﻿Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2022 at 4:21 AM
Title: Re: Proclamations of Attainment
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
There's also the issue of impersonating a member of the Āryasaṃgha. This is a big no-no as far as I've been taught the Dharma.

It's interesting how this is so easy to find in the prātimokṣa, but difficult to find outrightly stated in the bodhisattvaśīla. My tentative conclusion is that it was considered "obvious,"

Malcolm wrote:
Anything for the cause, as long as it is really for the benefit of others.

The usual example is the bodhisattva bhikṣu who had sex with a young women who threatened to kill herself if he did not make love to her. His prātimoḳsa defeat is not considered a defeat in the bodhisattvasamvara.

It is the same for the other defeats.

The Buddha of the śrāvaka canon is far less practical than the Buddha of the mahāyāna canon.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2022 at 2:37 AM
Title: Re: Does reincarnation really exists or is it just in the mind?
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
The thing is that even with modern physics (if we go that route) it’s hard to argue for the “real existence” (I.e. “outside”) of anything beyond just obstruction via…I don’t know, probability fields or something.

So, all *experience* is of the mind, and we can only ever know of “outside” existence via inference.

Malcolm wrote:
No object, no experience. This can be known through direct perception and not inference. If you argue that all experience is inferential, than awakening is impossible, since it is also reduced to an inference.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2022 at 2:30 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
American Volunteer in Ukraine, on the ground:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2022 at 1:56 AM
Title: Re: Proclamations of Attainment
Content:


DNS said:
Contrary to some popular views, there is no prohibition on lay people discussing attainments

Malcolm wrote:
Correct.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2022 at 12:56 AM
Title: Re: Does reincarnation really exists or is it just in the mind?
Content:
Aemilius said:
The outer world is not the same in different cultures and in different epochs.

Malcolm wrote:
There is a liquid substance perceived by those in the six lokas. It may not be perceived the same way by beings in the six lokas, but there is still a liquid substance which is being perceived, which stands apart from the percepts of the beings in those six lokas through its own causes and conditions. Can sentient beings ever hope to know with precise accuracy the exact nature of that liquid substance in all its aspects and its nature? Sure, when one of them attains buddhahood.

In the meantime, functionality is the best measure of conventionality, which is why Meru cosmology could never be functional, not even when it was current. On the other hand, we did not have the tech to fly to the moon even 100 years ago, so it is moot. Nevertheless, Meru cosmology would never have permitted us to fly to the moon, and therefore, it was always a dysfunctional cosmology on a conventional level, but no one needed to question this for millenia.

There are always people who will forever go down the idealist rabbit hold of Bishop Berkley and what not, but at least Dzogchen teachings firmly maintain, conventionally speaking, the objective existence of outer objects, contra the metaphysics of yogacāra, even in its Madhyamaka version.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2022 at 12:20 AM
Title: Re: Proclamations of Attainment
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Back in the day, when the monastic Bodhisattva community was also observing the vinaya, it would be a non-issue.

Malcolm wrote:
A Sutra in the Ratnakuṛa collection, Taisho 310, called the Definitive Vinaya in Chang's translation, will explain this point.

Bodhisattva monks are not prohibited from breaking any of the samvara of śrāvakas providing it is done with bodhicitta.

In the Nāgārjuna tradition of bodhisattva vows, the downfall of claiming realization of emptiness, when you do not have it, applies only to so-called "acute" practitioners, not average practitioners.

In the Yogacāra system, it is a downfall not break engage in a nonvirtue if performed out of compassion. You can read these in Buddhist Ethics by Kongtrul.

In short, the only real downfall in Mahāyāna is abandoning aspirational bodhicitta.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 26th, 2022 at 12:07 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
ratna said:
No, the Sheik Mansur Batallion is a different crew, they are enemies of Kadyrov.

Brunelleschi said:
My mistake.

Malcolm wrote:
There is a lot of moving parts here. Mistakes are normal.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 25th, 2022 at 11:54 AM
Title: Re: Proclamations of Attainment
Content:


tobes said:
You could also have a look at the Akashagarbha Sutra, which becomes canonical on the issue, as it is quoted by Shantideva.

Malcolm wrote:
These claims are downfalls only if such exaggerations are intended to benefit yourself. If not, anything for the cause.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 25th, 2022 at 9:18 AM
Title: Re: Proclamations of Attainment
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Among the laity, a member of the Saṃgha is at fault if he proclaims himself to be a person of the path, a saint, an Āryan, to them. Where in the bodhisattvaśīla is the faux-bodhisattva prohibited from falsely claiming to be a Bodhisattva to others?

Malcolm wrote:
It is permitted, actually, if it is beneficial.

Caoimhghín said:
That is not good advice IMO. Such an interpretation is not meant for common folk, IMO. "Is beneficial" is far too significant a caveat, IMO.

Malcolm wrote:
It is meant for bodhisattvas who are not aryas, who nevertheless need to inspire people. Anything for the cause.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 25th, 2022 at 8:55 AM
Title: Re: Proclamations of Attainment
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Among the laity, a member of the Saṃgha is at fault if he proclaims himself to be a person of the path, a saint, an Āryan, to them. Where in the bodhisattvaśīla is the faux-bodhisattva prohibited from falsely claiming to be a Bodhisattva to others?

Malcolm wrote:
It is permitted, actually, if it is beneficial.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 25th, 2022 at 5:04 AM
Title: Re: Mantra Recitation
Content:


stucked said:
And, is it ok to recite mantra when doing something / distracted/ in public?

Malcolm wrote:
Waste of breath.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 25th, 2022 at 2:24 AM
Title: Re: Does reincarnation really exists or is it just in the mind?
Content:



devr said:
haha, if I ask you where is inside, you will most likely respond "everywhere but outside." I think both 'inside' and 'outside' are arbitrarily defined conceptual designations. Phenomenon, in my view or lack thereof, can't ultimately be posited as here or there, inside or outside and so forth.

Malcolm wrote:
Where did you say you were positing an ultimate?

devr said:
You didn't say you were positing a relative either when you said things do exist outside the mind. Even if your statement was made for valid relative truth, outside/inside are still quite arbitrary to be considered valid on the same level as phenomena appearing.

Malcolm wrote:
All dualistic referents, such as outside, inside, up, down, large, small, etc., are axiomatically relative.

What makes something conventional is whether or not something is functional. Asserting there is nothing outside the mind renders cognition dysfunctional, unless one then substitutes an elaborate metaphysics to account for the cognition of sense objects, for example, yogacāra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 25th, 2022 at 1:23 AM
Title: Re: Buddhahood In This Life
Content:
PRESTONCHRISTIAN23 said:
but does the 17 tantras allow me to be connected to where I can read that?

Malcolm wrote:
If you have received Dzogchen transmission and some teachings already, then I think it is ok. If you have not, then maybe it is better to find a teacher first.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 10:41 PM
Title: Re: Does reincarnation really exists or is it just in the mind?
Content:



devr said:
Where is 'outside'?

Malcolm wrote:
Everywhere but inside. If there is no outside, there isn’t an inside.

devr said:
haha, if I ask you where is inside, you will most likely respond "everywhere but outside." I think both 'inside' and 'outside' are arbitrarily defined conceptual designations. Phenomenon, in my view or lack thereof, can't ultimately be posited as here or there, inside or outside and so forth.

Malcolm wrote:
Where did you say you were positing an ultimate?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 11:48 AM
Title: Re: Does reincarnation really exists or is it just in the mind?
Content:
devr said:
Does anything ever exist outside mind? is a useful contemplation.

Malcolm wrote:
Not really, since things do exist outside the mind.

devr said:
Where is 'outside'?

Malcolm wrote:
Everywhere but inside. If there is no outside, there isn’t an inside.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 9:32 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



PeterC said:
About a quarter of Russia’s top 20 generals are reported killed in Ukraine so far.  This greatly increases the chances that there might be some consequences for Putin, as the senior military staff are the only people capable of delivering them.

Despite their apparent stalling, they’ve still taken a lot of territory, including the two eastern provinces that they declared independent and a large part of the south.  Any peace deal will probably involve Ukraine losing a lot of land to Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
Zelensky has declared this to be a nonstarter. Have you been following Kamal Galeev’s thread on Twitter?

Eye opening.

The best fighters in Ukraine are Chechens…fighting for Ukraine. The Sheik Mansur brigade.

PeterC said:
No - do you have a link? Who is he?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 8:28 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
KristenM said:
Russian forces have been stalled and its hopes for an easy conquest thwarted. And apparently there is no Russian leadership that can be identified in this war.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/22/world/ukraine-russia-war#russia-ukraine-pentagon

Malcolm wrote:
Seems like the main general who planned this has gone missing for two weeks... https://www.newsweek.com/russian-defense-minister-sergei-shoigu-missing-putin-1690948

PeterC said:
About a quarter of Russia’s top 20 generals are reported killed in Ukraine so far.  This greatly increases the chances that there might be some consequences for Putin, as the senior military staff are the only people capable of delivering them.

Despite their apparent stalling, they’ve still taken a lot of territory, including the two eastern provinces that they declared independent and a large part of the south.  Any peace deal will probably involve Ukraine losing a lot of land to Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
Zelensky has declared this to be a nonstarter. Have you been following Kamal Galeev’s thread on Twitter?

Eye opening.

The best fighters in Ukraine are Chechens…fighting for Ukraine. The Sheik Mansur brigade.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 5:46 AM
Title: Re: Does reincarnation really exists or is it just in the mind?
Content:
devr said:
Does anything ever exist outside mind? is a useful contemplation.

Malcolm wrote:
Not really, since things do exist outside the mind.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 4:34 AM
Title: Re: Stream of Lapis And ChNN namchö medicine Buddha …same?
Content:



climb-up said:
That would makes sense too.
I think I looked one time for a list of the practices in the namchö and couldn’t find it. I wonder if anyone here knows if there are multiple medicine Buddha practices.

Malcolm wrote:
There are something like 600 deities in Namcho.

climb-up said:
wow!
So, I assume this is not really a cycle that people work through and accomplish every single practice …right?

Malcolm wrote:
No, not really. There are a few standard deities: three roots. A Chenrezi practice which is used as a kind of six lokas purification, another Chenrzi which is the basis for trulkor, and so on. The main point of Namcho is the Dzogchen text, Buddhahood in the Palm of the Hand, from which the ngondro is derived.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 3:58 AM
Title: Re: Stream of Lapis And ChNN namchö medicine Buddha …same?
Content:



climb-up said:
Oh wow, fascinating. Well, I keep an eye out if the lung or empowerment is offered in the future.

Do you know how it works that it says it’s complied from the namchö terma, but is completely different?
Are there more namchö cycles than Mingyur Dorje’s? Maybe that was an assumption that I made that it always referred to him.

heart said:
There might be more than medicine buddha practice in the namcho.

/magnus

climb-up said:
That would makes sense too.
I think I looked one time for a list of the practices in the namchö and couldn’t find it. I wonder if anyone here knows if there are multiple medicine Buddha practices.

Malcolm wrote:
There are something like 600 deities in Namcho.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 3:49 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 3:44 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
KristenM said:
Russian forces have been stalled and its hopes for an easy conquest thwarted. And apparently there is no Russian leadership that can be identified in this war.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/22/world/ukraine-russia-war#russia-ukraine-pentagon

Malcolm wrote:
Seems like the main general who planned this has gone missing for two weeks... https://www.newsweek.com/russian-defense-minister-sergei-shoigu-missing-putin-1690948


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 3:13 AM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Yeah, this true, generally the way it’s viewed in the field is bio-psycho-social, so while there are definitely certain people with a genetic predisposition (epi genetic?) to addictive behavior,

Malcolm wrote:
The Irish.

Johnny Dangerous said:
the actual condition often comes about through environmental, social triggers and those biological predispositions.

Malcolm wrote:
Catholicism, sexual abuse, and bars.

Johnny Dangerous said:
In other words, addiction is less of a social ill in societies that care to do something meaningful about it.

Malcolm wrote:
In some societies, it's a way of life.

Johnny Dangerous said:
Along a similar line there are also tests with animals that seem to provisionally  show -they- are less or more likely to “go all in” depending on environmental variables.

Anyway you find both camps, but generally I think that notable people in the addiction field who are not rank ideologues recognize that biology and environment both play substantial roles. There are people on the extremes of both ends, but generally IME they don’t have compelling arguments.

Malcolm wrote:
Agreed. No single causation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 2:44 AM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Yes, our culture with its tacit endorsement of chronic poverty, punitive justice around drug use, lack of resources, endorsement of compulsive behavior etc. guarantees a certain amount of chronic addiction.

Combine that with heavily addictive chemicals and the results aren’t that surprising.

Malcolm wrote:
Oh, there is that, and below that, genetics.

Sentient beings enjoy getting high. We see it in humans and animals, even insects.

A certain percentage goes all in.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 2:09 AM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
That’s exactly how it goes. It’s surprising the number of people who develop their habit as a result of being given a prescription for Vicodin or Percocet due to a broken arm or something, and eventually it spirals into a full blown addiction. That’s especially true when the person is already having a tough time in life in other respects, lack of family support, etc.

Malcolm wrote:
And there is a steady percent of the population who are prone to addictions of all kinds.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 24th, 2022 at 2:05 AM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
To Malcolms point, the opioid demand issue in the US is homegrown. It might be an arbitrary distinction, but the most China can be accused of here is taking advantage of that, the demand was already here. Having worked with a bunch of opioid users myself I’ve seen this firsthand and heard the stories.

Ayu said:
I watched a documentary on the problem and it was said there that the beginner drugs are given by doctors in the US. The addiction starts with legal tranquilizers and such medicaments.
As soon as those patients get that heroine is much cheaper than the stuff they have to buy in the drugstore the tragedy goes ahead.

Malcolm wrote:
The real story was that as people become more and more addicted to Oxycontin, Perdue began upping the dosages. Perdue originally sold Oxycontin as a nonaddictive opioid under the theory it was time released. But it was bullshit, of course. People became very addicted to it, and finally, in roughly 2006, the feds put an end to it. There was a time in the US, where drugstores started to refuse to carry it because of constant robberies.

When Oxy was not longer easily available, cartels stepped in with cheap Mexican heroin, as I mentioned above (which is incidentally much safer than fentanyl). However, dealers in the US began mixing fentanyl with heroin, my state, Massachusetts was ground zero for this, as the Parts Unkown episode by Bourdain illustrates: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4181346/ One of the towns in this is Greenfield, my country seat.

It is very easy to ship fentanyl in the mail. This is the main way it is smuggled into the US and Europe.

The solution is not a drug war (what are we going to do, invade Sinaloa? Good luck). The solution is breaking the back of the cartels by legalizing or decriminalizing some drugs and levying vice taxes to pay for the treatment programs. We have been doing this for alcohol forever.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022 at 11:56 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Passing By said:
Malcolm, can I ask which of the Seventeen Tantras explains Guru Yoga (Both Ati and Anu style) the most?

Malcolm wrote:
None, actually. However, the method of selecting a guru is discussed extensively in the Self-Arisen Vidyā Tantra.

Passing By said:
So when tertons emphasize Guru Yoga for Dzogchen, is it an original pith instruction? Or is it sourced from somewhere.....perhaps Khandro Nyingthik? Quite curious since it is THE method for Dzogchen

Malcolm wrote:
The origin of guru yoga in general is the Guhyasamaja tantra. However, the recommendation to rely on a guru is found in all Dzogchen teachings. The various different forms of guru are primarily oral instructions.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022 at 11:36 PM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:


Jesse said:
"China is doing this intentionally"

Malcolm wrote:
Extraordinary proof is required for extraordinary claims.

The opioid crisis was caused largely by Perdue Pharma and the Sackler family.

When the US caught them in addicting millions of people to opioids, the cartels responded by supplying cheap Mexican dope to the US markets. They soon figured out it was cheaper to buy fentanyl from China and repackage it. China started to crack down on fentanyl shipments in 2019. China is clearly aware this is a big optics problem for them and that it makes them look bad. So they have taken measures. China is also a country where corruption is very high, because their markets have not been well regulated up to this point. Markets don't function well where there is excessive corruption, because trust is not there. Functioning markets require a high level of trust, for example, trade between US and Canada. One of Xi's main programs is the elimination of corruption in all sectors of Chinese business. He has been surprisingly effective in this. Nevertheless:

https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2021-08/Illicit_Fentanyl_from_China-An_Evolving_Global_Operation.pdf

Jesse said:
In his testimony before the Commission in 2019, Ben Westhoff highlighted how “China’s clumsy, understaffed bureaucracy has a difficult time controlling the country’s chemical industry. Different layers of government are sometimes at odds with one another, local officials are corruptible, and industry regulations are confusing and poorly enforced.”

Malcolm wrote:
The issue of drug policy is one fraught with internal contradictions and international difficulties. Claiming that China, as a policy, has been and is intentionally shipping fentanyl to the US is a basically irresponsible and fact free claim.

Here is another piece of information on this issue:
China’s May 2019 fentanyl scheduling announcement has changed the way illicit vendors operate as Chinese authorities have ramped up investigations of known manufacturing sites, cracked down on websites selling illicit fentanyl, begun to enforce shipping rules, and created special investigation teams.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022 at 10:58 PM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:


Jesse said:
That is the nature of speculation.

Malcolm wrote:
That is why it is better not to speculate.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022 at 9:04 PM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:


Jesse said:
When China outlawed Fentanyl, there is simply no way that the scientists and the think tanks involved in writing the laws didn't consider outlawing precursors as well, they would have known exactly what would happen by leaving precursors legal. Unless there was a reason for doing so, either corruption/money, or as an intentional politically motivated ploy, it happened; leaving the illegal fentanyl industry alive.


Malcolm wrote:
You are still behind the news:

https://apple.news/AzbLqYOFXSWq0Ka8bq4IlRA

Jesse said:
The U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs on Wednesday voted to control three chemicals used to create fentanyl, after a U.S. request to do so – marking a win for the Biden administration in its efforts to control the flow of the deadly drug into the United States.
The commission voted unanimously to control three fentanyl precursors by adding them to the list of chemicals to the 1988 Convention Against Illicit Traffic of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances – obligating nations signed onto the convention to implement regulations on the manufacture and distribution of the chemicals, which in turn makes it harder for smugglers to gain access.


Malcolm wrote:
China is on this commission. The vote to make these precursors illegal was unanimous.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 23rd, 2022 at 8:34 AM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:


Jesse said:
From the rand report.

Malcolm wrote:
And if you read a little more closely, you will discover these sources are being curtailed, and the cartels are sourcing these chemicals from other sources. Xi understands perfectly well the export of fentanyl and chemicals is a bad image for China.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 11:43 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Passing By said:
Malcolm, can I ask which of the Seventeen Tantras explains Guru Yoga (Both Ati and Anu style) the most?

Malcolm wrote:
None, actually. However, the method of selecting a guru is discussed extensively in the Self-Arisen Vidyā Tantra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 11:39 PM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:


Jesse said:
Not much difference, they kept the same connections, and they continue the same operations.. they are simply shipping the materials instead of the finished product. It fundamentally remains unchanged except where they do the chemistry that changes the precursers into an illegal drug. Literally they just abused a loophole, a technicality.

Malcolm wrote:
I guess you didn’t read the part about the cartels increasingly procuring their raw materials from places other than China.

Jesse said:
In fact I read it:
CHINA
Currently, China remains the primary source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked through
international mail and express consignment operations environment, as well as the main source for all
fentanyl-related substances trafficked into the United States. Seizures of fentanyl sourced from China
average less than one kilogram in weight, and often test above 90 percent concentration of pure fentanyl.
(U) FIGURE 1. FENTANYL FLOW TO THE UNITED STATES 2019
Source: DEA
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED3DEA Intelligence Report
As Beijing and the Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region (SAR) place restrictions on more precursor
chemicals, Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are diversifying their sources of supply.
This is evidenced by fentanyl shipments from India allegedly destined for Mexico.
From your link:

https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/DEA_GOV_DIR-008-20%20Fentanyl%20Flow%20in%20the%20United%20States_0.pdf

Malcolm wrote:
You apparently failed to read the Rand report.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 8:42 PM
Title: Re: Antártica and Arctic 70 and 50 degrees above normal
Content:
Aemilius said:
I am happy to provide a link for it, as it contains important scientific knowledge that can help to straighten out common misunderstandings:
Geologic temperature record https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geologic_temperature_record

"The geologic temperature record are changes in Earth's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion (109) year time scales. The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a component of the climate and oceanography of the time."

Kim O'Hara said:
It's not rubbish because it's wrong but misleading because it not at all relevant to our situation now. Talking about the climate of five million or five hundred million years ago as though it means anything for our current situation is either ignorance (which should be remedied) or deliberate deceit through misdirection (which should be called out). Let's assume ignorance and do something about it.

The time frame which concerns us is the time since modern humans first appeared, roughly half a million years ago, and especially since our settled culture of farms and cities first appeared, roughly 10 000 years ago.
If you compare that to Malcolm's first graph you will see that it aligns perfectly with a period of very stable climate which lasted all the way up to about 1900. That is the climate we need. It is the climate we are adapted to, the climate our crops and animals are adapted to, the sea levels our ports are built for, the weather our houses are built for, etc, etc. And when it changes too far, too fast, we can't adapt fast enough and neither can other living creatures.
The results, which we're already seeing, are crop failures, starvation, climate refugees, mass extinctions ... but surely you know all that.

What things were like five million or five hundred million years ago is of scientific interest only, just like the exact size of Saturn's moons or the wavelength of red light.


Kim

Malcolm wrote:
The explosion of world population also tracks on the graph above.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 8:39 PM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:


Jesse said:
Not much difference, they kept the same connections, and they continue the same operations.. they are simply shipping the materials instead of the finished product. It fundamentally remains unchanged except where they do the chemistry that changes the precursers into an illegal drug. Literally they just abused a loophole, a technicality.

Malcolm wrote:
I guess you didn’t read the part about the cartels increasingly procuring their raw materials from places other than China.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 8:28 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Bhumi108w said:
Malcom is the discount on the text only for March? I don’t get paid again until April. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Malcolm wrote:
I don’t know.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 6:21 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
For those without paypal:

Receiver: Danakosha Ling
Bank account number: FI5940550016672046
Bank name: Aktia Oyj
Bank address: Arkadiankatu 4-6, 00100 Helsinki, Finland
BIC/SWIFT: HELSFIHH
Reference number: 1627


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 1:59 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Bhumi108w said:
So is that technically receiving the lung for the prayer as well?

Malcolm wrote:
yes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 1:37 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
We will be reciting the Aspiration of Samantabhadra at the conclusion of the lung after all. People who need to download the prayer may find it here:

https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/rigdzin-godem/prayer-of-kuntuzangpo


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2022 at 12:23 AM
Title: Re: Antártica and Arctic 70 and 50 degrees above normal
Content:
Aemilius said:
"The geologic temperature record are changes in Earth's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion (109) year time scales. The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a component of the climate and oceanography of the time."

Malcolm wrote:
The present rate of warming precisely lines up with the widescale employment of hydrocarbons (coal, oil, gas) since the 1850's.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 10:56 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 10:39 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dorje Shedrub said:
Putin seems to keep escalating. I wish NATO could do more or give Ukraine Patriot Defense System. They can't even get the migs.

Queequeg said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_and_carry_%28World_War_II%29 for the Migs and whatever other weapons they need. Full line of credit. We did this before against Germany.

Malcolm wrote:
Only matter of time before Putin tries to sever the Suwalki Gap that divides Kalingrad from the rest of the Russian Federation. It is the lifeline to the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from Poland. It's only 60 miles wide.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 10:09 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
We will finish today, but the session will likely last 8 hours.

Archie2009 said:
Then I'd like to request more than one 15 minute break so I can let my elderly dog pee.

Malcolm wrote:
I will pass the request along


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 9:55 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
We will finish today, but the session will likely last 8 hours.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 8:53 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:


Passing By said:
The Lion Tantra is pretty long.....Is it the second longest one after the Rangshar?

Malcolm wrote:
We are in volume two of the Adzom Parma published in 1977.

The next longest tantra of the 17 after the Rangshar is the ancillary tantra, called the Self-Originated Perfection, rdzogs pa rang byung, which contains many ritual methods. It is the last in this collection. It has very little direct Dzogchen content. It mostly concerns methods practitioners need, such as rites for dealing with obstacles from nāgas and so on, rites for guiding the dead through the bardo, details of empowerment rites, etc. It is very interesting for these reasons.

The Sound Tantra, which is the root tantra of all Dzogchen teachings, is the next longest after that. Then the Invincible Lion, String of Pearls, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 8:35 PM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Most fentanyl these days is made in Mexico.

Jesse said:
It's not, It's made in China,

Malcolm wrote:
No. That stopped in 2019. Now, China ships precursors to Mexican labs.

Jesse said:
Effective May 1, 2019, China officially controlled all forms of fentanyl as a class of drugs. This fulfilled the commitment that President Xi made during the G-20 Summit. The implementation of the new measure includes investigations of known fentanyl manufacturing areas, stricter control of internet sites advertising fentanyl, stricter enforcement of shipping regulations, and the creation of special teams to investigate leads on fentanyl trafficking. These new restrictions have the potential to severely limit fentanyl production and trafficking from China. This could alter China’s position as a supplier to both the United States and Mexico.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/DEA_GOV_DIR-008-20%20Fentanyl%20Flow%20in%20the%20United%20States_0.pdf

Here is recent report (Feb, 2022) assembled by the Rand Corporation. It covers the whole issue up to where we are today. As I indicated, Mexico is the main producer of synthetic opiods today. There is just no argument about that.

Jesse said:
Mexico is the principal source of this illicit fentanyl and its analogues today.* In Mexico, cartels manufacture these
poisons in clandestine laboratories with ingredients—precursor chemicals—sourced largely from the People’s
Republic of China (PRC).

...

Since then, the dominant source of illegally sourced fentanyl has been Mexico. The drug is manufactured in illegal
laboratories there using precursors from Asia—mainly the PRC—and is trafficked principally by land into the
United States. Fentanyl coming from Mexico is often of very low purity—generally, in powder form around or
slightly above 10 percent—but now accounts for almost all the fentanyl that law enforcement has seized since late
2019. Trafficking in synthetic opioids has increased in part because of its low cost: It is cheaper to illegally
manufacture fentanyl or a fentanyl analogue than it is to grow poppies, extract the raw materials from them, and
produce heroin.

...

Today, Mexico-based TCOs are the main producer of illegally manufactured heroin and synthetic opioids, mostly
fentanyl, that are trafficked into the United States. Further, according to several experts, fentanyl production
capacity appears to be increasing, illegal producers could be seeking to diversify sources from which to obtain the
primary materials.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.rand.org/hsrd/hsoac/commission-combating-synthetic-opioid-trafficking.html


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 8:24 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
PeterC said:
Russia deploying a hypersonic missile is an attempt to pre-empt this - certain types of weapons, including hypersonic missiles, are problematic because they mean you can't have force protection and you can't rely on missile defense systems.
A US defence official was quoted as saying on Friday that Russian forces had fired more than 1,080 missiles since 24 February.
"[That] is an astonishing number and a very significant fraction of Russia's pre-war inventory," Mr Acton told the BBC, pointing to the increasing use of unguided bombs in Russian aerial attacks. "They may very well be running short of accurate munitions."

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60806151

I don't think Russia has very many hypersonic cruise missiles. And given the rest of Russia's technology...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 11:00 AM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Most fentanyl these days is made in Mexico.

Jesse said:
In many ways yes.. one of the most disturbing ones is their chemical weapons attack on American civilians:

https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice/commentary/china-poisoning-america-fentanyl

The oddest part is that the amount of deaths from this fentanyl have gotten so absurdly high that it's in the news pretty much daily, yet no one ever mentions that it's an intentional chemical attack by china.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fentanyl-overdose-death/
Fentanyl overdoses have surged to the leading cause of death for adults between the ages of 18 and 45, according to an analysis of U.S. government data.

Between 2020 and 2021, nearly 79,000 people between 18 and 45 years old — 37,208 in 2020 and 41,587 in 2021 — died of fentanyl overdoses, the data analysis from opioid awareness organization Families Against Fentanyl shows.
They are killing more than 3 times the amount of people in America with fentanyl, than Covid has killed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 10:38 AM
Title: Re: Is China Already at War With America?
Content:


Queequeg said:
The ridiculous difficulty of Chinese written language is the biggest obstacle to world domination.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 5:44 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Toenail said:
If there is an extra day Tuesday it will be at the same time? Would be good to know so one can make arrangements

Malcolm wrote:
Yes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 5:40 AM
Title: Re: China Is Already at War With America
Content:
Aemilius said:
While the US calls China things like a "serious competitor" and  "strategic competition," China sees the US as its #1 enemy and one of the only countries stopping it from global domination.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, of course someone who works for the far-right wing Falung Gong cult is going to see things that way.

Könchok Thrinley said:
I have seen these claims about this channel and Falun Gong being far right cult in general. Do you have any source for that? I always considered it as mostly fabricated by Chinese propaganda.

Malcolm wrote:
Have you ever read the Epoch Times? I rest my case.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 5:17 AM
Title: Re: China Is Already at War With America
Content:
Aemilius said:
While the US calls China things like a "serious competitor" and  "strategic competition," China sees the US as its #1 enemy and one of the only countries stopping it from global domination.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, of course someone who works for the far-right wing Falung Gong cult is going to see things that way. In fact, the US and EU together are China's major business partner, with the EU being the largest.

After what happened to Russia, China is going to think twice about confronting the West.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 5:10 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It is likely to be extended for an extra day. Rinpoche is concerned he will not be able to finish tomorrow in the allotted time.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 3:44 AM
Title: Re: Antártica and Arctic 70 and 50 degrees above normal
Content:
Queequeg said:
FWIW, I posted that map tongue in cheek. Being happy while the planet becomes uninhabitable for human beings is like have a luxury suite on the Titanic.

Malcolm wrote:
I think it will sink a little slower...not only this, but the temperate zones will offer more climate resilience. But people in the global south are in trouble.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 3:20 AM
Title: Re: “special transmission”?
Content:
Way-Fun said:
What if the Buddha had farted instead?

Malcolm wrote:
A dog would have been his lineage heir.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 2:35 AM
Title: Re: Antártica and Arctic 70 and 50 degrees above normal
Content:
Sādhaka said:
We could pick this apart for sure.

For now however, I don’t see any country nowadays that’s not dominated by mlecchas (i.e. various variations of eternalists, atheists, theists, nihilists, carvakas, lokayatis, materialists, etc.).

Malcolm wrote:
"Mleccha" comes from "As-Salaa( m-Alaikum )." It generally refers to Arabic speakers, both pre and post Islam.

The secularists who founded American democracy at base guaranteed freedom of religious conscience. Why? They observed the religious wars that tore Europe apart, wanted to avoid that, and when democracy was first established in the US, the establishment clause was included in the first amendment. This was not done to protect religion, but rather to protect the state against religious sentiments.

I'll stick with liberal democracy. You can do as you please.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 1:12 AM
Title: Re: Antártica and Arctic 70 and 50 degrees above normal
Content:
Sādhaka said:
My point being that neither poverty or bread & circus-seeking are conducive to liberation. If one doesn’t have the Eighteen conditions for Dharma practice (Precious Human Rebirth), it likely doesn’t matter much if you live in a first or third world country; or, on the flip-side, if you do have it/them it doesn’t matter much either way either….


Malcolm wrote:
There are eight freedoms and ten endowments.
A part of those eight freedoms is not being stuck in a country dominated by barbarians. At this point in time, secular democracies with free markets are the best place to practice the Dharma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 21st, 2022 at 12:25 AM
Title: Re: Regarding Shar Khentrul Rinpoché Jamphel Lodrö (No Debates Please)
Content:
Ikkyu's_Son said:
Something such as this is precisely what I was worried about, because if such claims prove true, I could not in good faith maintain pure perception.

Malcolm wrote:
If you discover you have made a connection with someone you later discover is not a qualified teacher, you just leave. You don't make a fuss. Just move on. It's not your fault if their conduct is a problem. Teachers also have samayas with students, if they cannot maintain them, it is negative for the student. It is a two-way street.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 11:41 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Eamon said:
Will Rinpoche include ngak sung tröma or longsal barma?

Malcolm wrote:
Definitely not the longsal barma.

Not sure about ekajati tantra. Depends on time I suspect. Anyway, that tantra has no real Dzogchen content.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 11:25 PM
Title: Re: Is Shingon lesser because it has less tantras than Tibetan vajrayana?
Content:
jmlee369 said:
Tsongkhapa disagreed with the view that different tantra classes were taught for different castes.

Malcolm wrote:
So what? This is clearly explained by Sonam Tsemo and others, including Buton.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 10:58 PM
Title: Re: Antártica and Arctic 70 and 50 degrees above normal
Content:
Sādhaka said:
I thought that it was kind of the opposite, i.e. that many third-world countries are generally happier...

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, this is why people are killing themselves to get into the EU, USA, and Canada. Obviously they are incredibly happy in corruption and poverty.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 9:30 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Padmist said:
What kind of karma do I have that I am connected to this, totally drawn to this, I even make it to the event on time, every day, donating, but during the event, falling asleep.

Malcolm wrote:
It is the effect of purifying ignorance. Don’t worry.

Crazywisdom said:
So I like these lists of side effects of listening to readings. Are there any more specific to these tantras?

Malcolm wrote:
My observation is that new people listening to any Dharma teaching universally report a sense of dullness while the teaching is happening, which lifts the minute the teaching concludes. I also experienced this in the beginning.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 9:26 PM
Title: Re: Antártica and Arctic 70 and 50 degrees above normal
Content:
Aemilius said:
"The end of days" is cheap propaganda. In the geologic time  scale Earth has had several periods of warmer and colder weather/climate. Warming up isn't anything unheard of in Earth's history.

Malcolm wrote:
"End of days" refers to human civilization. We are in the days of the five degenerations (pañcakaṣāyā): degeneration of lifespan, view, afflictions, sentient beings, and the age.

It will be increasingly more difficult, especially in the global south, for humans to thrive.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 7:58 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Padmist said:
) if that is what we need to do (hands together) I'll do that tomorrow.

Malcolm wrote:
No. It’s not necessary.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 7:30 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Padmist said:
What kind of karma do I have that I am connected to this, totally drawn to this, I even make it to the event on time, every day, donating, but during the event, falling asleep.

Malcolm wrote:
It is the effect of purifying ignorance. Don’t worry.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 4:38 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Wally said:
Malcom (or anyone really) -

Is there a copy of this particular version (adzom par ma) on BDRC ( https://library.bdrc.io/ )? Vimala ( http://www.Vimalatreasures.org? Any other suggestions?

Thank you in advance,
Wally

Malcolm wrote:
http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/MW1KG892


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 20th, 2022 at 12:56 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:


Miorita said:
Maybe last hour he'll do Q&A.

Malcolm wrote:
No Q&A.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 19th, 2022 at 10:00 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:


Miorita said:
What do you advise?

Malcolm wrote:
There will be are record of everything you received. You will have received most. So you do your best.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 19th, 2022 at 9:54 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
climb-up said:
I made a very small dana
Does anyone know if the PayPal option will be available still in a couple weeks?

Malcolm wrote:
Yes.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 19th, 2022 at 9:27 PM
Title: Re: Quotes from Śūraṅgama Sutra in "Poison is Medicine - Clarifying the Vajrayana"
Content:


Crazywisdom said:
Yeah, not Sanskrit. Maybe derived from. You're gonna have to show me something in Sanskrit in there.
na mo sa dan tuo
2. su qie duo ye
3. e la he di
4. san miao san pu tuo xie
5. na mo sa dan tuo
6. fo tuo ju zhi shai ni shan
This is Chinese. Pull out your Sanskrit dictionary and find me one word besides namo.

Malcolm wrote:
It is a phonetic representation of Sanskrit sounds derived from Chinese characters, which looks even stranger when rendered in English phonetics. But it is well attested in other sources, and is in fact the White Umbrella dhāraṇi.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 19th, 2022 at 10:32 AM
Title: Re: Quotes from Śūraṅgama Sutra in "Poison is Medicine - Clarifying the Vajrayana"
Content:
Zhen Li said:
The Buddha's qualities by definition must be limitless.

Malcolm wrote:
Which means they just an abstraction, and cannot actually represent buddhahood, since they are illusory, just as buddhahood is illusory.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 19th, 2022 at 8:13 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
pemachophel said:
Please don't forget to offer Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche dana for these lungs. You can do so through Paypal at the Wisdom Publications page for this event. Tulku Dakpa will be using any monies received as offerings for these lungs to build a stupa for world peace.

It is taught that Jetsun Milarepa experienced terrible poverty during His years of practice at least in part because, when He first became a student of Marpa Lotsawa, He offered His Teacher an empty pot. Marpa Lotsawa filled the pot with chang (Tibetan "beer"). Thus in Je Mila's later years He had abundant provisions. Both of these outcomes are based on the principle of dependent origination. This teaching underscores the karmic importance of always giving offerings for any Dharma one receives.

Padmist said:
How much? And I ask in terms of what's generally accepted/common/reasonable, culturally and normally.

I am sending $25 now and do it per day. Would that be alright?

Malcolm wrote:
$108


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 19th, 2022 at 5:29 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Padmist said:
I am so sorry. I mean no disrespect to the Master Tulku. I think I'm a bad student. I log in, listened, and throughout the whole reading, I keep falling asleep. (Because I have been sleeping 4 hours only in the past week) Not deep sleep, just dozing off repeatedly then waking up but his reading was on my earpiece the whole time and I heard it all, or I would hear his reading whenever I wake back up, then doze off again, then heard his last notes as well like coming in 10 minutes early tomorrow.

My question is, did I mess up? Does this reading transmission fail/become invalid, for me?

Malcolm wrote:
Just do your best.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 18th, 2022 at 8:53 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


PeterC said:
No - China gets the opposite treatment - presumption of guilt, while India gets indifference or presumption of innocence

Malcolm wrote:
Well,China just signed an agreement of limitless mutual support with Russia. But I don’t think the Chinese understood what the Russians meant by limitless.

Queequeg said:
I've been thinking about that. Chinese leadership must be thinking hard about how to walk that statement back and/or hoping it just gets resolved ASAP. They did not realize how gangster Russia is and how much a promise like that would actually mean, and so soon. Its quite possible that they were in complete disbelief that Russia would actually go all out on Ukraine like this. Chinese leadership probably studies a lot of stuff to preprare themselves... maybe they need to study The Godfather and the genre of gangster movies generally. Vito Corleone would never have gone for this.

For the time being, they're basically affirming humanitarian concerns but otherwise pretending nothing is happening in Ukraine and relations with Russia are business as usual.

Malcolm wrote:
Apparently, “boundary-less” is an operational concept in Russian political rhetoric:
The mature Ilyin rejected the rule of law in favor of the arbitrariness—proizvol—of fascism. Having given up hope that Russia could be governed by law, he presented lawlessness (proizvol) as a patriotic virtue. Putin followed the same trajectory, citing Ilyin as his authority. When he first ran for president in 2000, he spoke of the need for a “dictatorship of the law.” Those two concepts contradicted each other, and one of them fell away. Running for president in 2012, Putin rejected the idea of a European Russia, which meant ignoring external incentives that favored the rule of law. Instead, proizvol would be presented as redemptive patriotism. The operative concept in the Russian language today is bespredel, boundary-less-ness, the absence of limits, the ability of a leader to do anything. The word itself arose from criminal jargon.

On this logic, Putin was not a failed statesman but a national redeemer. What the EU might describe as failures of governance were to be experienced as the flowering of Russian innocence.
The Road to Unfreedom, Snyder.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 18th, 2022 at 8:07 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


PeterC said:
No - China gets the opposite treatment - presumption of guilt, while India gets indifference or presumption of innocence

Malcolm wrote:
Well,China just signed an agreement of limitless mutual support with Russia. But I don’t think the Chinese understood what the Russians meant by limitless.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 18th, 2022 at 5:26 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Miorita said:
By doing so, Biden has excluded Putin out of the civilized world.

Malcolm wrote:
Rightly so.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 16th, 2022 at 3:08 AM
Title: Re: Is Shingon lesser because it has less tantras than Tibetan vajrayana?
Content:


Crazywisdom said:
Yes. At the stage of Mahamudra, because Kalachakra is a graduated path. The completion stage has many stages. Thus giving up karmamudra means one was practicing it. And the empowerment is happening with a guru and his consort. Kalachakra is very consort oriented and has instructions on finding a consorts, types of human consorts, even paying them. The guru bestowing a consort on a disciple and so on. Then later that us given up in favor of the six vajra yogas, in which the variegated consort is Mahamudra in the form of inner visual signs.

Malcolm wrote:
Not how it is understood by many important Tibetan masters. For example, Dakpo Tashi Namgyal discusses this issue in his Moonbeams of Mahāmudra, etc.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 16th, 2022 at 3:05 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It's getting frizzy in Russia:

Brave woman. I read she was arrested and faces up to 15 years in prison for this, smh.

KristenM said:
She was fined 30,000 rubles, about $280.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 16th, 2022 at 12:41 AM
Title: Re: Is Shingon lesser because it has less tantras than Tibetan vajrayana?
Content:
Injrabodi said:
Looking at the extreme sexual practices of various tantras, such as the Kalachakra Tantra...

Malcolm wrote:
The Kalacakra explicitly negates karmamudra practices.

Crazywisdom said:
Ummm there's karmamudra in Kalachakra.
In order to increase the coemergent bliss [ni] of the victorious ones, first the karma
mudrā should be bestowed.
-Wisdom Chapter

Malcolm wrote:
The Kālacakra states:

One should abandon karmamudra
and the imputed jñānamudra
as they are not supreme.
The practitioner should meditate mahāmudrā.

And alternate translation gives:

The mind should give up the tainted karmamudra and the jñānamudra of these imputations. 
and meditate the excellent mudra, the progenitor of the supreme victor, the cause of full awakening
untainted, unchanging, the one who destroys the darkness, equal with space, all pervasive, traversed by the yogi. 
The brilliant gnosis that resides in the body should be known to be the wheel of time that robs the misdeeds of existence.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 15th, 2022 at 9:34 PM
Title: Re: Is Shingon lesser because it has less tantras than Tibetan vajrayana?
Content:
tingdzin said:
The whole "kriya, carya, yoga, anuttarayoga (or yogini) " classification is India-based and a development much later than the tantras themselves (the classification system actually originated in Tibet, if I recall correctly),

Malcolm wrote:
The four fold classification system comes from the Vajramāla tantra, so 9th century.

The classification of tantras into kriya, carya, and yoga is earlier than Shingon, and is contempoary with Amoghavajra. The mid-eighth century Indian master, Buddhagupta, author of detailed commentaries on the Mahāvairocana Abhisambodhi, was the originator of the three-fold division.

The classification system that seems to have originated in Tibet is the classification of the three inner tantras into mahā, anu, and ati. However, even here, there is evidence that it is an eighth century arrangement, since it is a feature of Padmasambhava's rosary of views.

tingdzin said:
Bringing in the caste system is just creeping Brahmanism, and not at all appropriate.

Malcolm wrote:
It makes sense, actually. Highest tantra is for people outside the caste system, like us.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 15th, 2022 at 9:24 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 15th, 2022 at 6:25 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Padmist said:
Thank you Archie.

Is there a way to contact the Tulku? I tried to email his center in Finland but no answer yet.

I wish to ask for formal Refuge Vow ceremony before this event. I have only taken personal commitment of the refuge.

Or perhaps Malcolm? I've been trying for 2 weeks to get this sorted out but no luck yet
Not even local. Not even the lamas I listen to online virtually are available for this.

My only options are: Lama Zopa in August (too far out), Anam Thubten in April (too far out).

Malcolm wrote:
You don’t need this. Your interest in the teachings is refuge. There was no ritual of taking refuge during the time of the Buddha. That ritual came later.

The principle of refuge is that you recognize that the three jewels are your sole refuge. If you have this idea, then you don’t need a ritual. Also in Mahayana, you can take refuge by visualizing all Buddhas and bodhisattvas in front of you and reciting the formula of refuge. That is sufficient.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 15th, 2022 at 3:06 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It's getting frizzy in Russia:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 15th, 2022 at 12:30 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Karma_Yeshe said:
Could someone please clarify the schedule?
On the Wisdom page it says that the lung starts on the afternoon on Friday, while the Zoom-Invitation says that all sessions start in morning.

Malcolm wrote:
Morning in the US; afternoon in Europe.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 14th, 2022 at 10:11 PM
Title: Re: Maintaining one's Peace in a time of conflict
Content:
master of puppets said:
I live in turkey. Ukrania is our neighbour.
I think in the private ukranian war is organized and planned to give loss/damage on turkey, that the NATO or west shouldn’t take on themselves. And that’s it.

Malcolm wrote:
Turkey is part of NATO. You need to get out more.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 14th, 2022 at 5:10 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
A must read analysis.



Tl:dr, US and the West emerge much more powerful from this. China pivots to the West for self-preservation.
A tentative rebuttal to this article:

https://mp-weixin-qq-com.translate.goog/s/WCcXCEGZdsqL30VvZ1MCaA?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 14th, 2022 at 2:59 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
A must read analysis.



Tl:dr, US and the West emerge much more powerful from this. China pivots to the West for self-preservation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 14th, 2022 at 2:30 AM
Title: Re: Tradition for Solitary Practitioner?
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
So the Pratyekayana as a gate or path isclosed during this current Buddha Sasana? I feel strangely let down. I always wanted to encounter one.

Malcolm wrote:
That is the official story. The bodhicitta of a pratyekabuddha is to attain buddhahood when there is no samyaksambuddha in the world.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 11:32 PM
Title: Re: I have received Tokudo after over 30 years as a lay practitioner
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
Formally received Tokudo, three sets of vows, and practice commitments from a Shingon-shu temple in Japan run by my Teacher and Master.

The funny thing is I have spent far more time as a Pure Land practitioner at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo and then some years at a Kanagawa Rinzai temple. I would be lying if I said I didn't think often about having a long sit-down with my Shingon teacher about shifting over to Ji-shu Pure Land (my family Danka, for what it's worth) or perhaps taking one of the wonderful 真宗学 academic courses on offer and delving into the arcana of Pure Land theory. I have a feeling given my age and limited memory powers I will never be  able to advance to Ajari status in Shingon, not that it matters all that much. There are a few specialized practices I would like to be initiated into. It sure gets pricy collecting Shingon permissions, vestments, implements....ive already spent... well, why grumble? It was worth every yen.

So after all these years in Japan knocking around different temples I've finally taken the plunge. Ami not allowed a little public victory lap in this egotistical thread?

Samsara is a strange place. I've been a farmer, a washing machine factory worker,  I spent time semi homeless living on 7 bucks a week. I earned full university  degrees in Western Philosophy and Chinese History, been a certified Geopolitical strategist with a aide order of Cyber Warfare accreditation, and finally it seems a Shingon practitioner.Hopefully my story ends there, but not quite yet.

Malcolm wrote:
Congrats


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 10:57 PM
Title: Re: Tradition for Solitary Practitioner?
Content:
FiveSkandhas said:
"The Majjhima Nikaya (M III 69–71) enumerates 119 names of a group of five hundred Paccekabuddhas who are said to reside on Mount Isigili. Of these names only a few are mentioned in Pali texts elsewhere: the most important ones are Tagarasikhin, Uparittha, Matanga and Mahapaduma.

Malcolm wrote:
They all attained nirvana with the advent of Śākyamuni.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 10:53 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:


heart said:
Thank you very much Malcolm for requesting these "lungs", it feels like a very auspicious sign in these rather dark times.

Malcolm wrote:
You and everyone else are very welcome. I am glad to be a catalyst for this transmission. But TDR is the one doing all the work. He really deserves the thanks. He is quite happy to be doing so. He is very happy to be able to share these transmissions with everyone who is interested.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 10:38 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


FiveSkandhas said:
2) At the same time, I deny he is a "madman" or a "crazed conquest-bent tyrant" or any of the other cartoon images being brandied about by people who should really know better. Everything he is doing is based in a flawed and overly aggressive but essentially logical Geopolitical worldview. He is protecting his vulnerable Western border from an ever-encroaching NATO that has broken it's 1991 treaty commitments to Russia not to Expand NATO eastward, in ridiculously flamboyant fashion.

Malcolm wrote:
This assertion has already been debunked. No such treaty commitments exist or have ever existed.

And you are undoubtedly aware Putin is a Russian fascist who quotes Ilyin every chance he can.

Putin is most certainly rational actor. Just because he has made a fundamental miscalculation about Ukraine, does not mean he is bereft of reason. He has however gone the way of most dictators, living in an echo chamber of sycophantic (fearful) underlings who merely tell him what he wants to hear.

Also his lies are preposterous. Only fools could take them at face value.

Slander is unbecoming:
western oil giant friendly cokehead in the Ukrainian presidential office
Do you have any proof of this, or are you merely repeating Russian propaganda?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 7:08 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:


heart said:
So most Dzogchen sadhanas would be either Mahayoga or Anuyoga of Atiyoga.

Malcolm wrote:
This is nine-fold division is less than useful for understanding sadhanas. In any case ChNN frequently asserted that anything to do with deity yoga was never Dzogchen proper, but was part of path of transformation, hence Anuyoga at best.

Now, some other Lamas might disagree, but I follow ChNN.

Jangchup Donden said:
Do guru yoga sadhanas count as deity yoga?

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, of course. If there transformation of any kind, it is the resultant path, Dzogchen is a path beyond cause and result,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 7:02 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:


heart said:
So most Dzogchen sadhanas would be either Mahayoga or Anuyoga of Atiyoga.

Malcolm wrote:
This is nine-fold division is less than useful for understanding sadhanas. In any case ChNN frequently asserted that anything to do with deity yoga was never Dzogchen proper, but was part of path of transformation, hence Anuyoga at best.

Now, some other Lamas might disagree, but I follow ChNN.

heart said:
I find it very helpful and it actually make more sense if you look at how Dzogchen was practiced by the masters of the lineage. For example ChNN did a Mandarava retreat every year and I am pretty sure his never lowered his view to Anuyoga. It is the view that matters and if the view is Ati then everything is Ati.

/magnus

Malcolm wrote:
Magnus, sorry bud, he was very clear that Mandarava, etc., was anuyoga. Why did he emphasize anuyoga? Because anuyoga’s view of the basis is the same as Dzogchen. Why is anuyoga lower than Dzogchen? Because anuyoga regards ati as a result. So your assertion, “if the view is ati, then everything is ati” is not correct. There is also no creation or completion stage in Dzogchen.

I don’t know why you want to argue with me about ChNNs pov, I am a second level SMS student.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 6:56 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Genjo Conan said:
These policy steps contributed to a renewed "clash of civilizations" narrative within Russia that Putin and his inner circle have both exploited and themselves contributed to, and seem in some respects to believe.

None of this caused Russia to invade or absolves Russia's leadership of their actions.

Malcolm wrote:
The “clash of civilizations” narrative is a key part of the Russian fascist pov since the 20’s. It was also part of narrative of Hitler and  Mussolini.

It’s clear that Putin bought into this, as I have already pointed out. His whole narrative is a pack of lies, an Ajatasatru for the 21st century.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 10:42 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
PeterC said:
They fly sorties with fighters along the border of a lot of countries - Denmark and Finland get that treatment periodically too.  It’s extremely petty as it doesn’t really serve any purpose except to be annoying, because you have to scramble jets in response.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 7:11 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Genjo Conan said:
Yeltsin, not Gorbachev.  And, ok, you do you.

Malcolm wrote:
It is a fantasy that Putin felt threatened by NATO.

But I am sure he does now, now that he has given himself reason to feel threatened by NATO for attacking Ukraine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 6:57 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:


heart said:
So most Dzogchen sadhanas would be either Mahayoga or Anuyoga of Atiyoga.

Malcolm wrote:
This is nine-fold division is less than useful for understanding sadhanas. In any case ChNN frequently asserted that anything to do with deity yoga was never Dzogchen proper, but was part of path of transformation, hence Anuyoga at best.

Now, some other Lamas might disagree, but I follow ChNN.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 4:49 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Genjo Conan said:
Yes, I understand why the ex-Soviet states want to join NATO.  I think it also nevertheless true that expansion increased tensions with Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
Nonsense. This is just a recent excuse Putin has made up to satisfy his fascist dream of restoring Imperial Russia.


Genjo Conan said:
Malcolm, this is demonstrably false.  Russian anger at NATO expansion predated Putin.  This is well documented. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2021-11-24/nato-expansion-budapest-blow-1994

One can argue, pace Norwegian, that this anger was overblown, or that it demonstrates some deeper pathology. I think both are likely true.  That doesn't mean the sentiment isn't real.

Malcolm wrote:
It is demonstrably true that Putin himself never actually felt threatened by NATO, no matter what Gorbachev may have felt in 1994. Hence, my statement is factual.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 3:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Genjo Conan said:
Yes, I understand why the ex-Soviet states want to join NATO.  I think it also nevertheless true that expansion increased tensions with Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
Nonsense. This is just a recent excuse Putin has made up to satisfy his fascist dream of restoring Imperial Russia.

Between 2000 and 2008, during Putin’s first two terms as president, the Russian economy grew at an average rate of almost 7% per annum. Putin won his war in Chechnya. The government exploited high world market prices of natural gas and oil to distribute some export profits throughout the Russian population. The instability of the Yeltsin order had passed, and many Russians were understandably pleased and grateful. Russia also enjoyed a stable position in foreign affairs. Putin offered NATO Russia’s support after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In 2002, he spoke favorably of “European culture” and avoided portraying NATO as an adversary. In 2004, Putin spoke in favor of European Union membership for Ukraine, saying that such an outcome would be in Russia’s economic interest. He spoke of the enlargement of the European Union as extending a zone of peace and prosperity to Russia’s borders. In 2008, he attended a NATO summit.

Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom (pp. 47-48). Crown. Kindle Edition.


No Russian leader feared a NATO invasion in 2011 or 2012, or even pretended to. In 2012, American leaders believed that they were pursuing a “reset” of relations with Russia. When Mitt Romney referred to Russia as America’s “number one geopolitical foe” in March 2012, he was ridiculed. Almost no one in the American public or media was paying attention to Moscow. Russia did not even figure in American public opinion polls about global threats and challenges. The European Union and the United States were presented as threats because Russian elections were faked. In winter 2011 and spring 2012, Russian television channels and newspapers generated the narrative that all who protested electoral fraud were paid by Western institutions. The effort began on December 8, 2011, with the reporting of Putin’s claim that Clinton had initiated the protests.

Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom (p. 55). Crown. Kindle Edition.

Until 2012, Russian leaders spoke favorably of European integration. Yeltsin accepted Europe as a model, at least rhetorically. Putin described the approach of the EU to Russia’s border as an opportunity for cooperation. The eastward enlargement of NATO in 1999 was not presented by Putin as a threat. Instead, he tried to recruit the United States or NATO to cooperate with Russia to address what he saw as common security problems. After the United States was attacked by Islamist terrorists in 2001, Putin offered to cooperate with NATO in territories that bordered Russia. Putin did not present the EU enlargement of 2004 as a threat. On the contrary, he spoke favorably that year of future EU membership for Ukraine. In 2008, Putin attended the NATO summit in Bucharest. In 2009, Medvedev allowed American aircraft to fly over Russia to supply troops in Afghanistan. In 2010, Russia’s ambassador to NATO, the radical nationalist Dmitry Rogozin, expressed his concern that NATO would leave Afghanistan. Rogozin complained of NATO’s lack of fighting spirit, its “mood of capitulation.” He wanted NATO troops at Russia’s border.

Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom (p. 79). Crown. Kindle Edition.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 2:43 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 1:38 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Passing By said:
Is the Longsal Barma Gyud that was mentioned during the info session the one that is the root source of the Khandro Nyingthik? And is the Terton who discovered the Longsal Barma, Nyangral Nyima Ozer?

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. The Longsal tantra is like a summary of the topics of the 17 tantras, and reproduces a lot of material, especially from the Rangshar.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 1:32 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
heart said:
Would that make Ati Guru Yoga, as Rinpoche often called it, Anu Guru Yoga?

Malcolm wrote:
Guru Yoga of White A is a practice in the collective practice booklet which includes the invocation, and the shorter version in the Short Thun. That, according to ChNN is a guruyoga at the anuyoga level. The medium and long thun with Guru Padmasambhava is a guruyoga at the mahāyoga level.

Ati guru yoga is ati level because it does not involve visualizing a human form.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 13th, 2022 at 1:27 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shotenzenjin said:
I've been late coming back to this thread. But the idea the USA hasn't or does not target civilians populations is  is utter bs

Malcolm wrote:
In the battle Foggia, the targets were German and Italian troops as well as a major rail hub, but not civilians.

A more apt example of US terror bombing would be Dresden, and as you mentioned, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Frankly, in the case of nuclear weapons, we did not know what we were doing. We had an inkling, but the results were far more terrible than US war planners anticipated.

I did not deny the US has targeted civilians. I stated that it is not now our policy to target civilians. Our policy is the opposite and has been since WWII.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 10:52 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
We’ve been hearing voices both past and present saying that the reason for what has happened is, as George Kennan put it, the strategic blunder of the eastward expansion of nato. The great-power realist-school historian John Mearsheimer insists that a great deal of the blame for what we’re witnessing must go to the United States. I thought we’d begin with your analysis of that argument.

I have only the greatest respect for George Kennan. John Mearsheimer is a giant of a scholar. But I respectfully disagree. The problem with their argument is that it assumes that, had nato not expanded, Russia wouldn’t be the same or very likely close to what it is today. What we have today in Russia is not some kind of surprise. It’s not some kind of deviation from a historical pattern. Way before nato existed—in the nineteenth century—Russia looked like this: it had an autocrat. It had repression. It had militarism. It had suspicion of foreigners and the West. This is a Russia that we know, and it’s not a Russia that arrived yesterday or in the nineteen-nineties. It’s not a response to the actions of the West. There are internal processes in Russia that account for where we are today.

I would even go further. I would say that nato expansion has put us in a better place to deal with this historical pattern in Russia that we’re seeing again today. Where would we be now if Poland or the Baltic states were not in nato? They would be in the same limbo, in the same world that Ukraine is in. In fact, Poland’s membership in nato stiffened nato’s spine. Unlike some of the other nato countries, Poland has contested Russia many times over. In fact, you can argue that Russia broke its teeth twice on Poland: first in the nineteenth century, leading up to the twentieth century, and again at the end of the Soviet Union, with Solidarity. So George Kennan was an unbelievably important scholar and practitioner—the greatest Russia expert who ever lived—but I just don’t think blaming the West is the right analysis for where we are.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/stephen-kotkin-putin-russia-ukraine-stalin


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 9:17 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 9:10 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 8:38 PM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
heart said:
Is Guru yoga with a white A not Dzogchen?

Malcolm wrote:
ChNN characterized it as an Anuyoga level practice, like Mandarava, Gomadevi, and Jnanadakini.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 10:52 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Queequeg said:
Nukes, Oil, Wheat, and Troll Farms.

Malcolm wrote:
Oil, gas, vodka, and caviar.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 9:53 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Jesse said:
In fact Russia is on par with us technologically

Malcolm wrote:
No. Russia is technologically dependent on the US.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 7:34 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Jesse said:
Haven't heard the words False Flag so much in my life, except maybe when I used to watch Alex Jones as a teenager. Now we are to be 'on the lookout' for false flag biological and chemical attacks too.

Sweet......

Norwegian said:
Yes, because there's a long tradition of Russia saying " X are doing Y! ", and then Russia does Y instead, and accuses X of doing it, in order to instigate something or give themselves the right to do something (i.e., react with violent and deadly force). This isn't particularly new, and so it's important to call them out on it.

Jesse said:
Karl Marx: “Accuse Your Enemy Of What You Are Doing, As You Are Doing It To Create Confusion”

Malcolm wrote:
The basic strategy of Putin, and his understudy, Trump.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 3:49 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It is in the self-interest of liberal democracies to support other liberal democracies. The struggle between authoritarianism (both right and left) and liberal democracy is an existential conflict.

The post-Soviet era was just a pause in the Cold War. It's back now, and naturally, liberal democracy will prevail, just as it did before. The combined economic power of the liberal democracies is the largest in the world. All Putin managed to do was strengthen the resolve of the West to oppose him and other totalitarian regimes like his, if they interfere in our interests.

Bundokji said:
If liberal democracy is a middle path between the extremes of right and left, then it would be a cause for co-existence rather than in existential conflict with them. In my understanding, existential conflict is a result of the extremes, not the middle.

Malcolm wrote:
Liberal internationalism has moralist tendencies and activist impulses, but it is ultimately a reform-oriented and pragmatic endeavor. Modern liberals do not embrace democratic governments, market-based economic systems, and international institutions out of idealism or as tools of empire but as arrangements better suited to realizing human interests than the alternatives. Liberal internationalists hold that world politics requires institutional cooperation and political integration in response to relentlessly rising economic and security interdependence. Liberal internationalists across the past two centuries have considered a global architecture of rules and institutions necessary to protect liberal democracy and realize basic human interests. They have not always kept the best company, and their history is tainted by colonialism, imperialism, slavery, racism, and sexism. Yet liberals have also led the efforts to end these practices.

Ikenberry, G. John. A World Safe for Democracy . Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

Putin is flouting these rules and concerns. Hence, he has come into the crosshairs of the liberal international order.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 3:45 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
It's fascinating what narratives are being build on the basis of scant reliable information. The fire at Enerhodar was never deemed a threat and no one actually confirmed responsibility and how it got started. The electricity cut in Chernobyl is not deemed dangerous by the IAEA: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/09/chernobyl-power-supply-cut-completely-after-russian-seizure-warns-ukaine

Malcolm wrote:
Correction, oh right, you scampered off before you could read the reply...


The Situation at Chernobyl Is Deteriorating

The defunct site of the infamous 1986 meltdown has lost power two weeks after it was seized by Russian forces. Experts fear another nuclear disaster looms.

...

“To have a long-term loss of power is certainly a concern,” says Ed Lyman, a senior global security scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and coauthor of the book Fukushima: The Story of a Nuclear Disaster. Some of Chernobyl’s waste has been transferred into dry casks, but considerable quantities of fuel rods remain in a pool that requires cooling. That’s where the biggest risks currently are. “Without electrical power to the cooling pumps, the spent fuel pool will start heating up,” Lyman says. Water will gradually evaporate or boil away, exposing the fuel rods and releasing radioactive gasses. 

Chernobyl’s New Safe Confinement structure also needs electricity. This is the facility built around the concrete “sarcophagus” that surrounds what’s left of the damaged reactor Number Four, which melted down in the 1986 disaster. The confinement structure’s ventilation system must run to prevent the exposed nuclear fuel within it from becoming more hazardous. Without power, the site’s 1.5-billion-euro decommissioning program could be imperiled, Claire Corkhill, an expert on nuclear material degradation at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, wrote on Twitter and in an email to WIRED.

...

“The Russians have been incredibly careless. They not only attacked a nuclear power plant; they also attacked a nuclear laboratory, an accelerator complex that’s designed to produce neutrons,” says Bob Rosner, a physicist at the University of Chicago and former chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board. 

And the threat won’t be over as long as Russia continues to bombard Ukraine with missiles and fly warplanes overhead. US Department of Energy researchers have studied whether nuclear reactors could withstand an airplane crash, Dalnoki-Veress says. They cannot. And missiles fly faster and are more penetrating. An impact on a fuel pool could be highly damaging, likely spreading dangerous radioactive material all over. That’s why prohibiting combat near nuclear facilities should be a top priority in Ukraine-Russia negotiations, Dalnoki-Veress argues: “No reactor in the world can withstand a missile strike. It’s important to not have any fighting near these facilities. It’s a no-brainer.”

https://apple.news/Ay0-fn8cCTKuuqWa8b9CX5A


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 3:04 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Jesse said:
That's globalism...

Malcolm wrote:
Thank goodness. Anti-globalism is just anti-modernity in drag.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 2:48 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Bundokji said:
I do not see the bravery of Ukrainian resistance except through the lens of propaganda that convinced people that Russia would emerge victorious in a couple of days. Even the US military might took over a month to invade Iraq which was much weaker than the Ukrainian military.

Malcolm wrote:
They had a longer drive.

Bundokji said:
The same propaganda is not even considering that the Russian army is trying to minimize the impact on civilians which would make the military operation lasts longer. In fact, they are pushing the Russians to use more fatal means, the same game they used before the invasion, keeping on speculating when Russia is going to invade, a tactic that Putin described as both childish and dangerous.

Malcolm wrote:
Pushing Russia? You are nuts.


Bundokji said:
The Russians have history of turning conflicts to their advantage when everyone think they are losing.

Malcolm wrote:
Only when they themselves have been invaded. The record of their wars is not inspiring, they got beat in Crimea, Japan, and Europe in WWI. It was only due to the lendlease program they won in WWII.


Bundokji said:
Biden took a hostile narrative against Russia since the elections.



Malcolm wrote:
For sounds reasons: Chechnya, Georgia/S. Ossetia, Syria, Crimea, and now the rest of Ukraine. Nato is not a threat to Russian security, unless one imagines liberal democracy in itself is such a threat (and it is a threat to Putin's power). If that is the case, Westphalian sovereignty still governs the situation. Russia has violated Ukrainian state sovereignty since 2014.

Bundokji said:
His son was involved with gas companies in Ukraine and Kazakhstan,

Malcolm wrote:
A complete nothing burger.

Bundokji said:
Self interest is more conducive to approaching worldly affairs with a mindset of "damage control".

Malcolm wrote:
It is in the self-interest of liberal democracies to support other liberal democracies. The struggle between authoritarianism (both right and left) and liberal democracy is an existential conflict.

The post-Soviet era was just a pause in the Cold War. It's back now, and naturally, liberal democracy will prevail, just as it did before. The combined economic power of the liberal democracies is the largest in the world. All Putin managed to do was strengthen the resolve of the West to oppose him and other totalitarian regimes like his, if they interfere in our interests.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 12th, 2022 at 2:24 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Democracy is a system of transferring power, as Snyder points out:

Bundokji said:
Some would define democracy as the tyranny of the majority.

Malcolm wrote:
Some people, then, would be wrong.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 9:49 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Bundokji said:
Democracy ceases to be moral

Malcolm wrote:
Democracy is a system of transferring power, as Snyder points out:

Functional states produce a sense of continuity for their citizens. If states sustain themselves, citizens can imagine change without fearing catastrophe. The mechanism that ensures that a state outlasts a leader is called the principle of succession. A common one is democracy. The meaning of each election is the promise of the next one. Since each citizen is fallible, democracy transforms cumulative mistakes into a collective belief in the future. History goes on.

Bundokji said:
He did not deny the ambition of restoring Russia as a respectable player in international arena. Existence of both individuals or nations is historical in nature, so having a historical reference to his ambitions is not as disorderly or pathological as his opponents try to make it sound.

Malcolm wrote:
One reason we know that Russia is a dysfunctional state is that they have no viable principle of succession. In Putin’s case, he explicitly depends on a fascist for his vision. You might be fine with fascism. The liberal democratic order is not.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 8:57 PM
Title: Re: Are we our bodies?
Content:
shanyin said:
Does Buddhist no-self teaching mean that human beings are not their bodies and minds? If we are not those what are we?

Malcolm wrote:
Correct. A “person” is an imputation upon a series of aggregates.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 8:49 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Bundokji said:
I guess because many politicians, especially in the west, promoting their interference on moral ground, while the other side focuses more on self-interest.

Malcolm wrote:
Clearly, you have not paid attention to anything Putin has said. He regards democracy itself as immoral and he has said so. In the process, he has done everything he can to undermine democracy every way possible, because he thinks it is immoral. It’s part and parcel of his Russian fascism.

He is not acting in his self-interest, nor in the interest of Russia. It’s preposterous to make the claim he is. He is just a victim of the kind of nationalist romanticism that always leads people like him to the open embraces of fascist ideologues like Ilyin and Dugin.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 10:13 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
KristenM said:
. I get it, people want to blame the US for this and then also say the US has no right to feign moral outrage.

Malcolm wrote:
Which of course is a bunch of total bullshit.

Not only that, Dan is in no position to be so patronizing toward you.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 9:54 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
PeterC said:
I don’t understand why we’re discussing whether the US or Russia is morally worse.  They both suck.

Malcolm wrote:
The United States birthed democracy. Democracy has benefitted everyone, including Russians. When they see those benefits withdrawn due to the behavior of their leadership, they will either replace it, or frankly, they will suffer in poverty, and will be shunned by the international community, by those at least who have some moral timbre, at any rate.

Once Putin starts using chemical weapons, within the next week or so, then things will go from where they are now—bad—to much, much worse.

There is no way the EU and NATo tolerates this.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 7:10 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Toenail said:
Cant listen to the explanation thing tomorrow. Is there a way to listen to a recording of it?

Malcolm wrote:
There will be. I will let you know.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 5:59 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
I for one welcome our Chinese friends.

Malcolm wrote:
A very poor understanding of Adam Smith.

Brunelleschi said:
Yeah, I'm just joking man.

Malcolm wrote:
Sometimes it is hard to tell.

I am not a big fan of the Austrian school either; however, this book of Hayek's is very difficult to argue against.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 5:46 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
I for one welcome our Chinese friends.

Malcolm wrote:
A very poor understanding of Adam Smith.

And she might do well to read Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom." You might too:
It is not difficult to see what must be the consequences when democracy embarks upon a course of planning which in its execution requires more agreement than in fact exists. The people may have agreed on adopting a system of directed economy because they have been convinced that it will produce great prosperity. In the discussions leading to the decision, the goal of planning will have been described by some such term as “common welfare,” which only conceals the absence of real agreement on the ends of planning. Agreement will in fact exist only on the mechanism to be used. But it is a mechanism which can be used only for a common end; and the question of the precise goal toward which all activity is to be directed will arise as soon as the executive power has to translate the demand for a single plan into a particular plan. Then it will appear that the agreement on the desirability of planning is not supported by agreement on the ends the plan is to serve. The effect of the people’s agreeing that there must be central planning, without agreeing on the ends, will be rather as if a group of people were to commit themselves to take a journey together without agreeing where they want to go: with the result that they may all have to make a journey which most of them do not want at all.
Hayek, F. A.. The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition: Text and Documents--The Definitive Edition (The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Volume 2) (pp. 103-104). University of Chicago Press. Kindle Edition.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 5:32 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 4:53 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Yeah, well, I remember when it was “the end of history” and when America was “the last great superpower”. Turns out that was nonsense and we still live in a multipolar world, despite the Neocon/Neolib fantasy to the contrary.

Under those circumstances, desiring An exclusively American-dominated world seems out of touch, and perhaps dangerous and destabilizing in its own way.

Comparing Russia with pre WWII Germany simply seems crazy to me, sorry.

Malcolm wrote:
The comparisons are completely apt. But if you won't see it, well, that's not my problem. But you should understand that Putin revived a Russian fascist author named Ivan Ilyin, whose works are wildly popular in Russia these days.

Johnny Dangerous said:
After a new Russian Federation emerged from the defunct Soviet Union in 1991, Ilyin’s short book Our Tasks began to circulate in new Russian editions, his collected works were published, and his ideas gained powerful supporters. He had died forgotten in Switzerland; Putin organized a reburial in Moscow in 2005. Ilyin’s personal papers had found their way to Michigan State University; Putin sent an emissary to reclaim them in 2006. By then Putin was citing Ilyin in his annual presidential addresses to the general assembly of the Russian parliament. These were important speeches, composed by Putin himself. In the 2010s, Putin relied upon Ilyin’s authority to explain why Russia had to undermine the European Union and invade Ukraine. When asked to name a historian, Putin cited Ilyin as his authority on the past.

Malcolm wrote:
Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom (pp. 17-18). Crown. Kindle Edition.

Snyder does not have any patience for what he called the politics of inevitability in the US either:
The capitalist version of the politics of inevitability, the market as a substitute for policy, generates economic inequality that undermines belief in progress. As social mobility halts, inevitability gives way to eternity, and democracy gives way to oligarchy. An oligarch spinning a tale of an innocent past, perhaps with the help of fascist ideas, offers fake protection to people with real pain. Faith that technology serves freedom opens the way to his spectacle. As distraction replaces concentration, the future dissolves in the frustrations of the present, and eternity becomes daily life. The oligarch crosses into real politics from a world of fiction, and governs by invoking myth and manufacturing crisis. crisis. In the 2010s, one such person, Vladimir Putin, escorted another, Donald Trump, from fiction to power.

Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom (pp. 15-16). Crown. Kindle Edition.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 4:30 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
You would vote for George Bush?

Malcolm wrote:
Of course not. But according to JD's logic, the US involvement in the Balkan war was also a neoconservative action. I also think trashing the TPP was a big mistake. I did not support Bernie in this. I still voted for him. I also permanently ended my affection for the Green Party when I saw Jill Stein repeating RT talking points about Clinton.

Johnny Dangerous said:
I didn’t say anything about the Balkans, I said your theoretical foreign policy posture has basically pivoted to neoconservative, and you pretty much agreed.

One of the premises of Neoconservative thought is that there are only two choices, an American-dominated world where the US must always aggressively pursue its interests (because those are everyone’s interests, really), the other alternative is chaos. As far as I can tell, you agree with this.

Malcolm wrote:
I think that an American-dominated world is in everyone's best interest. The alternative is chaos, as the Trump administration proved this admirably, as did the Hoover administration (another isolationist administration that not only destroyed the American economy, but tolerated the rise of Fascism in Europe, along with an England that dropped the ball on this point as well).


Johnny Dangerous said:
I tend not to, and believe there may be more options than these. Further, I think that uncritically supporting US interventions as ideologically sound can lead to bad stuff, like Iraq.

Malcolm wrote:
I do not believe that the second invasion of Iraq was ever in anyone's interest. On the other hand, it was fomented by Dick Cheney almost exclusively, who through shear force of delusion (he still believes in the WMD theory to this day) forced us into this conflict.

Johnny Dangerous said:
Far as the present situation, I am not sure what the US should do. However, it’s important to remember that in any conflict no country has simple motivations.

Malcolm wrote:
I think we should arm the Ukrainians to the teeth. Putin's attempted assault on the liberal democratic order is far from over. Just read Alexander Dugin. These people are enemies of democracy in toto.

Johnny Dangerous said:
Often the strategic and tactical end is pretty well divorced from the moral one. In that sense, I have some sympathy for the realists position.

Malcolm wrote:
The Road to Unfreedom by Snyder really is required reading to understand what is going on. He says:
The fascism of the 1920s and 1930s, Ilyin’s era, had three core features: it celebrated will and violence over reason and law; it proposed a leader with a mystical connection to his people; and it characterized globalization as a conspiracy rather than as a set of problems. Revived today in conditions of inequality as a politics of eternity, fascism serves oligarchs as a catalyst for transitions away from public discussion and towards political fiction; away from meaningful voting and towards fake democracy; away from the rule of law and towards personalist regimes.
Snyder, Timothy. The Road to Unfreedom (p. 16). Crown. Kindle Edition.

Basically, it boils down to this for me: if we do not support democratically elected governments abroad, our democracy, imperfect though it may be, will fail here in the United States. We also need to recognize that Putin's attempts to degrade democracy wherever he can are real, are an explicit part of Russian foreign policy, and are driven by ideology as well, an ideology no less authoritarian than Soviet-style communism. In short, Putin is a fascist, and Russia is a fascist country.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 4:18 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Talk about out of touch with reality.

On the other hand, finding myself on the same side as Karl Rove is a bit disconcerting.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 3:52 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
The leftist gang-up on Clinton was mostly misogyny funded by alt-right groups pretending to be on the left anyways.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, it was definitely misogyny, and it was widely supported by people on the left in the USA. I can't tell you how many people I know, who should have known better, who left the top of their ticket blank, because "Hillary."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 3:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
You would vote for George Bush?

Malcolm wrote:
Of course not. But according to JD's logic, the US involvement in the Balkan war was also a neoconservative action. I also think trashing the TPP was a big mistake. I did not support Bernie in this. I still voted for him. I also permanently ended my affection for the Green Party when I saw Jill Stein repeating RT talking points about Clinton.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 3:28 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
1) All the sudden legitimizing anything America does as not as bad because Pax Americana is better than Pax Putin.

Malcolm wrote:
There can never be a Pax Putin. Putin is too weak.

Mischaracterizing what evil the US has done in the world however, such as Dan as done, can't be allowed to stand, since it is grounded in zero facts.

Johnny Dangerous said:
2) Continually accusing anyone and everyone who even dares question the narrative of “Supporting Russia”.

Malcolm wrote:
Apologizing for Russia isn't supporting Russia, it's one step removed. It's still atrocious.

Johnny Dangerous said:
3) Equating Democracy itself with maintainence of American imperial goals, assuming that military postures somehow automatically line up with just ideologies.

Malcolm wrote:
America doesn't have imperial goals. Much like Rome, its expansion was largely driven by what it perceived to be external threats: First Britain, then the Mexican empire, later Spain. by 1914, the US was largely concerned with  consolidation. WWII and the collapse of the British empire paved the way for our hegemony, with Europe's blessing, by and large.

Spreading democracy used to be considered good for business, since in general the idea was that democracy and capitalism are interrelated. This is actually true, in fact. The capitalist development of Russia was stifled by Putin's authoritarianism, just as it is being reigned in by Xi.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 3:22 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
Naw, sorry. Just because a bunch of y’all have decided to convert to Neocons doesn’t mean people can’t mention things.

Queequeg said:
Supporting Ukraine makes one a Neocon?

Malcolm wrote:
The general point of view of people to the left of the center left is always the same.

I was kidding a few years ago when I mentioned a few years ago that Trump's election put me in touch with my inner neocon/neoliberal. Not kidding now. Labels are not really that helpful in these sorts of things, but hey, if it makes happy to call me a neocon, that's fine by me. I've never made any secret of the fact that I prefer US hegemony to that of China. Russia of course does not have enough power to muster a hegemony of anything but mud pits in Siberia. But they can still wreck a lot of  damage on their neighbors.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 3:18 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Jesse said:
I think we should absolutely hold ourselves and others to higher standards.

Malcolm wrote:
That's just not how the concept of state sovereignty functions.

The fact is that the Houthis attacked the legitimate government of Yemen.

Yemen was on track to institute western style liberal democracy, was a US ally against Al Qaida, etc. Ex-president Saleh and the Houthis illegally deposed the elected president of Yemen, Hadi, in 2015.

This is a summary of what State has to say on the issue:

https://www.state.gov/u-s-relations-with-yemen/

Characterizing Yemen as a genocide by the Saudis or anyone else is just bollocks, quite frankly. The Houthis are, if anything, more responsible for this mess than the Saudis. They started this war, and it is their people who are suffering the most. If they want to stop the suffering of the northern Yemeni people, they should put down their arms.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 2:58 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Bundokji said:
In my view, whataboutism

Malcolm wrote:
Generally speaking, whataboutism serves to draw false equivalencies.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 2:35 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
It doesn’t necessarily tell us what to support or do, that’s a much more complicated decision.

Malcolm wrote:
The whataboutism should considered off topic or another thread created for the Whataboutist party to waffle on and on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 2:32 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Jesse said:
I provided the history of the situation, and the fact we still haven't stopped selling them arms. Considering our present situation with oil, do you fathom that we won't sell them more bombing munitions once the public freaks out and makes gas prices a primary issue in the next election?

Malcolm wrote:
The arms sale happened before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Jesse said:
I see very little difference between directly bombing civilians, and knowingly selling bombs to a country that is bombing civilians, the difference is marginal. Saudi is well protected, 99% of the rockets are taken down by their anti missile systems.

Malcolm wrote:
Right, and they needed to replenish them.


Jesse said:
Yes Iran is waging proxy wars on both Saudi, and Israel, both of whom are our allies, which is why we are providing arms to them. We haven't however forced either of them to comply with higher standards in warfare, and which we ourselves still violate frequently enough.

Malcolm wrote:
Basically, you are a left-wing isolationist. This is ok. But I don't think this is very sound foreign policy.



Jesse said:
Nothing really justifies supporting genocide of civilians, even if an armed group is firing rockets at you/allies. You being a larger, more well funded country, spend the extra money, comply with international treaties and standards; go in and remove the armed groups. You don't bomb hospitals, and infrastructure, and blockade food and supplies for civilians harming/killing millions.

The primary reasons they can't stop these groups is because they committed genocide, displacing millions of people, which supplies constant streams of new soldiers/terrorists; however you want to designate them. When you murder civilians, they join militias and armies, go figure.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, its just not as straight-forward as you would like it to be:
Since March 2015, the coalition has conducted numerous indiscriminate and disproportionate airstrikes killing thousands of civilians and hitting civilian structures in violation of the laws of war, using munitions sold by the United States, United Kingdom, and others. Houthi forces have used banned antipersonnel landmines, recruited children, and fired artillery indiscriminately into cities such as Taizz, killing and wounding civilians, and launched indiscriminate ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia.
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/yemen


Jesse said:
Followers of Zayd established themselves in north Yemen’s rugged mountains in the ninth century. For the next thousand years, the Zaydis fought for control of Yemen with various degrees of success. A succession of Zaydi Imams ruled the community and Zaydis were the majority of the population in the mountains of the north. They fought against both the Ottomans and the Wahhabis in the 18th and 19th centuries.

With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, a Zaydi monarchy took power in North Yemen called the Mutawakkilite Kingdom. The ruler, or imam, was both a secular ruler and a spiritual leader. Their kingdom fought and lost a border war with Saudi Arabia in the 1930s, losing territory to the Saudi state. They also enjoyed international recognition as the legitimate government of North Yemen. Their capital was in Taiz.

Malcolm wrote:
They are anti-American:
The American invasion of Iraq in 2003 deeply radicalized the Houthi movement, like it did many other Arabs. It was a pivotal moment. The Houthis adopted the slogan: “God is great, death to the U.S., death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory for Islam,” in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The group also officially called itself Ansar Allah, or supporters of God. It was a turning point largely unrecognized outside Yemen, another unanticipated consequence of George Bush’s Iraq adventures.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2017/12/18/who-are-the-houthis-and-why-are-we-at-war-with-them/

Should we refrain from supporting the Saudi war against the Houthis? Of course, but quite frankly, while the situation in Yemen is terrible, we didn't create it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 2:15 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
Are you admitting you're one of those complexly nuanced supporters of Putin?

Malcolm wrote:
Of course he is.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 2:10 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
The problem with sanctions is that they do not seem to work. Iran has had terrible sanctions for many years which have resulted in deficits in diabetes medicine and so on - however no regime change in sight.

Malcolm wrote:
They do work. But in order to work, the US has to maintain a consistent foreign policy from one administration to another. Trump savaged NATO, the State Department, alliances, and so on, and interrupted 70 years of diplomacy. The reason why Biden has continued many Trump era policies is that once the ground changes, one is kind of stuck with it. Imagine it as trench warfare. In this case, because Trump was a terrible general, the US nearly lost ground. Biden, being a pretty good general, strengthened our position. Nonetheless, we have to deal with emboldened enemies like Putin.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 2:03 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Jesse said:
Except we are, our own state department has been calling us out on it.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, people have reservations about things. A responsible state department examines many sides of an issue. The job of an inspector general is to voice concerns.

And those arms sales called into question happened during the Pompeo State department.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/11/state-department-civilians-middle-east-393584

We are out of Yemen. But the Houthis keep firing rockets at the Saudis. So we sold the Saudi's 280 air to air missiles for defensive purposes.

You are not presenting a very complete picture of the situation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 1:56 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
One is of course welcome to believe that the Russian war machine is more evil than the US one, if it helps one sleep better at night. The USSR surely inflicted more suffering on its people, at least in its first 30 years. But when it comes to the rest of the world, whether due to its reach or a general harmful disposition or both, there is no way the USSR/Russia comes even close to the body count the USA is responsible for.

Malcolm wrote:
Really, so you really think the United States killed more than 6-9 million people, which is the number Stalin by himself dispatched? Then there is the million or so under Nicolas 1, etc.

The total number of casualties in all US wars combined, including civilians, is no more than 3 million, over a 250 year history.

It's difficult to come up with a number for Native Americans who were killed during the 19th century, because the US did not count native people in the census. It's anyone's guess. However, the estimate population of Native people can be gleaned here: https://nativestudy.wordpress.com

So, no Dan, your guess is utter bullshit based on no facts. We know quite well how many people Stalin killed under his regime.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 1:32 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Jesse said:
You can't really defend America when it comes to war.. We've been committing genocide since our country was established.. Native americans being the first group.

Malcolm wrote:
Yup. A national stain on our conscience. Our country was founded on the twin pillars of slavery and genocide. I've mentioned it often enough myself on these boards. I didn't forget.

Jesse said:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/01/21/saudi-bombings-kill-scores-civilians-including-children-yemen

Malcolm wrote:
That's the Saudis.

Jesse said:
America is heavily involved in Yemen, they provide more than just weapons. America is guilty in an ongoing genocide right now, literally.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, no, we are not.

https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/a-timeline-of-the-yemen-crisis-from-the-1990s-to-the-present/

We not only sold the Saudis' arms under the Trump administration, we also supplied 5.5 billion dollars in aid directly to Yemen in 2017.

One of the reasons the Saudi's won't release more oil is due to the fact that we are not supporting them to their satisfaction in their proxy war with Iran.

The Biden administration only agreed to a new weapons sale, 280 air to air missiles, in Oct. 21.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 12:53 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Dan74 said:
As for the hospital being hit and all the civilian deaths, this is what happens in a war. Not sure if you're old enough to remember the US war in Iraq. They hit hospitals, weddings and many other civilian targets. A 2 second google search yielded this: https://www.france24.com/en/20080503-us-air-strike-hits-sadr-city-hospital-iraq

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, but we don't AIM at hospitals and civilians, unlike the Russian military:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/world/middleeast/russia-bombing-syrian-hospitals.html

So your attempted whataboutism is just pathetic.

Dan74 said:
And I don't know if the Russian army has been especially brutal in this war or more brutal than the US in Iraq.

Malcolm wrote:
Not since the Vietnam war has the US ever engaged in anything like the desolation of Grozny or Aleppo. etc.

Dan74 said:
And yeah, the Russian Empire appears to be playing catchup in these evil stakes..

Malcolm wrote:
Catch up? The Russians have been ahead of us on that score since the invasion of Chechnya, not to mention Ukrainian Genocide, a.k.a the https://www.britannica.com/event/Holodomor.

What is happening now is just a continuation of one hundred years of Russian genocidal policy towards Ukrainians.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 11th, 2022 at 12:08 AM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:
Aemilius said:
'The Damar Tantra claims that, “Shivambu (Urine therapy) is capable of abolishing old age and various types of diseases and ailments.”
This book is divided into two parts. Part one is organized according to ailment for your particular health concern. Part two is the original shivambu kalpa vidhi taken from the Damar Tantra. Most of the therapies in the Damar Tantra are for reversing aging and treating various ailments.'



“The Shivambu Kalpa Vidhi is part of a 5,000-year-old document called the Damar Tantra. This is linked to the Vedas, the sacred Hindu texts. Urine is the water of Shiva and is antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral. You can put it on wounds for healing. It’s already structured to your DNA. You have to have a healthy diet. If you have alcohol, tobacco or meat – what I consider toxic substances – then all your systems will be toxic. Don’t start urine therapy until you’ve looked at everything going into your body. You are making your best preventative medicine. It’s like a gift to yourself. Face creams contain urea, and that’s cow piss. I’d rather [use] my own piss.”

TEIG O’MALLEY , yoga instructor





Malcolm wrote:
This thread gets more bizarre everyday.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 10th, 2022 at 11:59 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
To be clear - I don't think any of us thinks the US should have a hand in any "regime change" in Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
Let's just be honest here. Sanctions are aimed at regime change. And I disagree completely. We should have a hand in regime change in Russia.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 10th, 2022 at 11:56 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 10th, 2022 at 9:35 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
https://tompepinsky.com/2022/03/03/heres-why-mearsheimers-realist-take-is-so-exasperating/

I have a different interpretation of what a realist should conclude about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its antecedents. I start from a different premise: Russia is not a great power. It is obviously a declining power, objectively so. Its only claims to global power status are its petroleum reserves, its nuclear arsenal, and our collective memories of the Cold War. Take those away, and Russia is no more a great power than Turkey was in 1935.

The Soviet Union lost the Cold War decisively. Its empire fell into pieces, its regional alliance disappeared, and most of its former allies joined NATO. Russia lost, and the Western alliance won. Given this, it is not NATO’s responsibility to protect Russian state security interests. It is Russia’s responsibility to give wide berth to NATO, recognizing—as every realist should—that the strong do what they will, the weak do what they must. Russian proclamations that it gets to prioritize Putin’s individual political survival over the logic of international relations are nothing more than idealist fantasies.

Objectively, no one wants to invade or destroy Russia, there are not and have never been plans for a NATO conquest of Russia. Russia had a good deal: they got to sell their petroleum and defend their territorial integrity with their aging nuclear arsenal. Invading Ukraine was a stupid strategic error made by a declining power that does not understand The Tragedy of Great Power Politics. In the immediate short run, Ukrainians will pay the prices for Russia’s strategic errors, but in the long run, Russia will bear the consequences. It has demonstrated clearly the limits of its force projection capabilities, and united NATO and the EU and a bunch of other hard-hearted neutral states at the same time. As I like to say, if you’ve lost Singapore and Switzerland….

See how this works? One goes quickly from a different premise about what the objective facts of the realist world are, and reasons through the questions of “how should the world work?” and “what should a policymaker do.”

Lots of people object to realist analyses because they lack a clear moral position on violence and individual liberty. I share these views. But I also despise this realist way of thinking because it is so indeterminate, and because it leads to statements about what states’ security interests which are, I think, either vacuous or hopelessly subjective.** And that is why Mearsheimer’s take is so exasperating.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 10th, 2022 at 8:53 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
Of course, the fact that he's been weaponised by Russian propaganda makes him automatically untouchable for many here, and I partially understand.

Malcolm wrote:
Mearshiemer is just one opinion out of many in US academia. He belongs to a certain school of geopolitics. Like everyone else, he is an observer with opinions, some of which I disagree with, and find poorly argued, especially in light of Ukraine’s long standing wish to join the Western European community, against more than a decade of Putin’s open hostility to their nation, and in light of Russian promises to respect Ukrainian territorial integrity, signed by Lavrov in 1994.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 10th, 2022 at 8:49 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Timothy Snyder, Arne Westad, etc:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 11:31 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Nemo said:
Stable coins are still crypto. Your idea is some libertarian nonsense.

Malcolm wrote:
Um, no Nemo.

Nemo said:
Since you can trade e-CNY offline clearly it is cryptographic in nature. So Binance USD  is not crypto?


Malcolm wrote:
No, this is not the case. Why don't you read up a bit on the Chinese white paper published last July:

One, it clearly distinguishes digital currency from cryptocurrencies:

Adopting blockchain and encryption technology, cryptocurrenciessuch as Bitcoin are claimed to be decentralized and entirely anonymous. However, given their lack of intrinsic value, acute price fluctuations, low trading efficiencies and huge energy consumption, they can hardly serve as currencies used in daily economic activities. In addition, cryptocurrencies are mostly speculative instruments, and therefore pose potential risks to financial security and social stability. Moreover, they have been employed as payment instruments for money-laundering and other illegal economic activities. To tackle the relatively big price fluctuation concern of cryptocurrencies, some commercial institutions launched so-called “stablecoins”, and tried to stabilize their values by pegging them to sovereign currencies or related assets. Some commercial institutions even plan to launch global stablecoins, which will bring risks and challenges to the international monetary system, payment and clearing system, monetary policies, cross-border capital flow management and etc.

More importantly, it is fiat currency, like the dollar:

E-CNY is the digital version of fiat currency issued by the PBOC and operated by authorized operators. It is a value-based, quasi-account-based and account-based hybrid payment instrument, with legal tender status and loosely-coupled account linkage. It has the following connotations:

The encryption features are present for storage, not for generating the currency:

E-CNY adopts a variety of technologies, including digital certificate system, digital signature, and encrypted storage to make double-spending, illegal duplication and counterfeit, transaction falsification, and repudiation unfeasible. A multi-layer security system has been initially established to guarantee that e-CNY has a safe life cycle and risks are manageable.

Here is the white paper:

http://www.pbc.gov.cn/en/3688110/3688172/4157443/4293696/2021071614584691871.pdf

E-CNY is not what you are representing it to be.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 11:06 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Nemo said:
I don't think you know what crypto is.
Cryptocurrency, sometimes called crypto-currency or crypto, is any form of currency that exists digitally or virtually and uses cryptography to secure transactions.

Apply pay is intermediated by your bank. E-CNY is digital cash that can be sent between parties while offline.

Malcolm wrote:
OED:

A digital currency in which transactions are verified and records maintained by a decentralized system using cryptography, rather than by a centralized authority.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/11/china-digital-yuan-pboc-to-expand-e-cny-use-but-challenges-remain.html

Also known as the e-CNY, it’s designed to replace the cash and coins already in circulation. It is not a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, in part because it’s controlled and issued by the central bank. Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that isn’t backed by any central banks or a single administrator.

The whole point of crypto is that it is NOT administered and controlled by a central bank, that is, a government.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 10:56 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/swift-banking-system-sanctions-biden-11645745909?

Unknown said:
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, is the financial-messaging infrastructure that links the world’s banks. Swift doesn’t handle actual money transfers itself. It is a messaging system, a secure way banks transmit transfer requests to each other. Money moving from one account to another often passes by multiple banks before landing in the final destination, particularly if it involves a foreign currency. Swift routes messages with instructions from one bank to another, allowing them to know where the money should ultimately land. The Belgium-based system is run by its member banks and handles millions of daily payment instructions across more than 200 countries and territories and 11,000 financial institutions. Iran and North Korea are cut off from it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 10:48 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Nemo said:
They are solving the biggest problem with crypto first.

Malcolm wrote:
It is not "crypto". It is a state-backed, central-bank guaranteed currency in digital form.  It is not tied to churning out irrelevant solutions to math problems no one cares about.

Nemo said:
Using it at retailers and for everyday purchases. It would be cheaper and more practical for international transactions. Imagine traveling to a new country and simply paying for everything with your phone with no fees.

Malcolm wrote:
One of the first things that went down in Russia was paying for things with your Iphone. And, Denmark is already largely cashless. I personally rarely carry cash, which is why I owe the town dump 2 bucks.

Nemo said:
The US will have to compete or be left behind. E-CNY could be better than SWIFT.

Malcolm wrote:
Two completely unrelated systems. Better lay off the "Yukon gold" there Nemo.

Hey mods, can we split the financial thing, it is off topic, related but off topic.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 10:42 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Bundokji said:
Seconded by Tulsi Gabbard in an interview earlier today

Queequeg said:
Not impressive company. She has turned out to be a jackass.

Bundokji said:
I think she strikes a balance between being too institutional like a standard politians,  and too individualistic like Trump

Malcolm wrote:
Seconded, she is a jackass. The only reason she has a career is because she is on Faux news.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 10:39 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Bundokji said:
Tucker Carlson had an interesting reflections

PeterC said:
That’s a first.

Bundokji said:
Seconded by Tulsi Gabbard in an interview earlier today

Malcolm wrote:
Meanwhile, back in the real world:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 10:34 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
PeterC said:
Indeed the reason there is demand for an alternative is because for the past few decades the US has increasingly used the way the payments system is structured to pursue national political goals.

Malcolm wrote:
But you have already explained why it is impractical for such an alternative payment system to function. Basically, either the size of the US economy would have to shrink substantially, or the size of the Chinese economy would have to increase substantially. But the latter is unlikely and the former is too. Recall, the Chinese were issuing warnings to DC in 2008 when they were concerned about the value of treasuries during the melt down.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 10:27 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



PeterC said:
That’s a first.

Bundokji said:
Seconded by Tulsi Gabbard in an interview earlier today

Queequeg said:
Not impressive company. She has turned out to be a jackass.

Malcolm wrote:
We should welcome Bundokji's trolling, if only to confirm how out of touch with reality the Trump wing of the GOP actually is from their own side.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 9:13 PM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:


Boris said:
Now, it is difficult for me to imagine which sick brain at the head of China would worsen all the above-mentioned trade partnerships in order to work only with Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.facebook.com/zz6677/posts/10224903516792419
[/quote]

Yes. Still, China will benefit from the firesale that Russia has become.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 11:39 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/oil-markets-fret-over-supply-shock-some-buyers-shun-russia-2022-03-08/

Unknown said:
LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. ban on Russian oil and gas imports is likely to leave more cargoes at sea with no buyers, and the European Union's decision to continue imports was unlikely to make much difference to disarray in Russian oil trade, analysts said on Tuesday.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 11:20 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Nemo said:
Digital Yuan is a stable coin that can be used for trade without banking intermediaries.

Malcolm wrote:
Um, no. It is a so called Central Bank Digital Currency. It’s meant for retail and is backed by the Peoples Bank of China.

It is unlike “crypto” currencies which have no backing by a central bank. Like other digital currencies, it’s anonymity is limited.

https://www.db.com/news/detail/20210714-digital-yuan-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 10:58 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Conclusion:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 10:52 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 9:44 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Bundokji said:
On the other hand, Biden used harsh rhetoric during the elections, but did not act on it.

Malcolm wrote:
You really underestimate Biden.

But frankly, this is all beside the point.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 8:01 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
??? Neutral stance to what? An oil embargo against Russia? Its not a neutral stance, its a stance of economic dependency. However, the Russians and Germany, etc, are going to discover, sooner rather than later, that under the present conditions, Russia will not be able to meet their obligations to deliver oil that has already been purchased.

Bundokji said:
I have heard that Saudi refused to increase their oil production (as they usually do per US demands) to ease the markets. A decrease in Russian oil and gas production is offset by the increase in prices, minimizing the effects of sanctions on their economy.

Malcolm wrote:
As for the Saudis, I learned they want more support in the Yemen civil war and immunity for MSB.

As for your other argument, I don't think so. Right now Russian oil is being sold at a discount.




Bundokji said:
Germany decided to increase its military spending, and while in the short term this is promoted as increasing their contribution to NATO, longer term is a move towards less dependence on US protection. I expect similar moves by Japan. As to energy independence, in this crisis nuclear plants have been targeted. I assume that renewable energy present easier military targets than fossil fuel in the case of military confrontation short of nuclear war. A whole solar farm can be easily destroyed and would take much longer time to repair, than to say, a damage to an oil or gas pipeline.

Malcolm wrote:
No one bothers to hit pipelines. They hit refineries.



Bundokji said:
In the first case, MSB wants something. Not sure what. In the second case, oligarchs.
I think those regimes are better aligned with the republicans than the democrats. Also i guess the DNC is more funded by renewable energy companies than the RNC which is funded by oil and gas companies.

Malcolm wrote:
They are the same companies.


Bundokji said:
Israel has to maintain a pretense of independence for their own sense of self-worth.
The pretense is two sided in my opinion. Israel's alliance with the US was never for free. They have things to gain by forming new alliances and hopefully being more open to the rest of the region where they exist.

Malcolm wrote:
Only if they actually succeed in allying with the Saudi's against Iran. Muslims of all stripes still think Israel has no right to exist.


Bundokji said:
They still have equal rights to vote.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, they sure do. And the GOP is incapable of winning anymore without cheating.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 7:31 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 6:48 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
You brought up Petroyuans. I did not deny that some countries might seek to get out of the US reserve currency system, I pointed out instead that the idea there is actually a viable alternative at this time is a fantasy, and everyone knows it.

Bundokji said:
Had they known it, they would not have tried.

Malcolm wrote:
Sometimes people fly to close to the sun.

Bundokji said:
Many other nations have expansionist ambitions, or simply they do not want to be held hostage to a financial system that works in favor of their rival. The excessive use of financial sanctions would further fuel the efforts to find alternatives.

Malcolm wrote:
I would say that excess use of force against civilians which result in sanctions is likely to permanently damage ambitions of such expansionist countries, resulting in the opposite of what they want.

Bundokji said:
Many US allies are taking somehow a neutral stance, possibly as a perpetration for a future where the US wont be as dominant.

Malcolm wrote:
??? Neutral stance to what? An oil embargo against Russia? Its not a neutral stance, its a stance of economic dependency. However, the Russians and Germany, etc, are going to discover, sooner rather than later, that under the present conditions, Russia will not be able to meet their obligations to deliver oil that has already been purchased.

Bundokji said:
I thought that the stance of oil rich countries would be particularly relevant in this context. It is not only Saudi who threatened to turn east, but UAE also abstained from voting against Russia at the security council and the UN assembly.

Malcolm wrote:
In the first case, MSB wants something. Not sure what. In the second case, oligarchs.

Bundokji said:
Those countries have been suckers for the US since their independence. Another example is Israel that had a history of strong partnership with the US. Change in interests changes attitude and the formation of alliances.

Malcolm wrote:
Israel has to maintain a pretense of independence for their own sense of self-worth.



Bundokji said:
Media helps shape public opinion (Tucker Carlson or otherwise). For what its worth, circa 2M people, mostly US citizens i assume, watched his video since yesterday.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, there are a lot of people who are not used to critical thinking. That is TC's fan base.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 6:08 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
Just one point... He's complaining that Lindsey Graham was in Ukraine agitating for war in 2017. Carlson failed to mention anything about Crimea which was the real reason for those statements. He took them out of context to argue that people in DC want war with Russia. That is some qanon level paranoia.

Bundokji said:
My main take from what he said is that many American people will be negatively affected by the current policies. Usually, when policies are sold, the negatives are downplayed.

While the effects of the sanctions will be most felt in Russia, the short and long term effects on those who are imposing them are less spoke about. To that extent, i see value in what he says.

Malcolm wrote:
Everyone who pays attention is quite aware of these things. If they need Tucker Carlson to point it out to them...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 6:03 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Bundokji said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroyuan

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/douglasbulloch/2018/04/26/the-petro-dollar-is-a-myth-the-petro-yuan-mere-fantasy/?sh=364669076a14

Bundokji said:
Inevitably, stories about the toppling of the "Petro-dollar" and the long yearned for rise of an alternative reserve currency, one not dependent on the whims of a capricious political elite in Washington, have proliferated across the alter-net and on the state-backed media platforms of Russia and China.
I fail to see the connection between what you quoted and that countries are seeking alternatives before the current crisis, something you denied previously.

Malcolm wrote:
You brought up Petroyuans. I did not deny that some countries might seek to get out of the US reserve currency system, I pointed out instead that the idea there is actually a viable alternative at this time is a fantasy, and everyone knows it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 5:40 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Bundokji said:
He is selling "opinions"...

Malcolm wrote:
Anyone who relies on Tucker Carlson is a fool.

Bundokji said:
His utterances would resonate with many of which their intelligence level is beside the point.

Malcolm wrote:
As the saying goes, "There is a sucker born every minute."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 5:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
No, it wasn't.

Bundokji said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroyuan

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/douglasbulloch/2018/04/26/the-petro-dollar-is-a-myth-the-petro-yuan-mere-fantasy/?sh=364669076a14

Bundokji said:
Inevitably, stories about the toppling of the "Petro-dollar" and the long yearned for rise of an alternative reserve currency, one not dependent on the whims of a capricious political elite in Washington, have proliferated across the alter-net and on the state-backed media platforms of Russia and China.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 5:19 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Unlikely:

https://fortune.com/2021/10/07/dollar-hegemony-reserve-currency-threats-to-dominance/
First, the idea of a crisis-induced loss of reserve currency status does not square well with history, as the dollar’s de facto displacement of sterling happened gradually over the first half of the 20th century. Second, Britain’s loss of reserve currency status contradicts assumptions of terminal decline. Of course, sterling’s displacement went hand in hand with the decline of the British Empire, but Britain’s wealth has ground inexorably higher in the 100 years since this process started -- and the pound remains a leading international currency.
As for the rest of TC's comments, well, talk is cheap.

Bundokji said:
It is unlikely to happen suddenly, but the transition was in the happening before this particular crisis.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it wasn't.


Bundokji said:
The excessive use of economic sanctions that are enabled by having the USD as a reserve currency and its relation to existing financial systems made cryptos a favorite alternative for some terrorist organizations and even states.

Malcolm wrote:
China does not permit crypto, they are deeply invested in US treasuries.


Bundokji said:
I have heard that more countries are seeking alternatives and working on it, including Russia, China, India, Iran and Turkey. Those represent a major share of the world's economy.

Malcolm wrote:
They will have a hard time finding a better guarantee than the largest world economy.

Bundokji said:
What is also interesting is the neutral stance of Saudi in this conflict. Saudi refused Biden's demand to increase oil production.

Malcolm wrote:
The last time an OPEC member went awol, it resulted in the first Gulf war.

Bundokji said:
In a recent interview between MBS and The Atlantic, MBS threatened to withdraw some of Saudi investment in the US and to buy weapons from "eastern countries". Few years ago, Kuwait decided to have a basket of currencies as its reserve ending pegging the value of its currency to the USD. Even Israel is hesitant to take a clear stance.

Malcolm wrote:
All of this is besides the point.

Bundokji said:
The weaker stance of the western bloc in this conflict...

Malcolm wrote:
???


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 4:56 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:



KristenM said:
And look at Zelenskyy. The best military leader turns out to be a comedian and former actor.

Malcolm wrote:
And can even dance in f**k me pumps. Amazing.

Crazywisdom said:
I bet he did a ton of coke and psychedelics.

Malcolm wrote:
Maybe that's what Putin needs, to drop some acid or do some shrooms. He is one uptight MF.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 4:49 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Queequeg said:
So, I have a question about this - I get that we, in the US, don't get much oil from Russia. Europe does. I'm not sure who else gets Russian oil. India?

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1100591/russia-main-crude-oil-export-destinations/

Queequeg said:
I'm wondering how much the current price of a barrel actually reflects supplies and how much is a combination of hysteria and profit taking. I don't see how prices come down in the next few months. I'm sure we will spike, but that won't last. The time frame I'm thinking is through November.

Malcolm wrote:
My guess? Prices will be down well before elections. Americans are not going to priced out of July 4th travel.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 4:46 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Bundokji said:
Tucker Carlson had an interesting reflections about the long-term impact of the current conflict on the US financial system and ordinary citizens. What is happening will indeed accelerate the demise of the US dollar as the world's reserve currency and the linkage between USD and energy markets.

Malcolm wrote:
Unlikely:

https://fortune.com/2021/10/07/dollar-hegemony-reserve-currency-threats-to-dominance/

Bundokji said:
First, the idea of a crisis-induced loss of reserve currency status does not square well with history, as the dollar’s de facto displacement of sterling happened gradually over the first half of the 20th century. Second, Britain’s loss of reserve currency status contradicts assumptions of terminal decline. Of course, sterling’s displacement went hand in hand with the decline of the British Empire, but Britain’s wealth has ground inexorably higher in the 100 years since this process started -- and the pound remains a leading international currency.

Malcolm wrote:
As for the rest of TC's comments, well, talk is cheap.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 4:25 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
Indeed. It's not like Biden, Blinken, and so on are consulting Dharmawheel for our stunning insights into Ukraine crisis. I do think the notion of immediate apocalypse is a little overwrought, personally.

Crazywisdom said:
People easily forget the basic point of citizenship is to be informed which means discussions. Everyone matters.

KristenM said:
And look at Zelenskyy. The best military leader turns out to be a comedian and former actor.

Malcolm wrote:
And can even dance in f**k me pumps. Amazing.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 4:21 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This changes the game:


Crazywisdom said:
I read in this. Apparently, the US is doing a deal to supply Ukraine with fighter jets, but had promised some jets to Taiwan. So it asked Poland the cancel a similar deal so the jets can go to Ukraine. Not sure if I got that all correct, but there's a Taiwan connection.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2022/03/09/2003774463

Crazywisdom said:
The US Department of Defense on Monday said that it has no plans to send F-16 jets scheduled for delivery to Taiwan to Poland instead, calling speculation raised by a US media report “not accurate.”


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 4:18 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
People easily forget the basic point of citizenship is to be informed which means discussions.

Malcolm wrote:
Strongly agree.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 3:55 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
Gas in the US is up to $5 a gallon in some places. This is higher than it has ever been and its not clear how high they will go.

Genjo Conan said:
I live in California, $5 a gallon is baby prices, for soft babies

Seriously, it's one of the big reasons EV takeup is so high here.

Malcolm wrote:
It won't last long. We are not very dependent on oil imports. Expect a lot of GOP "drill baby drill" chants.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 3:40 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This changes the game:

Dorje Shedrub said:
How will they get the planes to Ukraine?

Malcolm wrote:
Via Germany, apparently.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 3:20 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This changes the game:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 3:13 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
I think this is more a coping mechanism for folks. I’m guilty too, so I’m including myself here, but let’s not pretend  there is any relevance whatsoever to people “thinking through” areas like long term Geopolitical strategies which are nowhere near their fields of expertise on a Buddhist forum.

Malcolm wrote:
Indeed. It's not like Biden, Blinken, and so on are consulting Dharmawheel for our stunning insights into Ukraine crisis. I do think the notion of immediate apocalypse is a little overwrought, personally.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 at 2:23 AM
Title: Re: Implied Samaya (Action Tantra)
Content:
Hazel said:
When you receive an action tantra class empowerment, is there any samaya implied that's not stated by the lama?  Some lamas say that the samaya they're assigning is to just "become more compassionate" (His Holiness the Dalai Lama has done this as has Garchen Rinpoche as well as others), but I'm wondering if there's typically more to it than that in terms of compulsory behavior.

Malcolm wrote:
Consult Buddhist ethics by Kongtrul on this point.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 10:35 PM
Title: Re: Guru-Disciple relationship
Content:
stucked said:
Hello

I've been confused these days about guru-disciple relationship. Few months ago I attended a teaching by guru. Sometimes I feel like I want to be his disciple on and after the teaching, but by this thought, is this relationship established without I realize it? I'm afraid that when the relationship is established without me knowing it, there's something I'm breaking and I'm falling into the lower realms.


Thank you.

heart said:
If you go to an empowerment you are creating a relationship with that Guru. Don't go to empowerments with Gurus you don't want a relationship. It is easy.

/magnus


Malcolm wrote:
When people are innocent, and they don't know what they are doing, I don't think this really applies if they do not understand that they are taking vows and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 9:39 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Ayu said:
*crying*

Not as a mod, just as fellow deciple, I'd like to remind us: It's Saka Dawa month.

Malcolm wrote:
No, Sagadawa is in late spring.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 8:18 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Unknown said:
Another person granted anonymity said Kremlin officials were "carefully enunciating the word clusterf**k" when describing the invasion.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-close-circle-russian-officials-complaining-about-ukraine-invasion-rustamova-2022-3


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 7:43 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shotenzenjin said:
It will take time. As they go down they will take ukrain with them sadly. I think Putin is in it for all the marbles.

Malcolm wrote:
The West will help rebuild Ukraine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 7:09 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shotenzenjin said:
What do we know of Ukrainian military losses to compare.?

Russia can afford to lose more considering its size

But good for the Ukrainians. May they keep it up

Malcolm wrote:
The Russians are so going to lose:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 5:01 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 3:26 AM
Title: Re: Proper transliteration of དྷནྨ [dhanma(?)]
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Need more context.

Also, in some older texts dha is used to represent དཱ, hence "dha" is Sanskrit "dā."


Chenda said:
Good day.

I would like to ask for the proper transliteration of དྷནྨ. I've tried the tools from THL to transliterate the word and hopefully get the Sanskrit, but it cannot read it for some reason. It says d+han+ma or dhanma(?). I've tried to check Tibetan dictionaries, but I cannot find it at all. I have a guess that it's དྷན which corresponds to the Sanskrit धन (dhána), but the Sanskrit doesn't decline to dháNMA (which is how I would transliterate the word I'm asking about). The closest I could find is धनम् (dhánam), which is both the nominative and accusative form of धन (dhána).

This is connected to my recent inquiry about a specific mantra of Vasudhara, and my research has led me to this last piece. Any leads or information would help, especially if it's from an actual text.

A question would be a great start, I suppose. Is there any textual evidence of དྷནྨ being used as the Tibetan transcription of धन (dhána) or धनम् (dhánam)?

Thank you in advance.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 3:11 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
This is not a bad source, just recently blocked in Russia:

https://meduza.io/en

Malcolm wrote:
Ukrainian Chess:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 2:44 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 1:52 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Shotenzenjin said:
As for the column I find it equally strange that it hasn't been attacked yet from the air if the Ukrainian air force is up and going as the west states why hasn't it attacked the column? It's been there apparently bogged down or broken down or perhaps there are other reasons

Malcolm wrote:
UAF is saving it planes for other purposes. Ground troops has been systematically attacking parts of that column.

As for bombing Russia if they didn't have nukes well the fact is they do so it's out of the question.


Shotenzenjin said:
Maybe it won't be as easy as you think.

Malcolm wrote:
No one in their right mind would try to invade Russia. It's a country of 140 million people.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 1:48 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
US is giving it one heave ho and that will be the end of that.

Malcolm wrote:
Probably not. We supported to Mujahideen for a decade.

Trump is responsible for the chaos of the Afghanistan exit, not Biden, just as he is responsible for what is happening to Ukraine now.

Putin miscalculated, it's pretty clear.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 8th, 2022 at 12:31 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
PeterC said:
... In the event of a first strike on an ally (eg Ukraine) there would be a second strike on Russian military assets....

Ayu said:
In which setting is Ukraine an ally of the US?
I suppose, Putin dared to attack Ukraine because it's not member of the NATO.

Malcolm wrote:
Ukraine belongs to Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is a partner in European security. But, unfortunately, not a NATO member.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 12:16 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Johnny Dangerous said:
The Intercept is far from the first publication to categorize her as Neoconservative.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, the Progressive press does. And all the conservative publications criticize her too. So, it’s just lazy characterizing her as a neocon.

Johnny Dangerous said:
I see Neocon ad a description of foreign policy posture, it doesn’t make someone necessarily socially or otherwise politically conservative.

Malcolm wrote:
It is nevertheless a lazy designation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 10:57 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Interesting that article from The Intercept on “this sounds like this” logic:

https://theintercept.com/2022/03/06/russia-john-mearsheimer-propaganda/

Malcolm wrote:
The intercept is so dumb. Characterizing Anne Applebaum as a neocon is about as lazy as you get. Certainly, she was raised a conservative. She is now widely regarded in what passes for “conservative” circles these days as a heretic.

Johnny Dangerous said:
The Intercept is far from the first publication to categorize her as Neoconservative.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, the Progressive press does. And all the conservative publications criticize her too. So, it’s just lazy characterizing her as a neocon.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 10:46 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
PeterC said:
They aren’t the force they were half a century ago.

Malcolm wrote:
That’s because most of their ground equipment is poorly maintained hardware made 50 years ago.

BTW, it may be the case that Russia’s position on the UN Security Council is in fact illegal.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 10:06 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Interesting that article from The Intercept on “this sounds like this” logic:

https://theintercept.com/2022/03/06/russia-john-mearsheimer-propaganda/

Malcolm wrote:
The intercept is so dumb. Characterizing Anne Applebaum as a neocon is about as lazy as you get. Certainly, she was raised a conservative. She is now widely regarded in what passes for “conservative” circles these days as a heretic.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 8:07 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Politicians and pundits did not achieve the 40 hour work week nor civil rights. You talk about Zinn’s People History from time to time, did you actually read it?

Malcolm wrote:
Sure they did. That’s why these things are now law. One can agitate all one wants, but until it becomes law, welll…


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 7:12 AM
Title: Re: Prayers for the People of the Ukraine
Content:
Leo Rivers said:
Somewhere I seem to have read something to the effect "Don't some Buddha fields accept virtuous non-Buddhists?" Or is this just some Heavens?

Malcolm wrote:
Not a question of accept. This is a buddhafield. I have never heard however that pure buddhafields are accessible to nonbuddhists.

In any case, where one takes birth is a result of karma, nothing else.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 5:42 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Caoimhghín said:
Who are "the racists" I wonder? Does he mean Putin or is he calling the West "racists" as a kind of polemic?

ratna said:
It should be "Rashists", meaning "Russian Fascists."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_fascism_%28ideology%29

Malcolm wrote:
So basically the Russian equivalent of MAGA.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 5:36 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Political consensus is partially (I’d largely, but trying to be fair) manufactured, not some organic will of the populace.

Malcolm wrote:
In a democracy, anytime any majority comes to agreement about an issue, the dissenting party will always claim their opponent's consensus is manufactured, a result of manipulation, "if only people knew the facts," and so on. It happens on both the right and the left. As a result, very broadly no one in a liberal democracy is 100% happy with much of what happens in their governments. But they are still responsible for what happens in their governments, 100% of the time. Democracy, as you know, is slow, messy, provides uneven results, and is generally inefficient in many ways. However, the general outcome of liberal democracy is that people are, over all, happier than in autocracies. We are more prosperous, and there are more opportunities for everyone. But not everyone's needs are met, nor can they be. That is a socialist fantasy.

The people do not have a unified will. There are too many of us, and too many of us have very different opinions about the world, so liberal democracies tend to represent an averaging out of the will of the people. For example, it was never the "unified will of the people" that the US should preserve slavery after the Revolution. Some people wanted slavery, some people opposed it. Eventually, slavery was ended. The point is that everyone gets a voice. Everyone gets a say. If they choose not to use that voice, that's their fault. If that voice is silenced, as in the voter suppression that plagues every election in our country, that needs to be dealt with. When we vote, we don't always get our way. But at least we get a say, unlike for example, in Putin's Russia,  Xi's China, Maduro's Venezuela, or Ortega's Nicaragua, etc. Because we get a say, slavery was ended, the work week was reduced from up to 80 hours a week to 40, civil rights laws were passed, and so on. But it is a slow, and not very attractive process. But it is very beneficial for us in the end, and well, I don't want to think of the alternative...

Johnny Dangerous said:
Chomsky...

Malcolm wrote:
One of the most over-rated public intellectuals of all time.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 5:06 AM
Title: Re: Prayers for the People of the Ukraine
Content:
Shinjin said:
Pray that they are born in Sukhavati.

Malcolm wrote:
Unlikely, unless they are Buddhists.

Shinjin said:
How about phowa? I have read about some Tibetan masters such as Shabkar doing phowa on insects and animals. Why wouldn't it be possible with humans?

Malcolm wrote:
You have to train quite a bit to do this, basically, one has to be a mahāsiddha. Really, the only thing people can do is dedicate merit so that the dead people from this war on both sides might someday meet the Dharma and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 4:59 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
I feel like this barely even needs to be said, but the range of politicians that one can vote for in the US largely share the same foreign policy.

Malcolm wrote:
Then support a different range of politicians if you want a different foreign policy. I think most Americans, frankly, like US Foreign policy for the most part. They complain about this and that, but they keep voting in people who preserve the liberal order as it stands. It is not because we are idiots, it is because it has been to our collective advantage.

Johnny Dangerous said:
I do. Those politicians are largely denied access to power, much like what happened with Bernie and the DNC, it’s been this way forever.

Malcolm wrote:
No, they have not been "denied access" to power. Progressive candidates do not have enough people to vote them into office beyond the east and west coast.

Bernie lost his lawsuit against the Democrats. Sure, I was pissed about that turn of affairs too. However, its pretty clear that Bernie did not actually have enough support in the American public to win the national Democratic primary at the convention (both times). Clinton took that primary 2,842 to Sanders 1,865. Perhaps had he then run as independent, he might have won. Or he would have ensured a Trump victory anyway.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 4:23 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
I feel like this barely even needs to be said, but the range of politicians that one can vote for in the US largely share the same foreign policy.

Malcolm wrote:
Then support a different range of politicians if you want a different foreign policy. I think most Americans, frankly, like US Foreign policy for the most part. They complain about this and that, but they keep voting in people who preserve the liberal order as it stands. It is not because we are idiots, it is because it has been to our collective advantage.

Fukuyama's point is very sound:

Liberalism is a doctrine, first enunciated in the 17th century, that seeks to control violence by lowering the sights of politics. It recognises that people will not agree on the most important things — such as which religion to follow — but that they need to tolerate fellow citizens with views different from their own.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 4:11 AM
Title: Re: Prayers for the People of the Ukraine
Content:
Shinjin said:
Pray that they are born in Sukhavati.

Malcolm wrote:
Unlikely, unless they are Buddhists.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 3:57 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 3:51 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
That’s really beside the point, or rather it proves my point The machinations of “democracy” as far as war goes really have nothing to do with the will of the populace, but rather the will of PR people, weapons industry, large corporate interests, politicians with empire-forward agendas  etc. Of course everything can be a democratic decision somehow on paper.

The Iraq invasion was historically unpopular across the globe, obviously including here in the US.

Malcolm wrote:
No, it is the will of the people, since we elected these people. You want to change policies? Change the leadership.

The power of elections was proven by the Trump Administration. He managed to convince a sizable portion of our population to resume the disastrous isolationism of Hoover, and combined it with the graft and corruption of Mckinley. He undermined NATO, gutted State, etc.

That same power was proven by Biden's election, who has proven to be one of the most competent presidents we have had in years, by every metric you can imagine.

So, I just don't share your cynicism about our government, warts and all.

The lesson of Ukraine is, that when a people say and go to great lengths over decades to demonstrate that they want a liberal democracy, and do everything in their power to institute one, we should support it and defend it. Because frankly, liberal democracies are just better governments, and people are happier under them.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 3:44 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Queequeg said:
Putin really screwed.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. He just sold his whole country to China.

Queequeg said:
It would be comical how stupendously he screwed up, but for the people who are going to get ground into mince meat because of his error.

Malcolm wrote:
But it is a good lesson for us. We need to forgo the idea that building up the economies of authoritarian regimes (whether left or right) is going to turn them into our friends and pave the way for their entry into the liberal democratic order.

Fukuyama is probably regretting that End of History book title now. Anyway, he published this op-ed in FT Friday:

https://www.ft.com/content/d0331b51-5d0e-4132-9f97-c3f41c7d75b3


He sums up:
The travails of liberalism will not end even if Putin loses. China will be waiting in the wings, as well as Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and the populists in western countries. But the world will have learnt what the value of a liberal world order is, and that it will not survive unless people struggle for it and show each other mutual support. The Ukrainians, more than any other people, have shown what true bravery is, and that the spirit of 1989 remains alive in their corner of the world. For the rest of us, it has been slumbering and is being reawakened.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 3:27 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Queequeg said:
Putin really screwed.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. He just sold his whole country to China.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 3:13 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:



Johnny Dangerous said:
So what? That’s always been the case. There has never been a time in history where foreign policy decisions were actually  included in the democratic process.

Malcolm wrote:
We live in a representative democracy, so you are not correct here. Congress is regularly consulted by the Executive Branch on foreign policy issues. It requires an act of Congress to declare war.

If you don't like US foreign policy, vote in new leaders.

Johnny Dangerous said:
The last formal declaration of war was what, WWII?

Malcolm wrote:
The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. We don't use the word "war" any more. We have a defense department, now, not a war department. We have not used the terminology of "department of war" since 1947.

Johnny Dangerous said:
Perpetually.


Malcolm wrote:
Perhaps. But to claim these wars and military engagements are not a product of democratic process in our country is an error, passing the buck. We have treaties we have signed, which have drawn us into a number of conflicts. Since we signed them, they are US law, like Article 5 of NATO.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 2:57 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dorje Shedrub said:
Reporting that Russian media reports threats to use tactical nukes.


Caoimhghín said:
What does this say in English?

Malcolm wrote:
Twitter translate tool renders:

Рашисти на своїх телепомийках заговорили про застосування тактичної ядерної зброї проти України. Черговий спосіб шантажувати Захід. Останній має нарешті висунути Росії ультиматум про припинення обстрілів. Треба зрозуміти нарешті всю відповідальність за наступні події

The racists talked about the use of tactical nuclear weapons against Ukraine at their TV stations. Another way to blackmail the West. The latter must finally issue an ultimatum to Russia to stop shelling. We must finally understand all the responsibility for the following events


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 2:51 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Sure, put together bug out bags, never a bad idea. My Jewish in laws recommend jewelry as a portable form of wealth and sometimes currency.

Beyond that the best we can do is practice and use this as a stark reminder of impermanence. Ruminating over the various possibilities is unlikely to be productive. This would be different if a person had inside information, concrete ability to affect outcomes, etc.but most of these discussions are things out of our hands. Problem solving involves concrete decision making, when it is based on wavering anxieties it’s not actually problem solving.

Co-rumination is a thing people do sometimes to deal with anxiety. In that respect it can be a helpful outlet at times, but it can also become a source of anxiety itself.

Crazywisdom said:
You're just admitting citizens have no power in democracies. And that is what autocratic elites in democrats have been cultivating for decades.

Johnny Dangerous said:
So what? That’s always been the case. There has never been a time in history where foreign policy decisions were actually  included in the democratic process.

Malcolm wrote:
We live in a representative democracy, so you are not correct here. Congress is regularly consulted by the Executive Branch on foreign policy issues. It requires an act of Congress to declare war.

If you don't like US foreign policy, vote in new leaders.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 2:47 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:


Shinjin said:
Exactly.

Malcolm wrote:
Wishful thinking.

Crazywisdom said:
It's realistic, especial when Russia and China may have already achieved tech superiority in their ICBMs. They have the initiative now. Let's say they nuke Kyev.... The West will have no answers.

Malcolm wrote:
Wishful thinking.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 2:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Meanwhile in America #beltway:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 2:23 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 2:14 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
The West is wearing rose tinted glasses with Ukrainian ability to defend itself. Putin will flatten the entire country if he has to.

Malcolm wrote:
The Soviet–Afghan War (1979–1989). Ukrainians have allies all around it who will supply weapons to them for as long as it takes. Much better weapons than the Mujahideen were armed with by the USA.

Crazywisdom said:
Just see Syria as the scrimmage game. Now Russia has bet it's entire future. He's not going to be deposed. If I were Europe I would at least try to block his access to the oceans and seas. But honestly, there is no path to defeat Putin here.

Malcolm wrote:
Putin is bankrupting his nation. The economy of Russia (1.6T) 2/3rds that of Italy (2.2T).  It will be the same story as Afghanistan. 100% guaranteed.

Crazywisdom said:
Russia and China and survive any siege now. Sometimes it's difficult to admit defeat, especially when it happens in the first minute of the first round.

Malcolm wrote:
Russia lost by invading. They should not have even played the game.

There is no upside for Russia. (1) They don't gain security from NATO, (2) there are no Nazi's to denazify, (3) they were removed from the world banking system, (4) they will suffer a major embargo on oil (it's coming), (5) US makes a deal with Maduro and Iran to replace Russian oil, (6) Ukrainians will never accept Russian rule, and (7) Russia will become China's bitch.

Putin really f**cked up this time.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 1:30 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
This is all USA's fault.

Malcolm wrote:
Ok Glenn Greenwald.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 12:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Norwegian said:
snip

Queequeg said:
Of course I'm skeptical about these videos of captured Russian soldiers, but they looked and sounded sincere. If not, they are superb actors.

I want to believe that they are speaking truthfully and giving us an accurate picture of the POV of ordinary Russians. That gives hope that there are ways to avoid the end game that seems to be coming.

Malcolm wrote:
There is this today:



And here is a translation of said document:



Take aways:

Our conditional deadline is June. Conditional because in June there will be no economy left in Russia – there will be nothing left. By and large, next week there will be a collapse (in Russia) to either of the two sides, simply because the situation cannot remain under current conditions.

...

By and large, Russia does not have an out. There are no options for a possible victory, only of losses – this is it.
100% we’ve repeated our mistake from last century, when we decided to kick the “weak” Japan in order to achieve a quick victory, and it turned our army was in a state of total calamity.

...

Now we are stuck waiting until some mentally screwed up advisor convinces the top to start a conflict with Europe, with demands to reduce the sanctions – they either loosen the sanctions or war. What if the West refuses? In that instance I won’t exclude that we will be pulled into a real international conflict, just like Hitler in 1939. Our “Z” will be equated to the Swastika.
Is there a possibility of a localized nuclear strike? Yes. Not for any military objectives. Such a weapon won’t help with the breach of the defenses. But with a goal of scaring everyone else (The West).

...

Our current position is like Germany in 1943-1944 – but that’s our STARTING position in Ukraine.

...

Third, and this is the most disgusting and sad, I personally do not believe in Putin’s will to sacrifice himself when he does not even allow his closest ministers and advisors to be in his vicinity. Whether it’s due to his fear of COVID or a possible assassination is irrelevant. If you are scared for the most trusted people to be near you, then how could you possibly choose to destroy yourself and those dearest to you.


Original source:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, March 7th, 2022 at 12:17 AM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
If there is a nuclear war, there will be no game to hunt, fish to catch, nor anywhere to find shelter.

Crazywisdom said:
Depends on the size of the war. Tactical nukes don't wipe out continents. The full War Games scenario is unlikely. A regional nuclear war could be possible, but full scale global nuclear warfare is extremely unlikely precisely because it means extinction.

Shinjin said:
Exactly.

Malcolm wrote:
Wishful thinking.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 11:21 PM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Robert Gates’ oped in Wapo today:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/03/why-ukraine-should-force-a-total-overhaul-of-our-national-security-strategy/


Unknown said:
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has ended Americans’ 30-year holiday from history. For the first time since World War II, the United States faces powerful, aggressive adversaries in Europe and Asia seeking to recover past glory along with claimed territories and spheres of influence. All in defiance of an international order largely shaped by the United States that has kept the peace among great powers for seven decades. The Russian and Chinese challenge to this peaceful order has been developing for a number of years. Putin’s war has provided the cold shower needed to awaken democratic governments to the reality of a new world, a world in which our recent strategy — including the “pivot” to Asia — is woefully insufficient to meet the long-term challenges we face.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 11:02 PM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:
Shinjin said:
I would also put an emphasis on learning survivalist skills such as hunting, fishing, and making shelter. Most people will be handicapped in those areas if all hell broke loose.

Malcolm wrote:
If there is a nuclear war, there will be no game to hunt, fish to catch, nor anywhere to find shelter.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 10:38 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:
Aemilius said:
Cool?

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, but it does not mean this “I” is anything more than a convention for tHe series of aggregates, just as “we” is a convention for an aggregate of people, and so on, without having any more reality than being a designation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 9:09 PM
Title: Re: Start preparing for War Escalations
Content:


Jesse said:
And yes, there is a chance it will not happen, but there are many signs that this situation will degrade over time. It's best to be prepared just in case this scenario arises. TBH from what I can observe happening Russia is not simply be sanctioned, they are being cut off from the rest of the world in every imaginable way.

Malcolm wrote:
Russia leaves Ukraine, Putin faces trial in The Hague, and all will be well.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 9:06 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Brunelleschi said:
Then act like the Russian people are not capable of critical thinking.

Malcolm wrote:
They are quite clearly capable of critical thinking, once armed with facts, such as the cops in the vudeo.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 8:41 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Jesse said:
?

No matter how we view the situation, the fact of the matter is Ukraine is at war. Morality, integrity, and ideals are the first things to go in war. I'm not really buying that Russia just suddenly fired on a nuclear power plant without provocation either. (Who fires unprovoked on a nuclear power plant that would just as likely effect their home country, as it would Europe if it exploded?.)

Malcolm wrote:
They absolutely did.

Jesse said:
The way I see it.. It's in Ukraine's interest to get NATO involved in this war. Without NATO Ukraine will eventually fail.



Malcolm wrote:
We, the US, guaranteed Ukraine’s security in 1994. We’ve done a piss poor job of living up to that promise.



Jesse said:
Many in Ukraine have come out and stated that if NATO doesn't help them we are just as responsible as Russia for their demise -- and I'm sure that sentiment isn't uncommon. That being the case, Ukraine becomes a nightmare scenario for NATO, I imagine them trying to manage this, and failing miserably. It's sort of terrifying actually.

Malcolm wrote:
They are right: Ukraine has been a NATO partner for nearly three decades.


Jesse said:
I know people have taken up Ukraine's cause as Just and morally righteous, that doesn't however mean that Ukraine is now a morally pure agent. They are just as capable of evil as anyone else. Especially when it comes to matters of survival. I should mention the same is true of the United States, NATO, and Russia. We will never genuinely know many of the actual facts about what's happening. If you look at the situation objectively though, regardless of why NATO is involved, Ukraine is definitely looking like a proxy war being fought on behalf of NATO against Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
The only nation that has violated national sovereignty is Putin’s Russia, on a pretext that makes Cheney’s WMDs look solid by comparison.

Jesse said:
Even if it wasn't intended, it will play out that way. NATO are sending massive amounts of weapons to Ukraine, while sapping Russia of funds via sanctions. The end effect will be NATO waging war on Russia without a single NATO Solder being deployed.

Malcolm wrote:
Which is totally awesome. Putin is a petty thug. He needs to sit in a Supermax for his crimes. The Russian people need to depose him, and try a do over with democracy. I am sure the world, and NATO will appreciate it, that is, after they voluntarily give up their nuclear weapons and repay Ukraine, Syria, Georgia, etc., for damages. They’ve lost the privilege of keeping them, since they openly threatened the world with them. The present Russian gvmt. has proven they are too irresponsible to keep a nuclear arsenal.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 11:07 AM
Title: Re: Was the monastic tradition/lineage established in Japanese Buddhism??
Content:


Zhen Li said:
There is a Tibetan translation (and apparently Mongolian), which I had a look at a few years ago alongside the Chinese, but it is strange. It is probably translated from Chinese but also shows differences. Probably the sūtra was popular in Kucha. If I recall correctly, there's a shorter variant from Dunghuang which shows similarities but is also not identical.

Malcolm wrote:
Link?

Zhen Li said:
It was a few years ago and it was on paper. So, I don't have any info handy. Maybe there's something in Muller's intro to his translation on it.

Edit:
Actually, I found a PDF I have of it. It's translated as Chos-kyi-rgyal-mo and is in Volume 62 of the Tog Palace manuscript of the Kanjur, Leh 1980.

Malcolm wrote:
I stand corrected. I was unaware that the so-called Brahamajala Precept sūtra was this Chos kyi rgya mo. We have the Hinayāna Brahmajala sūtra in translation as well.

The title is Chos kyi rgya mo, which means roughly "Seal of the Dharma" (Chos kyi rgyal mo means Queen of Dharma). The Dege edition lists it as a translation from Chinese, with the legend, "translated from Chinese, edited according to the new dharma terminology." It is found in the Phangthangma catalogue.

It begins a little after the second fascicle of the Chinese text begins.

So, even though a portion of this text was translated into Tibetan, we really don't read this text. For example. the Fourth Shamar notes it is a dubious text specifically because of this passage:

"[H]e himself was named Siddhārtha. He left home at the age of seven; he attained enlightenment at thirty and came to be called Śākyamuni Buddha."

Pg. 40, BDK edition.

So, in general, we don't give it any credit.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 9:37 AM
Title: Re: Why do some scholars deny the existence of Amitabha Buddha?
Content:


Shinjin said:
I think the questionnaire is referring to some shin scholars who are trying to reintrepet the tradition to fit their materialistic worldviews. Same as those such as Stephen Bachelor who reject karma/rebirth and present Buddhism as some sort of therapy program only.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, who cares what they think? Only thing that matters is what you think.

Shinjin said:
I agree but don't you feel some of these secular attitudes are damaging Buddhism? How can someone expect to be liberated by recieving watered down teachings?

Malcolm wrote:
Don’t much care about Buddhism. Buddhism is a religion. Buddhadharma, on the other hand, can’t be harmed by anything.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 6:27 AM
Title: Re: Why do some scholars deny the existence of Amitabha Buddha?
Content:


Shinjin said:
I think the questionnaire is referring to some shin scholars who are trying to reintrepet the tradition to fit their materialistic worldviews. Same as those such as Stephen Bachelor who reject karma/rebirth and present Buddhism as some sort of therapy program only.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, who cares what they think? Only thing that matters is what you think.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 1:08 AM
Title: Re: Why do some scholars deny the existence of Amitabha Buddha?
Content:
Shinjin said:
...

Malcolm wrote:
Why do you care? There are far more people in the world who do not believe in Amitabha Buddha than do.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, March 6th, 2022 at 12:21 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 5th, 2022 at 8:36 PM
Title: Re: Was the monastic tradition/lineage established in Japanese Buddhism??
Content:


Zhen Li said:
There is a Tibetan translation (and apparently Mongolian), which I had a look at a few years ago alongside the Chinese, but it is strange. It is probably translated from Chinese but also shows differences. Probably the sūtra was popular in Kucha. If I recall correctly, there's a shorter variant from Dunghuang which shows similarities but is also not identical.

Malcolm wrote:
Link?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 5th, 2022 at 8:30 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:



Aemilius said:
That is only play with words. No one needs to seek liberation, because there is no atman, namarupa, aggregates or jiva. But why do we then observe precepts, study, meditate, ect...?

Malcolm wrote:
Because we impute such an entity on our series of aggregate.

Aemilius said:
You still have "we",  who impute and attain (freedom from imputation). So there is no difference to "atman" (doing something).

Malcolm wrote:
Of course there is a difference: the atman/soul/person, etc., asserted by nonBuddhists does not exist in the various manners in which they claim it does. It does exist in the manner which we claim it does, that is, as a mere imputation upon the series of aggregates. I think you need to reread Vasubandhu’ refutation of the self again.

The conventional use of pronouns does not negate the general Buddhist argument of the self being a convention,an imputation, and a mere designation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 5th, 2022 at 7:27 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:


Aemilius said:
Hinduism uses much of the same vocabulary with Buddhism. The common aim of a hindu is to attain liberation from Samsara or the wheel of rebirth.

Malcolm wrote:
The aim of "Hinduism" is the liberation of an atman/purusha from samsara. This is defined in various ways depending on the darshan.

Buddhist negates such a liberation, since there is no atman to be liberated.

Aemilius said:
That is only play with words. No one needs to seek liberation, because there is no atman, namarupa, aggregates or jiva. But why do we then observe precepts, study, meditate, ect...?

Malcolm wrote:
Because we impute such an entity on our series of aggregate.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, March 5th, 2022 at 10:29 AM
Title: Re: Was the monastic tradition/lineage established in Japanese Buddhism??
Content:


Zhen Li said:
Also, this is presupposing that the Yogacarabhumi precepts are being upheld. In fact, Saichō only upheld the Brahmajāla precepts, and the Brahmajāla Sūtra states that only the Brahmajāla bodhisattvas precepts are to be regarded as the pratimokṣa in the age of Dharma Decline.

Malcolm wrote:
Unknown outside China. Tibetan Buddhists don’t read this sutra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 11:01 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:
Shinjin said:
On the other hand a Hindu will negate the Buddhist idea of liberation since we don't beleive in atman. Who's telling the truth?

Malcolm wrote:
You can discover that yourself.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 10:17 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Ayu said:
A kind request
Could everybody please stop posting Twitter links, because my devices are loading endlessly. Could you rather copy and paste or please at least do delete the Twitter links from your quotes?
The Twitter post linked only once into the thread would be sufficient. 

Otherwise moderating this topic becomes really a time consuming drag.

Norwegian said:
Honestly, this is unfair.

Malcolm wrote:
She has a point about replies. People should leave the original tweet out of their reply.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 9:34 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 9:21 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:


Aemilius said:
Hinduism uses much of the same vocabulary with Buddhism. The common aim of a hindu is to attain liberation from Samsara or the wheel of rebirth.

Malcolm wrote:
The aim of "Hinduism" is the liberation of an atman/purusha from samsara. This is defined in various ways depending on the darshan.

Buddhist negates such a liberation, since there is no atman to be liberated.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 7:21 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
PeterC said:
Watch to the end

Malcolm wrote:
Fog of war indeed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 10:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 10:08 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 9:59 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 9:56 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 9:44 AM
Title: Re: Nyingma vs Sarma Yamantaka
Content:



Manjukumaar said:
Would the Nyingma termas contain the equivalents of Mother and Father Tantras?

Malcolm wrote:
Mahayoga is the equivalent.

Manjukumaar said:
And Anuyoga?

Malcolm wrote:
No equivalent. The principles of anuyoga are not found in sarma tantra.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 9:35 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 9:01 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Chernobyl II


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 3:41 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 1:14 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dorje Shedrub said:
Why aren't the Ukrainian's putting these captured tanks into military service? Their own army uses Russian tank models.

Malcolm wrote:
The Ukrainians, apparently, have a very wry sense of humor.


Nemo said:
I can't even fully separate fact from fiction in the wars I was a part of and I had real time access to comms and was in the room where decisions were made. There is no truth in war. Throw in language, a lack of historical knowledge and geographic barriers and it's safe to assume most of what you know is wrong.

Malcolm wrote:
Not sure you can tell fact from fiction in the present, what with your denial that the Chinese imprisoned one million Uyghurs in work camps.

Anyway, in Russia today:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 12:23 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



muni said:
Prayers for Ukraine. And may these boys be send home.

Malcolm wrote:
They don't want to go home. They will be punished for failing.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 12:20 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Queequeg said:
Only people who get their news from nobodies tweeting out farts actually thought the memorial was the target. Reliable commentators noted the irony that the memorial was hit.

Malcolm wrote:
The constant refrain about propaganda is a wearing a bit thin.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, March 4th, 2022 at 12:17 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shotenzenjin said:
It looks like the memorial to Jews killed by the Nazis wasn't bombed it was a tv  tower...

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, this was very clearly reported on CNN, etc. And the fact remains that buildings at the Baba Yar memorial were damaged.

https://www.australianjewishnews.com/israeli-jewish-officials-denounce-russian-strike-that-hit-babi-yar-memorial-complex/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 11:36 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Read whole thread:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 11:22 PM
Title: Re: Nyingma vs Sarma Yamantaka
Content:
Pema Rigdzin said:
Yamantaka is one the the 8 yidams in the famed central Mahayoga collection of sadhanas, the Kagye. So definitely front and center among the most important yidams in Nyingma. Sounds like in actuality the only difference in the deity is the line of transmission and the approach and any methods and instructions unique to each.

Manjukumaar said:
Would the Nyingma termas contain the equivalents of Mother and Father Tantras?

Malcolm wrote:
Mahayoga is the equivalent.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 9:27 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:


Aemilius said:
Buddha never said that he has found his unique path to a specific liberation.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course he did.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 10:40 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Good article on non-dumb anti-imperialism from The Intercept:

https://theintercept.com/2022/03/01/ukraine-russia-leftists-tankie/

KristenM said:
I read it and it is a good article. The forgot to mention Cuba, though. Everyone’s favorite dictatorship.

Malcolm wrote:
Cuba could have been Miami, but they f**cked up.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 8:56 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
BTW, Dan, with all this discussion of whether NATO made a promise not to expand or not, there is a little thing called the Budapest Memorandum, which Russia signed, in return for Ukraine giving up its nukes:

Respect Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian independence and sovereignty in the existing borders.
Refrain from the threat or the use of force against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Refrain from using economic pressure on Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to influence their politics.
Seek immediate Security Council action to provide assistance to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine if they "should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used".
Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
Consult with one another if questions arise regarding those commitments.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 7:03 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 6:49 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 6:42 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 5:12 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 4:52 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This just says it all:

“The Ukrainian authorities . . . are in fact waging war with their own population in cities where there are no Russian troops, first and foremost in Kyiv,” said Artyom Sheinin, host of a political talk show on state TV.
https://www.ft.com/content/73f87533-749a-4539-aeae-89ce0a9265bd?segmentID=d649553c-7c7e-7cd5-957a-9d059f0e7d27&twclid=11499124780666081280


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 3:27 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
FWIW, Putin has repeated that Russia will not occupy Ukraine and that the Ukrainian people will be free to choose their future.

Malcolm wrote:
Obviously not, since the Ukrainians want to be in the EU and NATO.

Dan74 said:
Put that in the context of the wars the US have waged in the past 50 years and maybe stop collectively foaming at the mouth. Not to single you out, QQ.

Malcolm wrote:
I'd like to remind you that during the first Gulf War we did not occupy Baghdad, mainly due to Colin Powell's fear of what the second Gulf war turned into.

NATO intervened in the Balkans, justifiably so.

Dan74 said:
I don't know if you can imagine how this feels.

Malcolm wrote:
No, I can't imagine it, but I am sure it's an awful feeling.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 3:11 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 2:48 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 2:26 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
But I can't help wondering what effect this will have long-term? Not only will the Russian economy suffer a huge blow, with millions losing work, it will have expelled Russia from practically all Western institutions, economy, etc. This isolation makes an all-out conflict with the West much more possible, I fear.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, maybe Putin will be deposed, and Russians will be able to hold free and fair elections.

The Russian largest lender, Sberbank is beginning to fail, and pulling out of European Markets:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/02/russia-sberbank-pulls-out-of-europe-after-facing-failure-amid-sanctions

This war is going to be known Putin’s folly. He is destroying Russia, Belorus, and Ukraine.

Dan74 said:
When was the last time sanctions brought down an autocratic ruler?

Malcolm wrote:
958-1959: the U.S.S.R. vs. Finland
During the "Night Frost Crisis" of 1958 and 1959, Finnish-Soviet relations were fraught after the Communists were excluded from government and Karl-August Fagerholm, viewed as unfavorable to the Soviets, was appointed as prime minister. The U.S.S.R. used economic sanctions to force Fagerholm's resignation. The sanctions cost 1.1.% of the Finnish GNP.

1961-1965: the United States vs. Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
Between 1961 and 1965, the United States applied sanctions against the Dominion of Ceylon (what is now Sri Lanka) after the socialist government of Sirimavo Bandaranaike was accused of expropriating the assets of U.S. and British oil companies. The government fell in 1965, largely because of the economic effects of these sanctions, which cost 0.6% of the the country's GNP.

1982-1986: South Africa vs. Lesotho
South Africa applied economic pressure on Lesotho to make it return South African refugees with links to the African National Congress. After a military coup in Lesotho, South Africa lifted a blockade on the landlocked nation, and 60 ANC members were deported back home. The cost was estimated to be 5.1% of Lesotho's GNP.

1992-1993: the United States vs. Malawi
The United States (and other nations) significantly cut aid in 1992 in a bid to improve the democratic standards and human rights situation in Malawi. Malawi was largely reliant on aid (the sanctions were estimated to cost 6.6% of its GNP) and swiftly adopted more open policies. After a referendum, multi-party democracy was introduced in 1993, and aid was soon resumed.

1993: the United States vs. Guatemala
In 1993, after President Jorge Serrano dissolved Congress and said he would rule by decree, the United States and European nations threatened sanctions. Business owners, scared of the economic effects, helped force Serrano out of power and installed a new president, Ramiro de Leon Carpio. The economic cost was said to be 1.3% of Guatemala's GDP.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/04/28/13-times-that-economic-sanctions-really-worked/


Dan74 said:
As for the war, Russia appears to have hoped for a quick surgical operation to achieve their objectives. That failed and now we are in for some truly horrible war. It will be a slaughter and the West arming Ukraine will make it drag on longer. Maybe by upping the cost for Russia it could lead it to settle sooner, or maybe it will just increase the body count, I don't know. Putin may just dig in and he has the resources to win at whatever cost. Intransigence is a pretty natural reaction for a Russian whose back is against the wall.

Malcolm wrote:
Maybe not.

Russia is in for a whole world of hurt because of its leaders actions.

Dan74 said:
I hear people freaking out, storing food, checking bomb shelters.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. Sensible precautions.

Dan74 said:
Yes, Putin started it. But we do we go from here?

Malcolm wrote:
The US and NATO said we are not going into Ukraine. So i guess we are just going to watch Ukraine get ground into dust and resist as best they can, until it becomes too expensive for Putin to continue.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 1:07 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


haha said:
It is old translation. What do you say about Fernando Tola and Carmen Dragonetti's translation?

Malcolm wrote:
Westerhoff's is later than theirs, and offers pointed analysis of their treatment.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 at 12:00 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/17806693/russia-mutiny-army-ukraine-vladimir-putin/

Not sure if it true, but I have seen it reported in several places that yesterday Russian Marines rioted onboard ship and refused to storm Odessa.

Shotenzenjin said:
It's easy to get caught up in the propoganda onslaugh.  Russia failing. Ukrainians kicking ass. On day.....6

One wonders if ukraine is doing so well why do they need so much help then?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 11:50 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
haha said:
Ok

If you do not mind, I would like to ask one question.

How do you read or view the dedicatory verse and the last verse from MMK?

yaḥ pratītyasamutpādaṃ prapañcopaśamaṃ śivam |
deśayām āsa saṃbuddhas taṃ vande vadatāṃ varam ||2||
Who taught dependent origination 
That is peaceful and fully pacifies all fabrication.
I pay homage to the perfect Buddha 
Who is supreme among teachers
27.
sarvadṛṣṭiprahāṇāya yaḥ saddharmam adeśayat |
anukampām upādāya taṃ namasyāmi gautamam ||30|| 
I pay homage to Gautama,
Who, motivated by compassion,
Taught the holy Dharma
For the abandonment of all [false] views. [Coghlan]

Malcolm wrote:
One, while in general the Coughlin translation is pretty good, it is not without its faults, bracketing [false] before views is misleading.

Two, pacifying proliferation (prapañcopaśamaṃ) and abandonment of all views (sarvadṛṣṭiprahāṇāya) are equivalent.

But there is no thesis here to defend, no affirming negation, if you will. There is here no negation of view to replace it with some other view.

If you want to get into the head of Nāgārjuna regarding the limits of holding a thesis (pratijñā), you should look at Westerhoff's study and translation of the Vaidalyaprakaṇa. It is a detailed refutation of the Nyāya's sixteen categories (padārtha). You should also look a the Vigrahavyavartani, also translated by Westerhoff.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 10:58 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
But I can't help wondering what effect this will have long-term? Not only will the Russian economy suffer a huge blow, with millions losing work, it will have expelled Russia from practically all Western institutions, economy, etc. This isolation makes an all-out conflict with the West much more possible, I fear.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, maybe Putin will be deposed, and Russians will be able to hold free and fair elections.

The Russian largest lender, Sberbank is beginning to fail, and pulling out of European Markets:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/mar/02/russia-sberbank-pulls-out-of-europe-after-facing-failure-amid-sanctions

This war is going to be known Putin’s folly. He is destroying Russia, Belorus, and Ukraine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 9:40 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
Great to see European nations stepping up. I'm particularly impressed by Germany's decisiveness at obvious cost to themselves.

Biden mentioned last night in his State of the Union address that US and European countries are going to seize the real and personal property of Russian oligarchs. Putting the vise to these people is critical.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 9:36 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
There is only one right result: freedom from the afflictions that cause rebirth. This comes from the only right view: dependent origination.

PadmaVonSamba said:
There is only one right buddhist result: its aim (freedom from the afflictions that cause rebirth), as Malcolm suggests.
If the result one wants is moksha, or higher rebirth, or a perfect lemon cheesecake, other methods exist for achieving those.

In other words, Mr. Sad Guru may offer a path that leads to a blissful something-or-other, but not to full liberation in the buddhist sense.
And from that it may be assumed that he is not “enlightened” in any sense of the word as it would be applied to Buddhism.

Aemilius said:
Making that sort of declarations is not what Shakyamuni recommends that one should do. It may cause one unnecessary (bad) karma saying things like that. You would perhaps do much better without it.

The buddhist goal is not so self-evident, if you would consider what the Mahayana says. Like for example: "there is no ignorance and no end of ignorance...", Heart of Perfection of Wisdom sutra, " ...no old age and death and no end of old age and death". Mahayana sutras unambiquosly say that the sravakayana nirvana is not ultimately true and not the final goal.

Malcolm wrote:
The cessation of afflictions that cause rebirth in samsara is part and parcel of Mahayana. It’s not the whole of the path of Buddhahood, but it’s essential nevertheless.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 8:01 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


haha said:
Even though Bhāviveka and Candrakīrti both are interpreting the Nagarjuna, but they are not using the same structure of logic. So, “there is the only model of reasoning” does not apply. One can add Santaraksita; may be other teachers, too.

Malcolm wrote:
We aren’t talking about the same thing. I am talking about which passages belong to the opponent, which belong to the response.

The use of syllogisms by Bhavaviveka merely unpacks an algorithm implied by Buddhapalita’s consequences, and the whole controversy between Buddhapalita, etc., amounts to little more than a squabble over pedagogy, not substance.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 12:59 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Unknown said:
Europeans have also dropped, abruptly, some of their doubts about Ukraine’s membership in their institutions. On Monday, the European Parliament not only asked Zelensky to speak, by video, but gave him a standing ovation. Earlier today the parliamentarians, from all across the continent, voted to accept his application for EU membership for Ukraine. Accession to the EU is a long process, and it won’t happen immediately, even if Ukraine emerges intact from this conflict. But the idea has been broached. It is now part of the continent’s collective imagination. From being a distant place, badly understood, it is now part of what people mean when they say Europe…In the long run-up to this war, the conversation in Washington and Berlin was always focused on Putin and Joe Biden, Sergei Lavrov and Antony Blinken, NATO and Russia. This was the kind of talk that academics and pundits liked: big topics, big countries. In this conversation Ukraine was, as the political scientist John Mearsheimer put it in 2014, nothing more than “a buffer state of enormous strategic importance to Russia.” But the Ukrainians have now put themselves at the heart of the story, and they know it.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/putins-war-dispelled-the-worlds-illusions/623335/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 6:05 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Brunelleschi said:
IQ < 70.

SkyFox said:
I don't get this. You first confronted my post. And then when you realized what you said had nothing to do with what I posted, you attack my IQ?

Brunelleschi said:
I'm joking, I apologize.

The point is that squeezing a mayor nuclear power with sanctions like this is pretty much uncharted territory. There is a reason the US is very clearly saying "No" to a no-fly zone for example. We have to be rational in times like these.

Malcolm wrote:
The reason NATO is saying no to a no-fly zone has somewhat to do with the UAF doing a fair job of protecting their own airspace, and Russia has yet to establish air dominance for some inexplicable reason.

We will see how long that lasts. One twist in the jets for Ukraine scheme is the NATO is not allowing them to be flown through NATO airspace.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 4:37 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
Huh? Can you please stop advocating for a war between the world's two foremost nuclear powers? The US has around 5,400 nuclear warheads and Russia around 6,000 = enough to kill every human being on earth.

Malcolm wrote:
As long as Russia does not use nuclear weapons, there wont be. If they do,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 4:04 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 2:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Boris said:
What local beings do the bombings disturb/make angry (beside obviously humans, animals)?
And is there a class of beings which are satisfied that humans have started fighting with each other?

Malcolm wrote:
Gyalpos.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 2:26 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Context:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 1:33 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


haha said:
It is just a misconstrued attribution towards me. I am using his translation does not mean I am using his interpretation. Reading the Candrakirti’s Prasannapada is enough for understanding one model of reasoning, which naturally includes Buddhapalita. It is still the 5th-6th centuries CE perspective on Nagarjuna.

Malcolm wrote:
Then read Akutobhyā. It has the same stucture, and is much earlier than Buddhapalita, attributed to Nāgārjuna. It sets out the purpose for writing MMK, but it does not set out any ontological thesis to defend.

It's the only model of reasoning there is. If you want to interpret the MMK outside these parameters, I have nothing more to say to you other than that you are making a mistake.

haha said:
Lucid Exposition of the Middle Way The Essential chapters from the Prasannapada of Candrakirti Translated from the Sanskrit by Mervyn Sprung

Malcolm wrote:
Unfortunately influenced by T.R.V. Murti's crypto-advaita leanings. A contribution, but a long ago superseded one.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 12:29 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dorje Shedrub said:
DW reports that there is a Russian military convoy 60 kilometers long in route to Kyiv. Russia announces that they will bomb Kyiv. They have already used cluster bombs on civilian targets. Let's hope they don't hit a nuclear reactor.

If they start destroying Kyiv and civilians, I don't see how the U.S. and Europe can stay out of the war considering the world wide unity against Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
I don't either.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, March 2nd, 2022 at 12:18 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
Economy already was starting to go to hell under Biden long before this war started.

Malcolm wrote:
That is simply inaccurate. For example:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-12-20/president-biden-s-economic-performance-has-proved-unbeatable

https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-02-04/bidens-economy-strengthens-upon-further-review


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 11:55 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:


Aemilius said:
It is true and not true. Buddha has also put it in a circular fashion: Only the Noble eight-fold path leads to liberation. If a method leads to liberation it must have the limbs of the Noble eightfold path. We know that a path is the right path, if it produces the genuine result. But who can say that "this is the right result, all other results are wrong"?

Malcolm wrote:
There is only one right result: freedom from the afflictions that cause rebirth. This comes from the only right view: dependent origination.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 11:51 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 11:46 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Shinjin said:
Biden is a disgrace. Why doesn't he impose sanctions on russian oil and gas? That will hurt putin big time.

Malcolm wrote:
You don't play all your cards at once in international poker.

Shinjin said:
By the time he does (if he does) it will be too late for Ukraine.

Malcolm wrote:
He also has US markets to think about.  The DOW as of now is down 424 points again to 33,468 as of 10:41 am. Oil finished over $100 a barrel yesterday.

This is not the Gunfight at the OK Corral, but you seem to treat it as if it were just as simple as "Let's crash the world economy to punish Putin."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 11:30 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
Biden is a disgrace. Why doesn't he impose sanctions on russian oil and gas? That will hurt putin big time.

Malcolm wrote:
You don't play all your cards at once in international poker.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 11:24 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
Sigh. Well, I guess it was an American's fault, to an extent. But Russians lacked the competent leadership, also, who could have actively steered the country as these distortions emerged.

The human and natural resources the Soviet Union had could have served it well. But then, I suppose we're seeing yet another example of why economies need to evolve gradually.

PeterC said:
That’s an interesting observation. I suppose there is moral responsibility implicit in the causality, but ultimately though the causality is very important. it doesn’t really matter much who is morally responsible. We have this situation and we have to deal with it, turning that into a moral question tends to make that process harder. The historians will be still picking over who was right and wrong centuries from now.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/28/world-war-iii-already-there-00012340

“Sadly, we are treading back through old historical patterns that we said that we would never permit to happen again,” Hill told me.

Those old historical patterns include Western businesses who fail to see how they help build a tyrant’s war chest, admirers enamored of an autocrat’s “strength” and politicians’ tendency to point fingers inward for political gain instead of working together for their nation’s security.

But at the same time, Hill says it’s not too late to turn Putin back, and it’s a job not just for the Ukrainians or for NATO — it’s a job that ordinary Westerners and companies can assist in important ways once they grasp what’s at stake.

“Ukraine has become the front line in a struggle, not just between democracies and autocracies but in a struggle for maintaining a rules-based system in which the things that countries want are not taken by force,” Hill said. “Every country in the world should be paying close attention to this.”

...

Hill: You totally see it. Unfortunately, we have politicians and public figures in the United States and around Europe who have embraced the idea that Russia was wronged by NATO and that Putin is a strong, powerful man and has the right to do what he’s doing: Because Ukraine is somehow not worthy of independence, because it’s either Russia’s historical lands or Ukrainians are Russians, or the Ukrainian leaders are — this is what Putin says — “drug addled, fascist Nazis” or whatever labels he wants to apply here.

So sadly, we are treading back through old historical patterns that we said that we would never permit to happen again. The other thing to think about in this larger historic context is how much the German business community helped facilitate the rise of Hitler. Right now, everyone who has been doing business in Russia or buying Russian gas and oil has contributed to Putin’s war chest. Our investments are not just boosting business profits, or Russia’s sovereign wealth funds and its longer-term development. They now are literally the fuel for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 11:15 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 11:12 PM
Title: Re: Tibetan typing programs
Content:
Archie2009 said:
Thank you, that worked. Only command + space bar opens Spotlight Search on macOS Monterey. Control + space switches between input sources.

Malcolm wrote:
You have to change the command.

Archie2009 said:
What is your preferred Tibetan font? Or is that choice dictated by your occupation as translator? I use Kailasa.

Malcolm wrote:
I don't translate sadhanas, so I have little need for a specific font, that said, yes, I tend to use Kailash when I do.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 10:35 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
KristenM said:
But keep thinking that the US has some grand plan to take over Russia, meanwhile going on and on about how the US is a crumbling empire. Make up your mind.

Malcolm wrote:
But her emails!!!


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 9:45 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
In any case, when it comes to domestic opinion, Russians are sold on the notion that Nato has been more and more belligerent to Russia and moving into Ukraine would be an existential threat.

Malcolm wrote:
An existential threat to Putin’s ambitions, definitely, but not Russia itself.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 9:31 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Kim O'Hara said:
I think this is one of the things we're missing on the NATO side, and particularly from the US.
Someone has already mentioned the Cuban crisis as a parallel, and I think it's a good one.

Malcolm wrote:
It is not a good one, it’s a facile comparison. 1) no one is parking nuclear weapons in Ukraine. 2) Ukraine initially asked to join the EU, not NATO. 3) It was only after Putin illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and moved mercenaries into Eastern Ukraine, creating a civil war there, that Ukraine began the democratic process of passing legislation to join NATO in 2017.

Two take aways: Ukraine will wind up in the EU and NATO. It is now a certainty.

Dan74 said:
Dubya announced that the Ukraine would join Nato in 2008.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-ukraine-bush-idUSL0141706220080401

Who exactly is arguing for Putin and against Western liberal order here? Criticising the US foreign policy does not mean one is a Putin fanboy. Do I even have to say this??

The difference between us is not our values, I think, Malcolm. It's our reading (or ignoring) of the facts.

Malcolm wrote:
Again, Dan, no one just ”joins” NATO. GWB declaring that he thinks Ukraine should join NATO if they so choose is not even a formal invitation. So yes, Ukraine began the process of MAP in 2008, but shelved it in 2010 under Yanukovich. After 2014, of course it became clear it was necessary for Ukraine to be a part of NATO, and in 2019, the goal of membership in NATO and EU was written into the preamble of the Ukrainian constitution, in order to remove the capriciousness of individual presidents.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 9:15 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
US did not invade Cuba. Just saying.

In other news... Seeing the response of the Social Democrats, I'm done considering them a viable caucus in the US. They're in the same wastebasket as the Greens as far as I'm concerned.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, they’re idiots, like the Green Party, USA.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 9:30 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Johnny Dangerous said:
Similarly, if NATO expansion really is part of what is at issue, we have to face that and ask what the right way to proceed is.

Malcolm wrote:
NATO is not a golf club. Ukraine has a right to join it. They’ve voted on it in their parliament. It would absolutely hypocritical not to admit them. The Ukrainian people have unequivocally made their will clear through their own democratic process. For their trouble, they have had a proxy war waged against them for the past eight years, which has now turned into an actual war. So, it’s just not up to Putin. It’s only up to the Ukrainian  people.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 9:18 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



seeker242 said:
No,

Malcolm wrote:
You have no understanding of karma. A lion killing it’s prey is no different than one human being shooting another. Karma is karma.

seeker242 said:
You have no understanding of what common usage of words mean apparently...But go ahead and keep trying to say that people bombing other people aren't guilty...As that is such a reasonable thing to argue...No really, it is.

Malcolm wrote:
Now you are twisting my words. That’s dishonest. We’re done here.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 8:52 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
... One also needs to understand how the other side sees the situation, in order to negotiate. ...

Kim O'Hara said:
I think this is one of the things we're missing on the NATO side, and particularly from the US.
Someone has already mentioned the Cuban crisis as a parallel, and I think it's a good one. An updated hypothetical paralle would be a Chinese offer of economic aid to Mexico, accompanied by, say, 10 000 troops, a naval base or two, and an airfield.
How would the US react to that?


Kim

PeterC said:
What everyone forgets about Cuba was that stationing the missiles there was a response to the US putting short-range missiles in Turkey.  The US instigated that conflict.

We can, with Ukraine, debate endlessly who is “responsible” in a causative sense, and that does matter, but we are where we are, and we need to find the least bad destination for this.  Right now that clearly does not involve a broadening of the conflict or a return to the prior status quo, unfortunately

Malcolm wrote:
Correct:

To reinforce Western interests, President Eisenhower secured the unanimous approval of NATO states to position intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) in Europe, but only Britain, Italy, and Turkey actually agreed to host the weapons. In October 1959, it was arranged to place fifteen Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey, with the Turkish government agreeing to keep the armaments sovereign to the US and to keep the negotiations and acceptance of the missiles secret from the Turkish nation.5

Earlier that year, Eisenhower predicted that positioning warheads near the USSR could cause a backlash and that “If Mexico or Cuba . . . began getting arms and missiles from [the Soviets], we would be bound to look on such developments with the gravest concern and . . . it would be imperative for us to take . . . even offensive military action.”6 John F. Kennedy, who took over the operation upon his 1961 inauguration, shared these concerns. He believed the Soviets would use the Turkish IRBMs to justify arming Cuba—if Turkey could attack across the Black Sea for the US, Cuba could attack across the Gulf of Mexico for the USSR—so, three months before the crisis, he urged US officials to see what needed to be done to remove the missiles, telling Undersecretary of State George Ball to progress the issue. However, Ball, after discussing the issue with the Turkish ambassador, allied with other State Department officials and decided to not try to remove the missiles so as to preserve US-Turkish relations.7

https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1218&context=issr

When whole situation is reviewed, it is shown that Kennedy exercised incredible restraint.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 8:45 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



seeker242 said:
And who claimed it was? Yea, nobody....again...

Malcolm wrote:
Your notion of "guilt/innocence" is telling. Are lions "guilty" of killing their prey? Anyway, this is off topic.

seeker242 said:
No,

Malcolm wrote:
You have no understanding of karma. A lion killing it’s prey is no different than one human being shooting another. Karma is karma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 8:42 AM
Title: Re: Tibetan typing programs
Content:
Archie2009 said:
I would also like to be able to type in uchen script on my iMac. At the moment I type online in wylie into the https://www.thlib.org/reference/dictionaries/tibetan-dictionary/translate.php and copy/paste into RTF text files and subsequently between text files.

Malcolm wrote:
There is a wylie keyboard in the Mac software.

Open Keyboard preferences, select wylie.

You will switch back and forth with command + space bar.

Image 2-28-22 at 5.35 PM.jpg

Archie2009 said:
Thank you, that worked. Only command + space bar opens Spotlight Search on macOS Monterey. Control + space switches between input sources.

Malcolm wrote:
You have to change the command.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 8:38 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
... One also needs to understand how the other side sees the situation, in order to negotiate. ...

Kim O'Hara said:
I think this is one of the things we're missing on the NATO side, and particularly from the US.
Someone has already mentioned the Cuban crisis as a parallel, and I think it's a good one.

Malcolm wrote:
It is not a good one, it’s a facile comparison. 1) no one is parking nuclear weapons in Ukraine. 2) Ukraine initially asked to join the EU, not NATO. 3) It was only after Putin illegally annexed Crimea in 2014 and moved mercenaries into Eastern Ukraine, creating a civil war there, that Ukraine began the democratic process of passing legislation to join NATO in 2017.

Two take aways: Ukraine will wind up in the EU and NATO. It is now a certainty.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 8:01 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
I guess what Malcolm and Co refuse to understand is that trying to trace the genesis of the crisis (from different sides) is vitally important

Malcolm wrote:
We have different understandings of the etiology of this crisis. Neither of us has special or privileged knowledge, so in the end, it boils down to fact that we have different values and different perspectives based on those values. Unlike you, I am a fan of the American-led liberal hegemony, and think it is superior to the type of world Putin and Xi would usher in, if they could.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 6:54 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



seeker242 said:
It's obvious that it's not a war of their making. Nobody ever claimed it was. Nobody is blaming them for starting a war. They are blamed for carrying it out.

Malcolm wrote:
Go ahead and blame away. Karma just isn't a simple transaction: do a, b happens.

seeker242 said:
And who claimed it was? Yea, nobody....again...

Malcolm wrote:
Your notion of "guilt/innocence" is telling. Are lions "guilty" of killing their prey? Anyway, this is off topic.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 6:42 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 6:36 AM
Title: Re: Tibetan typing programs
Content:
Archie2009 said:
I would also like to be able to type in uchen script on my iMac. At the moment I type online in wylie into the https://www.thlib.org/reference/dictionaries/tibetan-dictionary/translate.php and copy/paste into RTF text files and subsequently between text files.

Malcolm wrote:
There is a wylie keyboard in the Mac software.

Open Keyboard preferences, select wylie.

You will switch back and forth with command + space bar.
Image 2-28-22 at 5.35 PM.jpg (80.25 KiB) Viewed 2213 times


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 6:14 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:


seeker242 said:
Of course one feels sorry for them but the idea that people who are dropping bombs on other people are innocent, is quite frankly downright ridiculous.

Malcolm wrote:
FFS, I never said they were innocent in the sense of being innocent of an act of killing. I said they were innocent in the sense that this war is not of their making.

seeker242 said:
It's obvious that it's not a war of their making. Nobody ever claimed it was. Nobody is blaming them for starting a war. They are blamed for carrying it out.

Malcolm wrote:
Go ahead and blame away. Karma just isn't a simple transaction: do a, b happens.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 6:09 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
I don’t really see a huge moral distinction between this, and say when GWB claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

A huge, much more impactful act of aggression in terms of Geopolitical consequences for sure, but morally? Seems to be pretty equivalent.

Malcolm wrote:
Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction, ie. large stocks of sarin gas, etc, and Hussein most certainly wanted people to believe he had them.

The problem with the second Iraq war was Cheney's total paranoia and persistent delusion (even to this day) that Hussein really had such weapons. When GWB found out that Cheney was deluded about that, GWB iced Cheney completely. GWB is not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he also didn't like being played for a fool by Wolfowitz, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, who had all started their careers under Nixon together.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 5:54 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
You know, Malcolm, I'd rather Ukraine carve out a good future  and a prosperous life for its citizens, rather than being a pawn in the US-Russian games. Finland and Sweden did just fine out of Nato, as have we here in Switzerland, thank you very much. I don't think Ukrainian people dearly want the US bases on their soil, provided they have other security guarantees. It's the curse of their geography, their divided history that led them being the plaything in this tug-o-war between these two cursed empires.

Malcolm wrote:
The US is not a cursed empire. It's not an empire. It is however the leader of a hegemony of liberal, democratic states, a hegemony that Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Cech Republic, Lativa, Lithuania, Turkey, Ukraine, etc., have seen the economic and social advantages of being a part, and have, collectively, the largest world economy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 5:49 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
I guess JFK was "an authoritarian who view[ed] the world through the lens of spheres of influence and power", since he didn't agree with Cuba aligning itself with the USSR and allowing Soviet missiles on its land.

Malcolm wrote:
You brought this up before, yawn.

Your comparison is inept. These days, missiles are intercontinental. The ability for the US and Russia to obliterate each other in a nuclear war does not depend on proximity.

The Ukraine wishing to join the EU is not the same as the Russia parking nukes in Cuba.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 5:13 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:


seeker242 said:
Of course one feels sorry for them but the idea that people who are dropping bombs on other people are innocent, is quite frankly downright ridiculous.

Malcolm wrote:
FFS, I never said they were innocent in the sense of being innocent of an act of killing. I said they were innocent in the sense that this war is not of their making.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 5:03 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
Countries have a right to choose their alliances.

Malcolm wrote:
You either agree with this, or you don't. If you don't, whether you intend to or not, you side authoritarians who view the world through the lens of spheres of influence and power, rather than self-determination and democracy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 4:38 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



seeker242 said:
Nope. It’s still killing regardless and killing is not innocent the only way it could be is if you accidentally press the button…

Malcolm wrote:
Or if you take no satisfaction in it, are not driven by hatred as a motivation, etc.

You have a very simplistic view of karma.

seeker242 said:
You have a very convoluted idea of what innocent means.

Malcolm wrote:
I explained what I meant by "innocent." But I am not hung up an a guilt/innocence trip.

You really ought to study the Kośabhaṣyaṃ, karma chapter. In order for a karma to ripen, it necessarily needs four things.  If any of them are missing, it is not a perfect karma.

But we know that everyone killed fighting in a battle goes to hell. So I feel sorry for all them. Especially the naive kids that though no fault of their own were sent without their knowledge into a war not of their making or desire.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 4:33 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Toenail said:
There is no room for defending Putin at all. Nothing justifies murdering political opponents using poison and starting a war. People want freedom and have had enough of Russia sucking them dry like a big fat leech. Every country around Russia is afraid of Putin. That is because he is a psychopath who is also a dictator and has a huge military and who is not hesitating to kill civilians. I think it was Gampopa saying that sometimes you have to beat women and children so that they listen. I am not saying that but when I read stupid shit like this I want to slap sense into ignorance I am not going to lie. Putin is not only a psychopath who starts a war and then threatens nuclear war when faced with economical sanctions he is also an idiot who has not even managed to achieve what he tried to do. He basically started cold war all over again but Russia is nowhere near as strong or relevant in the whole scale as it was back in soviet times, so he frak up big time. He will get frak badly and Europe will wake up again. Germany just pledged a 100 billion this year alone and Putin will have strapped up NATO on all borders except China. Now tell me that is what he would have wanted to achieve. The situation is very bad and sad. I cried yesterday.

Malcolm wrote:
And this is the guy that is going to beat him:



It must enrage Putin.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 4:19 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:


seeker242 said:
conscript or not doesn’t change anything…

Malcolm wrote:
Sure it does.

seeker242 said:
Nope. It’s still killing regardless and killing is not innocent the only way it could be is if you accidentally press the button…

Malcolm wrote:
Or if you take no satisfaction in it, are not driven by hatred as a motivation, etc.

You have a very simplistic view of karma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 3:49 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:


seeker242 said:
conscript or not doesn’t change anything…

Malcolm wrote:
Sure it does.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 3:46 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
A debate in 2/16/2021 between Professor John J. Mearsheimer, Professor Beate Jahn and Professor G. John Ikenberry

https://www.lse.ac.uk/lse-player?id=168d8077-b7df-4eea-92c3-2767407d02b0

This event will debate the crisis of the liberal order: is the cause of the crisis liberalism itself, or does it have as much to do with Trump and the rise of populism as anything else?

Explore the clash between liberalism and realism


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 3:37 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
It is worth emphasising that Mearsheimer said that before the invasion. Pretty much everything I've been saying too refers to the crisis before the invasion. You seem to be intent on confounding the two.

For years talking about the allied war crimes in WW2 would subject one to accusations of being a cryptonazi, Hitler apologist etc. We are past that now. People like Kurt Vonnegut help make it acceptable. And you know, he was not a Nazi.

What I say is not about excusing the invasion, but helping understand how the crisis arose in the first place. The facile approach is to just chant the mantra Putin=Bad=Mad and be content with it. It's easy and clear. But it's not the truth. Well, I don't know, maybe now he has gone mad, but up until the invasion, most his foreign policy did make sense.

Malcolm wrote:
Dan, you have stated quite plainly that you feel that Putin's 2014 and 2022 invasions of the Ukraine are clearly just a response to how unfairly Putin has been treated by the West. You have marshaled the opinions of American political scientists in defense of your point of view. There are other American political scientists who disagree with this point of view. You've thrown shade on Ukrainian corruption, and conflated Ukraine's desire to be admitted to the EU with NATO membership. You've argued that NATO "broke" its promises to Russia, when its quite debatable that this is the case.

In short, you've pretty much sided with Russia entirely. That's fine, but Putin is a fascist, like his asset in Florida, and the entire MAGA wing of the GOP.

You may not think the "Liberal Hegemony" led by the US is a good thing. I happen to think it is a very good thing, and find it a preferable world order to the kind of world order envisioned by Putin, Xi, and the rest.

It's the start of the water tiger year tomorrow, and tiger years are always marked by a lot of upheaval.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 3:02 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:
seeker242 said:
To think that the soldiers pulling the trigger are just as innocent as the civilians being killed, that makes no reasonable sense at all

Malcolm wrote:
Clearly we are using the word in a different sense.

You are using the term in this sense:

: free from legal guilt or fault

Here is the sense I am using:

: a naïve, inexperienced, or unsophisticated person

seeker242 said:
I don’t think any of them are naïve when it comes to what’s going to kill a person. All of them know full well what’s gonna happen when you start dropping bombs on people. Nobody is so unsophisticated to not know the consequences of that, except for perhaps a mentally disabled person. Naïve of politics etc. sure, naïve of what’s going to kill people certainly not

Malcolm wrote:
Sigh, all of those kids are conscripts, not volunteers. They are just canon fodder. But I guess you'd rather be all Yama, judge of the dead. Fine. Go for it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 2:30 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
These morons couldn't sort it all out and send an invitation to Ukraine to join NATO before all this happened? They had to wait until they were finally attacked?

Malcolm wrote:
Ukraine was stymied in its application for EU membership in 2014 by the Russian "annexation" of Crimea, or didn't you remember that part?

One just doesn't join the EU overnight. It is a process, and there are conditions for entry.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 2:26 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
This strident stance by the West may be good to get the war to end, but in order to find a lasting peaceful settlement, it needs to show a flexibility to accommodate Russia's concerns, otherwise, I fear, we are heading to a far worse conflict. This isn't 1939.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 2:15 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 1:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
As the saying goes, if I had a penny every time your implied or outright said that I was a fascist..

Malcolm wrote:
Dan, you've been apologizing for Putin for weeks now. The only tune we've heard from you is that "Russia's security concerns ought to be respected...", "Putin has been humiliated by the West...", etc.

I don't happen to generally agree with "realists" like Mearsheimer, or their left-wing counterparts like Chomsky, etc. They do not offer realistic solutions.

I generally agree more with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ikenberry, those who defend liberal internationalism, and so on. Ikenberry's World Safe For Democracy is a must read, if one cares about things like geopolitics.

And if you like both-sidism:

http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/111899/1/ogab020_1_.pdf


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 12:22 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:
seeker242 said:
To think that the soldiers pulling the trigger are just as innocent as the civilians being killed, that makes no reasonable sense at all

Malcolm wrote:
Clearly we are using the word in a different sense.

You are using the term in this sense:

: free from legal guilt or fault

Here is the sense I am using:

: a naïve, inexperienced, or unsophisticated person


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 12:15 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:


seeker242 said:
Yes that’s true they were taken by surprise some Russian soldiers even said things like “we didn’t know we were going to be killing anyone”. But if you pull the trigger and someone dies, well that means you’re not innocent. The fact that you might be tortured if you don’t, doesn’t automatically make you innocent.

Malcolm wrote:
A perfect karma requires four things: object, intention, act, and satisfaction.

We cannot know what is going on in anyone's mind. But I doubt highly that any of those kids are happy they have to pull triggers, or that they are satisfied and happy to be pawns in Putin's war.

seeker242 said:
Perfect karma is not required in order to be not innocent.

Malcolm wrote:
Depends on what you mean by "innocent." If you mean that karma is unerring, then no sentient being is innocent, not even staunch vegans, who knows what horrible crimes we have all committed in the past.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 12:06 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Nemo said:
Americans have finalized their divorce from reality.

Malcolm wrote:
You lost all credibility when you defended China's treatment of the Uyghurs.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, March 1st, 2022 at 12:02 AM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:


seeker242 said:
Yes that’s true they were taken by surprise some Russian soldiers even said things like “we didn’t know we were going to be killing anyone”. But if you pull the trigger and someone dies, well that means you’re not innocent. The fact that you might be tortured if you don’t, doesn’t automatically make you innocent.

Malcolm wrote:
A perfect karma requires four things: object, intention, act, and satisfaction.

We cannot know what is going on in anyone's mind. But I doubt highly that any of those kids are happy they have to pull triggers, or that they are satisfied and happy to be pawns in Putin's war.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 10:52 PM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



seeker242 said:
And I think you know full well that Russians invading Ukraine don’t meet the criteria

Malcolm wrote:
Of course they don’t, they are innocent kids. Their leader on the other hand, that’s a different question.

seeker242 said:
Quite a stretch to say that people killing other people are innocent

Malcolm wrote:
They have no choice. They’ve been sent into a hostile country as conscripts.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 10:45 PM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



seeker242 said:
If they met the criteria for such a rite, and one could easily argue nazis did not. Russians invading Ukraine certainly don't.

Malcolm wrote:
I don’t think you really understand what the criteria of such rites are.

seeker242 said:
And I think you know full well that Russians invading Ukraine don’t meet the criteria

Malcolm wrote:
Of course they don’t, they are innocent kids. Their leader on the other hand, that’s a different question.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 10:30 PM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



seeker242 said:
And at the same time, if he had the opportunity himself, I doubt very much he himself would go pick up a gun and go off to kill nazis.

Malcolm wrote:
No, he would have performed an abhicarya rite while sending his soldiers off to defend his country.

seeker242 said:
If they met the criteria for such a rite, and one could easily argue nazis did not. Russians invading Ukraine certainly don't.

Malcolm wrote:
I don’t think you really understand what the criteria of such rites are.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 10:10 PM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:



seeker242 said:
The rest of that quote.

I want to make it clear, however, that although I am deeply opposed to war, I am not advocating appeasement. It is often necessary to take a strong stand to counter unjust aggression. For instance, it is plain to all of us that the Second World War was entirely justified. It "saved civilization" from the tyranny of Nazi Germany, as Winston Churchill so aptly put it. In my view, the Korean War was also just, since it gave South Korea the chance of gradually developing democracy. But we can only judge whether or not a conflict was vindicated on moral grounds with hindsight. For example, we can now see that during the Cold War, the principle of nuclear deterrence had a certain value. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to assess al such matters with any degree of accuracy. War is violence and violence is unpredictable. Therefore, it is better to avoid it if possible, and never to presume that we know beforehand whether the outcome of a particular war will be beneficial or not.



Malcolm wrote:
https://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/the-reality-of-war

seeker242 said:
And at the same time, if he had the opportunity himself, I doubt very much he himself would go pick up a gun and go off to kill nazis.

Malcolm wrote:
No, he would have performed an abhicarya rite while sending his soldiers off to defend his country.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 9:58 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
This strident stance by the West may be good to get the war to end,

Malcolm wrote:
Strident? How about “freaked out.”


Dan74 said:
but in order to find a lasting peaceful settlement, it needs to show a flexibility to accommodate Russia's concerns, otherwise, I fear, we are heading to a far worse conflict. This isn't 1939.

Malcolm wrote:
Putin has never had a right to dictate to anyone anything outside Russian borders. If he wants security, he should cease his hostile posturing towards Europe.

It’s very telling that you are acting as an apologist for another fascist.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 9:49 PM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.

—— HH Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 15, 2001.

seeker242 said:
The rest of that quote.
Not at the head, where a fatal wound might result. But at some other body part, such as a leg.
I want to make it clear, however, that although I am deeply opposed to war, I am not advocating appeasement. It is often necessary to take a strong stand to counter unjust aggression. For instance, it is plain to all of us that the Second World War was entirely justified. It "saved civilization" from the tyranny of Nazi Germany, as Winston Churchill so aptly put it. In my view, the Korean War was also just, since it gave South Korea the chance of gradually developing democracy. But we can only judge whether or not a conflict was vindicated on moral grounds with hindsight. For example, we can now see that during the Cold War, the principle of nuclear deterrence had a certain value. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to assess al such matters with any degree of accuracy. War is violence and violence is unpredictable. Therefore, it is better to avoid it if possible, and never to presume that we know beforehand whether the outcome of a particular war will be beneficial or not.



Malcolm wrote:
https://www.dalailama.com/messages/world-peace/the-reality-of-war


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 9:42 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:
Aemilius said:
Buddha has also pointed put that it is difficult to know another person, whether he is enlightened or not.

Malcolm wrote:
He also excludeded the possibility of awakening outside of his dharma and vinaya.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 9:03 PM
Title: Re: Ethical impact on defense against the Russian Invasion in Ukraine
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.

—— HH Dalai Lama, Seattle Times, May 15, 2001.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 8:21 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Kim O'Hara said:
More like robber barons than pirates, applying the Randian might-is-right, winner-takes-all (un)principles to foreign relations?


Kim

Malcolm wrote:
Have you forgotten the Marshall Plan? You know, the one that helped rebuild Germany, Japan, and Italy?

We are certainly not angels, and in our history, like yours, there are terrible crimes of colonialism, and huge blunders like the post 9/11 wars, but at least our nation, like yours,  aspires to assist others in setting up democracies. And after all, the democracy you enjoy today really is courtesy of the American revolution.

Ironically, Putin has succeeded in the one thing he feared, a stronger NATO bloc. Even the Germans decided to get strapped. And who can blame them?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 11:09 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Kim O'Hara said:
It's sad, but I find it hard to disagree with him.


Kim

Malcolm wrote:
The US isn’t an empire and never has been.  Pirates maybe, but not an empire.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 9:26 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 7:23 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 7:19 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 7:16 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 6:58 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Shinjin said:
You can thank Biden for what is going on right now.

Malcolm wrote:
Ummm no, you can thank Trump. You do remember why he was impeached the first time, right?

Shinjin said:
Jesus Christ we are still talking about Trump. He isn't president anymore.  Biden is. The man who has the power to do something right now is Biden.
The right-wing talking point that Biden is weak and inept and therefore emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine is belied by the united front the western world is presenting. After the former president tried to weaken NATO and even discussed withdrawing from the treaty, Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have managed to strengthen the alliance again. They have brought the G7 (the seven wealthiest liberal democracies), the European Union, and other partners and allies behind extraordinary economic sanctions, acting in concert to make those sanctions much stronger than any one country could impose.

They have managed to get Germany behind stopping the certification of Nord Stream 2, the gas pipeline from Russia to Germany that would have tied Europe more closely to Russia, and in what Marcel Dirsus, a German political scientist and fellow at the Institute for Security Policy at Kiel University, told the Washington Post was possibly “one of the biggest shifts in German foreign policy since World War II,” Germany is now sending weapons to Ukraine and has agreed to impose economic sanctions.

Biden has facilitated this extraordinary international cooperation quietly, letting European leaders take credit for the measures his own administration has advocated. It is a major shift from the U.S.’s previous periods of unilateralism and militarism, and appears to be far more effective.

Malcolm wrote:
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-26-2022?r=62xtc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 6:31 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Shinjin said:
You can thank Biden for what is going on right now.

Malcolm wrote:
Ummm no, you can thank Trump. You do remember why he was impeached the first time, right?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 6:09 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dorje Shedrub said:
https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEIacUyElHDe911LjeEBUkZUqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowjailCzDQsr0DMK_uigc?uo=CAUiANIBAA&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

Times of Israel reports that Ukranian forces have destroyed convoy of over 50 Chechnyan tanks and killed a general. The Chechnyan national guard convoy was tasked with search and destroy of Ukranian leaders portrayed on decks of cards.

Shotenzenjin said:
Portrayed on decks of cards. Where have we seen that before? A NATO country perhaps......
If it works and all that ...

Malcolm wrote:
Quit complaining about what the US did then, we all know it sucked. Focus on what f**cking Putin is doing now.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 5:47 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
The guy is a journalist and commentator, btw. An idiot.

Malcolm wrote:
I understood that, and thanks for the nuance in the translation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 5:04 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
Twitter translation:
"In total, our submarines are capable of launching more than half a thousand nuclear warheads, which is guaranteed to destroy the countries of the United States and NATO in addition. This is according to the principle: why do we need peace if there is no Russia in it"
F**cking unhinged.

Russian responses to state tv:



Unknown said:
Does this motherf**ker know that the US will kind of retaliate and destroy us all to hell? Does he think he will sit out in a bunker with his adored leader?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 4:54 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It's clear that Russian soldiers don't want this war either:

SkyFox said:
Nobody, except Putin and his buddies, wants this war. Many Russians have friends and family in Ukraine. There are videos of Russian soldiers crying; some got tricked into thinking it was only a military exercise, which is very sad.

Malcolm wrote:
Lets all hope the enlisted kids decided to revolt.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 4:42 AM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:
Archie2009 said:
Hard to understand the attraction, frankly.

Malcolm wrote:
Access to other teachers and programs where serious Dzogchen teachings were being taught in a very comprehensive and detailed way by those other teachers. That was the attraction.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 4:23 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
It's clear that Russian soldiers don't want this war either:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 3:55 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
For those who do not know, this is Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

3:04 PM EST

Borrell just committed the EU to providing modern jets to Ukraine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 3:40 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/launchpad-russias-assault-ukraine-belarus-holds-referendum-renounce-non-nuclear-2022-02-27/

Unknown said:
Feb 27 (Reuters) - Protesters took to the streets as Belarus held a referendum on Sunday to adopt a new constitution that would ditch its non-nuclear status at a time when the country has become a launchpad for Russian troops invading Ukraine.

Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Alison Williams and Richard Chang


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 2:48 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shotenzenjin said:
Some people on this thread sure have rose colored glasses on when it comes to NATO.

It's not like NATO hasn't bombed other countries and all that.........
Oh wait a minute ....

Malcolm wrote:
No, no rose colored glasses here. But undermining NATO is a pretty stupid idea.

For example, the DSA tried on Twitter to float the idea that the US should pull of NATO, much mockery ensued.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 2:10 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
antimissiles in Poland

Malcolm wrote:
Seems like a good idea to me. Putin broke every treaty Russia had with us.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 2:04 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
And that some people have taken their grievances against this to the extreme and committed terrible crimes, whether the 9/11 terrorists

Malcolm wrote:
Umm, the terrible grievance that led to 9/11 was US troops being stationed on Saudi soil, in case you forgot. Do you even know why Bush actually invaded Iraq the first time? Why Iraq invaded Kuwait which resulted in the first Gulf War?

Personally, I have never supported even one war the US has ever been involved in during my lifetime. I was 29 when the Soviet Union fell.

But blaming all the world's ills on the US foreign policy just f**king idiotic.

I never gave much thought to NATO until Trump tried to break it up. You should be really glad he didn't succeed, and that Biden pulled it back together.

Crazywisdom said:
Iraq invaded Kuwait for the same reasons Putin is doing. Claiming historical ownership, but just wanting to claim natural resources. That would make gas expensive of course the US had to incinerate them.

Malcolm wrote:
The truth is a little more complicated. Iraq and Kuwait has an agreement about raising oil prices in concert. Kuwait broke that agreement, moreover, they were drilling under Iraq's border, according to Iraq. So what did Iraq do? They raided Kuwait, broke into people's houses and shops, and carried away art, gems, furniture, etc.

Naturally of course the Kuwaiti's were pissed, and then Bush got into it, because he saw a good opportunity to get rid of a former client from his CIA days.

Crazywisdom said:
And just because Al Queda said their reason was infidels on holy land does not mean that was the reason. I spent a lot of time talking with some dudes from Jordan.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, my information about Iraq comes from a reserve officer in the US military from Jordan with whom I worked, who has in the Jordanian army when the first Iraq war happened, who was sent to Iraq when the second Iraq war happened.

It was pretty much the reason. Recall, we had been sending Bin Ladin arms for years during the 80's. He turned on us after the first Gulf war when our troops did not leave Saudi Arabia.

Crazywisdom said:
Wait till the missiles get back to Cuba and Venezuela and see if that righteous position means anything. Geopolitics is a Russian concept of realpolitik.

Malcolm wrote:
That will never happen. Everyone has satellites that can see up a fly's ass from 20 miles above the earth.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 1:46 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
Is anyone interested in the question why former Soviet republics and Soviet block nations would want to join NATO? Christ. If your neighbors who know you best, hear all the yelling and plotting coming from your house and feel they need to join a rival gang for their safety... who's the bad guy?

No one forced these countries to join NATO. They begged to join NATO. Maybe it was a bad idea to let them in. That's up for debate. But there seems to be a consistent theme underlying all of this... Russia's conduct. Russia should have gotten its shit together decades ago. But instead, a small group of corrupt men stole control of all the resources. That is the genesis of Russia's problem right there.

KristenM said:
And I agree with what Blinken said, i.e. that Ukraine has the right to decide for itself who it wants to ally with. It's not Putin's decision. And judging from Putin's actions, it's clear why Ukraine doesn't want to ally with Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course, but Putin does not believe in democracy at all. He has said so. Why some people defend his feelings here is beyond me, but whatever.

KristenM said:
After all, what caused this crisis in the first place? It’s very simple: the overwhelming desire of Ukrainians to live in an open, democratic society. Let us not forget what it was that enraged Putin and led him to invade Ukraine for the first time in 2014. It was not a Ukrainian declaration to seek NATO membership; it was the efforts of the Kyiv government (a pro-Russian government at the time) to finalize an “association agreement” with the European Union. When the president of Ukraine ultimately balked at this deal — under pressure from Russia — he was greeted by massive street protests, and the parliament voted him out of office. That is what triggered Putin’s first invasion of Ukraine.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/24/putin-invasion-ukraine-shows-why-liberal-democracy-worth-defending/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 1:33 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
To argue that the West was right to fear Putin and expand NATO is the old self-fulfilling prophesy.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, the West was right about Putin, and allowing former Warsaw pact nations to join NATO if they chose to was the right thing to do.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 1:30 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
And that some people have taken their grievances against this to the extreme and committed terrible crimes, whether the 9/11 terrorists

Malcolm wrote:
Umm, the terrible grievance that led to 9/11 was US troops being stationed on Saudi soil, in case you forgot. Do you even know why Bush actually invaded Iraq the first time? Why Iraq invaded Kuwait which resulted in the first Gulf War?

Personally, I have never supported even one war the US has ever been involved in during my lifetime. I was 29 when the Soviet Union fell.

But blaming all the world's ills on the US foreign policy just f**king idiotic.

I never gave much thought to NATO until Trump tried to break it up. You should be really glad he didn't succeed, and that Biden pulled it back together.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 1:20 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
It's only worth looking at if people care about the facts and being informed.

Malcolm wrote:
There were no promises made by NATO not to admit new nations during the two plus four negotiations that led to The Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany.

Even Gorbachev, who in 2008 claimed there were such promises, reversed himself in 2014.


This issue has been lobbied back and forth for years and is not something at all new:

https://www.csis.org/analysis/twq-myth-no-nato-enlargement-pledge-russia-spring-2009


In response to a criticism of this article, Kramer writes this:
Most of the primary sources about Soviet perceptions and goals are in Russian. But even if Shifrinson cannot use Russian sources, a few important items are available in English, including an illuminating interview with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in October 2014 that appeared in English translation. Shifrinson has definitely seen the interview (I sent a copy of it to him in November 2014), but he never cites it directly and instead paraphrases it inaccurately. In the interview, Gorbachev was asked whether the topic of NATO enlargement beyond eastern Germany ever came up during the negotiations in 1990 on German reunification. Gorbachev’s response was unequivocal: “The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all [in 1990], and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Western leaders didn’t bring it up, either.”5 Instead of citing these comments, Shifrinson briefly and misleadingly paraphrases Gorbachev as having remarked: “NATO expansion may not have been explicitly discussed in 1990” (p. 13). This cursory paraphrase misrepresents what Gorbachev actually said. The former Soviet leader did not use the equivocal formulation “NATO expansion may not have been explicitly discussed.” He said very plainly that NATO expansion “was not discussed at all” and “was not brought up.”
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/667395/pdf


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 12:44 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 28th, 2022 at 12:41 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 11:42 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Jesse said:
By the way, Youtube is blocking/deleting livestreams and videos from the Warfront. Except for from major media organizations (CNN,etc)

Other websites are allowing the videos on. BitChute (An alternative youtube) has alot of videos being live streamed from the front lines, It's alot worse than we are seeing in our news cycles.

Be aware Bitchute is full of paranoid Q-Anon people. However, the platform itself doesnt censor or remove media, so there's alot of good stuff there as well. You can find live streams of current events that break the TOS of bigger platforms like youtube/twitter.

Just mentioning in case anyone wants to see in-depth reporting/video of what's going on moment by moment.

Malcolm wrote:
Too much crazy shit to wade through…


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 11:32 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Jesse said:
This entire thing is more complicated than is being portrayed in the news, of course it means very little now that they decided to wage war, and kill civilians, and threaten nuclear war.. Any valid geo-political concerns Russia had ended when they began killing people.

Malcolm wrote:
Indeed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 11:28 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
Is anyone interested in the question why former Soviet republics and Soviet block nations would want to join NATO? Christ. If your neighbors who know you best, hear all the yelling and plotting coming from your house and feel they need to join a rival gang for their safety... who's the bad guy?

Malcolm wrote:
It’s typical “whataboutism.” Putin invades x, but what about Iraq, etc. Condemning Putin’s invasion of Ukraine does not automatically mean one supports the neocon policies and wars of the Bush era.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 11:23 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Jesse said:
This may be worth looking at, it contains actual documents from freedom of information requests.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early#.WjAX9r_XxYI.twitter

Malcolm wrote:
As the article I linked to above points out, promises were made only concerning Germany, promises that have been kept.

Jesse said:
The article is dense, but it's highly cited, and provides evidence in the form of photos of documents from the events.
The documents reinforce former CIA Director Robert Gates’s criticism of “pressing ahead with expansion of NATO eastward [in the 1990s], when Gorbachev and others were led to believe that wouldn’t happen.”[1] The key phrase, buttressed by the documents, is “led to believe.”

President George H.W. Bush had assured Gorbachev during the Malta summit in December 1989 that the U.S. would not take advantage (“I have not jumped up and down on the Berlin Wall”) of the revolutions in Eastern Europe to harm Soviet interests; but neither Bush nor Gorbachev at that point (or for that matter, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl) expected so soon the collapse of East Germany or the speed of German unification.[2]

The first concrete assurances by Western leaders on NATO began on January 31, 1990, when West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher opened the bidding with a major public speech at Tutzing, in Bavaria, on German unification. The U.S. Embassy in Bonn (see Document 1) informed Washington that Genscher made clear “that the changes in Eastern Europe and the German unification process must not lead to an ‘impairment of Soviet security interests.’ Therefore, NATO should rule out an ‘expansion of its territory towards the east, i.e. moving it closer to the Soviet borders.’” The Bonn cable also noted Genscher’s proposal to leave the East German territory out of NATO military structures even in a unified Germany in NATO.[3]

This latter idea of special status for the GDR territory was codified in the final German unification treaty signed on September 12, 1990, by the Two-Plus-Four foreign ministers (see Document 25). The former idea about “closer to the Soviet borders” is written down not in treaties but in multiple memoranda of conversation between the Soviets and the highest-level Western interlocutors (Genscher, Kohl, Baker, Gates, Bush, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Major, Woerner, and others) offering assurances throughout 1990 and into 1991 about protecting Soviet security interests and including the USSR in new European security structures. The two issues were related but not the same. Subsequent analysis sometimes conflated the two and argued that the discussion did not involve all of Europe. The documents published below show clearly that it did.

Malcolm wrote:
And NATO didn’t take advantage of anything. Nations have to apply to enter NATO. They have to meet certain standards:

https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdf_2016_07/20160627_1607-factsheet-enlargement-eng.pdf

To join the Alliance, nations are expected to respect the values of the North Atlantic Treaty, and to meet certain political, economic and military criteria, set out in the Alliance’s 1995 Study on Enlargement.


In any case, what initially ticked Putin off was Ukraine’s move to join the EU in 2014, which is what lead to the invasion of crimea and the removal of Yakunovich by the Ukrainian parliament.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 11:11 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 11:08 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Jesse said:
Considering it was never codified into law, charter, or treaty it becomes a matter of hearsay, so it's kind of irrelevant. But there are many on both sides arguing that it happened, and that it didn't. Just like every single other argument that results from a non-binding verbal agreement..

Malcolm wrote:
Gorbachev says no promises were made. He was there.

Jesse said:
This may be worth looking at, it contains actual documents from freedom of information requests.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early#.WjAX9r_XxYI.twitter

Malcolm wrote:
As the article I linked to above points out, promises were made only concerning Germany, promises that have been kept.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 11:00 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
This is some scary rhetoric indeed. I thought Malcolm was referring to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman's words after the talk of Finland and Sweden entering Nato. But if you mean these above, I guess it could mean a threat of nuclear. I am not sure. He says, Russia's response will be swift and lead to consequences for you [the meddling powers]. the like of which you have never yet experienced in your history.

Rhetoric? Has he really lost the plot? I sincerely hope not.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 10:55 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Jesse said:
When the soviet union fell, the UN basically told Russia they wouldn't expand east any further.

Malcolm wrote:
False.

Jesse said:
Considering it was never codified into law, charter, or treaty it becomes a matter of hearsay, so it's kind of irrelevant. But there are many on both sides arguing that it happened, and that it didn't. Just like every single other argument that results from a non-binding verbal agreement..

Malcolm wrote:
Gorbachev says no promises were made. He was there.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 10:38 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Jesse said:
When the soviet union fell, the UN basically told Russia they wouldn't expand east any further.

Malcolm wrote:
False.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 10:27 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Nemo said:
For 30 years many of us in the military have been saying extending NATO East against our explicit promise would cause a military crisis. We pushed for years. This was inevitable. If China wanted to put troops and missiles in Canada no one would spare us a moment of pity. This combined with the endless hypocrisy and racism after the wholesale murder in countless countries by America makes them look utterly ridiculous. Malcolm complaining about thermobaric weapons is especially pathetic. Weapons widely used by US forces in it's illegal occupation of Iraq and used extensively in Fallujah on civilians. Anyone who speaks like an adult is a traitor now. The double standard is so odious. If only resistance fighters in the countries you invaded were treated so well. Your opinion is might makes right. You have zero moral authority.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/27/western-media-coverage-ukraine-russia-invasion-criticism

Malcolm wrote:
For the record, I opposed both Iraq wars and Afghanistan.

As for NATO expansion, you are incorrect. There was no such promise at all:
The main issue highlighted by the crisis on the Ukraine borders over the past few months has predominantly focused on the role of Nato and the friction over the eastward expansion of the alliance. This has been a constant message emerging from the Kremlin: that the Nato membership of many parts of the old Soviet Bloc, and the prospective membership of Ukraine to the alliance, poses a threat to Russian sovereignty.

But the decision to accept former members of the Warsaw Pact, the defensive alliance which included the USSR and several eastern European countries, is being subject to a revisionist history. This is perpetuating a myth that Nato promised not to expand eastwards after the Soviet Union dissolved.


In 2014, the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev marked the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall by noting in an interview that that Nato’s enlargement “was not discussed at all” at the time:

Not a single Eastern European country raised the issue, not even after the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist in 1991. Western leaders didn’t bring it up, either.

There was, he said, no promise not to enlarge the alliance, though in the same interview Gorbachev also stated that he thinks that enlargement was a “big mistake” and “a violation of the spirit of the statements and assurances made” in 1990.

Indeed, the only formal agreement signed between Nato countries and the USSR, before its breakup in December 1991, was the Treaty of Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. The promises made specifically relate to Germany, and the territory of the former GDR, which were on the deployment of non-German Nato forces into eastern Germany and the deployment of nuclear weapons – and these promises have been kept.
https://theconversation.com/ukraine-the-history-behind-russias-claim-that-nato-promised-not-to-expand-to-the-east-177085


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 9:26 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



amanitamusc said:
Of course. Dan is an apologist for Putty's bad behavior.

Dan74 said:
. Sorry if this sounds like gobbledygook to you, or to some others, but in this world, things are rarely black-and-white.

amanitamusc said:
No need to be sorry i am used to it in your posts.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, we are all used to Dan’s nuanced opinions. Putin invades Ukraine, Dan wants to pin the blame on the US. Somehow, in Dan’s mind, it’s all our leadership’s fault that Putin feels so bad about himself, that he rigged his election that he murdered, poisoned, and jailed his opposition, and then he had to round up 190k soldiers with thermobaric rockets, cluster bombs, tanks, APCs, etc., and send them to decapitate a sovereign nation next door. And it’s all the USA’s fault. What a f**king joke.

Here is another political scientists point of view, instead faulting the US for being too soft:

Why Is Putin at War Again? Because He Keeps Winning.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/opinion/putin-war-russia-military.html?

Finally, when Trump praises something, one just knows it’s wrong.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 9:13 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Ayu said:
Another strangely surrealistic question. Have you read Dan's post to his last question?

amanitamusc said:
Of course. Dan is an apologist for Putty's bad behavior.

Dan74 said:
No. If you actually cared to read what I said, I said multiple times that my posts were about the lead up to the crisis, not this criminal invasion. It's hard to separate the two for many, and the usual pundits are falling over each other to declare it as proof and validation of their rotten behaviour to Russia over all these years.

Many people cheered for the Joker, after all the shit he'd been through, when he went ballistic at those privileged c&#^ts on the train. This is how many Russians are seeing this latest event. What the Joker did was not right, nor is the analogy quite right, the last thing Ukrainians need or deserve is Russian missiles raining on them, but just to make it a little easier to understand:

http://kiis.com.ua/?lang=eng&cat=reports&id=1015&page=1&fbclid=IwAR107dbpt4RZyfbnHNuBOavPi_Weh97xi2PjNmPRu0sxRuAOcFSnRUTpA48

The Russians see the US as the culprit in all this, not the Ukrainians.

Malcolm wrote:
Really? I thought it was neo Nazis, drug addicts, and that elderly billionaire, Soros, that had them rattled.

If any Ukrainian questioned the wisdom of joining NATO before Wed, they don’t now.

BTW, Dan, the opinions of one political scientist do not render your statements factual. The fact is that Ukraine is in the process of turning itself into a modern liberal democracy. Putin hates democracy. Those two things are facts.

This is just Putin’s Sudetenland move. The sad thing is all those Russian kids he us sending out to the slaughter. They don’t deserve it any more than the Ukrainians.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 10:08 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
SkyFox said:
Although I don't know much, from my limited understanding, Putin is sick with Parkinson and Cancer. With his illness, age, and stress, I wouldn't surprised if he has mental health issues. Nothing's worse than a madman who can literally end the world on a whim.

Malcolm wrote:
Whatever else may be wrong with him, he is certainly suffering from paranoia and delusion, and clearly is emotionally unstable.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 10:04 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
PeterC said:
However bad Putin is, there’s going to be a large segment of Russian government/business/citizenry who still think that they need him because the alternative is chaos.  And they are to some degree correct.  Post-Putin Russia will not be a smooth ride.

What should have happened is that post-Medvedev they should have resisted Putin taking back the presidency.  That’s when things started to go seriously wrong - when he stopped pretending.

Malcolm wrote:
Not different than the tyrants before him.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 9:34 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Queequeg said:
I simply do not see any glimmer of good will on Putin's part. At this point, things are too far gone. Russia will need a change of leadership.

Malcolm wrote:
They’ve tried, but Putin keeps poisoning his opposition.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 6:47 AM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:
clyde said:
Yes, all dharmas are empty and Buddha taught emptiness.

But, except for those fully awakened, we are experiencing appearances (delusions). I have my delusions and you have your delusions which are unique. It is the goal of Buddhism to see through our delusions and experience reality, but until then we are each in our private samsara.

Malcolm wrote:
There are two kinds of delusion, clyde. Delusion concerning the nature of things (for example, believing in svabhāva, self, and so on) and delusion concerning the aspect of things (two moons in the sky). Most of us do not suffer from the latter. All of us suffer from the former.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 6:37 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
It's kinda hard at this point to tell what is true and what is propaganda.

Malcolm wrote:
Not really.

Dan74 said:
Many people familiar with the history explain how Russia has been treated disgracefully by the US over the past 14 years.

Malcolm wrote:
Nonsense.

Dan74 said:
There needs to be a give-and-take on both sides

Malcolm wrote:
There is no reason for Ukraine to give up anything. Zelensky was duly elected in a democratic fashion, soundly defeating Poroshenko in 2019. Russia has violated Ukraine's borders twice now in the past 8 years. The person who needs to stop or be stopped is Putin.

Dan74 said:
Giving some respect to Russia,

Malcolm wrote:
Putin is the problem, not Russia per se. Putin is a thug and deserves no respect whatsoever. As long as he is in power, Europe is not safe. Putin actually threatened to use nuclear weapons against Europe. You are quite insane if you think that Putin can be reasoned with.

Dan74 said:
like that hapless German admiral recently said, is the way forward and it may well encourage more positive development at home. I think it was no coincidence that NATO aggressive expansion

Malcolm wrote:
NATO did not "aggressively expand." Former republics in the USSR, etc., sought to join NATO of their own accord. They were invited to join NATO in 2002 and 2004, etc. Ukraine sought to join NATO as well. They have a right to join NATO if that is what they choose to do. They are a sovereign nation, not kindergarten children whose parents choose who they can play with.

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, etc., all joined NATO and the EU because of the net benefit of belonging to Europe and NATO as a whole. The notion that Putin is invading Ukraine to create a buffer between him and NATO is facially absurd, since if he succeeds, he will have two problems he did not have before: 1) he will be occupying a country, supplied with arms from NATO, which will fight him tooth and nail 2) he will have no buffer zone since his border will be a border with NATO.

I know you come from the Ukraine, but are you Ukrainian or Russian? Do tell. I understand that there are Ukrainian Russians who sympathize with Russia and that there are Ukrainian Russians who don't. But Ukraine is not Russia, never has been, and never will be. Russia needs to go home before more of their kids are pushing up sunflowers in a foreign country.

Russia ceasing hostilities, removing their troops, and withdrawing their "recognition" of the separatist regions is the only way this goes well for everyone.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 5:02 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 4:00 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dorje Shedrub said:
On the other hand, I just saw video of a Russian tank or APC turning out of its way to crush an occupied car...

Malcolm wrote:
That may have been a Ukrainian vehicle, and it is clear the driver actually lost control of it. I don't think it was deliberate.
Confirmed, it was indeed a Russian vehicle.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 3:18 AM
Title: Re: Tulku Dakpa Rinpoche online reading transmission of the 17 Dzogchen Tantras
Content:
Passing By said:
What is the topic of each of the Seventeen Tantras?

sgra thal 'gyur --> Root Tantra

rig pa rang shar --> Explanatory Tantra

yi ge med pa --> Trekcho

sgron ma 'bar ba --> Thogal

What about the rest? Especially Dorsem snying gi melong and  mu tig rin po che'i phreng ba since they seem to be mentioned a lot in Longchenpa's Choying Dzo and its autocommentary

Malcolm wrote:
They all have complete presentations of Dzogchen. But you can find summaries of their contents in the Treasury of Philosophical Systems.

There are seven that are the most important: The Sound Tantra, Without Syllables, Blazing Lamp, Introduction Tantra, Blazing Relics, Union of Sun and Moon, and the Beautiful Good Fortune.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 3:06 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Ayu said:
No need for expensive deadly weapons then.

Malcolm wrote:
So we wish, but unfortunately, Russia has started a war in Europe they can never win (their economy is too small compared to NATO), and the cost will be terrible for everyone in Europe. But NATO really has no choice. They have to stand together against Putin.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 2:46 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dorje Shedrub said:
On the other hand, I just saw video of a Russian tank or APC turning out of its way to crush an occupied car...

Malcolm wrote:
That may have been a Ukrainian vehicle, and it is clear the driver actually lost control of it. I don't think it was deliberate.

Dorje Shedrub said:
and also Russian ship firing on an island after the Ukranian border guards told the ship to go F themselves.

Malcolm wrote:
That happened.

Dorje Shedrub said:
Makes me wonder how the majority of the everyday Russian  soldier feels.

Malcolm wrote:
Shitting their pants and wishing they were home.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 2:12 AM
Title: Re: Relating with war
Content:
tobes said:
i.e. assuming one sees this as an unjust war, one might feel certain sentiments when Ukrainian forces have defensive victories, therefore subtly rejoicing in killing, harming etc.

Malcolm wrote:
This is all on Putin.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 1:59 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 1:55 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dorje Shedrub said:
Maybe some or many will refuse to fight.

Malcolm wrote:
Quite a few are abandoning their uniforms and APC's, so I have heard.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 1:12 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Unarmed Ukrainians facing down Russian tanks:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 1:07 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Ukrainians last night:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 12:58 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Sunday, February 27th, 2022 at 12:37 AM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:
Way-Fun said:
Can you say more?

Malcolm wrote:
Without understanding, realization isn't possible. MMK 24:8-10


The dharma explained by the Buddha properly relies on two truths:
mundane relative truth and ultimate truth. 
One who does not understand the distinction between the two truths
will not understand the profound principle of the Buddha's doctrine.
Without relying on convention, the ultimate cannot be explained;
without realizing the ultimate, nirvana cannot be attained.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 11:48 PM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:
Way-Fun said:
You cannot understand your way to realization.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure you can.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 11:35 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Norwegian said:
For example, Putin can still withdraw, and claim that he "taught the Ukrainian rebels a lesson" or some bullshit nonsense like that, if that's the spin he wants to put on it, to save face. But if he just keeps going and going, it won't end well (for him).

Svalaksana said:
Thanks for the input on the Norwegian assessment, seems rather on-point.

I too think Putin has painted himself into a corner, although I think he can't even pull off the "lesson to Ukrainian rebels" convincingly even in Russia, no matter how much he might try to push that narrative through the media.

Right now if he retreats or concedes in any way on potential negotiations (ones in which Zelensky will not budge now that the rest of the world backs him), it's an embarassing defeat since everyone knows he wanted to obliterate the concept of Ukraine altogether. If Putin however goes all the way, it will isolate himself and Russia, leading the nation down the drain. Either way he loses, his reputation is now in the mud and I'm pretty sure this will be the beginning of the end of his reign.

Malcolm wrote:
NATO gets involved now, since the Ukrainians have shown their resolve. When Russians hit the NATO ally resupply transports, it all blows up.

I just watched Poroshenko on CNN for 20 minutes.  Yes, I know he is a crook, but at least he is a pro-democracy crook who handed power over over to Zelensky peacefully.

Either Putin withdraws, or he faces the prospect of a years long war over territory he cannot afford.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 9:13 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Maybe accurate?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 8:43 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
PeterC said:
Membership in NATO is symbolically important, sure, but if you wanted Ukraine to remain independent, you should have given it weapons…

Malcolm wrote:
Vindman blames Trump:

https://apple.news/AM8pYTAblRzy5o560t0oogQ

PeterC said:
Vindman told VICE News on Friday that Trump’s decision to withhold the badly needed military aid hurt the country’s ability to defend itself—and emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin. And while Vindman doesn’t let President Biden off the hook, he puts much of the blame for Putin’s invasion squarely on Trump.
“It’s because of Trump’s corruption that we have a less capable, less prepared Ukraine,” Vindman said.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 8:15 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
You clearly have not read a qualified commentary of the MMK. You have not done your homework. Get back to me when you have read Buddhapalita.

haha said:
You are quite dismissive towards me for not reading Buddhapalita.

Malcolm wrote:
It is not possible to understand MMK without reading  Buddhapalita, or, Bocking’s translation of the Pingala commentary preserved in Chinese.

haha said:
Studying Nagarjuna’s other writings should be considered reading the qualified materials for the MMK.

Malcolm wrote:
Not if you are unable to identify who is saying what to whom in the text, for example, Kalupahana’s stillbirth of a translation utterly misconstrues nearly all of MMK because he tried to understand the text without relying on Buddhapalita. You have also misconstrued exactly the same points he did. Therefore, read Buddhapalita and get back to me. You will thank me.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 12:57 PM
Title: Re: Best English Translation of Mulamadhyamikakarika
Content:
Shaiksha said:
Ornament of Reason by Mabja Jangchub Tsondru

I have heard good things about the book and is apparently widely respected and studied by Tibetans. Though, I have not read it myself but this is high on my reading list for the Madhyamaka philosophy.

Malcolm wrote:
It’s ok, Coughlin’s book is better. Buddhapalita is the definitive commentary on MMK.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 11:17 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 9:25 AM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:
clyde said:
but these practices are Tibetan Buddhist practices, not Zen.

Malcolm wrote:
Actually, sending and receiving comes from Nagarjuna in the second century,


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 9:19 AM
Title: Re: Relating with war
Content:
Nalanda said:
[Mod note: moved as off topic from the subforum Tibetan Buddhism.

For me, causes and effects are quite clear.

If I keep provoking a bear, poking it with a stick for 20 years, I won't be surprised if it suddenly growls and tries to bite.

I wish we can all just be friends.

reiun said:
Yeah, that free election of Zelensky was quite a 'poke'. . .

Sorry, I don't think I want to be friends with Putin

Malcolm wrote:
Yeah, how dare Ukraine have free elections…the nerve of those people…


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 7:26 AM
Title: Re: Best English Translation of Mulamadhyamikakarika
Content:
Nalanda said:
The Siderits and Katsura one won the Khyentse Foundation prize 2014.

Archie2009 said:
And the authors draw on all four Indian commentaries for their own commentary.

Malcolm wrote:
The Coughlin translation is my preference these days, 'cause Buddhapalita.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 4:25 AM
Title: Re: Please recommend Longchen Nyingtik ngondro teachers with zoom/livestream
Content:
Arnoud said:
I hate to say it but I think the world holder is missing. Like principle lineage holder.

Malcolm wrote:
No, I meant exactly what I said, a principle lineage in which there are many holders of the lineage, not only one.

Arnoud said:
Ah, my bad. Since you often recommended connecting to one of the lineage heads I figured that was the case here as well.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, I have said that many times.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 4:10 AM
Title: Re: Please recommend Longchen Nyingtik ngondro teachers with zoom/livestream
Content:
Arnoud said:
I hate to say it but I think the world holder is missing. Like principle lineage holder.

Malcolm wrote:
No, I meant exactly what I said, a principle lineage in which there are many holders of the lineage, not only one.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 4:03 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:



Aemilius said:
The nihilistic nirvana is refuted in the Mahayana sutras like the White Lotus sutra,

Malcolm wrote:
Where do you suppose afflictions go when they cease?

Mahayana texts do not negate nirvana at all, in fact they observe that all phenomena are in a state of nirvana from the beginning as nothing ever arose anywhere at any time. This is also taught in the Saddharmapundarika.

Aemilius said:
Who or what sees the absence of afflictions?

Nirvana as literal cessation is refuted, see for example MMK ch. 25:

Malcolm wrote:
If something does not arise, it cannot cease. And as N clarifies in this chapter, nirvana is not an entity, compounded or otherwise. Instead just a name for emptiness, as he makes very clear.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 3:15 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Yup:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 2:06 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Johnny Dangerous said:
Sometimes there is skepticism around claims of “supporting democratic values” etc. because it seems just a cover for an economic program that isn’t necessarily democratic at all.

Malcolm wrote:
Democracy takes work. The Ukrainians put in the work. We should support that.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 12:46 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This is just rhetoric.

Bundokji said:
This is where we differ. I am arguing that holding human well-being to ideology is just rhetoric. It is no coincident that ideologies are often associated with utopian promises, be it democracy or otherwise.

Malcolm wrote:
Liberal democracy is not a utopian ideal. It is pragmatic.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 12:27 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 12:24 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
Another power hungry sociopath.

Malcolm wrote:
Nah, you give her too much power, and listen to too much right wing agitprop.

But Putin was terrified of her. He apparently obsessively watched the Qadafi video over and over again.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Saturday, February 26th, 2022 at 12:07 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
No, these are not his positions. These are four positions taken by those he intends to negate. For example, the first, origination from self is the position of the Saṃkhya, and so on. This is quite clear in Buddhapalita, etc.

haha said:
The Pursha of the Samkhya is beggingless. It does not have any cause.

Malcolm wrote:
You clearly have not read a qualified commentary of the MMK. You have not done your homework. Get back to me when you have read Buddhapalita.


haha said:
Nope. The four conditions referred to are not his position.
As long as one makes statement, one has position.

Malcolm wrote:
Nāgārjuna identifies an opinion he does have, namely one: the indestructible (avipranaśa) of the Ārya-sammitiyas is his preferred conventional account of karma and its results. Other than that, he does not present opinions of his own at all in the MMK.

The point that you seem to miss is that when it is said by Nāgārjuna that he has no position, it means he makes no ontological claims with respect to existence and nonexistence, or specifically, svabhāva.

It does not mean he has no opinion with respect to the value of the Mahāyāna, medical care for the indigent, and so on, in other words, he may have positions regarding conventional things, but he neither defends nor advances positions regarding existence and nonexistence.


haha said:
I am not saying they are eight premises, either.  I am only saying it is a summery or it is his position (dedicatory verse).

Malcolm wrote:
[/quote]

Nāgārjuna here is merely stating that the Buddha taught dependent origination to pacify proliferation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 11:44 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Nalanda said:
Christian missionary of course can be very good. No? So yes, its like that. Thank God.

Bundokji said:
Not really, unless you hold human well-being hostage to it through propaganda. Spreading democracy seems to be a form of secular Jihad, a pretext to serve narrow interests and a complete disregard of the suffering caused under shiny slogans.

Malcolm wrote:
This is just rhetoric.

Bundokji said:
Nations better focus on fixing their own house first, and there is plenty to be improved if energy and focus are directed towards more wholesome objectives.

Malcolm wrote:
People in the US, even the most poor, even the homeless, are demonstrably better off than people in countries with no democracy.


Bundokji said:
Just contemplate the difference between American pragmatism and the pragmatism taught by the lord Buddha as per the poisoned arrow simile. The former turned into a justification for serving the interests of elites, and the later is the setting aside of ideology and focusing on what is essential for human well-being.

Malcolm wrote:
The Buddha did not institute a social system, or a system of government. He taught a path of liberation. He also recommended social solutions for well being. Not invading your neighbor was included in that.

Bundokji said:
Is it essential for the Ukrainian people at this point of time to join the NATO in order to implement necessary reforms when having a paranoid neighbor?

Malcolm wrote:
Ukrainians think so.


Bundokji said:
When democracy is presented as an ideology, alternatives are presented as false dilemmas.

Malcolm wrote:
This is a non sequitur.


Bundokji said:
In this ideological mindset, the highest value to be preserved is their right of self-determination even if this goes against their own self interest.

Malcolm wrote:
The right to self determination never goes against anyone's interest, other than those who would seek to take that right away.

Bundokji said:
Under this state of affairs, it is Putin to blame, and we should engage into endless ethical and legal debates to determine responsibility while the people of Ukraine are being bombarded. At the end of the day, we are convinced that this is what civilized people do!

Malcolm wrote:
This is how one lady feels about Putin trying to deprive her of her right to self-determination:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 10:47 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 9:45 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/ukraine-russia-war-nato-biden-deterrence/622873/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 9:03 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


haha said:
He made his first statement in his karika and it took thirteen verses proved his own statement. He also has position.

Malcolm wrote:
And that is?

haha said:
Karika’s first verse.
It is his premise: No existents whatsoever are evident (utpannā jātu vidyante). From themselves, from another, from both, or from a non-cause.

Malcolm wrote:
No, these are not his positions. These are four positions taken by those he intends to negate. For example, the first, origination from self is the position of the Saṃkhya, and so on. This is quite clear in Buddhapalita, etc.

haha said:
To validate above premise, he provided four conditions and then refuted them (pratyaya, kriya, utpada, bhanga, alambana, anantara, adhipati, phala) in thirteen verses.

Malcolm wrote:
Nope. The four conditions referred to are not his position.


haha said:
Maṅgalaṃ of the MMK is not a thesis, it is praise to the Buddha based on a passage from the PP Sutras, but it is not a thesis.
That Mangalastuti is the thesis. Intended meaning of these verses is the summary of Madhyamaka theory. If one understands their meaning, then she/he completely gets Nagarjuna’s intention.

Malcolm wrote:
They are not a thesis per se, they are descriptive, not prescriptive. A negation cannot be defined as a premise. Those are eight negations, not eight premises.


haha said:
That is the Madhyama reading assuming these verses are said to the such and such opponents. But one can read it very differently.

Malcolm wrote:
One would be incorrect to do so, since there is universal agreement among all commentaries as to which passages belong to the opponent, and which are Nāgārjuna's replies.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 11:40 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Bundokji said:
The west has its track record in spreading democracy against the will of the people.

Malcolm wrote:
Nonsense. That’s a contradiction in terms. It is not possible.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 10:53 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Nalanda said:
This stopped being true when people ceased being serfs. Today, people and countries are aligned by ideologies, not geography. If you meant Slavic culture, well, I think the Ukrainians have spoken. ("No" because they have other ideologies that are more in line with the West) If you meant the Russians within Ukraine, yeah and they're the minority.

Bundokji said:
I guess the cold war was an attempt to prove that ideology can trump geography, but it failed. The spheres of influence that are emerging in the world seem to be more driven by geography. China's sphere of influence is the south China sea (and that includes the Philippines). Russia is trying to protect its sphere of influence. Iran's sphere of influence is the Persian gulf. Turkey, a major NATO country turned its back to Europe and is trying to join its natural sphere of influence in the south and the East.

On the other hand, western democracies (an ideology) deviate from this more-natural rule and are causing divisions. Europe is becoming more divided especially after Brexit, while anglo-saxons are trying to form alliances based on ethnicity and history such as US, Britain and AUS (they gave the middle finger recently to France over the submarines deal hence France is showing some sympathy to Russia according to Macron).

Malcolm wrote:
Since what Putin wants is irrelevant to Ukrainian aspirations, (they want the obvious benefits of western democracy), Putin has exercised his paranoid megalomania and invaded a bordering Sovereign nation, an invasion that began in 2014 when the Ukrainian people chased out his corrupt puppet regime. In 2019 they held fair elections and voted in the present government.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 10:25 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Nalanda said:
Yes, from his perspective, we are definitely aggressor.

Malcolm wrote:
Paranoid megalomaniacs like Putin always think they are the victim.

Nalanda said:
Things were never the same for Vlad when he saw NATO aircraft shoots Gaddafi's convoy, then his own people beating, sodomizing, and publicly executing him while Hillary laughs and says "We came, we saw, he died."

Vlad fears he's next.

Malcolm wrote:
That was the British settling a grudge: Lockerbie. Clinton’s words were honest. She would have made an excellent president. Putin was genuinely afraid of her.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 8:56 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Nalanda said:
Yes, from his perspective, we are definitely aggressor.

Malcolm wrote:
Paranoid megalomaniacs like Putin always think they are the victim.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 8:20 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
Plus you were around at the time of the Cuban Missiles crisis, no?

Malcolm wrote:
I was an extremely precocious five month old.


In any case, the US response was dictated by the Platt amendment of 1903:


American foreign policy was further aided by the 1903 Platt Amendment, which stated that the “government of Cuba shall never enter into any treaty or other compact with any foreign power or powers which will impair or tend to impair the independence of Cuba, nor… authorize or permit any foreign power… to obtain by… military or naval purposes… lodgment in or control over any portion of said island” and that the “government of Cuba consented that the United States may exercise the right to intervene for the… maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty”

https://colinatoxford.wordpress.com/about/to-what-extent-was-the-monroe-doctrine-invoked-during-the-cuban-missile-crisis/


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 7:27 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
And this is something the US would never allow in reverse as per the Munroe doctrine.

Malcolm wrote:
You are mistating the Monroe Doctrine:

“We should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it… we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any European power in any other light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”

So, Russia's attitude is in fact completely different than the Monroe Doctrine. They do not respect the Ukrainian Government's independence, and they have in fact actively sought to undermine it for decades now. What did Putin say Tuesday?

"Ukraine has never had its own authentic statehood. There has never been a sustainable statehood in Ukraine."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 5:45 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
On the other tack, here's a thoughtful lecture from John Mearsheimer on the causes of this crisis, which he lays at the feet of the US.

Malcolm wrote:
Principally this is his point:

Q: Now Russia and China are cultivating a friendly relationship premised on the U.S. as their common enemy. Do you think Russia and China will be compatible in their stances toward Asia?

A: The U.S. has foolishly driven the Russians into the arms of the Chinese. I think Russia is the natural ally of the U.S. against China.

In 1969, the Soviet Union and China almost fought a war in Siberia. The Soviet Union and China -- and now we're talking about Russia and China -- have a history of bad relations, in large part because they share a border and each occupies big chunks of real estate in Asia. Russia should be an ally of the U.S. against China, and the U.S. needs all the allies it can get to contain China.

But what we have done by expanding NATO eastward is we have precipitated a huge crisis with Russia that prevents us from fully pivoting to Asia. We can't fully pivot to Asia because we're so concerned about events in Eastern Europe. That's the first consequence. The second is that we have driven the Russians into the arms of the Chinese. This makes no sense at all.

Q: The current tensions along the Ukraine border raise the question of whether the U.S. is capable of dealing with European and Asian issues simultaneously.

A: Let me chose my words carefully. The U.S. has the capability to deal with a conflict in Europe and a conflict in Asia at the same time.

However, it does not have the capability to perform well in both campaigns at the same time. By getting involved in a conflict in Eastern Europe, we, the U.S., are detracting from our ability to contain China and to fight a war against China, should one break out.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/U.S.-engagement-with-China-a-strategic-blunder-Mearsheimer

And there you have it. We will not rescue Ukraine because of Taiwan. And Taiwan is more important to US interests.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 5:32 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shotenzenjin said:
Him and the oligarchs that rule Russia are capitalists  through and through.

Malcolm wrote:
Not really. Capitalism requires free markets and competition. Putin doesn't want free markets and he doesn't like liberal democracy. He wants corporations subordinate to the state. He is a classical corporatist.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 5:06 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Nalanda said:
Wow. This is the thread. Thanks.

Team USA USA USA.

Hot dogs and burgers.

Malcolm wrote:
Those are not really American.

Now if you had said tacos, tamales, and tequila, those actually do come from America.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 4:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Shinjin said:
I doubt it. If it persists they will most likely get "tiannemen squared".

KristenM said:
Judy trying to keep some hope. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and all that jazz.

Shinjin said:
There's no hope under authoritarian dictators. Only death and despair.

Malcolm wrote:
Not so, there is considerable room for advancement in the hierarchy.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 3:58 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


haha said:
He made his first statement in his karika and it took thirteen verses proved his own statement. He also has position.

Malcolm wrote:
And that is?

haha said:
He has started his karika which his position/thesis: eightfold negation.



Malcolm wrote:
Maṅgalaṃ of the MMK is not a thesis, it is praise to the Buddha based on a passage from the PP Sutras, but it is not a thesis.

haha said:
He has made position by saying “there are only four conditions, not fifth”;

Malcolm wrote:
No, this is his opponent's position. Please examine Buddhapalita's commentary, pg. 26.

haha said:
other traditions have more conditions; it is trying to imposing his conditions to other. There are more.

Malcolm wrote:
The opponent here is a Sarvāstivadin. The Sarvāstivadins propose a system of six causes and four conditions. See chapter two of the Abidharmakośabhaṣya.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 3:49 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


Malcolm wrote:
There are some differences in pedagogy, but there is no real evolution in Madhyamaka thought. How could there be? Mādhyamīkas do not make propositions concerning the ultimate. They did respond to the assertions of others, and where there is disagreement among Mādhyamikas, it is disagreement over pedagogy alone, how to respond to the assertions of other buddhists and nonbuddhists.

haha said:
There is no disagreement with your statement. But I cannot agree/resolve it is just the same.

Malcolm wrote:
Then you would have to show where there is a significant difference between Indian Mādhyamikas, other than pedagogical approach.

If you cannot, well, then your assertion isn't warranted.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 3:35 AM
Title: Re: Please recommend Longchen Nyingtik ngondro teachers with zoom/livestream
Content:
Nalanda said:
Try it for 10-20 years and then ignore whatever else are out there? Is that what you'd recommend?

Malcolm wrote:
Five, anyway.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 1:55 AM
Title: Re: How can one access Dudjom Tersar centers/ngondro in the West?
Content:
Nalanda said:
Can one practice Dodjum Tersar ngondro and another ngondro or would that be redundant?

Malcolm wrote:
Redundant.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Friday, February 25th, 2022 at 12:00 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



ManiThePainter said:
Either that or it was all orchestrated to show Putin’s “iron-will” and “right to rule.”

Dan74 said:
No way Naryshkin's performance was orchestrated. No no, this makes no sense within the Kremlin modus operandi. Have you watched the vid?

ManiThePainter said:
I did. I found it odd that it would be released if not to send a message. Putin has a tight grip on the media in Russia. It could also be that it is meant to show discord within higher Russian political circles so as to make it look like Russia is “hesitant” to invade.

Malcolm wrote:
That's all moot now. Just hope that the fighting around Chernobyl doesn't take a turn for the worse, and unleash fall out from its waste facilities.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 11:56 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
haha said:
Are you suggesting there is no changed in Madhyamaka philosophy since Nagarjuna’s time? Then, you might not be accurate. That is what I intended to say “gradually evolved”.

Malcolm wrote:
There are some differences in pedagogy, but there is no real evolution in Madhyamaka thought. How could there be? Mādhyamīkas do not make propositions concerning the ultimate. They did respond to the assertions of others, and where there is disagreement among Mādhyamikas, it is disagreement over pedagogy alone, how to respond to the assertions of other buddhists and nonbuddhists.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 11:51 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 11:47 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
In other news, Russian troops are fighting to take over Chernobyl at significant risk to the EU.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-russian-forces-enter-chernobyl-26320432


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 11:44 PM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:



Jesse said:
According to this theory, any phenomenon exists only as part of the total nexus of reality, its existence depends on the total network of all other things, which are all equally connected to each other and contained in each other.[24]

Malcolm wrote:
This theory does not go beyond the kāraṇa hetu theory of the Sarvastivādins, that is, all things are the cause of all other things but themselves.

This theory is negated by Nāgārjuna in chapter one of the MMK.

Jesse said:
I have serious doubt that that is the case.

Malcolm wrote:
Well,  until you subject it to analysis, you won't know, will you? Since all cause and condition is determined by Nāgārjuna to be mere convention, statements like this, "any phenomenon exists only as part of the total nexus of reality" are subject to the analysis of one vs. many. As Śantirakṣita points out:

Because these entities asserted by ourselves (buddhists) and others (nonbuddhists) 
are in reality free from a nature 
of being one or many, 
they lack inherent existence, like a reflection.

This equally to proposed entities such as as a "total nexus of reality." You can say a car is a nexus of parts, but in reality you will not find a car in its parts, separate from its parts, nor in all of its part together. This claim above is the same: you can call all phenomena together reality, but you will not find reality in any one phenomena, separated from phenomena, or in all phenomena together. You will also be unable to find any phenomena which can support the existence of any other phenomena either alone or in concert. For example, a car cannot be supported on any of the phenomena which we assemble into a car, a car is merely conventional designation for a collection of parts which does not indicate anything real. As Nāgārjuna famously stated, "whatever arises in dependence, that is empty, that is dependently designated, and that is the middle way."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 11:16 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


PeterC said:
I’m sure he wants to decapitate the existing regime, but whether he wants to stand up something coherent in its place?  If his objective is to have a territorial buffer, he may not need to

Malcolm wrote:
I think we all can see the writing on the wall.

Protracted insurgencies, which he has an appetite for, etc. Destroy Ukraine to "save it."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 11:08 PM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:



Jesse said:
According to this theory, any phenomenon exists only as part of the total nexus of reality, its existence depends on the total network of all other things, which are all equally connected to each other and contained in each other.[24]

Malcolm wrote:
This theory does not go beyond the kāraṇa hetu theory of the Sarvastivādins, that is, all things are the cause of all other things but themselves.

This theory is negated by Nāgārjuna in chapter one of the MMK.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 10:41 PM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:


Jesse said:
I made the assertion that these delineations are imagined. Not non-existent, or existent.

Malcolm wrote:
So imagined things are existent or nonexistent? You followed up your statement by claiming interconnectedness. I merely pointed out that connections require delineations, and moreover, separation, otherwise it makes no sense to talk of "connections" between things that are are not separated.


Jesse said:
Well then, what's there left to discuss then?

Malcolm wrote:
Conventions, of course, which is all anyone ever discusses.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 10:37 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


PeterC said:
Well, that depends on what his definition of winning is.  He doesn’t need to control the whole territory.  Perhaps he’s ok with controlling the Russian-dominated regions in the east...

Malcolm wrote:
His rhetoric does not indicate this at all.

As of right now, the military air base outside of Kyiv has been seized by Russian paratroopers. You don't do that unless you are preparing for a full regime change.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 10:01 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
Here, people are in shock.

Malcolm wrote:
They shouldn’t be. Our intelligence agencies have been making Putin’s intention clear for weeks.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 9:41 PM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:


Jesse said:
Interconnection very much describes the actual state of reality, suchness.

Malcolm wrote:
In order for there to be a connection, there must be a boundary or delineation between one thing and another thing, otherwise the word “connection” has no meaning. But if, as you say, there are no boundaries or delineations, this means there are also no connections., much less “interconnection.”

Jesse said:
So you are denying interdependence teachings then?

Malcolm wrote:
You are one who made the assertion there are no delineations between one thing and another thing, not me. I am just pointing out the consequences of your assertion.

Interdependence is just a convention for causes and conditions, and they are themselves just conventions. Upon analysis, one cannot find a cause or a condition anywhere, so how could one find an interconnection?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 9:03 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
KristenM said:
I don't care how poor or corrupt the country is, Ukraine and the Ukrainian people don't deserve this.

Dan74 said:
Of course not. It is not only criminal, it seems like a lose-lose proposition. I really don't understand how Putin could hold the Ukraine. Perhaps he plans to annexe the country, install a puppet regime under an autonomy, and maintain Russian military bases throughout. Doesn't seem realistic though. Western Ukrainians especially hate Russians. I just can't see them accepting it. But maybe I'm I'm wrong.

Malcolm wrote:
Dan, he made his intent quite clear: Ukraine is not a country, it has no right exist, kind of like the PLO etc., declaring Israel has no right to exist. He plans on taking over the country, it’s as plain as the nose on your face.

Save a full-scale war with the EU, there is nothing to prevent him from annexing the whole of Ukraine. He’s betting the blood cost is too high for Europe and the US.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 8:30 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:



Aemilius said:
That is just plain nihilism. How would a Buddha know anything without the aggregates? I.e. without sense organs, sensation, concepts/perceptions, volitions (to teach the dharma) and consciouness?

How about the eighteen āveṇikadharmas of the Buddhas or the Eighteen Special Attributes of the Buddha, how would they exist?

https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/maha-prajnaparamita-sastra/d/doc225801.html

Malcolm wrote:
It is no more nihilism than observing that when a fire has consumed all its fuel it ceases.

Aemilius said:
The nihilistic nirvana is refuted in the Mahayana sutras like the White Lotus sutra,

Malcolm wrote:
Where do you suppose afflictions go when they cease?

Mahayana texts do not negate nirvana at all, in fact they observe that all phenomena are in a state of nirvana from the beginning as nothing ever arose anywhere at any time. This is also taught in the Saddharmapundarika.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 8:25 PM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:


Jesse said:
Interconnection very much describes the actual state of reality, suchness.

Malcolm wrote:
In order for there to be a connection, there must be a boundary or delineation between one thing and another thing, otherwise the word “connection” has no meaning. But if, as you say, there are no boundaries or delineations, this means there are also no connections., much less “interconnection.”


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 11:29 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 11:25 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 10:34 AM
Title: Re: This One Mind is You
Content:


clyde said:
Interesting. Then everyone is in their own personal samsara.

Malcolm wrote:
Of course. It can’t be otherwise.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 4:33 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:


Nicholas2727 said:
Pretty different from the Shentong explanations I have received, but trying to research both to stay balanced. I've always been taught the uncompounded is ultimate because it is what remains after the removal of all that is false (relative). Is the uncompounded at a relative level another name for emptiness?

Malcolm wrote:
Emptiness is the fourth thing that is uncompounded, but as it is also empty...

This way of dividing the two truths is inappropriate. If there is nothing to be empty, there also isn't emptiness. There is no ultimate apart from the ultimate nature of things. Gzhan stong suffers from the same realism that yogacāra does. They assert buddhas exist but sentient beings do not. In reality, neither sentient beings nor buddhas can every be established to exist inherently. That means both buddhas and sentient beings, samsara and nirvana, are relative and not ultimate.


Nicholas2727 said:
Also if Nirvana is empty and everything that is empty is illusory, is Nirvana illusory? I'm assuming not, but not sure how to defend that position.

Malcolm wrote:
How can what is permanent be harmed, 
or the unharmed be liberated? 
Liberation is irrelevant
for one whose self is permanent.
--Yogic deeds of Bodhisattvas, pg. 223.

The general view of Madhyamaka is that everything, including buddhahood, is illusory.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 4:06 AM
Title: Re: Lojong - Offering to the Döns
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This is a post I wrote some time ago, slightly corrected.

The very simplest method is the practice of the Pretamukha-agnijvālayaśarakāra-nāma-dhāraṇī:

Early in the day, but also at any other time: into a pure vessel which is completely clean without any remnents of any food at all, place water, and holding this in one's right hand recite the following dharani seven times:

Namaḥ sarvatathāgata avalokite oṃ saṃbhara saṃbhara hūṃ

Then recite the names of these Buddhas:

Homage to the Tathāgata Many Jewels [imagine all the pretas actions of avarice of many lifetimes are destroyed and they accumulate all merits].

Homage to the Tathāgata Sublime Form [Imagine all the pretas physical sufferings are conquered and they acheive perfect forms and characteristics].

Homage to the Tathāgata Endlessly Abundant Body [Imagine all the pretas thirst is given up and satisfied, and they are satisified with sufficient food].

Homage to the Tathā gata Free from Fear [Imagine all the pretas are free from all fears].

At the end of reciting these names, snap one's fingers three times, and pour the vessel's contents out onto clean ground.

Having done this, one will have pacified the realms of the pretas, and satisfied them, and so on.

This instruction on how to do the practice is extracted from the root text found in volume Wam of the bstan 'gyur.

This practice is very powerful in removing provocations by non-human beings, is an extremely rapid way of reaching the end of the perfection of generosity, and so on. It requires no initiation of any kind. You can also skip reciting the Buddhas names.

Konchog1 said:
Excellent. Do you have the names of the Buddhas in Sanskrit by any chance?

Malcolm wrote:
As far as I know, they exist only as backtranslations. so not reliable.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 3:21 AM
Title: Re: Averting Astrological Obstacles (Sok, Wang, Lungta, etc)
Content:



Malcolm wrote:
Vajrapāṇi, generally speaking, is the best for controlling planetary spirits.

tony_montana said:
Thanks!! for those of us with difficult charts this is really helpful information. Just asking, please name a few other such deities (is Vajrabhairava, Yamari, Vajrayogini or Chakrasamvara known for such help to practitioners?)

LolCat said:
Please add Vajrakilaya to that list (does VK practice help with this?)

Malcolm wrote:
Mainly, Vajrapāṇi.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 3:12 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Dan74 said:
I come from there, have relatives there, visited, read and heard enough to reach this conclusion. This isn't a slight on Ukrainians, just how things turned out. I also don't know what you mean by 'a poor post-Soviet republic', it was highly industrialised, had well-educated population, natural resources, etc.

Malcolm wrote:
It still has a well-educated population, natural resources, and so on. If it is a failing state, that is Russia's doing. But it hasn't failed yet. Strictly speaking, a failed state is one whose political or economic system has become so weak that the government is no longer in control. For example, Haiti.

Of course, Putin has openly declared, more than once, that the Ukraine isn't a state at all. In line with his Eurasian hegemonic fever dreams, he has clearly decided that Ukraine is there for the taking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/world/europe/putin-speech-russia-ukraine.html

Dan74 said:
Yep, everything is Russia's fault, especially Ukraine's endemic corruption. Then the broken infrastructure, the dysfunctional politics, etc etc. An anecdote. When I was in Kyiv in 1999, while the relations with Russia were still good, the street lights no longer worked in many places in the city. At the main railway station I saw a pensioner holding a placard advertising her apartment for an overnight stay. Making our way through the broken asphalt in the dark streets, I heard her voice trembling with fear for letting this stranger (me) into her apartment for the night, explaining that otherwise she would not be able to pay her utility bills. Many were begging in the streets, people who've worked their whole lives.

Malcolm wrote:
Dan. I am not going to argue with you about the material conditions in a country I have never visited.

But I also know other Ukrainians. One, a Russian-speaking Jew from Donetsk, left Ukraine and moved to Israel. In the middle of his rants about Soros, etc., he explained that he was afraid of the neo-nazis in the separatist regions——an entirely valid fear.

There is no doubt Ukraine has endemic corruption, after all, the previous pro-Russian regime hired Paul Manafort as their PR guy until the government fell after the protests. However, yes, it is Russia's fault, after all, Russia was its largest trading partner til 2014 and the annexation of Crimea.

But it isn't a failed state, not yet. For example, their bond rating was moved up from b- to b; it moved up seven positions in the 2020 World Bank report. But of course there are problems, like the Ukranian supreme court ruling anti-corruption measures unconstitutional, which then lead the IMF not to release loan money, etc.

Russia wants Ukraine for its natural resources. It's just a land grab.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Thursday, February 24th, 2022 at 1:02 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
Ukraine is a failed state.

Könchok Thrinley said:
I am sorry to moralize here, but how the f*** dare you? Ukraine sure has corruption and other problems oh so prevalent in poorer countries, however they underwent two major revolutions where people chose freedom and accountability. It is not ideal, however clearly it works there and there is a will for improvements.

For a poor post-soviet republic with almost constant threat of Russian invasion, take over or influence they are doing a pretty good job.

Dan74 said:
I come from there, have relatives there, visited, read and heard enough to reach this conclusion. This isn't a slight on Ukrainians, just how things turned out. I also don't know what you mean by 'a poor post-Soviet republic', it was highly industrialised, had well-educated population, natural resources, etc.

Malcolm wrote:
It still has a well-educated population, natural resources, and so on. If it is a failing state, that is Russia's doing. But it hasn't failed yet. Strictly speaking, a failed state is one whose political or economic system has become so weak that the government is no longer in control. For example, Haiti.

Of course, Putin has openly declared, more than once, that the Ukraine isn't a state at all. In line with his Eurasian hegemonic fever dreams, he has clearly decided that Ukraine is there for the taking.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/world/europe/putin-speech-russia-ukraine.html


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 11:48 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:



Nicholas2727 said:
If the aggregates cease how are Buddha's able to help sentient beings? I've gotten the impression from teachers that nirvana is the cessation of wrong views and afflicted emotions, not the aggregates themselves but maybe I have misunderstood.

Still a bit confused as well how the unborn, unbecome, etc is relative. I understand Aryadeva's comments, but reading the Nibbana Sutta with that understanding doesn't make sense. If the unborn is what frees us from the born how could they both be relative. A relative insight freeing us from conventional reality?

Malcolm wrote:
The uncompounded is relative because without the compounded there is no such a thing. In other words, nirvana is also empty.

In any case, there are only three uncompounded dharmas: space, analytical cessation and nonanalytical cessation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 10:47 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:
Soma999 said:
He is not buddhist but has insights that can help human beings, whatever their religion.

Wisdom does not belong to any religion. It belongs to life, and clearly he has interesting things to say or teach.

PeterC said:
Given how close he is with the BJP and what his views on Muslims are, I’m guessing that his personal views aren’t quite so ecumenical

Malcolm wrote:
Indeed, they are not:

https://scroll.in/article/948963/how-jaggi-vasudev-has-helped-strengthen-fears-about-muslims


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 10:12 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
Nicholas2727 said:
but I guess a more basic question I am unsure of is what enlightenment/nirvana is for madhyamaka.

Malcolm wrote:
In this presentation which refutes permanently functioning phenomena, Gyaltsab's commentary on Aryadeva's 400 indicates that the attainment of the perception of emptiness is nirvana, during which the aggregates do not cease, and this is termed "mere nirvana."


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 9:28 PM
Title: Re: Averting Astrological Obstacles (Sok, Wang, Lungta, etc)
Content:
fckw said:
You can practice any yidam that subdues planetary influences.

LolCat said:
Could you please give examples of such Yidams, at least the most popular ones?

Chenda said:
Can we get a bump on this? I'm assuming "subduing" planetary influences entails wrathful deities?

Malcolm wrote:
Vajrapāṇi, generally speaking, is the best for controlling planetary spirits.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 8:19 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:



Nicholas2727 said:
I am a bit confused, how could the unborn/unconditioned/etc be relative? Is he saying that Nirvana is dependent on someone realizing it therefore it is relative? Or does Madhyamaka negate nirvana completely?

Planning on listening to this here shortly which will probably answer a lot of these questions, but I guess a more basic question I am unsure of is what enlightenment/nirvana is for madhyamaka.

https://madhyamaka.com/2017-06-07-madhyamakavatara-week-1/

Malcolm wrote:
The uncompounded is relative since it depends on the compounded. In other words, nirvana is a cessation. The cessation of what? The aggregates. There is nothing left over after a cessation.

Aemilius said:
That is just plain nihilism. How would a Buddha know anything without the aggregates? I.e. without sense organs, sensation, concepts/perceptions, volitions (to teach the dharma) and consciouness?

How about the eighteen āveṇikadharmas of the Buddhas or the Eighteen Special Attributes of the Buddha, how would they exist?

https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/maha-prajnaparamita-sastra/d/doc225801.html

Malcolm wrote:
It is no more nihilism than observing that when a fire has consumed all its fuel it ceases.

In any case, here Aryadeva is refuting assertions of permanently functional phenomena, including nirvana.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 8:07 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
You missed the point. It explains why many Ukrainians would not be so averse to being part of Russia. Especially those with ethnic or culturally Russian roots.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, about 20 percent. But this still does not justify in any way Putins continued invasion of a sovereign nation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 8:01 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
And no, he is not going to take over Europe. No one here thinks that. Not even the Ukraine is likely. They've already had presence in the breakaway region, so so far, not much has happened, contrary to the US predictions.

Malcolm wrote:
Nonsense, Dan US Intelligence has been spot on every step of the way.

Dan74 said:
Yep and black is white.

https://www.vox.com/2022/2/14/22933850/ukraine-war-february-16-zelensky-prediction-joke
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ukraine-kyiv-life-potential-russian-invasion-1300869/


Malcolm wrote:
As I said, US intelligence on this matter has been spot on. The media is not the intelligence services.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 8:39 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
Nicholas2727 said:
I am curious how this is understood by Nagarjuna.

Malcolm wrote:
It understood by Nāgārjuna to mean that nirvana is something relative. You should consult chapter 9 of Āryadeva, where he refutes permanent functional phenomena. Namely he says:

In nirvana there are no aggregates
and there cannot be a person.
What nirvana is there for one
who cannot be seen in nirvana?

Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas, pp. 211-212

Nicholas2727 said:
I am a bit confused, how could the unborn/unconditioned/etc be relative? Is he saying that Nirvana is dependent on someone realizing it therefore it is relative? Or does Madhyamaka negate nirvana completely?

Planning on listening to this here shortly which will probably answer a lot of these questions, but I guess a more basic question I am unsure of is what enlightenment/nirvana is for madhyamaka.

https://madhyamaka.com/2017-06-07-madhyamakavatara-week-1/

Malcolm wrote:
The uncompounded is relative since it depends on the compounded. In other words, nirvana is a cessation. The cessation of what? The aggregates. There is nothing left over after a cessation.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 5:31 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
Nicholas2727 said:
I am curious how this is understood by Nagarjuna.

Malcolm wrote:
It understood by Nāgārjuna to mean that nirvana is something relative. You should consult chapter 9 of Āryadeva, where he refutes permanent functional phenomena. Namely he says:

In nirvana there are no aggregates
and there cannot be a person.
What nirvana is there for one
who cannot be seen in nirvana?

Yogic Deeds of Bodhisattvas, pp. 211-212


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 4:39 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Dan74 said:
Ukraine is a failed state.

Malcolm wrote:
Ok, so let's just give it the Russians. Then what?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 4:34 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Dan74 said:
And no, he is not going to take over Europe. No one here thinks that. Not even the Ukraine is likely. They've already had presence in the breakaway region, so so far, not much has happened, contrary to the US predictions.

Malcolm wrote:
Nonsense, Dan US Intelligence has been spot on every step of the way.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 2:32 AM
Title: Re: Is your spouse/partner a dharma person too, and if not…
Content:
PadmaVonSamba said:
Is your spouse/partner a dharma person too

Malcolm wrote:
Yes, of course. I wouldn't be in a relationship with someone who was not a Dharma practitioner. Done that, it doesn't work for me.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Wednesday, February 23rd, 2022 at 2:03 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:



Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 11:55 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


ManiThePainter said:
Ukraine is neither EU nor NATO and therefore nobody is “required” to help.

Malcolm wrote:
Yes. And any move to admit it to either will certainly result in WWIII.

Nevertheless, Ukraine's sovereignty should be protected by all possible means, beginning with seizing all Russian-owned assets in the US and the UK, and the expulsion of all Russian diplomats from all NATO nations, as well as removing Russia from the UN Security Council.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 10:45 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Norwegian said:
If Russia decides Sweden or Finland is next?

PeterC said:
Not sure about Sweden, but after the Winter War, Russia is never going to invade Finland again.  Those Finns are crazy.   They fought a quasi-guerilla war in -40 Celsius temperatures where about five Russians died for every Finn.

Malcolm wrote:
Plus, they keep skiing even when their dicks get frostbit.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/cross-country-skiing-finn-remi-suffers-frozen-penis-mass-start-race-2022-02-20/

PeterC said:
Lindholm explained that he used a heat pack to try to thaw out his appendage once the race was over.

"When the body parts started to warm up after the finish, the pain was unbearable," he added.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 10:33 PM
Title: Re: Is there a particular barrier between the Dharma and US society/culture?
Content:
Tills ljuset tar oss said:
Generally the west is unfriendly if you are serious about the dharma.

Malcolm wrote:
I have never had this experience where I live in the US. Most people are disinterested and couldn't care less.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 10:18 PM
Title: Re: Is Sadhguru enlightened?
Content:
Könchok Thrinley said:
Like the one about the Himalayan yogi that is immortal and he supposedly met.

Malcolm wrote:
Baba Ji Lives!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahavatar_Babaji


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 10:14 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Norwegian said:
Will we see anything beyond condemnations and sanctions? And if Russia decides to go into Ukraine as a whole, and not just Donetsk and Luhansk, with the inevitable war that will happen, will we still just see condemnations and sanctions from the world leaders - the same old same old that Russia couldn't give two shits about? Will the West respond with physical action? And if not, when will the West do so?

Malcolm wrote:
You will see the West send weapons and advisors. But not troops. Although there is this:

https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2022/02/16/nato-considering-new-battlegroups-in-eastern-europe-to-deter-russia/

Norwegian said:
If Russia decides Sweden or Finland is next? If they spread out further somewhere else?

Malcolm wrote:
Probably not.

Norwegian said:
At what point does the world act instead of sit idly by doing nothing? And how should Russia best be stopped or be convinced to stop?

Malcolm wrote:
Basically, Ukraine is screwed unless they put up such a fierce resistance, with western support, that Russia decides it is not worth it. But short of destroying Ukraine to save it...


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 9:07 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
Dgj said:
Just discovered the shentong position and these refutations and critiques of Nagarjuna recently.

Malcolm wrote:
The gzhan stong position is for the most part, merely false aspectarian yogacāra, ala Ratnākaraśanti.

gZhan stong suffers from the same internal contradiction as false aspectarian yogacāra, namely, the assertion of the transformation of a compunded consciousness into an uncompounded gnosis. It also suffers from the defect of splitting the two truths, etc.

I been studying gzhan stong etc. for 30 years, and if you want to understand its defects, they are ably pointed out by Tsongkhapa in his legs bshad snying po and in Gorampa's lta ba shan 'byed.

Dgj said:
And Nagarjuna's defects are pointed out by many as well.

Malcolm wrote:
Not so. One cannot refute a person who has no thesis of their own. Nagarjuna’s sole concern is to point out deviations from dependent origination. Thus is why in the beginning of his text, he outlines three main theses of his opponents to take down: arising from self, from other, and without cause, having declared that dependent origination pacifies proliferation about cessation, arising, and so on.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 8:59 PM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
Dgj said:
And, sorry, but no, if Nagarjuna's logic destroys all being

Malcolm wrote:
His logic doesn't destroy anything other than faulty reasonings of others.

Dgj said:
Depends on who you ask. Some say he negated literally everything, including himself (See Stafford L Betty, "Nagarjuna’s Masterpiece, Logical, Mystical, Both, or Neither?"). Others say he only ostensibly negated his immediate peers in Buddhism and closely related religions, but only by his own terms, not theirs, and that he didn't rely on valid axioms, and didn't give the imaginary representatives of opposing views held by real people a fair shake. See Richard Robinson "Did Nagarjuna Really Refute All Philosphical Views?"

Malcolm wrote:
It doesn’t depend at all on which western philosopher one asks.

Every position refuted by Nagarjuna is a historical position held by one of his contemporaries, and no, you are incorrect, he rejected the assertions of others by pointing out the unintended consequences in their theses. There is no law requiring that erroneous assertions and arguments be given a “fair shake.”

Since all assertions depend on assertions of the existence and nonexistence of something, Nagarjuna shows two things: 1) the Buddha spoke intentionally of existence and nonexistence depending on the audience. 2) he reaffirmed the Buddha’s own observations that dependent origination was free of the extremes of existence and nonexistence in the face of mounting misunderstanding of the Buddha’s intent. That’s it.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 8:44 PM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
Seems when Biden slipped a few weeks ago and suggested that the degree of incursion into Ukraine would determine the magnitude of response, he knew more than he was letting on.

Also, PeterC's prediction that the invasion would start after the conclusion of the Olympics was spot on, to the day. Aside, the Russian participation in the Olympics marred by cheating did not do any good for Russia's reputation in the world. Seems the culture is saturated with cheating as the norm. smh

Malcolm wrote:
And tomorrow is defense of the fatherland day in Russia, which is when I predicted they would go in.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 9:29 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Shinjin said:
Tougher sanctions.

Malcolm wrote:
If Putin continues on this mad course—which is certain it seems—they will happen. But it won't be good for the world economy. Hence the mature thing is to proceed deliberately and respond in a proportional manner. Slapping him with tougher sanctions too soon will have the net effect of giving Putin nothing to lose, the nuclear option I alluded to.

PeterC said:
He’s going to take some or all of Ukraine, either now or at a later date, largely because the consequences aren’t enough to deter him.

Malcolm wrote:
He’s deluded. I agree.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 7:01 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
weak and soft indeed https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-responds-with-limited-sanctions-after-putin-recognizes-ukraine-regions/ar-AAU8gRF?ocid=msedgntp

Queequeg said:
what would meet your approval?

Shinjin said:
Tougher sanctions.

Malcolm wrote:
If Putin continues on this mad course—which is certain it seems—they will happen. But it won't be good for the world economy. Hence the mature thing is to proceed deliberately and respond in a proportional manner. Slapping him with tougher sanctions too soon will have the net effect of giving Putin nothing to lose, the nuclear option I alluded to.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 6:52 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
Dgj said:
Just discovered the shentong position and these refutations and critiques of Nagarjuna recently.

Malcolm wrote:
The gzhan stong position is for the most part, merely false aspectarian yogacāra, ala Ratnākaraśanti.

gZhan stong suffers from the same internal contradiction as false aspectarian yogacāra, namely, the assertion of the transformation of a compunded consciousness into an uncompounded gnosis. It also suffers from the defect of splitting the two truths, etc.

I been studying gzhan stong etc. for 30 years, and if you want to understand its defects, they are ably pointed out by Tsongkhapa in his legs bshad snying po and in Gorampa's lta ba shan 'byed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 6:47 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
weak and soft indeed https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-responds-with-limited-sanctions-after-putin-recognizes-ukraine-regions/ar-AAU8gRF?ocid=msedgntp

Queequeg said:
what would meet your approval?

Malcolm wrote:
Apparently:


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 5:52 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shinjin said:
weak and soft

Malcolm wrote:
Measured and deliberate.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 4:55 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
ManiThePainter said:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

From the book: Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible

Malcolm wrote:
Yup. This was all in the air in 2015 because of the illegal annexation of Crimea.

All these idiots on the far left and the far right were repeating Russian talking points taken from this book and this author (including the fantasy that HRC was going start a nuclear war in Syria). It is why I finally abandoned the Green Party in the US. Jill Stein was a total moron who accepted a dinner invitation from Putin.

Trump tried to destroy the Atlantic Consensus.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 4:22 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
Yup. Unfortunately, there is now potential for an extremely rapid escalation.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-60454795

Brunelleschi said:
He spoke for nearly an hour, and covered a lot of ground, going as far back as the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. Here are the main lines:

In the speech he said "Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood" and that modern Ukraine had been "created" by Russia.
He attacked the idea of Ukraine joining the Nato defensive alliance, saying it would serve as "a direct threat to the security of Russia"
Putin repeated his argument that Nato had ignored Russian security concerns
Without providing evidence, he said Ukraine was a "puppet" of the US and accused the Ukrainian authorities of corruption
Confirming the recognition of the breakaway states, he said it was a decision he should have made a long time ago

Malcolm wrote:
Russia is the reason we have never dismantled the Atlantic Consensus. Europe needs it to maintain their democracies.

Brunelleschi said:
I still stand by comments regarding war being a last-ditch effort, opposing unnecesassary interventionalism, favoring de-escalation as well as being skeptical towards the US intelligence apparatus.

Malcolm wrote:
Your "deescalation" has been tried. But since Ukraine is not part of NATO, there will be no intervention. So, it's going to be a long bloody war, with Russia now on your back porch, not just in your backyard.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 4:09 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
I mean you claim an invasion is imminent.
Mr. Putin made the case that Ukraine is by history and makeup an integral part of Russia.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/21/world/ukraine-russia-putin-biden#russia-will-recognize-two-regions-in-ukraine-a-possible-prelude-to-invasion

Long and short, Putin waited until Germany had a novice chancellor to make his move. He is now intent on embroiling your continent in a war of aggression based on his imperial ambitions, invoking nationalist nostalgia as a pretext for war. Open your eyes, man.

In other words, Russia's claim on Ukraine is about as valid as China's claim on Tibet, i.e., not at all.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 3:45 AM
Title: Re: Can you conceive of a scenario where it turns out Nagarjuna was wrong (ex: not all things are empty, or otherwise)?
Content:
Dgj said:
And, sorry, but no, if Nagarjuna's logic destroys all being

Malcolm wrote:
His logic doesn't destroy anything other than faulty reasonings of others.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 3:02 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Brunelleschi said:
My opinion is that war is, and should be viewed as a last resort and diplomacy should continue.

Malcolm wrote:
Putin is clearly not interested in diplomacy.

Brunelleschi said:
Putin's a crook but we don't yet know what could be achieved through diplomacy.

Malcolm wrote:
Well, pretty clearly giving away Ukrainian territory is not an acceptable option.

Brunelleschi said:
Amping up the rhetoric is not helping. There has been anti-Russian sentiment for years in the US and Europe. Most mayor news channel in the US has ex CIA and intelligence operatives, FBI officials, Pentagon functionaries and so on acting as political analysts. Undoubtely, this is the case in Russia as well.

Malcolm wrote:
Sure, all these people inspired Putin to mass 130k+ troops on the border of Ukraine.


Brunelleschi said:
Sorry, I did not mean concessions as in land concession. I meant concession as in compromise. Russia has a set of goals, the EU and Europe has a set of goals, the US has a set of goals. Deals can be made.

Malcolm wrote:
Most Ukrainians want to join NATO and the EU. Russia's goal is to prevent that at any cost.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 2:52 AM
Title: Re: Surangama question
Content:
Constructelf said:
As far as I know, the current academic position is that the Surangama Sutra is of Indian origin

Malcolm wrote:
No, the current consensus is that it is a pastiche of native Chinese ideas and Indian source material.

it was never translated into Tibetan until the 18th century, and is absent from the Imperial period catalogues, ldan dkar ma and 'phang thang ma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 2:41 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
digging up their definitely not fake stories about Russian energy weapons**

Malcolm wrote:
Not energy weapons, sonic weapons.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon

Both sides have them and they can be made with stuff from Radio Shack.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 2:36 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Brunelleschi said:
My opinion is that war is, and should be viewed as a last resort and diplomacy should continue.

Malcolm wrote:
Putin is clearly not interested in diplomacy.

Brunelleschi said:
Perhaps there needs to be concessions. This is not ideal but it would most likely be vastly preferable to a military conflict.

Malcolm wrote:
No. The EU has no right to make "concessions" about another nation's boundaries to a foreign aggressor.

This is no different than Hitler's Sudetenland expansion in 1939.

The EU is looking a lot like Neville Chamberlain these days.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 2:22 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
In fact since the conflict in Crimea started, European neo-nazis have been travelling to Ukraine, to fight against Russian separatists.

Malcolm wrote:
The Azov Battalion has been officially absorbed into the Ukrainian military. And yes, they are completely anti-semitic. So, shoud this permit Russia, which is also antisemitic, etc. to crush Ukraine?

Brunelleschi said:
That's not the point. The point is that it is not a right wing opinion per se. In Europe right wingers save a few populists are pro-NATO, anti-Russia. The political scene is not the same as in the US.

Malcolm wrote:
https://polishnews.co.uk/marine-le-pen-ukraine-is-under-the-influence-of-russia-interview-in-rzeczpospolita-about-russia-ukraine-the-alliance-with-pis-and-the-vision-of-the-eu/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AfD_pro-Russia_movement

I wouldn't say these are just a few people. These are two sizable far right movements in the EU.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 1:51 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:


Queequeg said:
This approach to independence cannot be recognized.

Malcolm wrote:
Agreed.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 1:42 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
In fact since the conflict in Crimea started, European neo-nazis have been travelling to Ukraine, to fight against Russian separatists.

Malcolm wrote:
The Azov Battalion has been officially absorbed into the Ukrainian military. And yes, they are completely anti-semitic. So, shoud this permit Russia, which is also antisemitic, etc. to crush Ukraine?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 1:22 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Brunelleschi said:
Ever heard of the European Union?

Malcolm wrote:
Now a word from your sponsor:

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_191931.htm
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_191847.htm?selectedLocale=en

So, do you want Russia to crush Ukraine or not?

If not, then the EU is going to have to stand up against Russia.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 12:56 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Crazywisdom said:
Yeah and they have nukes. Maybe Ukraine will be ok.

Malcolm wrote:
No, actually they do not.

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraines-nuclear-lesson-with-russia-written-guarantees-can-be-worth-little/

Crazywisdom said:
KYIV — Around 30 years ago, Ukraine handed all its nuclear weapons to Russia in exchange for promises of peace from Moscow. Western powers brokered the deal.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 12:28 AM
Title: Re: Trump encourages populace movement in Canada
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
These Canadians are so dumb:
Dwayne Lich questions legality of Emergencies Act

He also questioned whether the Emergencies Act — which was debated Saturday in the House of Commons — was implemented legally, at times confusing the numbered amendments found in the U.S. Constitution with Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"Honestly? I thought it was a peaceful protest and based on my first amendment, I thought that was part of our rights," he told the court.

"What do you mean, first amendment? What's that?" Judge Julie Bourgeois asked him.

"I don't know. I don't know politics. I don't know," he said. "I wasn't supportive of the blockade or the whatever, but I didn't realize that it was criminal to do what they were doing. I thought it was part of our freedoms to be able to do stuff like that."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tamara-lich-bail-hearing-february-19-1.6358307


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 12:24 AM
Title: Re: The moral outrage of strong karma...
Content:



Johnny Dangerous said:
That’s not exactly the “Tibetan view”, and there are all kinds of writings on karma across traditions, including Tibetan traditions, not all of which agree….what a surprise.

Shinjin said:
What is the "Tibetan view" and how does it differ accross traditions?

Malcolm wrote:
The "Tibetan" view is rooted in writings of Vasubandhu: the fourth chapter of Abhidharmakośabhaṣya and the Karmasiddhiprakarana.

It does not differ across Tibetan traditions. In other words, all the Tibetan schools pretty much follow the same playbook when it comes to explaining karma.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 12:19 AM
Title: Re: Trump encourages populace movement in Canada
Content:


Shinjin said:
Isn't Quebec the most racist part of the country with the hijab/turban ban and mosque shootings? Alberta hasn't had anything like that as far as I know.

Malcolm wrote:
Islam isn’t a race.

Shinjin said:
Majority of those who follow Islam are racial minorities.

Malcolm wrote:
The "hijab/turban ban" isn't about race, it applies equally to all religious symbolism. Since Quebec often follows France in their sentiments, being a Francophone province, the "hijab/turban ban" is just an example of Quebec following the precedent of this law in France:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_law_on_secularity_and_conspicuous_religious_symbols_in_schools

Quebec's legal system is based on the Napoleonic Code, like Louisiana.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 12:13 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Queequeg said:
The Ukranians voted to be independent and have been muddling along with a democracy since. If they want to join Russia, they can vote on it. If democracies don't stick up for each other, its over. The world will be overrun by strongmen.
President Vladimir V. Putin said he would decide by day’s end whether to recognize the independence of Luhansk and Donetsk. U.S. officials worry that Russia could use such a recognition to move more forces in.

Malcolm wrote:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/21/world/ukraine-russia-putin-biden


Author: Malcolm
Date: Tuesday, February 22nd, 2022 at 12:05 AM
Title: Re: Trump encourages populace movement in Canada
Content:



Shinjin said:
What if they weren't white?

Minobu said:
They are white. Totally it's like a white supremest heaven in Alberta.  This is  where the reform party was born, our first ramble into the populace movement. which as far as I can see are 99% white

Shinjin said:
Isn't Quebec the most racist part of the country with the hijab/turban ban and mosque shootings? Alberta hasn't had anything like that as far as I know.

Malcolm wrote:
Islam isn’t a race.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 10:33 PM
Title: Re: Is there a particular barrier between the Dharma and US society/culture?
Content:
Nadereme said:
So I’m asking this cause there seems (at least from my view) a particular barrier between the USA and Dharma.

Malcolm wrote:
Not really. Dharma is beyond culture. Buddhism, not necessarily.

Nadereme said:
I would say that this can be due to the extreme sort of Protestantism pervading the country. From fanatical Christians and Jews to fanatical secularists/atheists/agnostics/science/rationality folks. As well as all of the political discourse. Not to mention marketing catering and consumerism.

Malcolm wrote:
Fanaticism, politics, marketing, and consumerism have existed in Buddhism from the beginning as well.

Nadereme said:
I see it as extensions of perceived ‘righteousness’ where those who don’t follow along are simply bad, wrong, stupid, or evil. Does this present a unique challenge? And even when the Dharma is in the US, there tends to be a ‘Protestantizing’ of it seen through the secular and pragmatic movements a la Ingram, or through sectarianism and purism/triumphalism of literature and texts and practice and yanas.

Malcolm wrote:
So you just proved the point, these things have existed in Buddhism from the beginning.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 10:29 PM
Title: Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Content:


Astus said:
In other words, what makes 'one' in 'one mind' is the essence, that is emptiness. Another term for it is self-nature (zixing 自性).

Malcolm wrote:
That makes everything more clear. Zixing is svabhāva; and if one defines svabhāva as emptiness, there is no problem. Of course there is only one dharmatā pervading all phenomena, whether conditioned or unconditioned.

As a statement originating Dzogchen teachings has it: gcig shes kun grol. Knowing one thing liberates all things.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 8:47 AM
Title: Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Content:
clyde said:
Malcolm, You're seem more interested in exploring terminology

Malcolm wrote:
If one isn’t clear what a term means, one cannot have a meaningful dialogue about it. Your examples don’t explain what you think the term means.

So, it’s nit really clear whether you think there are flags, wind, and movement outside the mind, or if you think that these things only exist in the mind.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 8:09 AM
Title: Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Content:
clyde said:
Now that we’ve discussed capitalization, terminology, and my motives for raising a question, let me rephrase my question.

Astus linked this,
Astus said:
How unexpected! The self-nature is originally without movement.
How unexpected! The self-nature can produce the ten thousand dharmas.'
( http://www.cttbusa.org/6patriarch/6patriarch3.asp.html )

clyde said:
How does the self-nature produce the ten thousand dharmas without movement?

Malcolm wrote:
What is a “self-nature”?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 8:01 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
Just saw on CNN, according to US intelligence, Russian commanders have been given orders to attack Ukraine.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 6:34 AM
Title: Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Content:
clyde said:
Malcolm, Regarding capitalization of Mind, I was following the usage of Blofeld

Malcolm wrote:
His translations are pretty outdated.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 5:36 AM
Title: Re: On the Unchanging Nature of the One Mind
Content:
clyde said:
Astus, Do you think that Huang Po meant “the mind that thinks and names everything” when he taught about Mind?

Malcolm wrote:
So you think there is mind and Mind? Is there are also self and Self?

Does the capital letter make mind and self have more than four letters? Or does it somehow metaphysically transform the terms into something ultimate?


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 4:54 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
ManiThePainter said:
Most of Russia’s upper class and oligarchs are deeply integrated into the scene in... New York.

Queequeg said:
No they're not.

ManiThePainter said:
Sure they are.

Malcolm wrote:
It's much worse in London.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 4:46 AM
Title: Re: Lojong - Offering to the Döns
Content:
Malcolm wrote:
This is a post I wrote some time ago, slightly corrected.

The very simplest method is the practice of the Pretamukha-agnijvālayaśarakāra-nāma-dhāraṇī:

Early in the day, but also at any other time: into a pure vessel which is completely clean without any remnents of any food at all, place water, and holding this in one's right hand recite the following dharani seven times:

Namaḥ sarvatathāgata avalokite oṃ saṃbhara saṃbhara hūṃ

Then recite the names of these Buddhas:

Homage to the Tathāgata Many Jewels [imagine all the pretas actions of avarice of many lifetimes are destroyed and they accumulate all merits].

Homage to the Tathāgata Sublime Form [Imagine all the pretas physical sufferings are conquered and they acheive perfect forms and characteristics].

Homage to the Tathāgata Endlessly Abundant Body [Imagine all the pretas thirst is given up and satisfied, and they are satisified with sufficient food].

Homage to the Tathā gata Free from Fear [Imagine all the pretas are free from all fears].

At the end of reciting these names, snap one's fingers three times, and pour the vessel's contents out onto clean ground.

Having done this, one will have pacified the realms of the pretas, and satisfied them, and so on.

This instruction on how to do the practice is extracted from the root text found in volume Wam of the bstan 'gyur.

This practice is very powerful in removing provocations by non-human beings, is an extremely rapid way of reaching the end of the perfection of generosity, and so on. It requires no initiation of any kind. You can also skip reciting the Buddhas names.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 4:38 AM
Title: Re: Ukraine Crisis
Content:
Shotenzenjin said:
Well to be fair it's not like the USA has ever invaded another country and all that........mmmm. *+)

Malcolm wrote:
Well, to be fair, that is quite irrelevant. We never invaded anyone claiming we were rescuing anglophones from "genocide."



This is just the Sudetenland 1939 all over again.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 3:09 AM
Title: Re: Trump encourages populace movement in Canada
Content:



Shinjin said:
What if they weren't white?

Malcolm wrote:
Skin tone has nothing to do with it.

Shinjin said:
What about immigration from Mexico?

Malcolm wrote:
We aren't talking about immigration.


Author: Malcolm
Date: Monday, February 21st, 2022 at 1:24 AM
Title: Re: Trump encourages populace movement in Canada
Content:


Caoimhghín said:
I wish we could give them free visas and dump them where they clearly want to live. Literally everyone would be happier.

Malcolm wrote:
We don't want 'em. You keep 'em. We have enough problems of our own.


Shinjin said:
What if they weren't white?

Malcolm wrote:
Skin tone has nothing to do with it.


