Happy Birthday, Jane Goodall!
And why she should win the Nobel Peace Prize
From the jungles of northern Laos

Today, my traveling (and life) companion and I spent part of our bus ride from Xishuangbanna's capital of Hong Jing to the northern Laotian provincial capital of Luang Namtha discussing what kind of letter we should write to the Nobel Peace Prize committee on the occasion of Jane Goodall's birthday.

Unfortunately, only more distinguished people than ourselves can nominate someone for a prize, so I've decided to forgo the formal letter and write this blog post instead.

Here are some reasons that my friend "Dr. Jane" should be nominated for the prize:

--bridging the gap between people, between people and animals, and people and the natural world;
--building cross-border understanding, even in hard-to-reach places like North Korea (plus the over one hundred other countries with Roots & Shoots groups);
--mobilizing a grass-roots network of committed young people to acknowledge and address key problems (Roots & Shoots);
--instilling courage in young people to stand up for what is right;
--spreading scientific understanding;
--addressing the social and environmental basis of hostility and war;
--resurrecting the International Day of Peace by turning "swords into plow shares" through symbolic and committed action, like turning bazookas into bells and flying giant peace doves around the world;

This list is incomplete and hopefully others can elaborate. The world could learn a lot with Jane Goodall as a Nobel Laureate. May this post and messages of others grow like Roots & Shoots groups and inspire others more qualified than myself to a write letters to the committee.

You can read my interviews with Dr. Jane here and here.

Labels: jane goodall, peace

Roots & Shoots Day of Peace 2008
A message from the Dame
September 21, 2008, San Diego & Los Angeles

Here's a message from the dame. Thank you, my friend!



I hope to see you either in San Diego, Los Angeles, or digitally via uploaded photos.

Let's create peace in our lifetimes!

Labels: jane goodall, peace, roots and shoots

Realisation:
How to Handle the Most Difficult Person(s) in Your Life
some tricks to see past the delusion of anger



I found this post in my weekly thedailyenglightenment.com email, which often has interesting dharma movie bits and fine zen quotes. I repost here without permissions, thus happy to take it down.

It is a most ironic "illusion" that there are many difficult people in our lives out there, especially while the most difficult person is the most immediate but continually missed one. Now, who is this person so close yet so far? It is none other than you! No, not me, him or her, but you. (Of course, when I read "you" to myself, it refers to me!) Due to the deep-seated tendency to self-rationalise, the person least likely to admit one's mistakes could be oneself. We might think we have got most, if not all things right. But that's self-deception - especially when we are obviously unhappy. If we are so right in the way we see and handle everything, how could it be that we are not happy? Surely, if truth is totally on our side, there would naturally be happiness.

The ones who really make our lives difficult are us - because we choose to react negatively to those around us. Obviously, to react negatively to those neutral or positive to us is downright foolish. So is it not alright to react negatively to those difficult to us? It might be "natural" in terms of force of habit, but it doesn't make it wise or right. When we react negatively, we are hurting ourselves, when our intention is to hurt others. We will definitely succeed doing the first, while there is no guarantee for the latter. Ironic isn't it? Since the one being difficult is suffering, we should focus on being compassionate, not difficult! The truth is, psychologically, no one can hurt us, other than ourselves choosing to let ourselves be hurt. Just as we perceive it wrong for others to hurt us, it is first and foremost wrong to ourselves to hurt ourselves.

Our suffering can be related to our karma in many ways. First, it can be an effect of our past unwholesomeness. Second, it can be an instant effect of the present unwholesomeness of our reaction. Third, it can be a combination of the duo. In other words, at times, we aggravate and perpetuate our own suffering when we react unwholesomely to suffering. It's a vicious downward-spinning spiral. When we mindfully train to sever or reduce the second form of suffering, much suffering is reduced. In fact, when we master the art of not reacting negatively to suffering by realising the unsubstantial transience of suffering, whatever remaining suffering becomes powerless in making you unhappy. When you are less of a difficult person to yourself and others, your world "magically" has less difficult people – because your "difficulty" is the centre of it all. -Shen Shi'an

And this:

"One attached to personal delusions cannot be liberated by the impersonal truth." - stonepeace

Thus we turn inward and then outward again, using knowledge to gain experience and experience to gain wisdom.

Labels: buddhism, liberation, peace, philosophy