Greg L. Richardson’s blog

My friend Rachel and I are doing one of my favorite things, a virtual date.  See, Rachel lives in El Paso, TX and I'm in Colorado.  We met online and have developed an amazing friendship (she's in a fulltime relationship and I'm not looking) and we treasure each other.  The idea of The Virtual Date came from Ali and her friend Howard years ago.

Here's what we do:

1. Set a time.  We usually go for a Friday or Saturday night a couple of weeks in advance.  We recognize that this is prime calendar real estate, but hey, we're worth it.

2. Get goodies.  Now, Rachel and I are mega-foodies.  This time, we've decided to apply Sam's recipe of putting Peanut Butter M&Ms into freshly popped popcorn (If you've not tried this, stop reading, get to the store and do so).  It is sooooooooooooo delicious.  One serving once every few weeks won't derail your diet too badly.  Also, because a friend of ours (Paul) got back from Germany recently, we're in a particularly pretzel state of mind, Rold Golds are our side salad tonight.  Again, not a problem as a rarity, BIG problem if it's your morningly breakfast!

3. Go to http://www.hulu.com/movies or http://www.joost.com and pick a movie. I picked last time (Mad Dog & Glory, not our favorite).  Rachel's picking this time, I think she did better than me in picking this time.  On tap for tonight is the Vincent Price 1964 classic: "The Last Man on Earth".

4. Get on an IM client together at date time.  We like Skype.  Hit me up at Greg0692.

5. The person who picked the movie counts down... 3.... 2.....1.... and both people hit play at the same time.

Watch and comment together.

Seriously, this is more fun than you can imagine.

Love,

 - Greg

In an article a couple of days ago, Waylon Lewis, founder and editor of "Elephant" asked that very question and requested that his readers comment.

Here is my response.  I thought that, since I've never mentioned my vegetarianism on this blog, it might be of interest to some of you.

Here 'tis:

I was nearly an obligate carnivore.... I used to go to Rodizios (all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse) and amuse my friends as I wolfed down pound after pound of exotic and not-so-exotic meats. I loved the flavor, the hyper-gluttonous zeal of it all.

Then, I heard a teaching on suffering from the Ven. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.... Never ONCE had it crossed my mind that the meat I was eating was more than meat. Further, it was an animal. Further than that, it was a being who didn't want to experience pain. After about a 10 second contemplation on what it might be like to be an animal going to its slaughter so that a nice package of meat would show up in a local store / restaurant for a couple of bucks, it was overwhelmingly evident that I had been missing out on a... no THE key perspective.

See, I wasn't acting selfishly particularly. It's not that I was inhaling all this meat thinking "booo to the animals". It was that I was being self-centered. I merely failed to consider anything but myself. It was a sort of blissful ignorance in that I didn't really think about anything other than my own tastebuds getting off.

However, upon making the connection that I was experiencing this fleeting sense-pleasure of taste and the cost for that pleasure was that a particular, specific being with desires of happiness had to be slaughtered, it was over, all done, no more.

So, it's been about 8 years. My friends *STILL* laugh about my pre-Rodizios fiber-inhalation and fasting rituals (so-as to maximize my meat consumption skills). I still occasionally pass a burger or BBQ joint and notice the smell (which I unfortunately do experience as marginally pleasant). However, the thought of having something killed for my own sense pleasure (Would I then have killed an animal so that my eyes could have the pleasure of watching it die? To let my ears hear it die? NO! Why did I then do so so eagerly to indulge my desire for taste and/or satiety?) has now utterly gone away.

I've found that a little empathy goes a very long way.

Then, after going vegetarian, I was told to read "The China Study", which essentially links cancer to animal proteins (both meat and dairy) and discovered that an *overwhelmingly* causal relationship appears to exist between cancer and meat/dairy.

All that said, I also don't evangelize about vegetarianism. This very post is the most I've said about it in the last ~8 years.

I find that, as an ex-smoker, an ex-drinker, an ex-stoner, an ex-lots-of-other-things-er, soap boxes and high horses surely lead to my own self-righteousness and even more surely lead to the current embiber of those things to fortify their own position and turn a deaf ear to me. Basically, for me to try to convince someone to quit their milk, cheese, eggs, beef, seafood, chicken, beer, vodka, weed, LSD, blow, is for me to become an ass and for them to stop listening to me, and often making stronger cases to themselves as to why they should continue.

"When shall I withdraw into the forest
And live among the trees
With birds and deer who say nothing unpleasant
But are a joy to live with?"
 - Shantideva, Bodhisattvacharyavatara

"I bow my head down at your feet, oh genuine guru,
In this uninhabited peaceful forest, this is how I am."
 - Milarepa, A Milarepa Doha

So, if you watch the weather channel, you've seen that there's a snowstorm hitting parts of Colorado... Specifically the part of Colorado to which I just moved.  I thought I'd give you a few first-hand-accounts by picture.

Also, I wanted to give a little virtual house warming (or, today it should be a house COLDING) to my new place.

Here's the view to the North:

Looking North

To the East:

Looking East

South Down the Driveway:

South Down the Driveway

and West:

Looking West

"In secluded forests, those places where the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the past found tranquility, there is nothing to make you busy, no distractions, no commerce, no fields to be worked, no childish friends.  Birds and wild deer are easy companions; spring water and leaves provide good ascetic fare.  Awareness is naturally clear and concentration develops by itself.  Without enemies, without friends, you can be free from the chains of attachment and hatred.  Such places have every advantage.  In The Moon Lamp Sutra and other sutras, Lord Buddha says that simply having the wish to go to solitary places and taking seven steps in their direction is worth more than making offerings to all the Budhas in the ten directions for as many kalpas as there are grains of sand in the Ganges.  How much more so if you actually go to live in such places.  It is also said:

In the perfect secluded place, deep in the mountains,
Everything one does is good.

My friend Jim (of the mighty Simjam combo that many of you know so well) passed on a teaching to me awhile back that I've been working with.

His teacher pointed out that the most mature response to any event is, "Oh! How Wonderful!".

For instance, today, it snowed, and BOY did it.  All of my meetings, plans and errands were postponed within my first hour of being awake this morning.

I went outside for a bit and had the cold wind on my neck, the shivers reverberating through my chilled body.

As I was complaining in my mind, Jim's advice popped through.... "Oh! How Wonderful!".

Now, the longest-term view of this logic somewhat requires a belief in reincarnation.  If you disbelieve in such things, you might stop and instead continue to your next wave of internet surfing.

The reasoning is that, when negative events occur, they're the ripening of karma.  That means that those effects of our past misdeeds are now purified!  This means that the worse the event is that occurs, the more of our negative karma is exhausted and thusly we won't have to endure those negative consequences when those karmic seeds ripen at a later date!  "Oh, how Wonderful!".

As it relates to the weather this morning, they say that this precious human birth that we encounter has a very unique property.... Our karma goes through a sort of catalyst process that means that very small annoyances, difficulties and problems as humans actually purify HUGE, VAST, ENORMOUS stores of negative karma.  Further, there are much more painful realms, like the hell realms, where this catalyst-effect is NOT in place.  I once heard a Buddhist nun say that for her to have a head-cold for a couple of days as a human prevented her from experiencing about 120,000 years of suffering in a hell realm.  To this, finding myself standing outside and feeling that sense of freezing cold, likely purified tens-of-thousands of years in a cold hell realm!

Now, this doesn't say to go be a martyr and seek out painful events as a mistaken attempt to purify your karmic storehouse.  What it *does* mean is to cultivate a light, playful attitude which allows for happiness and mental flexibility when unpleasant circumstances inevitably arise.  As an adjunct, my own teacher, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche says, "don't blame others for your own negative karma!".  So, the "fault" never lies "out there" with "those people" or "that thing" when problems arise of any sort.  It's *your* karma!

While immediately terrifying, there is a longer-term very empowering quality that arises from this.  To paraphrase Shantideva, "it's easier to put on moccasins than to cover the world in leather".  To me, this means that it's easier to find happiness in my own contentment than it is to arrange the world in such a way as to give me all my wants and needs through every moment and to juggle all the balls in just the right manner so that I get to continue to get my way.

So, to the reincarnation-skeptics, you may have noticed a very practical current-life benefit to this line of thinking.  When bad things occur, it's very helpful to have a mind that is disciplined enough to NOT pile on frustration, anger and blame.  We all know people in our lives who bring disempowered, negative, self-concerned reactions to life's discomforts (and even tragedies).  The result frequently shows up in this very life, sometimes in months and years if not in moments and hours.  Negative people tend to be jerks that nobody wants to be around.  People that blame others for their own issues tend to repel others.

Instead, I see an example like HH Dalai Lama.  This is a man who's country and culture was torn out from under him.  He watched tens of thousands of his monasteries destroyed while they were under his care.  He watched hundreds of thousands of monks murdered for simply sharing his beliefs.  Yet, what is his demeanor?  He brings a child-like joy, an open-hearted acceptance, love and appreciation for everyone, *particularly* those who have brought harm to him and those he cares about!  He has said consistently that the greatest danger regarding the Chinese is that we see them as "other" and fail to have compassion for those Chinese!  This, to me is the ultimate view of emotional maturity.

Of course, going from being pissed off about bad weather to loving murderous tormentors is not a leap that many of us are capable of making in one feld-swoop.  The way that we can transform ourselves is by doing our best to stabilize the view that when bad things happen, we are purifying our own negativities and thusly we are lighter and more free.  We try to bring appreciation to *all* situations, ever doing our best to remember to say, "Oh! How Wonderful!".

Thank you Jim.

Love,

 - Greg

I just got the most surprising email..... A friend found two Daddy Stovepipe videos on Youtube.....

....Patting Myself on the Back.

So, today's election day.

Think back, if you will, to early May.  Hillary and Obama were in the middle of a brutal primary season, the term "Superdelegate" hadn't even become a household word yet, and where was I on the state of US Politics?

http://twitter.com/Greg0692/status/805273814

Booyah.  On May 7th I called it that Barack would be the next President.

Granted, I blew a couple of other predictions, specifically when I picked Kathleen Sibelius as Barack's VP and missing the timing on the Joe Biden announcement by a few days.

So, I voted for Bob Barr.  I'd like to give you a great one-pager on my rationale. This says it all:  http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?PageID=141.  Yes, the Barack and John Shows would cost us $292 Billion and $92 Billion respectively.  We simply cannot tax ourselves into prosperity.  Period. 

But there's one more element to this conversation (taxes and where our tax money goes) that I never see discussed..... It's an idea that I uncovered on my 8-day prayer retreat that I ended yesterday (thanks to my conversation with Stepher).....  Libertarians need to speak about issues of compassion!

See, Democrats speak nearly constantly about helping people.  That's attractive because, well, helping people is a really, really, really good thing.  The problem though is with the funding mechanism.  Nice Democrat citizens who want to help people elect Democratic politicians to do nice, good works.... WITH THEIR NEIGHBORS' MONEY.

Good people that are clear would NEVER do this!  A good Democract would never go over to their neighbor's house, steal their neighbor's car, sell that car and then use the proceeds of that sale to give to the homeless.  However, that same Democrat would work exhaustedly, day-after-day, night-after-night trying to get politicians elected who will do *exactly* the same thing using our system of taxation! 

Think about your next door neighbor.  Perhaps you see that person getting into their car on occasion.  Perhaps you talk with them when you get your mail.  Maybe you even have a friendship with that person.  I'll consider my neighbor Tony.  He's a concientious guy with a great dog and a pick-up truck.  He cares about his neighborhood and is a hard-working, self-employed man without partisan political views.

Now, think about your favorite cause.  Mine are the American Cancer Society (thanks dad), Mangala Shri Bhuti (thanks Rinpoche), Kiva.org, the Mahasiddha Nyingmapa Center and the Gender Identity Center of Colorado (thanks Beth... Did you all know that there are more crimes against the transgendered than there are against, blacks, hispanics, gays, lesibians and jews COMBINED?!?!?).

Here we get to the whole meat of why not to be a Democrat.... Are you willing to put your neighbor in jail for not supporting your cause?

I must tell you, I am not in favor of forcing Tony to pay his money to Mangala Shri Bhuti at the threat of jail time.

Now, Republicans get this argument.  But, they're seen as mean. Why?  Because they don't talk about helping people.  They just say, "we won't overburden you with taxes". 

Libertarianism (aka "Capitalist Hippies", thanks Cali Lewis) believe in helping people, we just think that the Robin Hood concept is not only highly immoral, it creates incentives which make our country much, much worse off.

Next, I've received emails from friends who voted for McCain because they see oh-so-clearly that Barack's kindness comes on the backs of the unwilling (i.e., "Who is he to tell me where and how I should be charitable?!?").

So, here's what I'm doing:  As always, I'm voting against all tax increases.  For instance, there was a measure to aid people with disabilities on the ballot.  As a Libertarian I voted against it.  However, I do, desparately want these people to be helped and helped well.  I have a heart, I just don't want to force my neighbors to pay their hard-earned money to my pet project.  So, I'll be sending a small contribution to an organization that helps the developmentally disabled if the measure fails.

Consider this.... If people don't pay their taxes, they go to jail (yes, that's THE Wesley Snipes).  Therefore, every time you vote to increase taxes in the name of a good work, you are actually advocating that people should be jailed if they don't support that cause.  While I support lots and lots and lots of good causes, I don't think that there is a single cause anywhere of any kind that is so important that people should be jailed for not supporting it!
So, what is the solution to all this?  The Libertarians MUST shift the conversation.  When people think of compassion, they think of Democrats rather than Libertarians!  This "compassion-by-force" is a contradiction in terms!  The thought of forcing others to be compassionate is not compassionate in the slightest!

Any time you are considerig voting for a tax increase, please first ponder, "should my neighbor go to jail for not paying for this?".

We must divorce our thinking regarding compassion from the mechanism that pays for that compassion.  While we must deplore that funding mechanism called taxation, we must equally, passionately, committedly and unwaveringly shift our focus to the encouragement of doing good works.  This is, frankly, the only way that the system works, that society is attractive to anyone.  In this world, one cannot dispute that we are utterly entrenched in inter-dependancy and as such we should be grateful and reciprocating to those who are less fortunate, those who start with less advantages, those who have maybe not had the same grace regarding the consequences of their bad decisions that we have had.

Ok, rant over, time to watch the election results in a few hours.....

Much love,

 - Greg

PS. If you're wondering "what you are" and are willing to consider that there are FOUR aspects to the political scale (as opposed to the left-Democrat, right-Republican duality that we commonly are presented), take 3 minutes and fill this out:
http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html

(I take this quiz about once a year.  I've scored at its apex for ~16 years now)

All the best,

 - Greg

Tonight, I got to meet, shake hands with, talk and listen to Bob Barr, the Libertarian Presidential candidate for over an hour!!  No kidding, I got to stand no more than 5 feet from the guy for over an HOUR!!

Here are a couple of pictures (sorry, I think the cameraman was nervous) :

Greg and Bob Barr

Greg and Bob Barr

Also, I officiated another wedding ceremony for a wonderful couple on Friday.  Here's the pic of the lady I had the honor of having on my arm for much of the evening:

Loveliness, Paul's Daughter Torre

So, to Bob.... Though I dislike the fact that he's not a pacifist like Ron Paul and that he doesn't believe in completely open borders and he's anti-same sex marriage, he still utterly believes and is committed to small government.  Liberty is at the root of our country and neither of McCain or Obama have even the slightest passing acquaintance with the concept (though both seem to be worlds better than the big government, anti-personal freedom current resident of the white house).

In answering a question from a fellow attendee, he spoke beautifully and extemporaneously tonight that "in the breast of every single American is a heart that beats for liberty".   That truth is transcendental.  Big government is fundamentally at odds with liberty, and no one other than Bob Barr and Ron Paul match up with this idea.

Secondly, I asked Bob, "given that the electoral college favors a two-party system, that many Republicans are *actually* Libertarians in Republican clothing yet they don't want to move their vote to the Libertarian Party so as not to throw their vote away for the slightly-better Republican candidate, what must the Libertarian Party do in order to attain the critical mass to get over the tipping point?".  His answer was simple, "get me into the debates".  To a similar question, he later responded, "remember, I became a Libertarian just two-and-a-half years ago".  He then seemed to say that when liberty is articulated, people are naturally drawn toward the Libertarian ticket.  Only when the idea of big vs. small government is articulated do people see that neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties come anywhere near the level of government non-interference that creates an abundant, happy society.

So, although it was nice to flex my civic duty muscle and engage the process if only a bit, I fully stand resolute in my prediction that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.  America, be ready for greatly expanded government wherein the tax-and-spend decades past will seem like the rugged individualism of the West by comparision.

Love,

 - Greg

PS. Happy Birthday, I love you mom.

Not long ago, a kid on Youtube asked people to sum their life up in 6 words.  Some of them are inspiring, some are hilarious.

Here's what GregNerd came up with:

Ok, yes, I admit I totally plargarized the concept from this most awesome T-Shirt from Nerd Mecca, ThinkGeek.com:

Love,

 - Greg

So, Happy 4th of July everyone.

As this election cycle comes around, we're fortunate that we have candidates with such vastly different ideologies that we may actually encounter a debate regarding broader issues of policy.  I hope that the size of government might be one of those, given the last 16 years of highly-and-increasingly sized centralized executive branch. 

In my blog, I've unabashedly shared my views on religion, so, why not blow some remaining taboos and talk about politics?  First off, I predicted in May that Barack would be the next president.  I wanted to take *this* blog post and make it clear that, although it's my prediction, it's not my aspiration.  I will either vote for Bob Barr or write in Ron Paul.  Now that you know where I stand, I hope that you might be entertained by the following, a few quotes that I particularly love that seem to be particularly germane on this, the day of celebration of our freedom and liberty:

“Public works are not accomplished by the miraculous power of a magic wand. They are paid for by funds taken away from the citizens. - ”Ludwig von Mises

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. – Winston Churchill

Do not consider Collectivists as "sincere but deluded idealists". The proposal to enslave some men for the sake of others is not an ideal; brutality is not "idealistic," no matter what its purpose. Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives. – Ayn Rand

They have gun control in Cuba. They have universal health care in Cuba. So why do they want to come here? – Paul Harvey

I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my value system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal. – Milton Friedman

Government is not the solution, but rather the cause of our problems. – Ronald Reagan

Greedy capitalists get money by trade. Good liberals steal it. – David Friedman 

Government should stay the hell out of people's business. – Senator Barry Goldwater 

Powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Or as Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek said, "in government, the scum rises to the top". – Walter E. Williams

When words lose their meaning, people lose their liberty. – Confucius (note from Greg: Like "Patriot" in the title "Patriot Act" maybe?)

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand. – Milton Friedman

As government expands, liberty contracts. – Ronald W. Reagan

A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. – Barry Goldwater

No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power. – P. J. O'Rourke

It's illegal to say to a voter "Here's $100, vote for me." So what do the politicians do? They offer the $100 in the form of Health Care, Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, Food Stamps, tobacco subsidies, grain payments, NEA payments, and jobs programs. – Don Farrar - average guy, age 51

There never was a good war or a bad peace. – Benjamin Franklin

(note from Greg: I've contended for many years that Libertarianism and not Liberalism is the most consistent political stance for Buddhists, this Ben Franklin quote, the next James Madison one and a few more sprinkled later inform why)

Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few … No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. – James Madison

The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite." – Thomas Jefferson

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none. – Thomas Jefferson

In increasing numbers, Americans believe that it is the responsibility – nay, the duty – of the federal government to take the earnings of some Americans and redistribute them to other Americans for various and sundry "good" reasons including "fairness." Citizens who know it is wrong to use force to take money from a neighbor have rationalized that it is OK for the government to do it for them. – Linda Bowles

It took about 150 years, starting with a Bill of Rights that reserved to the states and the people all powers not explicitly delegated to the federal government, to produce a Supreme Court willing to rule that growing corn to feed to your own hogs is interstate commerce and can therefore be regulated by Congress. – David Friedman

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.” - Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler

“Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.”  – P.J. O'Rourke

We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes non-work. – Milton Friedman

Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. – James Bovard

 
It is not the responsibility of the government or the legal system to protect a citizen from himself. – Justice Casey Percell

Opium and morphine are certainly dangerous, habit-forming drugs. But once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of the government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments … Is not the harm a man can inflict on his mind and soul even more disastrous than any bodily evils.? Why not prevent him from reading bad books and bad plays, from looking at bad paintings and statues and from hearing bad music? The mischief done by bad ideologies, surely, is much more pernicious both for the individual and for the whole society, than that done by narcotic drugs. – Ludwig Von Mises

That government is best which governs least. – Henry David Thoreau

Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation's troubles and use as a justification of its own demand for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen. – Ayn Rand

Government never furthered any enterprise but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way. – Henry David Thoreau

Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at its worst, an intolerant one. – Thomas Paine

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. – David Friedman

Everything government touches turns to crap. – Ringo Starr

When politics are used to allocate resources, the resources all end up being allocated to politics." – P.J. O'Rourke

Consider Social Security. The young have always contributed to the support of the old. Earlier, the young helped their own parents out of a sense of love and duty. They now contribute to the support of someone else's parents out of compulsion and fear. The voluntary transfers strengthened the bonds of the family; the compulsory transfers weaken those bonds. – Milton Friedman

One of the things the government can't do is run anything. The only things our government runs are the post office and the railroads, and both of them are bankrupt. – Lee Iacocca

When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny. – Thomas Paine

The standard of living of the common man is higher in those countries which have the greatest number of wealthy entrepreneurs. – Ludwig von Mises

Popular suffrage is in itself no guarantee of freedom. People can vote themselves into slavery. – Frank Chodorov 

The war on "terror" will never be over, it will just change locations. Like the war on drugs, prostitution, pornography, and the many others that will follow, it is a war on humanity. These wars will never be won; the State will just keep creating new boogiemen to frighten us with. The sheep will anxiously anticipate the next fall guy the State offers up as a sacrifice for the war on whatever happens to be next. Be careful, the next pawn could be me or you. - Mike Wasdin 

A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them. – P. J. O'Rourke

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. – George Washington

Depressions and mass unemployment are not caused by the free market but by government interference in the economy. – Ludwig von Mises

In 1950, the average family of four paid 2% of its earnings to federal taxes. Today it pays 24%– William R. Mattox, Jr. (sometime before 1996)

The difference between death and taxes is, death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets. – Will Rogers 

And finally, here's one from the creator of the New Deal himself:
If we do not halt this steady process of building commissions and regulatory bodies and the special legislation like huge inverted pyramids over every one of the simple constitutional provisions, we shall soon be spending many billions of dollars more. – Franklin D. Roosevelt

If you're wondering "what you are" and are willing to consider that there are FOUR aspects to the political scale (as opposed to the left-Democrat, right-Republican duality that we commonly are presented), take 3 minutes and fill this out:
http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html

(I take this quiz about once a year.  I've scored at its apex for ~16 years now)

All the best,

 - Greg

...that's the title of a book and was a phrase that Don and I threw around Cheetah a fair amount. 

Also, as I mentioned in my last couple of twitter posts which refer to the talks on "Slowing Down in a World Built for Speed" by Carl Honore', there's a broader social movement toward the Chatauqua ideal of "voluntary simplicity".

It's also a sign on the road whose trajectory I've been on for ~8 years now.

I mentioned in my twitter feed (http://www.twitter.com/Greg0692) not long ago that I have a desire to take monastic vows at some point.  While some of my friends and family may be a bit shocked, the remainder will likely say "of course, we've been seeing this coming". 

So, basically, there are a lot of elements which have been leading up to this.  My first memorable "busyness" scenario was my senior year of high school.  I was going to school, holding a job, head drum major for the band and president of a youth group.  Next year at college, I started by signing up for 21 credit hours in two very different majors (physics and trumpet performance), both of which required a lot of outside of class time, I also pledged a fraternity, drank 4-6 nights a week, had ROTC duties at 5am twice a week, held a job and was in 3 or 4 bands.

Between my various commitments and interests.... I've been someone who's traditionally had ~80-90 hours of any given week scheduled now for approaching 20 years. 

At the root of it all, I've found that staying active gives the appearance of a quality life, but at its extreme does just the opposite.

As my meditation practice has grown in importance in my life over the last several years, I've started to get a "head-level" recognition that a given person can miss a LOT merely in "trying not to miss anything".  There is a deep history of forest renunciates in my religious tradition that get right to the heart of this matter.

However, over the last 10 months or so, I've been starting to look very rigorously at the time/energy costs to various activities.  It all started with "Buy Low, Rent Smart, Sell High" by Andy Heller.  He has a real estate model wherein quality of life is the gold-standard, NOT merely profit maximization.

From there, I read "The 4-Hour Work Week" by Timothy Ferriss and that was the transformative event.  Suddenly, business, organizational development, altruism and my spiritual path were all aligned.  I found further confirmation in "The E-Myth" by Michael Gerber.

I then did several things:
 - Deleted my Facebook and Myspace accounts
 - Gave up Instant Messaging altogether
 - Abandoned checking my 6 email accounts ~20 times per day to deleting all but one and checking it only once every few days.
 - Begun to use my home telephone for non-urgent messages only.  I batch-and-return those voicemails very infrequently.

(I had already gotten rid of my television several years ago.)

So, many people would rightly ask, "but dude, aren't you just going from one extreme to the other?".  While some would interpret my shifting from hyper-busy to hypo-busy to mean that I'm doing the one to compensate for the other, I must dismantle that logic by pointing to a bigger context.....  I'm getting it clearly and in the marrow of my bones that this life is nothing more than a fleeting dream and that running around within that dream trying to create a better situation inside of it is basically pretty nuts.  It's like rearranging the furniture in a house that's on fire.  For me, it appears that a more sane approach is to strive to wake up from the dream altogether.  If you're interested in this thinking, or for a fuller expounding on these ideas, please consult the equivalents of my bible, "Words of My Perfect Teacher" by Patrul Rinpoche and "The Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life" by Shantideva.  I've taken a vow to read the latter 100 times over the course of my life and I receive teachings on the former every January from my beloved teacher, the Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.

Secondly, people rightly ask, "but what about helping others, isn't renouncing this world in favor of retreat totally self-indulgent?".  I actually did have a friend of mine brutally accuse me of self-indulgence upon my return from solitary meditation retreat awhile back.  Also, this is a much-debated topic within the "engaged Buddhism" circles.  In my estimation, this is an entirely personal decision which also varies very much from culture to culture. 

I believe that a person's helpfulness is directly proportional to their wisdom and spiritual realization.  We see that with our own bodies, we give 25% to 33% of our lives simply to sleeping.  We give another significant percentage to washing our bodies, feeding it nutrients, expelling the residual from those nutrients, making good use of them etc... every single day.  I contend that sleeping, showering, eating, shitting and exercise, coupled with having the livelihood to produce the resources and shelter to do all the above can easily drain all of our energy.... and for what?  Our bodies get older every day and our propensity for sickness increases every day.  We have a finite number of breaths and each time we exhale, we're one more closer to our death. Yes, that sounds quite harsh or dramatic, but is my logic unsound?  Is it untrue that death is certain yet our time and method of death is uncertain?  Shouldn't we therefore prioritize each day and moment as if they were our last and thusly make the very best use of each?

Perhaps by taking time away from our conventional lives and increasing our level of sanity via retreat or monastic living, we can actually contribute to the world in a way that is much more effective than through means which are more culturally accepted (at least for now in the US, anyway.  In other cultures, doting grandparents don't encourage their brightest grandchildren to go to medical school or law school, they encourage their beloved youth to become monks and nuns).  Is it so outlandish to consider that a person who takes a portion of their life to strive toward spiritual development might actually be a more effective servant of his fellow man?

Virtually all of the world's spiritual adepts did just that.  Buddha, Mohammed, Jesus, Moses, and especially Milarepa saw that the spirit needs nourishing in much the same way (if not moreso than) the body does.  Additionally, my beliefs are shared with theirs that we have the ability to develop spiritually past the point at which our bodies die.  So with this as the starting point, I find it utterly rational to focus a little bit less on feeding the whims of the body and a lot more on enlarging the spiritual life.

For those who insist that the one-and-only path to spiritual development is that of helping others in an engaged way, I have a few considerations. 
     1.  That may be for you.  I won't force you to adopt my stance, but please show me the same consideration. 
     2.  I have seen countless scenarios where I was "helping" another person only to discover later that I was spreading dogma, fear and cleverly disguised anger.  Helping someone while still replete with neuroses is possible but it certainly isn't the only approach out of this.  Every world tradition has contemplative practices containing elements of mysticism which outline methodologies for becoming significantly more effective at helping people by first removing the emotional and spiritual obstacles of the "helper".
     3.  Buddha meditated for a handful of years and the direct result is that his discoveries positively effect the lives of 300,000,000 people some 2,500 years later.  Perhaps silent, solitary retreat is the most efficacious form of helping others.  Even if I'm wrong, are you so certain that I'm wrong that you're willing to prescribe that I give up before even trying out such a path? 
     4. Helping others is necessarily dualistic.  The conventional approach toward helpfulness is always presumed to be, "*I* am going to meet with *him* to read *this* or to talk about *that*."  Conventional thinking (and therefore actions rooted in conventional thinking) is by definition dualistic and trapped in an untenable spiritual ground.  While granted, it's better than selfish, self-concerned conventional world activities, helping others with conventional mind can-and-does feed the ego greatly.  I cannot tell you how many times I've seen vivid examples of my own and others' pride increasing and spiralling out of control under the sometimes-slightly and frequently not-so-slightly smug auspice "being of service" (see also, "Martyrdom: Why do *I* have to do all the work?!?" hahahaha!).  In this way, helping others is akin to trying to put out a fire by pouring kerosene on it.  The more a person "helps" another with a mind rooted in the something other than the divine, the more that mind is gaining practice in spiritual materialism and the more the ego increases.

I must restate it loudly, boldly and unwaveringly that helping others with conventional mind is the BEST thing that a person can do from the conventional standpoint.  Please do not read the last bit and think yourself "off the hook" regarding helping others!!!  I'm merely painting this picture from the standpoint of monastic/renunciate vs. householder/layperson.

So, as to the how and when of all this, there are lots of things to happen first.  Since there's not a robust monastic tradition in the U.S. (read: despite our financial opulence here, our culture doesn't yet see the value of monastic culture so there aren't the sorts of benefactors here like there are in other countries), monks have to pay for their needs prior to ordination, otherwise they have to take jobs, which pretty much exactly contradicts the purpose of becoming a monk.  I'll be meeting with a recently ordained western nun in August to talk about how she accomplished this feat.

Secondly, I'm continuing to progress on my preliminary practices and should probably finish those first.

Next, Sam and I need to stabilize our wholesaling business.

Also, my current service commitment has me here through at least November.

Lastly, I would need to do so with Rinpoche's blessing.  As most of my fellow peers in my spiritual community have families and are householders, he almost always encourages people to ensure that their intention for vows is stable and therefore tells people to not rush into something that they'll regret later.

Nonetheless, this is the deepest aspiration I have for my life and hope against hope that I have the lifespan and good fortune to realize my wildest dream of spending my life in the company of these monks (click here to see the specifics of where I want to go): 

You can hear commentary on many of these ideas by listening to these links (they're free and a few minutes each).  They're recordings of my beloved teacher, the Venerable Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche:
 - Part 1
 - Part 2
 - Part 3
 - Part 4
 - Part 5
 - Part 6
 - Part 7
 - Part 8
 - Part 9
 - Part 10
 - Part 11
 - Part 12
 - Part 13
 - Part 14
 - Part 15
 - Part 16
 - Part 17
 - Part 18
 - Part 19
 - Part 20

Much love,

 - Greg