I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think about me.

(It’s Thursday! Meta time, time to relax. – promoted by exmearden)

Meditations on the cause of suffering.

The Four Noble Truths-

• Life means suffering.
• The cause of suffering is desire.
• There is a way to stop suffering.
• The Eight Fold Way.

The Eight Fold Way-

• Right View
• Right Intention
• Right Speech
• Right Action
• Right Livelihood
• Right Effort
• Right Mindfulness
• Right Concentration

Right View

You should see and understand things as they are, not as you would wish them to be.

Right Intention

A commitment to improvement, of which there are three elements-

• Renouncing Desire.
• Good Will- Resistance to feelings of anger and aversion.
• Harmlessness- Not thinking or acting cruelly, violently, or aggressively and instead developing compassion.

Right Speech

The first principle of ethical conduct.  Words can break or save lives, make enemies or friends, start war or create peace.  There are four elements-

• Abstention from false speech that deliberately lies and deceives.
• Abstention from slanderous speech and the malicious use of words against others.
• Abstention from harsh words that offend or hurt others.
• Abstention from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth.

Right Action

The second principle of ethical conduct.  Deeds are just as important as words.  Acting kindly and compassionately, being honest, respecting the belongings of others, and keeping sexual relationships harmless to others.  There are  three elements-

• Abstention from harm, especially to abstain from taking life (including suicide) and doing harm intentionally or delinquently.
• Abstention from taking what is not given, which includes stealing, robbery, fraud, deceitfulness, and dishonesty.
• Abstention from sexual misconduct.

Right Livelihood

You should earn your living in a righteous way.  Wealth should be gained legally and peacefully.  Any occupation that would violate the principles of right speech and right action should be avoided, four are specifically mentioned-

• Dealing in weapons.
• Dealing in living beings (including raising animals for slaughter as well as slave trade and prostitution).
• Working in meat production and butchery.
• Selling intoxicants and poisons, such as alcohol and drugs.

Right Effort

Mental energy is the force behind right effort.  The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness.  Without effort nothing can be achieved.  There are four elements of increasing difficulty-

• Not developing new bad habits.
• Abandoning old bad habits.
• Developing good habits.
• Maintaining and perfecting good habits.

Right Mindfulness

PAY ATTENTION!  Not just to the reality around you, but how you think about the reality around you and how that thinking shapes your actions.  You should actively control your thoughts.  There are four areas of which you should be aware-

Call it Groundhog Day or Arrested Spiritual Development, it both amuses and saddens me to see the same old plays by the same old players.  All it really shows is that they’re not paying attention to the new reality.

You can’t hurt anyone here unless they let you.

All your most evil plans and machinations, your gangs and email circles and Wrongs! and Hides and all your hateful words can’t do a thing.

This is Right View, seeing things as they are, not as you wish them to be.

Most people here have Right Intention, a commitment to improvement.  They are people of good will, not into thinking or acting cruelly, violently, or aggressively and instead developing compassion.

They are committed to ethical conduct, of which one part is Right Speech.  Let’s review the elements-

• Abstention from false speech that deliberately lies and deceives.
• Abstention from slanderous speech and the malicious use of words against others.
• Abstention from harsh words that offend or hurt others.
• Abstention from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth.

Well, still working on that last one myself, unless you define it as gossip which some scholars do.

Another part of ethical conduct is Right Action– kindness and compassion, honesty, respecting the belongings of others, and keeping sexual relationships harmless to others.

If you don’t want to be ethical- leave.

If you don’t want to be here- leave.

We’re here to work on the last 4 parts of The Way.

If you are developing new bad habits.  If you are not abandoning old bad habits.  If you are not developing new good habits or maintaining and perfecting the same-

Leave.

Mental energy is the force behind right effort.  The same type of energy that fuels desire, envy, aggression, and violence can on the other side fuel self-discipline, honesty, benevolence, and kindness.  Without effort nothing can be achieved.

If you’re not going to make an effort I’ll not waste any of mine on you.

If I see you misbehaving I’ll suspend you.  If a Contributing Editor complains about you in the Admin Forum I’ll suspend you.

First, no questions asked.

This is a temporary suspension.  The intention is to keep you from doing any more damage to yourself or others.  You will not be able to post (comments or essays) or rate.

A notification will be put up in the Admin Forum and as many Admins and Contributing Editors as care to contribute will discuss your case and debate the appropriate punishment.  This process may take 24 hours.

Most punishments will take the form of suspensions, either 2 days or 1 week.  You will not be able to post (comments or essays) or rate.  You may receive multiple suspensions and they may be greater or lesser depending on severity and frequency of the offense.  All Administrative Punishments will be reviewed by budhy.

Offensive Content

Offensive Content including but not limited to pornography, hate speech, spam, threats, disclosure of personal information,  plagiarism, and copyright violations will be removed and placed in storage for review by the Admins and Contributing Editors while they consider your temporary suspension.

Yes, that’s right, posting offensive content is grounds for immediate temporary suspension.

In the case of essays, a notice will replace the essay.  In the case of comments they will just disappear.

If it is budhy’s decision that the content is not too offensive it will be restored.  He will be advised by the Admins and Contributing Editors, but the final decision is his.  This process may take up to 24 hours.

Ratings Abuse

Laughable.  If you go around handing out Wrongs! and Hides like chiclets to your ideological and personal enemies all you be showing is the meritlessness of your position and the emptiness of your arguments.

You can not hurt them.

All you can do is claim the reputation of a mean, spiteful, hate filled person for yourself; a reputation you’ll undoubtedly deserve.

I encourage all of you who are not ratings abusers to treat this practice with the ridicule and derision it deserves.  It is so petty it is not worth punishing, it is beneath notice.

Transparency

The recommendations of Admins and Contributing Editors to budhy on disciplinary measures are private.  If an Admin or Contributing Editor wishes to make their own opinion public that’s their choice.  If an Admin or Contributing Editor chooses to make the opinions of another Admin or Contributing Editor public I will recommend to budhy that he consider whether they should continue in that position or not.

I think that any purpose served by publicly commenting that a temporary suspension is in effect is vastly outweighed by the damage done to that individual’s reputation.  Once an Administrative Punishment is decided on, the user should be notified by email.  I am open to the idea of public notification of an Administrative Punishment, but not in favor of it due to the reputation damage already cited.

It is useless to complain about the ownership of a blog.  You either accept it or you don’t.  If you stay, you are their guest.  If they ask you to leave, you go- whether you want to or not.

I am an Admin, as are Turkana and On The Bus.  In my case I don’t owe my lofty position to anything at all except my good relationship with budhy so I don’t claim any superior merit.  Those who are Contributing Editors and Guest Bloggers were also hand picked by budhy for those positions.

Complaining that some animals are more equal than others is not Right View.  It is refusing to see things as they are and instead substituting what you wish they would be.

If your concern is that justice is not equally dispensed, essentially you’re contending that all 32 of us are being dishonest with you.

If you feel that way, why stay?

Why, why, I’ll go back to my blog and tell them all about what meanies you guys are!

So what?  I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think about me or say about me on some other blog.  If your whining martyrdom somehow advances your personal agenda I’d expect nothing less of a disingenuous opportunist like yourself.