a great purpose in doing so.

Buddhists do not ask for happiness. Happiness comes from putting [spiritual doctrine] into practice. Buddha teaches the actual refuge – how to practice the doctrine – but the main responsibility lies in your own implementation. To create the foundation for an eventual spiritual state devoid of suffering and limitation we need to engage in the following practice:

1)    Identify the 10 nonvirtues (see Layer 225)
2)    Identify the 10 virtues (which are the opposites of those nonvirtues)
3)    Abandon the former and adopt the latter.

Limitation in dress is the practice of contentment regarding clothes. [Monks and nuns are limited to one set of robes] The same is true for adornments. It is a mistake to think that it is really worthwhile to spend more on food, clothing and adornments just because you have more money. Rather, spend more on health and education for poor people. This is not forced socialism but voluntary compassion.

Also, it is essential for monastics to be satisfied with adequate shelter. An elaborate home is not allowed. This is called contentment with regard to shelter. Lay people can adopt this practice by reducing the neverending quest for a better home and for the furniture and decorations in it.

Examine your attitudes toward food, clothes and shelter. By reducing expectations you will promote contentment. The extra energy which is released should be devoted to meditation and to achieve cessation of problems.

We should be contented in material areas, for those are bound by limitation, but not with regard to the spiritual, which can be extended limitlessly.

With regard to compassion and altruism there is no limit, and thus we should not be content with the degree we have.

Practicing the morality of individual liberation is also helpful in increasing mindfulness and introspection.

The practice of morality of individual liberation also fosters tolerance and patience. Buddha said that patience is the highest form of asceticism, and through it one can reach nirvana. For monks and nuns there are four qualities of patience and tolerance to maintain:

•     If someone pushes you around, you should be tolerant, patient.

•     If someone shows anger to you, you should not respond with anger.

•     If someone hits you, you should not strike back.

•     If someone embarrasses and insults you, you should not answer back.
  

Usually my advice to beginners is to be patient; have fewer expectations of yourself. It is most important to be an honest citizen, a good member of the human community. Whether or not you understand profound ideas, it is important to be a good person wherever you are right now.

The essence of the Buddha's teaching can be found in two sayings:

•    If possible, you should help others.

•     If that is not possible, at least you should do no harm.

Summary for Daily Practice

•     Notice your attachments to food, clothes and shelter, and adopt monastic practices of contentment to a layperson's life. Be satisfied with adequate food, clothing and shelter. Use the additional free time for meditation so that you can overcome more problems.

•     Develop a strong desire to refrain from harming others either physically or verbally no matter whether you are embarrassed, insulted, reviled, pushed or hit.

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You should never, ever forget to turn the TV off after watching Andy Marr's early morning politics programme on Sundays. If you do you will become irritated beyond belief by the stuff that comes on in the God slot. There they were this morning, discussing 'angels' in front of a studio audience – media whores Cristina Odone and Kelvin McKenzie and pals – talking about whether angels exist, whether you can communicate with them, what they do for us, etc. Of course they exist. As do fairies, pixies, leprechauns, elves and hobbits. And God, of course.

Odone had two novels published, The Shrine and A Perfect Wife. She contributed to Why I am still a Catholic.

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Modern Beauty - Ugly Beauty

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p4g60

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2009/11_november/03/beauty.shtml

Has beauty disappeared from modern art? Several influential modern thinkers insist that it has. And this belief has inspired them to publish a clutch of recent books which claim that modern art is no longer capable of capturing true beauty: that beauty has gone from art.
Art critic Waldemar Januszczak fiercely disagrees, believing that great art is as interested in beauty as ever.
Art's search for beauty has manifested itself in depictions of the idealised female form, glorious landscapes, lovely flower studies and perfectly arranged renaissance altar pieces - but where does this search continue today?

Januszczak's a strange guy. I'm not sure he's really got much to say about art which really adds to the sum of human knowledge and enlightenment. He filmed a lot of the programme in and around Venice, and rightly said it's a place one should go back to as often as possible, preferably out of the main tourist season.

Sample quotes from the programme -

Talking about the ancient weathered walls and surfaces - “Old things can have a beauty that's been earned.” [Grace?]
“Growing old gracefully is one of the sternest tests that life sets us.”

“Permanent change is what life's all about.”

“We should stop trying to make sense of everything. We need the inexplicable. We need mysteries. Art's purpose is to nourish our imaginations.”

Carl Andre said, “All materials are interesting. But most people are matter-blind. They don't know what things are made from.”

Jeff Koons said, “The highest state that art can take you to is the acceptance of everything.”
[Possibly he's talking about non-attachment]
And, “We should follow our interests and focus on them. There's nothing else you can do in life.”

Yoko Ono believes that all of her work has a vibration that has a positive effect on the world.

Anish Kapoor

Good vibrations ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Anish Kapoor was one of the artists featured in the programme. It's no surprise he has a beautiful website:

http://www.anishkapoor.com/

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I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue is back - a new R4 series on Mondays at 6.30, repeated midday on Sundays.

Sample comment - "The Kennington Oval cricket ground . . . so called because it's built in the shape of a cricket ground."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnwb

Layer 225 . . . Synchronicity, Citizen Smith, Saturday Live, Four Noble Truths, Zen, and the Dud, the Bad and the Ugly

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More synchronicity

Yesterday someone was telling me they used to have a 'thing' about Robert Lindsay. As for me, I loved the way he played the Wolfie character, the leader of the Tooting Popular Front, in 'Citizen Smith'. I had/have a lot of empathy with him.

“In reality, he is an unemployed dreamer . . .  whose plans fall through because of laziness and disorganisation”. - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Smith

http://www.tootingpopularfront.com/

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/577221/index.html

http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/citizen.htm


Today Robert Lindsay was on the radio.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qgj4

It seems to be a time for Midlands folk to come out of the closet, and proclaim some pride in their heritage. Robert Lindsay was on Saturday Live, talking about how he only recently re-discovered his Midlands roots, and now feels proud of his Derbyshire background. It's interesting how the majority of the country doesn't even see the Midlands as a distinct region. There's North, there's South, and there's West. Plus East Anglia. That's all.

If people think about the Midlands at all they tend to think Brummies, Jasper Carrot, Crossroads and Lenny Henry. Maybe Slade, Julie Walters and the Moody Blues. Maybe Shakespeare and Stratford on Avon. Possibly the Cotswolds and the Peak District. Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham?

There was a good line from the resident poet, Kate Fox, on today's programme, commenting on accents - “As Leonard Cohen nearly said, “I was born like this, I had no choice, I grew up with a Northern voice.” A good in-joke for lovers of Len.

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Talk about laugh! There was an item on Today this  morning about Lancashire's Lady Ashton having been New Labour's 4th choice for the post of European Foreign Minister. So who were the three candidates ahead of her, and why were they rejected by the rest of the EU? Tony Blair. Mandelson. And Jeff Hoon. The dud, the bad and the ugly. The utterly appalling, the vile and the despicable. This is SO New Labour. They have no idea whatsoever how they're perceived by the rest of the world. Or they think their perception of merit and worth is somehow the right one, and the rest of the world is wrong. Raving egomaniac professional politicians. What more can you say?

Someone asked me yesterday why Blair wasn't chosen for either the presidential role or the Foreign Minister. What to say? Where to begin? We're so bloody insular and parochial in this country that we not only don't understand that other Europeans are far ahead of us in terms of a mature political culture - we stupidly believe and take seriously the British (mainly metropolitan) media chatter proposing Blair as a serious candidate, in spite of the fact that he's loathed throughout this country and utterly hated elsewhere. Phoney Tony, best mate of W. Most Brits are dopey enough, thanks to our pathetic media and its influence on our national culture, to think that ANY Brit, even an egomaniac like Blair, must be better than any 'foreigner' as a representative of the EU.

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Having re-read the above I feel I may be guilty of “harsh speech”, a Buddhist nonvirtue.

How To Practice – the Dalai Lama - Continued

Morality of Individual Liberation

This requires the self-awareness needed to refrain from physical and verbal actions that bring harm to others.

This means abandoning what Buddhists call the 10 nonvirtues. These are described in 3 categories:

(1) Physical nonvirtues

Killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct

(2) Verbal nonvirtues

Lying, divisive talk, harsh speech, and senseless chatter

(3) Mental nonvirtues

Covetousness, harmful intent, and wrong views.

Motivation

Motivation precedes and drives actions, so controlling it is the best way to prevent impulsive and possibly abusive physical and verbal actions. In daily practice you learn to continually examine your motivation. Effective practice of the morality of individual liberation depends upon sound, long-term motivation.

The Four Noble Truths

1.    Suffering is like a disease we have contracted.

In the frenzy of modern life we lose sight of the real value of humanity. People become the sum total of what they produce. Human beings act like machines whose function is to make money. This is absolutely wrong. The purpose of making money is the happiness of humankind, not the other way round. We need enough to live, so money is necessary, but we also need to realise that if there is too much attachment to wealth, it does not help at all.

Working and making money are meaningless in themselves. However, even a small act of compassion grants meaning and purpose in our lives.

Persistence, Optimism and Hope

In difficult personal circumstances the best recourse is to try to remain as honest and sincere as possible. Otherwise, by responding harshly and selfishly, you simply make matters worse.

It is important to diminish undisciplined states of mind, but it is even more important to meet adversity with a positive attitude. By greeting trouble with optimism and hope you are undermining worse troubles down the line.

If your mind gives way to anger, then even when the world is peaceful and comfortable, peace of mind will elude you.

Examine your motivation as often as you can. Establish a nonviolent, nonabusive outlook for your day. At night examine what you did during the day.

Analyse your life closely. If you do, you will eventually find it difficult to misuse your life by becoming an automaton or by seeking money as the path to happiness.

Regularly eveluate the possible negative and positive effects of feelings such as lust, anger, jealousy, and hatred.

2.    We can discover the sources of suffering.

Counterproductive emotions – which include such feelings as lust, hatred, enmity, jealousy, and belligerence, - should not be expressed. Expressing them tends to make them stronger and more prevalent. It is better to displace them with feelings of satisfaction and love.We should forcefully overcome negative emotions when they appear, but it would be even better to find ways to prevent them in the first place.

3.    True Cessations

Since defilements of the mind such as lust, hatred, jealousy, and beligerence are based on a fundamental misconception of the nature of persons and objects, the process of overcoming them requires a solution to that ignorance. The question becomes how to uproot the ignorance that is the cause of the suffering.

In order to overcome this misconception of the nature of persons and things, you have to understand their true nature. Then, through continued meditation, you become accustomed to the truth and increase the power of wisdom to to undermine negative emotions rooted in ignorance.

The fact that the defilements such as afflictive emotions can be extinguished at all is due to the mind not being impure by nature. It has a pure essence. Defilements are purified through meditation on the true nature of the mind and of all other things. Extinguishing these defilements is the third noble truth of cessation – a state beyond suffering and its causes.

4.    True Paths

True paths refer to three ways of training that are the principal topics of this book – morality, concentrated meditation, and wisdom. Spiritual practice along these paths leads to true cessations, culminating in nirvana and eventually Buddhahood.

[We] innately want happiness, and don't want suffering, and this desire is valid – it is true and reasonable. Consequently all of us have the right to achieve happiness and banish suffering. The fact that suffering and happiness themselves change from moment to moment indicates that these experiences depend upon causes and conditions. In order to get rid of suffering we need to eliminate the causes and conditions of suffering, and in order to achieve happiness we need to acquire the causes and conditions of happiness.

Remember that true cessation is attained through the practice of morality, concentrated meditation, and wisdom – the true paths.

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Zen


Zen, on the other hand, as a development of 'basic Buddhism', whilst still advocating morality, meditation and the acquisition of wisdom, doesn't worry about eliminating suffering and unhappiness. Zen suggests that suffering and unhappiness can be minimised through these practices, but advocates an attitude of non-attachment to either happiness or unhappiness, recognising that suffering is a necessary part of the gaining of wisdom, and the perfecting of character, and through suffering we learn how to achieve greater awareness, greater wisdom, and better living. At any given moment, if we see happiness and unhappiness as two sides of a coin, two halves of a yin/yang symbol, two aspects of an alternating current, etc, we can see life for what is it, and accept that at any given moment life is 'perfect', even when it doesn't please our egos and our senses, even when it frustrates our desires and our ambitions. Blissful transcendence, satori,  is available at any time -  it's all in the mind.

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Rhythm, Blues, Rock and Roll

Another great little Radio 4 gem: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00nwyqn
Payola, The Pluggers and Rock N Roll

This was a programme about American DJ Alan Freed,  and his passion for rhythm and blues.

He was a pioneer, the man who coined the expression rock n roll, one of the early, passionate radio presenters who saw that rhythm n blues and rock n roll were a phenomenon that was the future of popular music.

He was fired from his first job for playing rock n roll when he should have been playing middle of the road pap. He played Little Richard, Fats Domino, James Brown and Chuck Berry. It was impossible to hear this 'Race Music' on the white folks' radio stations.

Ironically, it's still practically impossible to listen to any decent music on mainstream radio stations in Britain.
No wonder more and more people listen to Spotify if they want to hear new music.
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Layer 224 . . . More Bullshit Bingo, Strangling, European Union and Parliamentary Standards

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More synchronicity . . .

Following on from yesterday's musings, I came across this piece about The Stranglers:

When did you first realise that The Guildford Stranglers, as you were then called, had the makings of a really good band?

JJ Burnel: Well, not for quite a while, because the very few places we could get booked into usually asked us never to return again, or they'd pull the plugs on us! We tried a variety of different musicians, but nothing really clicked. Then we advertised for a keyboard player. We thought that was the extra voice that we needed. Hugh and I had been writing all the songs and they were starting to take shape, but it wasn't until Dave joined us a year later in 1975 that things really clicked. He sounded great and really reminded us of Ray Manzarek from The Doors. But Dave had never heard about them then. It was all down to synchronicity really. From then on, we started writing a lot more.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp2/artists/s/stranglers/located/page1.shtml

 He's right of course - Ray Manzarek was one of the best and one of the most well-known keyboards players in the Sixties, and obviously The Doors were one of the very best bands. It always seemed me that those guys had a very similar keyboard style, playing in what were in some ways similar bands – capable of hard rock but also writing great original songs with terrific melodies and good lyrics.

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Who's Talking?

More bullshit bingo. Heard on the radio this morning -

“We need to look at how we drive more efficiency out of the business . . . ”

Leaving aside the small point that the correct grammar should be “drive more efficiency INTO the business” - this is still technobullshit. The key word here, of course, is DRIVING. Powerful people have to drive – like they're in a powerful vehicle. And of course they're the one with their hands on the steering wheel, putting the pedal to the metal.

So who is this talking? Obviously a top businessman or woman, or a top civil servant who's in charge of A  Business or A System?

No. The guy talking runs the Association of Chief Police Officers. The Top Cop. And I'd put a very large bet on whether he, and most top cops these days, have at some stage been to a business school to get an MBA. Or is this jargon just something he's picked up from his dealings with Home Office officials who've been down that route and therefore habitually talk this bullshit?

He went on to say -
“You can deliver accountability, but you can't deliver policing under direct political control.”
“. . . the savings we need to deliver out of the back end of the business.”

He even talked about “a British brand of policing”!!!
Aaaaarrrrggghhhh!

How does anyone 'deliver' accountability? How does anyone 'deliver' policing? When did people start talking like this?

It's that macho thing again. It's maximum macho. I think the first time I heard this word 'deliver' it was in connection with the local Co-Op bringing a boxful of groceries to our house. The second time must have been at school during prayers - “Deliver us from evil”. So delivering is also something God or gods do. Is that how he sees himself? Or is he seeing himself as some kind of grocer? I think not. It's definitely an all-powerful omnipotence thing.

He went on to say,
“I would not want to lead a police force that was being told how to deliver policing.”
Of course he wouldn't. He wouldn't want to be told how to do anything.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8369000/8369748.stm

Probably quite right too. Maybe the top man at the national association of headteachers should have said many years ago that he would rather resign than bow down to politicians and bureaucrats who thought they had a right to micro-manage schools - people who invariably, by virtue of having climbed to the top of the political or bureaucratic greasy pole, are full of ambition and ego, and are determined to manipulate and maneuver their way to positions of power and authority. Usually ignoramuses who haven't a clue what goes on in schools. Just like the New Labour bastards who are now claiming they will guarantee 'delivery' of this and that in schools from now on.
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European Union

Bloody hell – Lady Ashton has a regional accent! And she was appointed by the Socialist Group in the European Parliament! How many people even knew there was a 'socialist' group!
Grew up near Skelmersdale and Wigan. She didn't go to Oxbridge either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Ashton,_Baroness_Ashton_of_Upholland


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/19/lady-cathy-ashton
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6923856.ece

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Parliamentary Standards

David Curry's the guy who was appointed to oversee the Parliamentary Standards committee. Yesterday he referred himself to – the Parliamentary Standards Committee.

On November 19th, 2009 Curry stood down from his position as chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Standards and Privileges after claims from the Telegraph newspaper regarding his expenses and has reportedly referred himself to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority for investigation.[2] - Wikipedia

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6609018/MPs-expenses-David-Curry-quits-as-standards-chief-over-new-Telegraph-disclosures.html

You couldn't make it up.
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