Meditations

At 11:30 am on May 30, I boarded a yellow song-taew share-taxi at Chiang Mai Gate and rode south for 90 minutes to Chom Tong, where I began a 12-day Vipassana meditation course. Since 2023, when India's tourist-visa rules changed, I've been obliged to spend six months per year abroad. I've put a considerable amount of that time to good use by meditating at monasteries in the Chiang Mai area, and at the Nepal Vipassana Center on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

At registration one turns in one's passport and phone, so I have neither seen nor heard any news--local, regional or global--since then. What a blessing! what blissful ignorance—to be unaware of the many items per day being emitted by the firehose of desecration that currently occupies the White House. Bit by bit, the various executive orders and etc. are eroding the US Constitution and the ideals on which the country was founded; threatening its allies and alliances; impoverishing, kidnapping and imprisoning US citizens and legal residents; and condemning to sickness and death already-impoverished millions of non-Americans who had depended on US aid.

Instead, I've been training the mind...Vipassana meditation trains the mind by cultivating focused awareness and equanimity. Practitioners observe their breathing and sensations in the body with non-judgmental attention, developing mindfulness and concentration. By noting thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations without attachment or aversion, one learns to break habitual patterns of reactivity. This process strengthens mental clarity, reduces stress, and fosters insight into the impermanent nature of experiences. Regular practice rewires the brain, enhancing emotional regulation and self-awareness. Through sustained observation, Vipassana helps practitioners detach from cravings and aversions, promoting a balanced, calm mind capable of responding thoughtfully rather than impulsively to life’s challenges.

Realized beings are unperturbed by the colossal tragedies and mass suffering that regularly blight the world because, as they can see from their godly perspective, what happens--what is always happening--is the inevitable process of karma, the consequences of actions and reactions stretching back to the first civilizations and beyond.

As is written in the Brahmaviharapharama, aka the Metta loving-kindness prayer: Sabhe Suttā Kammasakā Hontu Kamma Dāyādā Kamma Yoni Kamma Bandhū Kamma Patisaranā, Yam Kammam Karissanti Kalayānam Vā Pāpakam Vā Tassa Dāyādā Bhavissanti. That is to say, "All beings are owners of their karma ('deeds'), have karma as heredity, have karma as origin, have karma as reliance, have karma as refuge; whatever karma one performs, be it good or evil, will be inherited by oneself."

To this I append, "...when conditions are ripe." Thus, a wealthy/powerful person may be able to avoid the effects of the rebounding evil that he has committed during his lifetime but, once his body dies, he will reap everything that he has sown, all at once. 

So many people must die thinking, "Ha! I got away with it--never got caught!" only to face a big "Uh-oh..." moment, before their souls begin eons-long sentences as hungry ghosts (for the avaricious), or denizens in one of the many hells which one's particular types of sin (ego-based action) warrants, or both. Do you hear that, evil-doers? You’re soon to enter a world of shit, lest you repent.

The great Nisargadatta says that (besides most karma being collective—ponder that one for a while) one's belief system determines the scenario one will experience upon bodily death, be it the appearance of Archangel Michael, or Jesus, or peaceful then wrathful buddhas, or etc. I wonder what atheists experience...it must be a gigantic, "Whoa, was I wrong about that!" If, in life, they were humanists or otherwise moral people, I suppose they are soon reincarnated as humans who become realized beings.

"It's a very odd time," said Bill Burr in his May 22 podcast, "or maybe it always existed. The ugliness that has just fuckin' bubbled up. It's, like, wow! I really didn't realize there are this many overtly racist people out there, but there are, evidently, and they were just waiting for a green light. What I love is, I feel like the Left brought it out with their fuckin' psycho "think-like-I-think-or-I'm-gonna-end-your-fuckin'-career" bullshit. So now it's swung so far to the [Left] that these lunatics on the Far Right think that they're in the middle! Billionaires just sittin' back, laughin'..."

That they are. Was it in the 1970s that, as postmodernist philosophical garbage was infecting them, Black and female Ivy League students demanded and got Afro-American and Women's Studies departments (the latter of which included no classes in biology, which is obviously important when studying humans based on their sex)? A generation later, there are "Gender Studies" and half a dozen fluid genders. I remember when, in the 1980s, man-hating "feminists" began touring the universities with slide-shows of old ads that were “fine” then, but are now a source of outrage at how demeaning to women they are. On my Ivy League campus, c.1985, spray-paint-stenciled signs began appearing on campus walkways, reading "1 in 3 are raped--fight back!" I remember thinking and discussing with my friends, "One in three?! that can't be right..." only to learn, years later, that "rape" to these feminists included unwanted looks and speech directed at them.

During this era when “political correctness” or “PC culture” came into fashion, and men were quick to be labeled sexists for saying anything off-hand about a woman, or women, or the sexes in general, I had the displeasure of meeting a few third-wave feminists, some of whom would go on to become professors, or writers for print & broadcast media...and the movies.

Once in conversation with 4-5 people, I was saying something about mankind, how “man has always…” (something related to human behavior), when a woman in the room said, “Why ‘mankind’? Why not ‘humankind’? I think I kind of scoffed and said, “Because that’s the word.” I should have elaborated, saying that “mankind” referred to men and women because, in this case, “man” refers to homo sapiens; but I’m sure it wouldn’t have made a difference, and she still would have walked away thinking that males had controlled the evolution of language from Old German to modern English, and men like Daniel Webster had established the meanings of American English words, and they were all sexist, male chauvinist pigs, just like me.

Camille Paglia criticizes third-wave feminism (of which the above is an example) for emanating from an "entitled, upper-middle class point of view" that demands excessive protection and intervention from authority figures. It fosters a sense of fragility and victimhood—a betrayal of the radical, self-reliant spirit of the 1960s counterculture and Free Speech Movement. For example, she argues that third-wave feminists' reliance on campus grievance committees and speech codes undermines women's agency, stating, "Running to Mommy and Daddy on the campus grievance committee is unworthy of strong women."

She strongly opposes the movement’s tendency toward censorship and the policing of thought and speech, which she calls "reactionary" and "nearly Victorian," and contradicts the Enlightenment values of free expression, accusing third-wave feminists of supporting "grotesque surveillance and over-regulation of student life" through campus speech codes and sexual harassment policies. She sees this as a regression from the hard-won freedoms of earlier feminist battles.

Paglia decries third-wave feminism’s "peevish, grudging rancor against men," arguing that it unfairly stereotypes and demonizes them, fails to recognize the contributions of men to civilization, and ignores the complexities of gender dynamics. She rejects the idea that men are inherently oppressive, asserting that women must take responsibility for their own choices in sexual encounters rather than relying on victimhood narratives. It was at college, I believe, when I first heard the statement, “All men are potential rapists” (or maybe it was “All men are rapists”), and exponents of the man-hating culture that produced it have raised a generation of misanthropes in the forty years since then.

A core criticism is third-wave feminism’s rejection of biological differences between sexes, which Paglia sees as rooted in social constructionism and postmodernism. In its reliance on postmodern theorists like Foucault and Derrida, the movement is intellectually dishonest. Paglia argues that ignoring biological realities, such as hormonal influences on behavior, leads to unrealistic expectations and policies. "How did Women's Studies and Gender Studies end up teaching about gender without any reference to biology or to hormones? Post-structuralism dominates Gender Studies everywhere, and these post-structuralists are the worst mercenary careerists in our country, posing as leftists..." 

Paglia emphasizes that sex is driven by "primitive energies and instincts" that cannot be reduced to verbal formulas, arguing that third-wave feminism’s denial of this creates a disconnect from human nature.

Regarding the gender-bending "trans culture" that has exploded across the country in recent years, Paglia predicted that, as has happened before (to the Roman Empire, which was sacked by outsiders; to Weimar Germany, which was taken over from within by the Nazis; and other places), it would lead to a hyper-masculine backlash. "People who live in such a time feel that they're sophisticated, cosmopolitan," says Paglia, "but from the perspective of historical distance, you can see that it's a culture that no longer believes in itself...What you invariably get are people who are convinced of the power of heroic masculinity, massing on the edges of the culture...It's ominous." 

As Burr says, the Left and its Culture War zealots have helped to bring out the Far Right lunatics now in control. When I mentioned Paglia's prediction to an older, female cousin of mine, way back in early 2024, she called her an out-of-touch dinosaur. Now that things are playing out, politically, just as Paglia predicted, my cousin doesn't have the integrity to admit it. So sad--she's one of the smarter ones in my mostly benighted clan. Whoever said, “People will forgive you for being wrong, but not for being right,” was right.

By 2009, identity politics was so pervasive that the Occupy Wall Street movement, which actually threatened the billionaires' control for a moment, fell apart when it fragmented into racial/sexual factions. By the end of it, the daily order of speakers and events was determined by how "oppressed" your group was--Black women went first every day, and the movement fizzled out. Nice going, postmodernist cultural Marxists! 

Marcus Aurelius, exemplary Stoic and maybe the closest thing to a buddha that the West has produced, lived during a time of imperial decline and increasing attacks from the tribes of northern Europe. He died of an illness at age 58, during one of many campaigns to drive the barbarians back.

Aurelius advises us to see ourselves in our historical context and make the best of it, cultivating humility, perspective, and resilience. He frequently reflects on the transience of life and the vastness of time, urging himself to see his existence as a fleeting moment within the grand sweep of history. He often reminds himself that everything—people, empires, and achievements—passes away. He notes that human experiences repeat across generations, and places human life within a cosmic and historical framework to underscore its brevity. By placing himself in historical context, he fosters a detachment from ego and immediate concerns, focusing instead on virtue and rational action within the brief span of a human life. He uses history as a mirror to see his place in the eternal flow of time, which helps him maintain equanimity and purpose. 

So now it's time to update myself on the historical context. by looking at the news for the first time in 12 days. Hmm… (five minutes later) As Marcus Aurelius probably said, in the vernacular of his time, we are so fucked.

Thailand's rainy season usually begins in June or early July and reaches its peak in September. This year, it began in early May. Rainfall in Bangkok May 1-14 showed a 95% increase compared to the average. India just experienced its wettest May since record-keeping began in 1901, said the India Meteorological Department. The rainy season will presumably now end sooner than usual, or otherwise be disrupted, which could make for some unbearably hot weather this summer...

I guess I'll arrange to go to another monastery to meditate, and check back in on the world in a couple of weeks. Happy Saka Dawa Duchen (Buddha Day), everyone!