Mandala of Love
  • Home
  • Meditation
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • ‘Meditation’ April 2017
      • A ‘Mandala of Love’ approach to Meditation
      • Self-Inquiry – Familiarising ourselves with Consciousness
      • The Content of the Mind is Not Important
      • Non-Duality – Buddha, Jesus, and Plato
      • Objectivity – Meditation and Thinking
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Jun 2017
      • René Descartes’ Error
      • Mindfulness – The Buddha’s ‘Remembering’ practice
      • Egoic consciousness – Divided against itself
      • Nurturing an Authentic Self
      • The Four Brahmavihāras – Four Attitudes of Consciousness
      • Mettā – Consciousness as Loving-Kindness
      • The Ethical and Relational Nature of Consciousness
      • The Brahmavihāras – the Soul’s Moral Compass
    • ‘Meditation’ Jul-Aug 2017
      • Upekṣā – Equanimity – Touching the Cosmic Stillness
      • Resting the Mental Body in the Field of Consciousness
      • The Mirror of Consciousness and the Mirror of Narcissism
      • The Hara – the Mysterious Second Chakra
      • The ‘Hell Realms’ – Inner Victims and Inner Persecutors
      • Muditā – Sympathetic Joy – A Sense of Wonder
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2017
      • Sympathetic Joy – an Attitude and an Energetic State
      • Zen and the Art of Human Life
      • Zazen – Just Sitting – Resting as Consciousness
      • Plato’s Cave Revisited
      • The Yin and Yang of Embodied Consciousness
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2017
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Mettā – Living as Love and Contentment
      • Mettā – Healing the Egoic Shadow of Love
      • The Preta Realm – Deprivation, Despair, and Addiction
    • ‘Meditation’ Jan-Apr 2018
      • Flowing with the Currents of Feeling – Psychological Parts
      • Mettā – Being Unconditionally Present with Feeling
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • Feminine and Masculine – Energy and Presence
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Aug 2018
      • The Yin and Yang of Love and Compassion
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
      • The Mandala and the Stupa
      • The Somatic Anatomy of the Energy Bodies
      • The Mandala of the Four Brahmavihāras
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2018
      • Consciousness, Meditation and the Four Qualia
      • The Beneficial Life Energy of Needs
      • Life Energies of Presence and Connection
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2018
      • Compassion and the All-Accomplishing Wisdom
    • ‘Meditation’ 2019 Jan-Oct
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari – Luminous Space
    • Meditation Guidance Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
  • 5 Wisdoms
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Skandhas Intro
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari / White Tara – Luminous Space
      • The Five Skandhas – Dakini Wisdom
      • The Five Skandhas – the Cognitive-Perceptual Components
    • Rūpa Skandha
      • Part 1: Thinking and Wisdom
      • Part 2: The Mirror-Like Wisdom
      • Part 3: The Body
    • Vedanā Skandha
    • Samjñā Skandha
    • Samskāras Skandha
    • Vijñāna Skandha
  • 10 Buddhas
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
    • 10 Buddhas – Introduction
      • Part 1: Three Yānas / Three Myths
      • Part 2: Ten Dharmic Principles
      • Part 3: Resting as Consciousness
      • Part 4: Integration and Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Integration
      • Part 5: Pandaravārsini
      • Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya
      • Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind
    • 10 Buddhas – Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Death
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Rebirth
  • Buddhism
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Hui Neng and the Mirror-Like Wisdom – A Zen Story
    • ‘Meditation’ Series Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
  • NVC/Focusing
    • Buddhism and Focusing
      • Part 1 – Eugene Gendlin’s ‘Clear Space’ and the Brahmavihāras
    • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – Mandala Wisdom
    • Mandala Innerwork and NVC Self-Empathy
    • NVC/Focusing-related articles in other categories
      • Summaries of these articles
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
  • Jung/MBTI
  • Book
    • William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’
    • Introduction to the Mandala of Love book blog
    • The Cross and the Mandala
    • Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Archetypes
    • The Mandala as the Landscape of the Soul
    • Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – Archetypes of Consciousness
    • Jung’s Phenomenology of the Soul
    • Egoic Consciousness and its Shadow
  • Home
  • Meditation
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • ‘Meditation’ April 2017
      • A ‘Mandala of Love’ approach to Meditation
      • Self-Inquiry – Familiarising ourselves with Consciousness
      • The Content of the Mind is Not Important
      • Non-Duality – Buddha, Jesus, and Plato
      • Objectivity – Meditation and Thinking
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Jun 2017
      • René Descartes’ Error
      • Mindfulness – The Buddha’s ‘Remembering’ practice
      • Egoic consciousness – Divided against itself
      • Nurturing an Authentic Self
      • The Four Brahmavihāras – Four Attitudes of Consciousness
      • Mettā – Consciousness as Loving-Kindness
      • The Ethical and Relational Nature of Consciousness
      • The Brahmavihāras – the Soul’s Moral Compass
    • ‘Meditation’ Jul-Aug 2017
      • Upekṣā – Equanimity – Touching the Cosmic Stillness
      • Resting the Mental Body in the Field of Consciousness
      • The Mirror of Consciousness and the Mirror of Narcissism
      • The Hara – the Mysterious Second Chakra
      • The ‘Hell Realms’ – Inner Victims and Inner Persecutors
      • Muditā – Sympathetic Joy – A Sense of Wonder
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2017
      • Sympathetic Joy – an Attitude and an Energetic State
      • Zen and the Art of Human Life
      • Zazen – Just Sitting – Resting as Consciousness
      • Plato’s Cave Revisited
      • The Yin and Yang of Embodied Consciousness
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2017
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Mettā – Living as Love and Contentment
      • Mettā – Healing the Egoic Shadow of Love
      • The Preta Realm – Deprivation, Despair, and Addiction
    • ‘Meditation’ Jan-Apr 2018
      • Flowing with the Currents of Feeling – Psychological Parts
      • Mettā – Being Unconditionally Present with Feeling
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • Feminine and Masculine – Energy and Presence
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Aug 2018
      • The Yin and Yang of Love and Compassion
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
      • The Mandala and the Stupa
      • The Somatic Anatomy of the Energy Bodies
      • The Mandala of the Four Brahmavihāras
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2018
      • Consciousness, Meditation and the Four Qualia
      • The Beneficial Life Energy of Needs
      • Life Energies of Presence and Connection
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2018
      • Compassion and the All-Accomplishing Wisdom
    • ‘Meditation’ 2019 Jan-Oct
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari – Luminous Space
    • Meditation Guidance Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
  • 5 Wisdoms
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Skandhas Intro
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari / White Tara – Luminous Space
      • The Five Skandhas – Dakini Wisdom
      • The Five Skandhas – the Cognitive-Perceptual Components
    • Rūpa Skandha
      • Part 1: Thinking and Wisdom
      • Part 2: The Mirror-Like Wisdom
      • Part 3: The Body
    • Vedanā Skandha
    • Samjñā Skandha
    • Samskāras Skandha
    • Vijñāna Skandha
  • 10 Buddhas
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
    • 10 Buddhas – Introduction
      • Part 1: Three Yānas / Three Myths
      • Part 2: Ten Dharmic Principles
      • Part 3: Resting as Consciousness
      • Part 4: Integration and Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Integration
      • Part 5: Pandaravārsini
      • Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya
      • Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind
    • 10 Buddhas – Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Death
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Rebirth
  • Buddhism
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Hui Neng and the Mirror-Like Wisdom – A Zen Story
    • ‘Meditation’ Series Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
  • NVC/Focusing
    • Buddhism and Focusing
      • Part 1 – Eugene Gendlin’s ‘Clear Space’ and the Brahmavihāras
    • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – Mandala Wisdom
    • Mandala Innerwork and NVC Self-Empathy
    • NVC/Focusing-related articles in other categories
      • Summaries of these articles
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
  • Jung/MBTI
  • Book
    • William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’
    • Introduction to the Mandala of Love book blog
    • The Cross and the Mandala
    • Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Archetypes
    • The Mandala as the Landscape of the Soul
    • Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – Archetypes of Consciousness
    • Jung’s Phenomenology of the Soul
    • Egoic Consciousness and its Shadow
Mandala of Love
  • Home
  • Meditation
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • ‘Meditation’ April 2017
      • A ‘Mandala of Love’ approach to Meditation
      • Self-Inquiry – Familiarising ourselves with Consciousness
      • The Content of the Mind is Not Important
      • Non-Duality – Buddha, Jesus, and Plato
      • Objectivity – Meditation and Thinking
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Jun 2017
      • René Descartes’ Error
      • Mindfulness – The Buddha’s ‘Remembering’ practice
      • Egoic consciousness – Divided against itself
      • Nurturing an Authentic Self
      • The Four Brahmavihāras – Four Attitudes of Consciousness
      • Mettā – Consciousness as Loving-Kindness
      • The Ethical and Relational Nature of Consciousness
      • The Brahmavihāras – the Soul’s Moral Compass
    • ‘Meditation’ Jul-Aug 2017
      • Upekṣā – Equanimity – Touching the Cosmic Stillness
      • Resting the Mental Body in the Field of Consciousness
      • The Mirror of Consciousness and the Mirror of Narcissism
      • The Hara – the Mysterious Second Chakra
      • The ‘Hell Realms’ – Inner Victims and Inner Persecutors
      • Muditā – Sympathetic Joy – A Sense of Wonder
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2017
      • Sympathetic Joy – an Attitude and an Energetic State
      • Zen and the Art of Human Life
      • Zazen – Just Sitting – Resting as Consciousness
      • Plato’s Cave Revisited
      • The Yin and Yang of Embodied Consciousness
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2017
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Mettā – Living as Love and Contentment
      • Mettā – Healing the Egoic Shadow of Love
      • The Preta Realm – Deprivation, Despair, and Addiction
    • ‘Meditation’ Jan-Apr 2018
      • Flowing with the Currents of Feeling – Psychological Parts
      • Mettā – Being Unconditionally Present with Feeling
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • Feminine and Masculine – Energy and Presence
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Aug 2018
      • The Yin and Yang of Love and Compassion
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
      • The Mandala and the Stupa
      • The Somatic Anatomy of the Energy Bodies
      • The Mandala of the Four Brahmavihāras
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2018
      • Consciousness, Meditation and the Four Qualia
      • The Beneficial Life Energy of Needs
      • Life Energies of Presence and Connection
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2018
      • Compassion and the All-Accomplishing Wisdom
    • ‘Meditation’ 2019 Jan-Oct
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari – Luminous Space
    • Meditation Guidance Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
  • 5 Wisdoms
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Skandhas Intro
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari / White Tara – Luminous Space
      • The Five Skandhas – Dakini Wisdom
      • The Five Skandhas – the Cognitive-Perceptual Components
    • Rūpa Skandha
      • Part 1: Thinking and Wisdom
      • Part 2: The Mirror-Like Wisdom
      • Part 3: The Body
    • Vedanā Skandha
    • Samjñā Skandha
    • Samskāras Skandha
    • Vijñāna Skandha
  • 10 Buddhas
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
    • 10 Buddhas – Introduction
      • Part 1: Three Yānas / Three Myths
      • Part 2: Ten Dharmic Principles
      • Part 3: Resting as Consciousness
      • Part 4: Integration and Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Integration
      • Part 5: Pandaravārsini
      • Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya
      • Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind
    • 10 Buddhas – Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Death
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Rebirth
  • Buddhism
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Hui Neng and the Mirror-Like Wisdom – A Zen Story
    • ‘Meditation’ Series Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
  • NVC/Focusing
    • Buddhism and Focusing
      • Part 1 – Eugene Gendlin’s ‘Clear Space’ and the Brahmavihāras
    • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – Mandala Wisdom
    • Mandala Innerwork and NVC Self-Empathy
    • NVC/Focusing-related articles in other categories
      • Summaries of these articles
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
  • Jung/MBTI
  • Book
    • William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’
    • Introduction to the Mandala of Love book blog
    • The Cross and the Mandala
    • Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Archetypes
    • The Mandala as the Landscape of the Soul
    • Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – Archetypes of Consciousness
    • Jung’s Phenomenology of the Soul
    • Egoic Consciousness and its Shadow
  • Home
  • Meditation
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • ‘Meditation’ April 2017
      • A ‘Mandala of Love’ approach to Meditation
      • Self-Inquiry – Familiarising ourselves with Consciousness
      • The Content of the Mind is Not Important
      • Non-Duality – Buddha, Jesus, and Plato
      • Objectivity – Meditation and Thinking
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Jun 2017
      • René Descartes’ Error
      • Mindfulness – The Buddha’s ‘Remembering’ practice
      • Egoic consciousness – Divided against itself
      • Nurturing an Authentic Self
      • The Four Brahmavihāras – Four Attitudes of Consciousness
      • Mettā – Consciousness as Loving-Kindness
      • The Ethical and Relational Nature of Consciousness
      • The Brahmavihāras – the Soul’s Moral Compass
    • ‘Meditation’ Jul-Aug 2017
      • Upekṣā – Equanimity – Touching the Cosmic Stillness
      • Resting the Mental Body in the Field of Consciousness
      • The Mirror of Consciousness and the Mirror of Narcissism
      • The Hara – the Mysterious Second Chakra
      • The ‘Hell Realms’ – Inner Victims and Inner Persecutors
      • Muditā – Sympathetic Joy – A Sense of Wonder
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2017
      • Sympathetic Joy – an Attitude and an Energetic State
      • Zen and the Art of Human Life
      • Zazen – Just Sitting – Resting as Consciousness
      • Plato’s Cave Revisited
      • The Yin and Yang of Embodied Consciousness
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2017
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Mettā – Living as Love and Contentment
      • Mettā – Healing the Egoic Shadow of Love
      • The Preta Realm – Deprivation, Despair, and Addiction
    • ‘Meditation’ Jan-Apr 2018
      • Flowing with the Currents of Feeling – Psychological Parts
      • Mettā – Being Unconditionally Present with Feeling
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • Feminine and Masculine – Energy and Presence
    • ‘Meditation’ May-Aug 2018
      • The Yin and Yang of Love and Compassion
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
      • The Mandala and the Stupa
      • The Somatic Anatomy of the Energy Bodies
      • The Mandala of the Four Brahmavihāras
    • ‘Meditation’ Sept-Oct 2018
      • Consciousness, Meditation and the Four Qualia
      • The Beneficial Life Energy of Needs
      • Life Energies of Presence and Connection
    • ‘Meditation’ Nov-Dec 2018
      • Compassion and the All-Accomplishing Wisdom
    • ‘Meditation’ 2019 Jan-Oct
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari – Luminous Space
    • Meditation Guidance Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
  • 5 Wisdoms
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Skandhas Intro
      • The Dharmadhātu Wisdom
      • Akashadhateshvari / White Tara – Luminous Space
      • The Five Skandhas – Dakini Wisdom
      • The Five Skandhas – the Cognitive-Perceptual Components
    • Rūpa Skandha
      • Part 1: Thinking and Wisdom
      • Part 2: The Mirror-Like Wisdom
      • Part 3: The Body
    • Vedanā Skandha
    • Samjñā Skandha
    • Samskāras Skandha
    • Vijñāna Skandha
  • 10 Buddhas
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
    • 10 Buddhas – Introduction
      • Part 1: Three Yānas / Three Myths
      • Part 2: Ten Dharmic Principles
      • Part 3: Resting as Consciousness
      • Part 4: Integration and Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Integration
      • Part 5: Pandaravārsini
      • Part 6: Vajrasattva-Akshobya
      • Part 7: The Somatic Body-Mind
    • 10 Buddhas – Positive Emotion
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Death
    • 10 Buddhas – Spiritual Rebirth
  • Buddhism
    • Summaries of these Articles
    • Hui Neng and the Mirror-Like Wisdom – A Zen Story
    • ‘Meditation’ Series Overview
      • A Mandala Framework for Meditation and Self-Enquiry
      • Resting as Consciousness
    • Padmasambhava’s Inspiration-Prayer
  • NVC/Focusing
    • Buddhism and Focusing
      • Part 1 – Eugene Gendlin’s ‘Clear Space’ and the Brahmavihāras
    • Nonviolent Communication (NVC) – Mandala Wisdom
    • Mandala Innerwork and NVC Self-Empathy
    • NVC/Focusing-related articles in other categories
      • Summaries of these articles
      • Feeling – The Discernment of Goodness, Value and Beauty
      • Empathy and Self-Empathy – Communication and Self-Enquiry
      • The Asura Realm – Intuition and the Egoic Will
  • Jung/MBTI
  • Book
    • William Blake’s ‘Jerusalem’
    • Introduction to the Mandala of Love book blog
    • The Cross and the Mandala
    • Carl Jung’s Psychology of the Archetypes
    • The Mandala as the Landscape of the Soul
    • Buddhas and Bodhisattvas – Archetypes of Consciousness
    • Jung’s Phenomenology of the Soul
    • Egoic Consciousness and its Shadow

#AntiWar

A History Lesson from Dr Martin Luther King

 

 

I am publishing the short article and embedded YouTube video below, in my ‘Anti-War’ category. For some time now, I have felt a need to supplement my engagement with the problem of the egoic mind – which has been primarily through meditation and self-enquiry – with some engagement with the disturbing reflection of that egoic violence and hatred that we can see when we look in a penetrating way at the values, systems, and structures (and individuals), that govern our outer world. While most of us in the modern West have a complacent sense of safety and stability, those around the world in less fortunate countries are finding themselves in the cross-hairs – the object of regime change operations funded by our governments, and supported by various well-funded pro-war propaganda agencies. This war has two enemies – because the propaganda war is always being simultaneously waged against ourselves, by these same agencies, who desperately need to cover up or justify what is being done in our name.

We live in extraordinary times; dark times in which great crimes are being committed both covertly and in plain sight; times in which the economic and political culture of the liberal democracies of the West has degraded to such an extent that both government and media are frequently propagating misinformation and acting in a way that is not only not at all in the interests of their populations, but very dangerous for the future of our planet. In a modern world where both nation states and international institutions are failing to maintain their integrity in the face of corporate and oligarchic forces and the march of new technologies, we need to create a culture of non-violence and wisdom – and as part of this we need to support those embattled independant voices for peace, truth and justice that are trying to push back against these dangerous collective manifestations of the egoic mind.

Please forgive my forthright and unqualified style in these short anti-war articles. My research is very deep and thorough however – certainly not confined to the mainstream media channels. I wish I had time to write longer, more detailed articles with references and sources.

 

I have wanted to post this video for some time. This speech by Dr Martin Luther King against the Vietnam War, is a moving example for me of how those who would uplift humanity are often drawn to face into the evil of war – and to study its historical roots and oppose the political, cultural and economic forces that foster it.

The anti-war sentiment and intention that Dr King is expressing here, has been very effectively sidelined in our current world. This is because the pro-war propaganda operations against us are now very much more sophisticated, comprehensive and effective. The voices of dissent in our media and in our parliaments are now very quickly crushed – there is not so much need to assassinate people as they did with Dr King. It could be argued that democratic restraint of the war machine is now largely absent – that our mainstream media commentators do not seem able to perform their function as educators of our populations, and of our elected representatives in government. In academia, the same process is evident – the removal the truth-telling trouble-makers.

The last four decades have increasingly shown us that if those in power want a war (either those in elected government, or those in the unelected government agencies that are really in control), they will find a way of creating a justification for it – frequently by generating allegations and provocations that later turn out to be just lies, or even false flag operations. In a strange, ‘Orwellian’ development since the events of September 11th, 2001, it has became acceptable for the foreign policy and defence establishment agencies of the so-called liberal-democratic nation states, to employ numerous specialist public relations firms and covert psychological operations agencies to propagandise their own populations, and to ensure a steady flow of favourable misinformation into all media channels – even training Islamic terrorists to create propaganda videos to present themselves as victims or as liberating heroes (as was achieved in Syria).

This propaganda war against us all was particularly evident in the case of the secret proxy-war to bring down the secular state of Syria using Islamic jihadist armies. Given the incredible success of the similar secret proxy-war in Afghanistan in the 80s against the Soviet Russians, the strategy is an understandable one for the Pentagon. One might think it would make no sense, given the concurrent ‘War on Terror’, for the US, the UK, France, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to be funding, supplying, and in various ways supporting, Islamic terrorists – hence the need for the massive propaganda operation (an estimated billion dollars a year out of the CIA budget). The operation to support the various Islamic terrorist groups who were intent on destroying the secular state of Syria, and on slaughtering its many non-Muslim populations, would certainly have been successful if it had not been for the Russian Federation coming to the aid of the people of Syria. The Russians have there own problems at home with Islamic terrorism and did not want to see it flourish. Because it took this principled stand in relationship to Syria, Russia has found itself increasingly vilified, especially by the US-UK propaganda machine.

 

The top part of this image will post to social media if you should choose to share this article.

 

Prior to June 1965, Dr. King had occasionally expressed concern about the war in Vietnam, but he had done so publicly only in a tentative and extremely cautious manner. Dr King was acutely aware of the risk that direct criticism of President Lyndon Johnson on his Vietnam policy risked jeopardising the strong and critically important relationship he had developed with President Johnson in support of his civil rights efforts. However, various factors began to shift Dr. King’s understanding of the vast human suffering being caused by the US in Vietnam and, as a result, his opposition to the war slowly began to intensify, eventually leading to an unequivocal moral condemnation of US war policy, and a fundamental break in his relationship with Johnson.

The late Thich Nhat Hanh, now know to the world as a great Buddhist leader and writer, was at that time known only as the immensely courageous young Buddhist monk from Vietnam, who played the key role of educating Dr. King about the reality of the Vietnam War from a Vietnamese perspective and inspiring his transformation into a leader in the US anti-war movement.

The video below is of the speech, or “sermon”, that Dr King gave at the culmination of his soul-searching. He delivered it on April 30th, 1967 in New York, expressing a clear stand, not only for civil rights, but against the war in Vietnam. In it he spoke about the “triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism”. Just over two years later, after a period of increased police persecution he was assassinated.

 

 

Creative Commons License William Roy Parker 2020

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March 20, 2022

The US-Facilitated Coup in Ukraine in 2014

 

 

I am publishing the short article and embedded YouTube video below, in my ‘Anti-War’ category. For some time now, I have felt a need to supplement my engagement with the problem of the egoic mind – which has been primarily through meditation and self-enquiry – with some engagement with the disturbing reflection of that egoic violence and hatred that we can see when we look in a penetrating way at the values, systems, and structures (and individuals), that govern our outer world. While most of us in the modern West have a complacent sense of safety and stability, those around the world in less fortunate countries are finding themselves in the cross-hairs – the object of regime change operations funded by our governments, and supported by our various well-funded pro-war propaganda agencies. This war has two enemies – because the propaganda war is always being simultaneously waged against ourselves, by these same agencies, who desperately need to cover up or justify what is being done in our name.

We live in extraordinary times; dark times in which great crimes are being committed both covertly and in plain sight; times in which the economic and political culture of the liberal democracies of the West has degraded to such an extent that both government and media are frequently acting in a way that is not only not at all in the interests of their populations, but very dangerous for the future of our planet. In a modern world where both nation states and international institutions are failing to maintain their integrity in the face of corporate and oligarchic forces and the march of new technologies, we need to create a culture of non-violence and wisdom – and as part of this we need to support those embattled independant voices for peace, truth and justice that are trying to push back against these dangerous collective manifestations of the egoic mind.

Please forgive my forthright and unqualified style in these short anti-war articles. My research is very deep and thorough however – certainly not confined to the mainstream media channels. I wish I had time to write longer, more detailed articles with references and sources.

 

As the Ukraine crisis deepens, we are witnessing a major flaw in Western democracy, which is that our news media do not provide context and historical reflection on current events – and because of this, their output is almost devoid of real value or truth. Instead, the mainstream news channels give us soundbites and belligerent, jingoistic rhetoric that lurches towards war and necessity of arms sales and inhumane sanctions seemingly without a moment’s reflection. There is a rush to judgement, condemnation and violent punishment, without even an attempt to present evidence or to ascertain the motive of the accused.

This is a complex systemic phenomena, with many different government and non-government agencies and cultural and psychological factors contributing to the mix of misinformation – as well as the UK Foreign Office and the US State Department. The truth, it seems, is nowhere to be seen or heard. So, we have to seek out that truth – we need to look carefully at the faces of our journalists and examine the motivations of these important people who are giving us our news, and we must fully acknowledge the constraints against truth in the mainstream channels. If we do watch the major channels we need to observe them as a cultural and political phenomena – as a dysfunctional self-serving mess and a charade – not as providing witness to reality.

This is why the Russia Today news channel is perceived as such a threat by the governments of the NATO countries. RT is one of only a very few places where journalists who wish to report on international affairs, can do so with real honesty and integrity – and without pressure to keep to the bogus ‘Russian aggression’ narrative despite all the evidence of the contrary. Please find time to watch the short history documentary below, from a tiny independent media channel called Breakthrough News. It provides just a glimpse of the vast and systematic assault on their national security and sovereignty that the Russians have suffered from the actions of the US since the fall of the Soviet Union. From Russia’s point of view, NATO is absolutely not a defensive alliance, and the US manipulation of Ukrainian politics in 2014 represents a truly terrifying threat to the very existence of Russia as an independent nation state. Those who cannot see this are either simply ill-informed – which is most of us – or tragically and dangerously blinded by national self-interest.

We are looking at an escalating confrontation between nuclear armed powers – one which is quite as dangerous for the world as was the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. It is an inherently unstable standoff in which the legitimate security needs of Russia, and of the Russian-speaking people of Crimea and eastern Ukraine are not being acknowledged by the NATO countries. We are also seeing the huge flaw in the logic of the NATO security alliance – that it only serves the strategic needs of the US, and cannot create security for the European states. It cannot create security because its very existence – relentlessly expanding and aggressive as it is – is an existential threat to Russia. The future of the humanity could be at stake here. We all need to be paying attention.

 

 

February 11, 2022

Reflections on NATO and the Tragic Irrationality of the Ukraine Crisis

 

 

I am publishing the short article and embedded YouTube video below, in my new ‘Anti-War’ category. For some time now, I have felt a need to supplement my engagement with the problem of the egoic mind – which has been primarily through meditation and self-enquiry – with some engagement with the disturbing reflection of that egoic violence and hatred that we can see when we look in a penetrating way at the values, systems, and structures (and individuals), that govern our outer world. While most of us in the modern West have a complacent sense of safety and stability, those around the world in less fortunate countries are finding themselves in the cross-hairs – the object of regime change operations funded by our governments, and supported by various well-funded pro-war propaganda agencies. This war has two enemies – because the propaganda war is always being simultaneously waged against ourselves, by these same agencies, who desperately need to cover up or justify what is being done in our name.

We live in extraordinary times; dark times in which great crimes are being committed both covertly and in plain sight; times in which the economic and political culture of the liberal democracies of the West has degraded to such an extent that both government and media are frequently acting in a way that is not only not at all in the interests of their populations, but very dangerous for the future of our planet. In a modern world where both nation states and international institutions are failing to maintain their integrity in the face of corporate and oligarchic forces and the march of new technologies, we need to create a culture of non-violence and wisdom – and as part of this we need to support those embattled independant voices for peace, truth and justice that are trying to push back against these dangerous collective manifestations of the egoic mind.

Please forgive my forthright and unqualified style in these short anti-war articles. My research is very deep and thorough however – certainly not confined to the mainstream media channels. I wish I had time to write longer, more detailed articles with references and sources.

 

In the liberal democracies of the West, we are mostly unaware of how heavily propagandised we are. We trust our governments and we trust our mainstream media outlets. This is an extremely dangerous state of affairs, because in actuality both our foreign policy decision-making and our reporting of foreign policy issues has been subverted, and is in effect outside of democratic control and beyond reason. Foreign policy decision-making has been handed over to government ‘experts’, arms industry lobbyists and military intelligence personnel, many of whom have an extremely irrational bias towards war, if not a direct financial interest in its promotion. The government and arms industry operatives both covertly provide massive funding to pro-war think-tanks, specialist public relations firms and sponsored academics – and to far-right groups (in both South America and Ukraine) and Islamic terrorist groups (e.g. in Syria, Libya and Western China). Not only is this whole peace-time propaganda process out of democratic control on the government side, but the journalists and the documentary makers in both state-funded and commercial TV and newspaper channels are not pushing back with any factual reporting or demands for common-sense and accountability. War, and the creation of enemy images that lead to war, has unfortunately, always been good for the news industry – but this is especially the case in the modern US.

Far from providing any critique, our news media generally now merely provide cover, and have become used to acting as mouthpieces for the perverse and dishonest pro-war narratives being generated by the military-industrial complex and our un-thinking government ‘defence’ and foreign policy staff, who appear to have lost any sense of the value of peace and diplomacy in the modern world. The predominant frame of reference is actually not freedom, democracy, humanitarianism and ethics, but neoliberalism and US hegemony – the very antithesis of these values. Peace and diplomacy have no value in this frame of reference because they do not make money for the armaments industry, and they do not provide distraction from the disastrous effects of neoliberalism’s failure at home. We cannot assume that if we live in a liberal democracy and watch the TV news regularly, we are well-informed on foreign affairs. In the modern world the reverse is true – far from being informed, the general population in the West are being propagandised, manipulated, and ‘played’ by the dishonest rhetoric of freedom and democracy, while actually being prepared for war. It really seems as if the Western moral order has actually already collapsed, and all those who study the situation closely can see that most of the reporting in the foreign policy arena is already characterised by the worst forms of Orwellian Doublespeak.

All this being the case, we need media channels that provide journalism that has integrity and can provide the historical context and truly humanitarian perspective that is missing elsewhere. I thoroughly recommend ‘The GrayZone’, an independent channel on YouTube. We are closer to the full horror of a modern war between Russia and the West, than at any other time since the second world war, and this situation has been created not by Russian aggression, as the propagandists would have us believe, but by the belligerent stupidity of the US and the aggression of NATO expansion to Russia’s borders. The horrible and extremely dangerous crisis in Ukraine, and the massive propaganda attack on Russia for acting to protect the Russian speaking communities of eastern Ukraine, is a dishonest mess that has been 30 years in the making. In reality NATO had no legitimate purpose after the fall of the Warsaw Pact – except as a vehicle for US hegemony and US arms sales. I thoroughly recommend this video (below) of an English academic, Richard Sakwa (Professor of Russian and European politics at the University of Kent), being interviewed by Aaron Mate several weeks ago, when the warmongering rhetoric was beginning to ramp up. This is a truly superb piece of journalism – honest well-informed commentary pushing back against a sea of misinformation.

Aaron Mate, whose instinctive sympathies are with the left rather than the right of US politics, is nevertheless one of the best informed journalists in the world on the whole insane ‘Russiagate’ misinformation mess that was created by the US Democratic Party in the wake of the election of Trump. He is someone who understands that the current Ukrainian crisis goes back not just to the US-facilitated coup in Kiev in 2014 during the Obama years; he knows that Biden, and Victoria Nuland, who is now US Under Secretary of State, were actively involved in that process of establishing the domination of right-wing anti-Russian sentiment in Ukrainian politics, which led to the promotion of the Ukrainian nationalists (literal pro-Nazi fascists!) in its army, which are terrorising the Russian speaking people of Eastern Ukraine. To understand the Russian protective actions, we need to be aware of the history of Ukraine-Nazi collaboration against the Russians in World War Two – and we need to be aware that Ukraine, far from being a model democracy is a rather crazy country with vast extremes of wealth and poverty, and with a deep-rooted fascist past, that has been pushed towards extreme anti-Russian sentiment by US and NATO interference.

The reason that we are being bombarded, in the mainstream media, with news that Russia is preparing for war, is precisely because the opposite is true. Russia is responding to provocation. Witnessing the military buildup on the Ukrainian side threatening the Russian-speaking break-away republics of the Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, it is preparing to defend those people if it has to, and is simply asking the US for a legally binding pledge that NATO will stop expanding east. This has put the US on the spot, because the US foreign policy system is used to functioning as the world hegemon and they are not interested in peace and diplomacy – they do not do multilateralism and mutual respect. Domination, it seems, is their modus operandi, and the only language they understand. Hence the need for a massive anti-Russian propaganda campaign to distract the world from recognising the aggression and hostility of the US-NATO position.

 

 

Creative Commons License William Roy Parker 2020

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February 4, 2022

The Uyghur ‘Genocide’ Narrative and the Propaganda War against China

 

I am publishing this embedded YouTube video in my new Anti-War category. For some time now, I have felt a need to supplement my engagement with the problem of the egoic mind – which has been primarily through meditation and self-enquiry – with some engagement with the disturbing reflection of that egoic violence and hatred that we can see when we look in a penetrating way at the values, systems, and structures (and individuals), that govern our outer world. While most of us in the modern West have a complacent sense of safety and stability, those around the world in less fortunate countries are finding themselves in the cross-hairs – the object of regime change operations funded by our governments, and supported by various well-funded pro-war propaganda agencies. This war has two enemies – because the propaganda war is always being simultaneously waged against ourselves, by these same agencies, who desperately need to cover up or justify what is being done in our name.

We live in extraordinary times; dark times in which great crimes are being committed both covertly and in plain sight; times in which the economic and political culture of the liberal democracies of the West has degraded to such an extent that both government and media are frequently acting in a way that is not only not at all in the interests of their populations, but very dangerous for the future of our planet. In a modern world where both nation states and international institutions are failing to maintain their integrity in the face of corporate and oligarchic forces and the march of new technologies, we need to create a culture of non-violence and wisdom – and as part of this we need to support those embattled independant voices for peace, truth and justice that are trying to push back against these dangerous collective manifestations of the egoic mind.

Please forgive my forthright and unqualified style in these short anti-war articles. My research is very deep and thorough however – certainly not confined to the mainstream media channels. I wish I had time to write longer, more detailed articles with references and sources.

 

In this video, Max Blumenthal, an anti-war journalist for whom I have enormous admiration, is participating in a panel discussion held on March 19, 2021, hosted on Daniel Dumbrill’s YouTube channel. With extraordinary diligence and persistence he has been documenting the deceptions behind the US government’s allegation that China is committing “genocide” against Uyghur Muslims in its Xinjiang region, challenging the dishonesty of the studies funded by the US government’s ‘National Endowment for Democracy’ (NED). He especially exposes the error-filled research of Christian fundamentalist and fanatical anti-Communist Adrian Zenz, the man who most of this anti-China disinformation can be traced back to. It is an astonishing reflection of the state of our world that Zenz is taken by the NATO governments (and the Australian government), and by the whole of the mainstream media around the world, to be a genuine expert on China. The principles of diplomacy and international law are no longer being applied – China is being arbitrarily declared guilty, with almost no chance of proving its innocence, but for the handful of voices like those of Max Blumenthal and Daniel Dumbrill.

 

 

Creative Commons License William Roy Parker 2021

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May 10, 2021
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