JUNE 13, 2025 MEDIA Reading between the lines The amount of information flooding our senses will drown you unless you sharpen the sword of discriminating awareness. This article was first inspired by a Reddit news flash on my iPhone. “500,000 Syrian refugees return home after the fall of Bashar alAssad.” The compliance narrative assumption is that they fled because Assad is a bad guy. Those who study history remember President George W. Bush and his “Mission Accomplished” speech in 2003. Plan for a New American Century was quickly formed. The list of countries to be targeted for regime change included Syria. As the war in Syria progressed it became a complex civil war with U.S.-supported ISIS creating many refugees. The masters of war blame others for the suffering they plan and execute. Divide and conquer has a long history and is a common modus operandi. So Assad is blamed for all the refugees that the war against him caused. Today the Cuban government is blamed by the standard narrative for all the refugees fleeing Cuba. You can name one country after the other, with Venezuela included on the list. Every country hit with U.S. sanctions will have a refugee situation. You might well believe the media unless you have learned to read between the lines! Mind training is available for developing the sword of spiritual awareness. Manjushri of the Buddhist tradition is a spiritual hero who wields this sword well. A sizable, local community of mind training practitioners is alive and open. You may already know Khenpo Choephel from the Karuna Buddhist Center at the Upper Room of Bethlehem United Church of Christ. Look around and marvel at the choices. Chuck Barbieri gave me a tour of White Lotus, a living village farm that is Buddhist-centered. I was amazed at the scope of that community. If you are a beginner at handling this sword you at least know that a natural breath is the beginning of your learning. Breathing with your core takes practice and instruction hand-in-hand. Those who are willing to take refuge in the reality we share to the deepest truth can go to the heart of the matter with Shakyamuni Buddha. (Shakya in his name refers to his clan heritage from indigenous times and muni is sage.) Foremost among the sages of this world, he was some 500 years before Jesus. KEN PARKS Groundcover vendor No. 490 There are enough stories from yoga masters about “Jesus in India” that a documentary was made. It brings Jesus to life as a master of mind training and the unity of body, speech and mind. Life is school and advanced students can learn how to graduate from this life to more fully awakened awareness in Pure Lands, the allgood expanse of primordial purity! The words we use to understand reality bring us to the theater of the mind. We learn that reality is more than a word and that definitions do not define reality. Those who master words, even word artists, may not have a clue about the meanings of the words that flow so eloquently from their mouth or keyboard. The best story of this reality is found in the biography of Naropa who is a lineage holder in the Karma Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. To learn more, reading the book is best but Google is pretty good. If you only enter Naropa it will take you to the university in Boulder, Colo., which is named for him. Look for him as a lineage holder. The story of the old hag who confronts his mastery of words but not the meanings of the words is legendary. It is possible to learn discriminating awareness and wield that sword well. Once you begin to understand the meanings of the words, your ability to read between the lines will accelerate. Appearances are deceptive and we will learn that reality is more complete than the appearances of reality. Sunyata, usually translated as Emptiness, is the all-embracing nature of appearances. The Middle Path embraces Emptiness by avoiding the extremes of nihilism and eternalism. Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche spoke eloquently on this. Many books are written about Emptiness but the practice of mind training is the key to experiencing the truth of the matter. Both Marxists and Buddhists talk about dialectics and the unity of opposites. Every truth seeker will discover the resonance that concepts can play in pointing to the truth. The Zen saying “The finger that points at the moon is not the moon” illustrates how concepts are simply pointers and empty by their nature. When I was a science guy, having abandoned religion for science, I thought I was some kind of master of reality. If you study atoms and molecules you will learn about electron rings around the nucleus. Each ring has a valence, an energy charge that interacts with the electron rings of neighboring atoms as they interact to form molecules, which are collections of atoms. You may have some awareness that the gap between rings and between molecules is pure space, which you sense is the main characteristic of the universe. Empty space becomes profoundly interesting, even magical. The mystery deepens with quantum mechanics. When you understand Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle you will know that reality cannot be measured decisively and all matter is a vibration in an energy field of emptiness. If you discover the Clear Light of the Void (see my previous articles) you are near to fully-awakened awareness. Every truth seeker will discover the resonance that concepts can play in pointing to the truth. The mahamudra prayer points at this in one line. “Unwavering attention is the body of meditation, as is taught. To the meditator who observes the play of the mind without changing anything, grant your blessings that samsara and nirvana be realized inseparably.” This understanding of concepts and experience will be a great help in coming to full and complete awakening. Compassion and lovingkindness thrive here. We may discover that Jesus and Buddha are brothers and that Marx is some kind of prophet, as Martin Luther King taught us that the arc of history bends towards justice. We are preparing ourselves to engage in the struggle for freedom. Hasta la victoria siempre is commonly said in Cuba along with la lucha sigue! Always towards victory — and the struggle continues. GROUNDCOVER NEWS What’s Happening at the Ann Arbor District Library Open 10am–8pm Daily Hang out in any of our five locations across town, browsing books, magazines, newspapers, and more, or check out movies, CDs, art prints, musical instruments, and home tools— you name it! Study and meeting rooms, fast and free WiFi, and plenty of places to sit and hang out Public Computers The AADL has public-access Internet computers available for use by both cardholders and noncardholders at all five locations. Each station has USB ports, headphone jacks, and some of the fastest wifi speeds in town! Byte Club An exclusive club for AADL SUPER FANS and library people like you! Byte Club will help you connect deeper with the Library you know and love, and share special sneak peeks of new things coming soon. The first rule of Byte Club is that you tell everyone about Byte Club! Ready to join? Visit aadl.org/ byteclub to get started. FEATURED EVENT 5 Saturday, June 21 • All day Around Ann Arbor Make Music Day is an annual, live music celebration that invites musicians to pour onto streets, parks, and plazas and share their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers. Look for free concerts all around town and enjoy music programming at the Downtown Library & Westgate Branch! "
6 Publizr Home