THE UNQUESTIONED ACCEPTANCE OF BUDDHISM AND MEDITATION

Religion and religious statements are unavoidable. Even the highly secular New York Times cannot resist affirming explicitly religious beliefs, even when incredible:

·       …in many strands of Buddhism there is a remarkable honesty regarding the implications of salvation. Rather than promising that your life will continue, or that you will see your loved ones again, the salvation of nirvana entails your extinction. The aim is not to lead a free life, with the pain and suffering that such a life entails, but to reach the “insight” that personal agency is an illusion and dissolve in the timelessness of nirvana. What ultimately matters is to attain a state of consciousness where everything ceases to matter, so that one can rest in peace. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/opinion/why-mortality-makes-us-free.html

This religious affirmation elicits many questions. The author claims that “there is a remarkable honesty” in “many strands of Buddhism.” What demonstrates its honesty? It seems that the author admits that “nirvana entails your extinction,” but what makes this statement honest? Even more perplexing is what follows. According to the author, “the aim” is to “reach the ‘insight’ that personal agency is an illusion and [will] dissolve in the timelessness of nirvana.” If we have been extinguished, who is it who reaches this “insight.” Certainly not those who have been extinguished! And who is it that experiences reincarnation? An illusion of a personal existence?

The author then claims that “What ultimately matters is to attain a state of consciousness where everything ceases to matter, so that one can rest in peace.” Well, who is that “you” if you no longer exist?

It doesn’t seem to matter at all that Buddhism rests upon a confused and illogical foundation. But Buddhism is a Teflon frying pan, which seems to be unassailable by means of reason and even by experience. Besides, it is hard work. What then is its appeal? The author writes:

·       You engage in meditational practices as a means for the end of deepening your ability to care for others and improving the quality of your life.

But how can meditation and Buddhist thought accomplish this, especially in light of the fact that we are not even individuals now – this is just part of the illusion that we have to transcend – and we will not be individuals in the eternal? Wouldn’t displays of caring just reinforce this illusion?

Some Eastern thinkers claim that it will! Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 –1952), author of “Autobiography of a Yogi,” claimed that even suffering is an illusion (http://www.yogananda-srf.org/):

·       “Then this cosmic movie, with its horrors of disease and poverty and atomic bombs will appear to us only as real as the anomalies we experience at a movie house. When we have finished seeing the motion picture, we will know that nobody was killed; nobody was suffering.”

If suffering is just an illusion, why alleviate it? Why not instead simply teach the sufferer that he is being deluded, and so there is no need to extend him any comfort.

In “The King of Knowledge” by Prabhupada, the founder of the Hare Krishna and International Society of Krishna Consciousness, therefore taught that the alleviation of suffering was counterproductive:

·       The hospital making business is being conducted by the government; it is the duty of a disciple to make hospitals whereby people can actually get rid of their material bodies, not patch them up. But for want of knowing what real spiritual activity is, we take up material activities.

Evidently, his meditative techniques were teaching him that caring was unnecessary. Why then meditate? Has it promoted those nations committed to it? The author seems to think that it is enough to simply mention that Sam Harris is an advocate and practitioner.

The Abuse of Power: Few Seem to Care

After the Department of Justice secretly obtained phone records from Associated Press reporters, the press awoke from their long sleep and were understandably outraged by this abuse of power. The Washington Post wrote:

• “Whatever national-security enhancement this was intended to achieve seems likely to be outweighed by the damage to press freedom and governmental transparency.”

The New York Times was also outraged:

• “This action against The A.P. … ‘calls into question the very integrity’ of the administration’s policy toward the press.”

USA Today wrote:

• “Another day, another excessive use of government power by the Obama administration. … At first blush, seizing reporters’ records might sound too arcane to be of much public interest. But that’s far from the case. When the Justice Department grabs reporters’ phone records, it insulates the administration from the scrutiny that a free press is supposed to provide. … This administration needs some hard thinking about abuse of power.”

However, after this issue passed, the press fell back into its self-imposed sleep, the very thing that it shouldn’t do, the very thing that betrays its very reason-for-being. What good is the press if it refuses to expose the continuing abuses of power! How can congressmen stand against it when their constituency remains unaware of the justice of their cause!

Our Founding Fathers had warned about the abuse of power. George Washington cautioned: “Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it.” Benjamin Franklin advised:

• “This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.”

Our fourth President, James Madison, also cautioned:

• “The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.”

If this is so, then eternal vigilance is necessary. However, we bask under the illusion that a police state could never happen here, at least not one which would turn against us. Fox News asked college students to sign a petition calling for the recall of our constitutional rights. Fox was astounded by the number who readily signed this petition.

Do we have anything to fear regarding the imposition of a police state? Jay Tapper writes:

• CNN has uncovered exclusive new information about what is allegedly happening at the CIA, in the wake of the deadly Benghazi terror attack.

• Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency's missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency's workings.

• The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.

• It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.

• In exclusive communications obtained by CNN, one insider writes, "You don't jeopardize yourself; you jeopardize your family as well."

• Another says, "You have no idea the amount of pressure being brought to bear on anyone with knowledge of this operation."

• "Agency employees typically are polygraphed every three to four years. Never more than that," said former CIA operative and CNN analyst Robert Baer.

There had been numerous CIA personnel and contractors at the Benghazi compound at the time of the attack. U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf had wanted to subpoena them and grant them immunity. However, things have changed:

•   "Initially they were not afraid to come forward. They wanted the opportunity, and they wanted to be subpoenaed, because if you're subpoenaed, it sort of protects you, you're forced to come before Congress. Now that's all changed," said Wolf.

Meanwhile, our President calls this a “phony scandal” along with the many others – Fast and Furious, NSA, IRS - our administration is sitting upon. At the same time, a host of other potential abuses of power are shouting to be exposed.

The Examiner reports that:

• A brochure emailed to Department of Justice employees requiring them to verbally affirm homosexuality regardless of their personal beliefs has sparked accusations of religious intolerance and viewpoint discrimination,

• Liberty Counsel vice president Matt Barber told Fox News, Eric Holder's Justice Department has created an extremely hostile work environment for Christians.

• "This is ‘1984’ just a few decades late,” he said. “This is so Orwellian. President Obama said he intended to fundamentally transform America. That’s exactly what they are doing and they are doing it within the Department of Justice.”

This represents more than just the infringement upon our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech. It represents the most malicious form of rape – a coercion of not only body but also of mind!

If the press continues in their unconscious state, future generations will point their fingers at those who had been entrusted to protect our liberties against these egregious abuses of power.

Where will all of this lead? Pastor Martin Niemoller had become one of the leaders of the “Confessing Church” during the National Socialist insanity that had taken captive perhaps the most educated nation of the world at that time. He opposed Adolph Hitler and was consequently sent to jail in 1937 and then to a concentration camp for the remainder of the war. Later, Niemoller famously confessed,

• First the Nazis went after the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not object. Then they went after the trade-unionists, but I was not a trade-unionist so I did not object. Then they came after me, and there was no one left to object.