The Abrahamics cause so much suffering based on the sole fact that they all believe their scriptures absolutely tell them what God wants, yet few of the sects and divisions agree with each other. Buddhism at its core recognizes the indeterminacy of all speech and our interpretations of all of it. Clinging to speech as an absolute is a recipe for moral, intellectual, and spiritual failure. When speech is deemed absolute, the mind and spirit are blocked from full realization. This is why Buddhism often suggests rather than states and why the Buddha himself refused to answer questions on subjects that lead to clinging to absolutist ideas. From a Buddhist POV, to say the Jews are the only people especially beloved by God is ridiculous. I was raised as a Christian and do my best to remain respectful of Christianity and strongly believe a good Christian is better than a bad Buddhist. Given that background, I think it’s proper for me to speak this way about Christianity. Whatever spirituality people get from it is good, very good. Clinging to the absoluteness of the words is the mistake. ABN
Republican senators Rand Paul, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski all voted in support of removing President Trump’s ability to impose tariffs under national security grounds. However, the overall vote failed in the Senate 49-49.
The vote was mostly symbolic for the upper chamber as the House previously approved a rule to block any effort to restrict President Trump’s trade authority, and the White House would obviously veto any bill that might pass. However, the vote does showcase the Republicans who are in support of multinational corporations outsourcing jobs and manufacturing.
The bill was originally created by Republican Senator Rand Paul and Democrat Senator Ron Wyden. The intransigent neocon wing of the GOPe, those who take funds from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (aka Decepticons) also supported the bill, but given the certainty of Trump’s veto, needed to retain their masks.
I’ll probably have more to say on this subject, but for now let me just say I am delighted to have found a psychotherapy that is highly compatible with FIML practice.
Indeed this psychotherapy is based on the same principles as FIML, though the approach is different.
In FIML unwanted psychological reactions are discovered in real-world, real-time situations with a partner.
In Coherence Therapy—the psychotherapy I just discovered—unwanted psychological reactions are called schemas. Schemas are transformed through memory reconsolidation in a way that is theoretically very similar to FIML practice.
Here is a video that explains the process of memory reconsolidation that is achieved through Coherence Therapy:
Coherence Therapy (CT) requires a therapist, while FIML does not.
In a nutshell, CT uses three steps (as described in the video) to achieve results. I will list them below in bold font and explain briefly how FIML differs and is also very similar.
1) CT: Reactivate the target schema as a conscious emotional experience. This is done with the help of a therapist.
FIML: In FIML, harmful or unwanted schemas are encountered in real-life with a participating partner. No therapist is needed, though prior training in the technique is helpful.
2) CT: Guide a contradictory experience. This juxtaposition unlocks (de-consolidates) the target schema’s memory circuits. (“Mismatch”/”prediction error” experience)
FIML: The “contradictory experience” is discovered in real-life through the FIML query. The partner’s answer to the FIML query provides the “juxtaposition” that unlocks or de-consolidates the encountered schema. In FIML, we have been calling this process the discovery and correction of a contretemps or mix-up.
3) CT: Repeat contradictory experience in juxtaposition with target schema. This rewrites and erases target schema.
FIML: Repetition of the contradictory experience happens in real-life whenever it next happens if it happens again. Generally, most schema or unwanted reactions are corrected within 5-10 recurrences. Serious unwanted schemas may take more repetitions.
Since CT uses a therapist as a guide, it is better than FIML for very serious problems and for people who are unable to find a partner to do FIML with.
Since FIML does not use a therapist, it is better for dealing with a very broad range of many unwanted schemas, not just the most serious or ones discovered by a therapist.
I am quite sure that CT will be very effective for many kinds of psychological agony. If a problem is acute, I would recommend CT based on my experience with FIML.
A shortcoming of FIML is it requires a caring partner and the transformations it induces are generally all induced in the presence of that partner. Much good comes of that and most transformations can be extrapolated to other people and other situations, but for serious problems like panic or deep anxiety, a CT therapist may be more helpful.
FIML is best for two people who want to optimize their psychologies. Partners will discover and correct many unwanted schemas and many bad communication habits.
If you can understand CT, you should be able to do FIML. If you have already done CT and had good results and now you want to go further and optimize your psychology, FIML will help you do that.
I believe the core theory of CT is sound. If that is so, it should be clear that bad schemas arise constantly in life. We start new ones all the time. Bad schemas are like trash that inevitable accumulates and must be cleaned away. FIML does this job very well.
I honestly believe Jews are genetically prone to self-deception at very high levels. Many generations of inbreeding have produced a population which is talented at speaking but also seemingly incapable of speaking truthfully. Speaking untruthfully is a normal human trait and most humans do it quite often, but generally only with small matters or culturally conditioned matters. In my considerable experience, Jews are very good at bold-faced lying, trickery, scams. For many, perhaps including the speaker above, the irony of their self-deception never seems to occur to them.
To add to this topic, many ‘Asian’ cultures tend to have speech prescriptions and proscriptions which lead to a form of frequent lying or making things sound ‘nice’ or ‘inoffensive’. This is different from what I see in Jewish speech but related. In much of Asia the basic rule is never say anything your listener may not want to hear. This is why there are so many plastic smiles and ‘agreeable’ people in those cultures. Chinse themselves remark on the culturally idiosyncratic ‘Chinese smile’, which they rightly believe non-Chinese rarely, if ever, fully understand.
Evolutionarily, self-deception can be a big advantage because it makes the self-deceiver more convincing to others. This trait is particularly valuable in parasitic cultures or individuals, which have recently proliferated wildly within the West.
For context, all human traits are on a spectrum and almost all humans have these traits to some degree. When individuals have varying degrees of any trait, obviously groups of individuals will also present varying degrees of these traits. White people have all of the human traits and, as must be the case, they vary within and between different white populations. I mention whites because that is the case and also because whites are in the very confusing (for them) position of being beset upon by a global variety of cultural traits most whites are not used to or entirely unaware of. Examples of this are clan-based societies (such as Muslims), tribe-based societies (such as Jews), and societies ideologically indoctrinated with their cultural takes on themselves, the world, and white people (such as post-colonial ones). To not understand these matters and not feel free enough to discuss them openly is to greatly handicap yourself and your culture when dealing with other cultures and people. Freedom of speech in white societies should be used to tackle these topics, the sooner the better.
One thing I can guarantee you is no other culture in this world does not often discuss these topics. A great deal of white mind-control against this kind of speech comes from Jewish control of white media, money, politics, and more; precisely the topic the speaker above unironically wants to proscribe to protect her tribe and her tribe only. Why does the most powerful tribe in the West need special protection? The answer is obvious: they need it to preserve their power and get more of it. Only self-deception will prevent you from seeing this. Self-deception can be genetic, cultural, or induced by mind-control, which is a form of hostile internecine parasitism. ABN
Today, I want to explain how that take on modern psychology fits very well with Buddhist practice.
Buddhist practice is best understood by understanding the Noble Eightfold Path:
Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Samadhi.
If the Noble Eightfold Path is followed diligently, it will erase all dysfunctional schema from the mind. The complete erasure occurs in the eighth element of the path, Right Samadhi.
Right Samadhi is an elixir of the mind. It bathes and cleanses the mind like nothing else. Right Samadhi erases all delusion, all suffering, all dysfunctional schema. Right Samadhi is one part of the Noble Eightfold Path and also it can be understood as a culmination of the Path, the ultimate or penultimate reward of Buddhist practice.
On this site, I add something to the Noble Eightfold Path that, in my opinion, makes it even better. What I have added is FIML practice. FIML can be understood to be an addition to Right Speech and Right Mindfulness. FIML works by getting us to pay close attention to what we hear as well as what we say. When we do that using the tools FIML provides we also greatly improve our Right Mindfulness.
I deeply hope readers of this site will improve their understanding of Buddhism and learn how to do FIML.
The hardest thing about FIML practice is finding a Right Partner, someone who is able to understand the practice and willing to do it with you. The second hardest thing is overcoming a very deep-seated, instinctive human speech prohibition which prevents us from quickly shifting from talking to talking calmly and wisely about the minutia of the talking and listening that just occurred.
If you have a suitable partner, learning how to do FIML is much easier and more fun than finding a suitable therapist. Like Buddhism itself, FIML works directly with the unique reality of the lives of you and your partner. ABN
Full video: Trump holds Cabinet meeting at White House
UPDATE: This is long but you can jump ahead. I listened to maybe one-half of it, focusing on what I wanted. It provides a good view of what Trump and his people are doing and why, and how successful they are and expect to be in the future. Much better to listen to them instead of what media says about them; and necessary to do that at least sometimes. I believe Trump is the only president to ever hold cabinet meetings in public. ABN
We all know fight, flee, freeze, and fawn as instinctual reactions to stress or confrontation. I believe freezing can be cultivated to become equanimity. It may even be the case that a good deal of freezing is fundamentally natural or spiritual equanimity. ABN
“The United States as a nation has been severely kidnapped by political and other forces derived from Jewish capital,” thus said Dong Manyuan, the former Vice president of CIIS, the Chinese foreign ministry’s think tank, in a TV interview on November 1, in response to the interviewer claim that Jews “manipulate and control” 70% of America’s wealth. (Dong had expressed a similar view, cast in only slightly less hostile terms, even before the war.)
In the weeks since Hamas’ October 7 assault on Israel, the People’s Republic of China has not only joined ranks with Russia and Iran in diplomatic efforts against Israel and supportive of Palestinians. That is not new. What is new is a surge on social media platforms controlled by the Chinese government of an unprecedented spate of antisemitic messaging.
A Social Media Campaign
The Chinese government’s media began in the days after October 7 to broadcast the theme of an American conspiracy hatched by Jews who control the US government. On October 9, China Central Television (CCTV) accused the US of “instigating the war” and “adding fuel to the fire” as part of a grand strategy to maintain regional hegemony and enrich its military-industrial complex. “The US is siding with the wrong side of history in Gaza,” according to the CCP Central Propaganda Department’s China Daily.
Side by side with this theme of American conspiracy came the accusation promoted on October 10 by the Propaganda Department’s front organization, the China Internet Information Center (CIIC), that the Israelis should be compared to the Nazis. On the same day, another viral post by state-run China Central Television (CCTV) tied the conflict to widespread antisemitic tropes. It read, “Jews, who account for 3% of the US population, manipulate and control 70% of the country’s wealth.” It went on to describe US presidential candidates’ obeisance to Jewish capital in an effort to explain the Biden administration’s unwavering support for Israel. Ambassador Wu concurred: “The Jewish bloc’s influence is clear to all.”
Chinese social media influencers quickly sprang into action.
“Hamas went too soft on Israel,” opined award-winning online influencer Su Lin soon after. “Isn’t Israel today a Jewish version of the Nazis?” she asked rhetorically.
“Beyond a shrinking minority in the West, her views are widely accepted,” mused Andy Mok, a frequent contributor to state broadcasters and a senior research fellow at the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), China’s top “private” think-tank.
Racist cartoons, Hitler memes, swastikas, and quotes from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion are now ubiquitous in comments sections. In an ironic twist, Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the CCP mouthpiece Global Times, cautioned his followers on Weibo, “Some of us should not be influenced by public opinion dominated by Jews and Americans.” Two weeks later, Hu claimed that “there is no such thing as antisemitism in China,” adding Holocaust inversions comparing Israel to modern-day Nazis.
I like talk radio. I want to listen to NPR. Many of your topics are good. But almost all of them are heavily slanted left, anti-Trump, anti-conservative, pro-Ukraine War, etc. I want to hear your side but I also want to hear the other side. It is bad media, bad for USA, and super-boring radio to feature only one side of an issue as if there is no other side at all. Indeed, most issues have several sides all worthy of discussion. Your shows would gain listeners and respect if you provided real balance. ABN
UPDATE: A good example of how bad NPR can be happened a few days ago. I was driving and a show came on NPR about how American evangelicals were supporting Trump in large numbers. One commentator was some journo who has been reporting on religion in USA for forty years; the other was some college professor of religious studies. I forget who the host was. The entire program entailed describing how evangelicals had a psychological need to be accepted and heard and that’s why they support Trump. If I am remembering correctly the speakers implied if not stated outright that evangelicals had that need because they were uneducated and lacked sophistication. I found the program extremely irritating because all three of the supposedly educated and sophisticated speakers never onceconsidered that evangelicals might like Trump’s policies because they are good policies. My sense of those three speakers is they themselves are small-minded, incurious, and selfish in how they waste airtime by telling only one side of a potentially great story. Such a waste. It was a very good topic. Next time, get some people who are able to sympathize with evangelicals and who understand Trump’s policies as they are and not as NPR frames them all the time. To be clear, I am 100% willing to listen to all positions on all topics, including what amounts to NPR propaganda, but I really really want to hear all sides. Forty years he’s been a religion journo and many years she’s been a college religion prof and they both just cooed at each other over NPR lefty banalities the entire time. The host was no better. ABN
I’ve hidden my hand my whole life. I wear long sleeves and haven’t seen a doctor about it since I was a toddler. My right hand is completely normal. On my left hand, my pinky, ring, and middle fingers are normal. The issue is only with the thumb and index finger they are the same length and to the side.
It’s not painful or limiting physically but it’s always affected my confidence which is why I hide it.
I mentioned the other day that Reddit has small subs that can be intellectually stimulating. The post linked above, including many of its comments, shows what the title says. One conclusion from this is that the shame and self-induced ‘need’ to hide that shame has wide applications across all stigmatisms and psychological conditions, which often are reified as stigmatisms. By hiding shame or stigmatism we give it an overblown life of its own. By not hiding it, we remove its power to shame us. A physical stigma is simply the luck of the draw and, while someone may be to blame for it, in the end you have to live with it. Psychological abuse or trauma is not so different. At the end of the day, it’s your cross to bear. If FIML is done with this in mind, both partners can use the FIML method to gradually bite off small pieces of whatever shame or trauma or confusion they are experiencing. Doing this repeatedly, over months and years, will slowly reveal the trauma to both partners. And this will provide a wondrous level of freedom. Psychological trauma always leaves evidence in the mind much as physical abnormalities can rarely be fully corrected. Nonetheless, both conditions benefit greatly from exposure to the sunlight of objective consciousness. And this can lead to a state of unperturbedness as the stoics say or enlightenment/ nirvana as the Buddhists say. ABN
American Buddhist Net 