Sunday, March 8, 2026

1 Samuel15

Tucker Confronts Mike Huckabee on America’s Toxic Relationship With Israel

Listen into 1:45:20

15 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy[a] all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

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I am shocked. Is this the same bible of some of the attackers on me for the past decade or so whose faith is based on the Old Testament?

I am just too stunned by the absolute cruelty of the command.


Saturday, February 14, 2026

What I really like about the Buddha

Here I am talking about Siddhartha Gautama, Sukaymuni Buddha, the Buddha who founded Buddhism as we know it today 2600 years ago.

There were no pretenses or additives added to him. He was all flesh and blood. He gets sick like we ordinary human beings do; he had a body ache, and there was nothing that was superhuman about him. He was just like another human being, like any of us, as far as we can tell. He never puffed himself up. Anything that was puffed about him was done by his followers hundreds of years after his death. His disciples did not puff him up, although they always showed him respect as their teacher. He did not ask for Buddhist temples or Buddha statues that made likenesses of him to be worshipped after he was gone.

He asked his followers to rely only on oneself and the dharma as their only teacher, no one else, 자등명 법등명 自燈明 法燈明.

Every day, he went into a town to beg for food once, like every member of his sangha did. He didn't ask for better food because he was the leader, the enlightened one, the Buddha. In fact, he got food poisoning, and he really died from eating spoiled food when he was 80 years old.

When his cousin Ananda was in tears at the Buddha's deathbed, he implored Ananda to ask him questions he wanted to ask him before he was gone.

What I really like about Siddhartha Gotama Buddha is that he was a realist. When Ananda asked about the six monks who always, at the time, made rochus in the sangha crowd when the Buddha was absent, he gave Ananda this advice: "Ignore them. Don't respond to them. Once they are finally fed up with the non-response from the other bhikkhus, they will leave," and they did leave.

He was a wise counselor; at the same time, he was the Buddha. He cared so much about everyone who sought his advice; he altered his deliverance of his advice to fit each particular individual's education level or background. 

He didn't dwell on abstract subjects such as where and when the humans came from. He concentrated on today's problem. He tried to save every human being from today's problem, the sufferings, dukkha. 

He gave this example to a person who kept asking him such abstract questions like where and when the universe was originally created or began. He said, "Let's say you were hit by a poisoned arrow; it is like you refuse to pull that arrow until you know who shot the arrow, what the arrow and poison were made of, or what direction it came from." You would be dead before you get your answers. 

I wonder what advice Sukaymuni Buddha would have given me dealing with these vicious, hidden, and powerful individuals made up of politicians, corporate executives, billionaires, and institutional terrorists (corrupted and evil police, firemen, EMTs, government employees, NGO and Nonprofit employees, and more) attacking me for more than the past eight years.

Friday, February 6, 2026

Six Paramitas 육바라밀 六波羅蜜多

Six Paramitas: Practices to Cross to the Other Shore | Thich Nhat Hanh (short teaching video)

The Six Paramitas - Dana (Generosity)


  1. 보시는 재시·법시·무외시로 나누어 조건 없이 베품. 
  2. 지계는 계율을 지키며 선을 행함.
  3. 인욕은 모욕과 번뇌를 참고 견디는 것임.
  4. 정진은 순일하고 물들지 않는 마음으로 항상 부지런히 닦아 꾸준히 나아감.
  5. 선정은 마음을 바로 잡아 통일되고 고요한 정신상태에 이르는 것. 
  6. 지혜는 진상(眞相)을 바르게 보는 정신적 밝음. 

Monday, January 19, 2026

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva 관자재보살 觀自在菩薩

*** 첫머리에 숨겨진 비밀… ‘관자재보살’ 다섯 글자에 이미 수행의 전부가 담겨 있다 ***The secret hidden at the beginning of the Heart sutra. The five letters of "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva" 觀自在菩薩 already contain the entirety of the Buddhist practice.

The Heart Sutra is the single most recited Buddhist sutra in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition. It is most popular because of its brevity but depiction of all core principles of Buddhism so concisely. Xuanzang translated it into Chinese with only 260 letters. And he translated Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva as 觀自在菩薩.

In addition to the most popular known belief and depiction of 觀自在菩薩 as Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva who sees and hears of all sufferings and thus renders all compassion and helps to those in need and in trouble, these five letters compose a hidden message of four distinctive meanings and words. The first three words, 觀自在, show how a Buddhist must practice and live to become a liberated being, Bodhisattva, 菩薩. 

觀 means "see," "watch," or "observe keenly." 回光返照—Because one can't see oneself with one's own eyes, one can only see one's true self, the invisible "I" by 回光返照, letting the MIND illuminate oneself invisibly. 

自 means self, true self, 本來面目 (Original Face), the original "I", the invisible "MIND" that was never born, never changes, and will never die—depicted in the Heart Sutra as 不生不滅 不垢不淨 不增不減.

在 means now, this moment, today; not yesterday, the past, tomorrow, or the future.

So if a Buddhist practices the mindfulness of every moment of their life, they become aware all sufferings and phenomena are results of workings of the five aggregates, and thus false "I", becomes a Bodhisattva, 菩薩, by adhering to a life of the Noble Eightfold Path..

Therefore, 觀自在, the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, is literally the daily Buddhist practice tool that completely satisfies one element of the Noble Eightfold Path, the Right Mindfulness (정념, 正念).   

It is so amazing to find out that all Buddha teachings are based on self-help. 

So when one becomes happy, sad, angry, or in any other ego-driven mental state, one must see what they are—the impermanent and interdependent working nature of the five aggregates, the false "I"—that is going through such a mental state. By understanding such feelings and phenomena as what they really are, by being mindful of what one's mental state is in any moment, one can truly overcome the suffering of any impermanent making of a false "I."

Here, the false "I" is composed of the five aggregates, 五蘊.

In the Heart Sutra, it is said that the five aggregates are inherently empty, impermanent, and false, 照見五蘊皆空.

‘照見五蘊皆空(조견오온개공)’은 반야심경의 핵심 구절로, 오온(색·수·상·행·식)이 ‘실체가 없고 공(空)’임을 직관하면 고통의 대상이 사라져 해탈에 이른다는 뜻입니다. 

‘Looking at the five aggregates and seeing that they are all empty’ is a key phrase in the Heart Sutra. It means that if you directly see that the five aggregates (form, feeling/sensation, perception, mental formation, and consciousness) are ‘without substance and empty,’ the object of suffering disappears and you reach liberation.

*The Five Aggregates (Skandhas, 오온, 五蘊) in Buddhism are the five temporary, ever-changing components that constitute a person's mental and physical existence: Form (matter), Sensation (feeling), Perception (recognition), Mental Formations (volition), and Consciousness (awareness), explaining that a permanent "self" isn't found, but rather a collection of these interdependent processes, leading to understanding impermanence and no-self (anatta). 

* 본래면목(本來面目)은 불교, 특히 선종(禪宗)에서 ‘참된 자아’, 즉 번뇌 이전의 청정한 본성을 가리키며, 모든 중생이 본래부터 지니고 있는 불성(佛性)을 깨닫는 것을 의미합니다. 

In Buddhism, especially in Zen Buddhism, the original face (本來面目) refers to the "true self," that is, the pure nature before afflictions, and means realizing the Buddha nature that all living beings inherently possess.

 * 回光返照(회광반조)는 ‘빛이 되돌아와 자신을 비춘다’는 뜻으로, 본래는 자기 내면의 본성을 성찰하거나 본래의 밝음을 되찾는 수행법을 의미합니다

回光返照 (returning light) means ‘light returning to illuminate itself’, and originally refers to a practice method to reflect on one’s inner nature or regain one’s original brightness, 本來面目.

 붓다가 말씀한 ‘무생법인’, 그 ‘무생’은 어떤 경지인가? 현장 스님의 번역에 그 답이 있다





Tuesday, January 13, 2026

마하반야바라밀다심경 摩訶般若波羅密多心經

마하반야바라밀다심경

관자재보살 행심반야바라밀다시 조견오온개공 도일체고액

사리자 색불이공 공불이색 색즉시공 공즉시색 수상행식 역부여시

사리자 시제법공상 불생불멸 불구부정 부증불감

시고 공중무색 무수상행식 무안이비설신의 무색성향미촉법

무안계 내지 무의식계 무무명 역무무명진

내지 무노사 역무노사진 무고집멸도 무지역무득

이무소득고 보리살타 의반야바라밀다

고심무가애 무가애고 무유공포 원리전도몽상 구경열반

삼세제불 의반야바라밀다 고득아뇩다라삼먁삼보리 

고지반야바라밀다 시대신주 시대명주 시무상주 시무등등주

능제일체고 진실불허 고설 반야바라밀다주 즉설주왈

『아제아제 바라아제 바라승아제 모지 사바하』(3번)

왜 《심경》은 ‘이해’하는 경이 아니라 ‘녹여내는’ 경전일까? 불법이 전하는 뜻밖의 핵심

260자 가운데 진짜로 사람을 건너게 하는 말은 ‘색즉시공’이 아니다… 모두가 놓친 이 한 구절이다

*** 첫머리에 숨겨진 비밀… ‘관자재보살’ 다섯 글자에 이미 수행의 전부가 담겨 있다 ***



摩訶般若波羅密多心經

觀自在菩薩  行深般若波羅密多時  照見五蘊皆空  度一切苦厄  

舍利子 色不異空  空不異色  色卽是空  空卽是色  受想行識  亦復如是 

舍利子 是諸法空相  不生不滅 不垢不淨 不增不減 

是故 空中無色 無受想行識 無眼耳鼻舌身意 無色聲香味觸法 

無眼界 乃至 無意識界 無無明 亦無無明盡 

乃至 無老死 亦無老死盡 無苦集滅道 無智亦無得

以無所得故 菩提薩埵 依般若波羅密多 

故心無罣碍 無罣碍故 無有恐怖 遠離顚倒夢想 究竟涅槃 

三世諸佛 依般若波羅密多 故得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提

故知 般若波羅密多 是大神呪 是大明呪 是無上呪 是無等等呪 

能除一切苦 眞實不虛 故說般若波羅密多呪 卽說呪曰 

揭諦揭諦 波羅揭諦 波羅僧揭諦 菩提 娑婆訶 -3-