Mindfulness Revolution

Hi and thanks for continuing to read and follow along. A quick note - I was away for 10 days for a silent meditation retreat. I felt that I was losing the balance of my mind, being immersed in this type of work. So I went and sat with an old Austrian monk. It was just three of us, myself along with the monk and one other student. The monk is an old student of both Goenka Ji and Mother Sayamagyi, the two teachers that Sayagyi U Ba Khin appointed to continue the lineage of Vipassana that he taught.

Really quite incredible ten days. I’m reminded again that ultimately our peace is still our responsibility. Yes, things in the world are serious and distressing. But still, it is our reaction to those events that is causing our suffering.

This perspective is so helpful. Because it gives us back control. Our peace remains firmly in our control.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

We fear what is coming because we fear what it will do to us. A strong meditation practice directly counters that fear because you come to understand on a visceral level that you ultimately have power over how external events affect your inner landscape.

And oh what a terror the people would be to the warmongers if we were all no longer afraid of their consequences. What fear we would strike in their hearts when they realize that their threats of violence and death and imprisonment no longer hold any power over us.

It is our revolutionary duty to develop our minds to the point that their fear-based system of control no longer controls us.

I’m almost finished with the first draft of the book. I haven’t been writing in the last few days because I’ve been focused on covering everything with the war in Iran.

One final note, please be careful these coming days and weeks. The regime has turned on their firehose of propaganda about “Iranian sleeper cells.”

Iran has nothing to gain from attacking civilians. Their leadership is not stupid. You can argue they’re radical and extremists, but they’re not stupid, and they’re not illogical. They know right now the west and the US is very much anti-war. They know that attacks on civilians would change that sentiment.

And they have other tools at their disposal. Their best course of action is to continue to strike back at Israel and continue to threaten or actually shut the Straight of Hormuz. Killing civilians puts zero pressure on the US government. Shutting the Straight of Hormuz puts massive pressure on the entire world. The Iranian government knows this.

So it is my opinion that any attack by a so-called “sleeper cell” will be a false-flag attack. Such an attack will be so helpful for our regime. They’ll use it to once again use the Alien Enemies act.

They’ll round up legal Iranian and other immigrants from Middle Eastern countries. They’ll use terrorism laws to silence critics and dissent from US citizens. An attack by “sleeper cells” would benefit only our regime. And that’s why I think we are very likely to see a large so-called “sleeper cell” attack within the US in the coming weeks. Be safe, reconsider travel plans, avoid crowded locations. Head on a swivel.

Say no to this war of aggression. Say no to further escalations.