China’s first heavyweight attack helicopter the Z-20T, which was developed to complement the Z-10, has been featured in flight demonstrations at the 7th China Helicopter Exposition in Tianjin.
The new aircraft made its first public appearance during a military parade on September 3, and combines an airlift capability with integrated firepower in a single airframe.
The manoeuvres performed included including hovering turns and O-shaped landings, which highlighted the aircraft’s applicability in a number of real-world combat operations. Elaborating on the Z-20T’s role, deputy chief designer at the China Helicopter Research and Development Institute Zhu Minfeng said it was designed to “assault transport and airlift operations in mountainous, forested, and urban areas,” and was able to “strike high-value enemy targets, counter both ground and aerial threats in plain and plateau regions, and provide fire support for ground forces.”
Donald Trump felt ‘betrayed’ by Israel’s surprise attack on Qatar, sparking a major decision that led to a historic peace deal and secured the release of Israeli hostages.
The strikes forced the Hamas leaders ‘underground’, abruptly halting talks that Trump’s team had been holding with negotiators just one day prior, the pair told CBS’s 60 Minutes.
‘We woke up the next morning to find out there had been this attack,’ Witkoff said.
It marked the first crack in a relationship that was seen as unbreakable – Trump’s decades-long friendship with Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu that had defined his Middle East policy since the first administration.
The White House was oblivious to the Israeli prime minister’s plans to strike Doha, Witkoff explained, and said he and Kushner ‘felt betrayed’ by the attack.
Section three has been added to the Diamond Sutra. A link to the sutra can be found at the top of this page or here.
Kumarajiva’s translation of the Diamond Sutra was divided into thirty-two sections by Prince Zhaoming of the Liang Dynasty (502-587). The sutra has been divided in different ways by others, but the Zhaoming division has remained the most widely used to this day. The titles of the sections are also his.
Section Three is called “The Heart of the Mahayana” because it contains the basic Mahayana vow to help all sentient beings attain enlightenment. In a word, to “save” them. The version and explanation of the vow in this section is the “heart,” or deepest explanation of the vow, because it includes both the helping part and the empty part.
As the Buddha says in this section, “All great bodhisattvas…should realize as they vow to save all sentient beings that in truth there are no sentient beings to be saved.”
This is both an answer to Subhuti’s question and a rephrasing of it. In the last paragraph of this section, the Buddha answers with more detail: “Subhuti, if a bodhisattva has laksana of self, laksana of human beings, laksana of sentient beings, or laksana of a soul, then he is not a bodhisattva.”
Laksana is a Sanskrit word meaning “characteristic,” “mark,” “symptom,” or “mental thing (dharma).” It is often translated as “characteristic,” “mark,” “thought,” or “idea.”
The basic meaning of laksana is “dharma of the mind” or “thing of the mind.” Thus, if a bodhisattva has any “thing at all in their mind about there being selves, human beings, sentient beings, or souls” when they are generous, they are not truly a bodhisattva. This describes the ultimate selflessness of self and other.
In this translation, the word “soul” has been used. A more literal translation would be an entity that “takes rebirth” or lives after this body is gone.
Word choices are fascinating and need to be discussed, but to avoid getting lost in them, it is best to remember that in this section, the Buddha is categorically saying that no matter what kind of sentient being you can conceive of, in truth, there are no sentient beings, there is no saving them, and if a bodhisattva has an iota of a sense that they are doing that or that they have a self, then they are not truly a bodhisattva.
In other posts we have discussed fractals in the humanities. This concept may help in understanding the meaning of this section and in glimpsing the meaning of the sutra itself. Surely all of us at one time or another have acted with a pure heart and a pure mind to give to or help another with no thought of ourselves or even of them. For at least a moment we dwelt within a pure state of mind and feeling that was utterly selfless, sublime.
Rather than say that state is the Diamond Sutra, let’s say that it is a state that points toward the meaning of the sutra. That state is a small fractal of the larger fractal set described by the sutra. Altruistic consciousness freed from the marks self, other, calculation, design.
NOTE: My original intention was to post the entire sutra and do commentaries on each section within six months or one year. I have not been able to do that due to other commitments and interests but may go for it at some point. The Diamond Sutra is a beautiful work of literature and an important text for Buddhist practitioners. It would be good if everyone were exposed to it and at least had some sense of what it means. ABN
Despite the intuition that strongly held beliefs are particularly difficult to change, the data on error correction indicate that general information errors that people commit with a high degree of belief are especially easy to correct.(Emphasis added.)
According to the study, this happens due to:
…enhanced attention and encoding that results from a metacognitive mismatch between the person’s confidence in their responses and the true answer.
This is exactly what happens when a FIML query shows the questioner that his/her assumptions about what their partner’s thoughts or intentions were, were wrong.
Initially, FIML partners may experience some embarrassment or disbelief at being wrong. But since FIML queries are generally based on negative impressions, after some practice being shown to be wrong will typically produce feelings of relief and even delight.
A FIML query will generally arise out of a state of “enhanced attention” and usually further increase it by being spoken about. Incidentally, this is probably the most difficult aspect of FIML practice—controlling the emotions that accompany enhanced attention, especially when that attention concerns our own emotional reactions.
With continued practice of FIML, however, even strongly held erroneous interpersonal beliefs will be fairly easily corrected whenever they are discovered during a FIML discussion. Correcting core false beliefs (mistaken interpretations) has a wide-ranging, beneficial effect on all aspects of a person’s life.
Since the hypercorrection effect discussed in the linked study only occurs during moments of enhanced attention, the FIML technique of focusing quickly on good data agreed upon by both partners can be seen as a way of inducing states of enhanced attention that will lead to deep changes in both partners. This technique (using good data) also turns the discussion from one about feelings to one about “information,” which the study finds makes errors “especially easy to correct.”
Furthermore, since FIML practice tends to deal with very small incidents, the enhanced attention FIML induces works like a laser that quickly and painlessly excises erroneous thoughts and feelings while they are still small and have not been allowed to grow into full-blown emotional reactions.
As the world’s leading superpower, we face malign state actors that deliberately engage in non-economic—or even counter-economic—activities.
By “economic,” I mean commerce in which sales prices actually exceed costs of goods sold.
To stop China from gutting entire manufacturing verticals such as steel, aluminum, and pharmaceutical APIs, we must implement strategic price floors and off-take agreements in industries essential to our national security.
Public-private partnerships are the best way to mobilize America’s brightest minds and boldest innovators.
In other sectors—like advanced semiconductors—we must end the self-defeating practice of helping our adversaries modernize their militaries with our own technology.
The biggest problem with revealing 2020 election fraud, is the consequences.
That said, the competence of the United States government, and indeed our constitutional republic itself, is weakened without a full public airing of the fraud.
The White House has hired Stop The Steal lawyer Kurt Olsen as a ‘Special Govt Employee,’ The Wall Street Journal (Rupert Murdoch) is going bananas:
(WSJ) – “Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who unsuccessfully pushed claims of voter fraud, has joined the administration as a “special government employee,” some of the people said. The appointment gives Olsen 130 days to work from within the White House without giving up any private business interests. He is talking directly with President Trump, the people said.
Trump asked Olsen to join the administration to work on election issues important to him, a senior administration official said. Olsen started his job in the past month, some of the people said, and has told others he wants to examine election machines.
Olsen has begun asking intelligence agencies for information about the 2020 election, the officials said. Olsen has told others he also wants to weed out some government employees who he believes are disloyal to Trump.
Representatives for the White House and Justice Department declined to comment, and Olsen didn’t respond to requests for comment.” (read more)
Donald Trump has deployed one of the Army’s most secretive regiments in the Caribbean after threatening strikes inside Venezuela.
The president warned socialist tyrant Nicolas Maduro that he better not ‘f*** around with the United States’ as he spoke to reporters at the White House on Friday.
Trump has ordered five strikes over the last two months on Venezuelan ‘narco-terrorist’ boats in the Caribbean, killing at least 27 alleged drug traffickers.
The strikes come against the backdrop of the largest US military buildup in the region since the Cold War.
Maduro claims to have mobilized a millions-strong militia and is warning the population that Trump is preparing to invade.
Military experts say the true size of his army is just 125,000 soldiers and his rusty Soviet-era hardware stands no chance against America’s warfighting machine.
Trump has deployed B-52 nuclear bombers, guided missile destroyers, F-35B fighter jets, P-8 Poseidon spy planes, a nuclear submarine and around 6,500 troops.
Included in that group is the Army’s 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the ‘Night Stalkers.’
The elite aviation unit provides precision air support for special operations forces including the Green Berets, the Navy SEALs and Delta Force.
American Buddhist Net 