A Buffet of Offerings

some spiritual, some political

Nov 19, 2023

This post includes three nondual-spiritual videos I enjoyed and wanted to share, followed by some political offerings: a link to an excellent article on waking up from wokeism, and then a number of links about Israel-Palestine from different perspectives.

Spiritual Videos:

A student asked the great sage Yunmen,
“When the tree withers and the leaves fall, what is happening?”
Yunmen said, "The Golden Wind is revealing itself."
—Zen koan

This is a short talk by John Astin that I feel is also revealing The Golden Wind:

Next is a short talk by Neelam. I’d heard her name for many years, but had never seen or heard her. When I opened up YouTube the other night, a video of her’s was the first thing I saw in the suggestions, and I loved the title (“Keep Quiet, Don’t Make Any Effort”), so I clicked on it:

And here again is the marvelous John Butler, the Christian mystic from England. He was one of the first organic farmers there, he has traveled all over the world, he meditates twice a day in a church near where he lives, and he’s written a number of books, the one I most recommend being Wonders of Spiritual Unfoldment. This is a longer talk, about 40 minutes, and it requires full, whole-hearted attention and listening presence to really absorb it. It’s well-worth it. I very highly recommend it:

On Politics:

A Critical Look at Woke Ideology:

This is a long but great article called Why I’m no longer woke by Erica Etelson about what’s wrong with woke ideology and behavior. As a long-time progressive myself who has also woken up from wokeism, I very much resonated.

More on Israel-Palestine:

A humanizing and even hopeful conversation with journalist and author Sandy Tolan, whose book The Lemon Tree humanized the Israel-Palestine conflict for me years ago when I read it:
https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/17/humanity-has-failed-gaza/
I found Sam Harris’s conversation with Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari on Israel-Palestine-Gaza very balanced, nuanced, and actually hopeful:
https://samharris.org/episode/SE943AA0F34
Chris Hedges and Medea Benjamin.
British Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah and journalist Sharif Abdel Kouddous on what’s happening in Gaza and to the south.
A selection from Democracy Now, about the release by Hamas of one of the hostages, 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz, followed by a conversation with Palestinian-American journalist Rami Khouri:

And I’ll end with a few words from Robert Saltzman:

I wonder if you have ever had a moment in which you knew absolutely nothing. No god, no "I Am." No "enlightenment." No guru, no path, no treasure hunt that becomes "complete" when you find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow—none of it.
I mean a moment in which you had no idea whatsoever of who or what you are, what anything means; what the point of life is, or if there is any point to it besides awakening every morning to a new day.
—Robert Saltzman

Love to all….