Never doubt yourself.

Everyone has an innate Buddha nature. Every thinking being on this planet has the potential to be enlightened and become a Buddha. At times in all of our lives, though, things go wrong and they may or may not be out of our control and they can make us lose sight of this fact. Someone may say something mean, a friend may hurt you, in work or academics you may come up short of your own expectations or those that others may have for you. These situations can understandable cause a person to think negative thoughts about herself. For example, a low grade on a test can make you feel stupid. A bad soccer practice can make you feel as though you suck at soccer. A rejection when asking out that hot girl that came into your place of work last week can make you feel like a loser. You may dwell on these thoughts and situations until you lose faith in yourself. These are the kinds of thoughts that the Buddha would refer to as delusions. They are simply not true. And just as negative thoughts against others can turn into negative words and actions and simply breed misery and anger, so can negative thoughts about yourself. Rather than change the crappy situations that happened in the past, or causing positive changes for the future, they will not accomplish anything except for making you feel horrible right now.

Always remind yourself that the negative thoughts you have for yourself are delusions, and they are only getting the way of your true potential. Always show love and compassion, and know that even if they don't seem to appreciate it, that you are a good and beautiful person. Take up a new activity that will allow you to help others. If you meditate, then concentrate on your innate great perfection and Buddha-hood. Meditate on the fact that everything is transient, and thus your current unhappy situation is bound to change. Remember the law of karma, and keep in mind that positivity in your own life can only come from taking positive action yourself.

The main thing to take away from all of this, though, is that negative self-talk is delusional. Always remind yourself when you think, "I am not good enough," that this is entirely untrue. You are perfect.


"You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection."

-The Buddha

"Human potential is the same for all. Your feeling, 'I am of no value,' is wrong. Absolutely wrong. You are deceiving yourself. We all have the power of thought -- so what are you lacking? If you have willpower, then you can change anything. It is usually said that you are your own master."

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

I swear, the world makes me SO MAD sometimes.

So I work for Greenpeace. If you don't know, it's the world's largest independent environmental organization. In two days, I've had two people come up to me and tell me that I work for a criminal organization. Yes, there has been talk of Greenpeace being linked to eco-terrorism. Why do you think that is? Where do you think those ideas are generated? Greenpeace is professional organization that has been around for 38 years and has never had any problems legally. We do protests and sit-ins sometimes. But we do not and never will hurt anyone. Our name is Greenpeace for a reason. It's because we like peace. Here's our mission statement:

"Greenpeace is the leading independent environmental campaigning organization that uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future."

One of the most important things to take note of from the above statement is that we expose environmental problems. This means that we are not afraid to stand up to big corporations and governments when they do messed up things to the world that we live in. Of course if we tell people about these messed up things and convince them that they should stop using the products made by these corporations, the companies are going to get really, really pissed off. And they're going to do whatever they can to make us look bad. And trust me, they say some really ridiculous things. Check this quote out from an article I found on the web:

"As nationally or internationally organized groups, environmentalists can become radical, extreme, anarchist or nihilist entities such as Greenpeace or Earth First with truly ecoterrorist tendencies. Greenpeace is widely known for its eco-stunts of installing human chains and large protest signs on ships, trees, skyscrapers and bridges, jeopardizing both lives and property."

Truly ecoterrorist tendencies? Yeah, because a bunch of people standing around holding signs or sitting in place is totally a threat to your life! Watch out! And yes, Greenpeace has climbed up on cranes (and other extremely tall objects) to post signs for politicians and others to see.


This is from April 27, 2009, when Greenpeace members hung this sign across the street from the State Department, where representatives from 17 of the world's biggest polluters, to discuss emissions. It was placed so that it would be right out Hillary Clinton's office window before she went to the meeting.

There's also this, on the statue of Jesus the Redeemer which is in Brazil:
This statue is HUGE. And that definitely looks really dangerous and I know I could never do it. Just seeing them up there makes me anxious. But the only lives being jeopordized there are the lives of the members involved, and it's their choice. No innocent bystanders are in trouble in these situations. And these are the most dangerous things that Greenpeace does, besides protesting certain things and risking people getting pissed off and getting violent.

After a Google search, I was not able to find any valid information that the Greenpeace organization is an eco-terrorist organization. If some of it's members have commited illegal acts, which I wasn't able to read about, then that by far does not mean the whole group is about violence. Just like we all know that not all Muslims are going to blow up buildings, right? It's the same exact thing. We have 3 million members and the vast majority of them are normal, every-day, law abiding citizens. And if any of them break the law, they are not doing so with Greenpeace's money, as all of the money goes to campaigning.

So seriously, know what you're talking about before you accuse people of stuff just so you can live comfortably without acknowledging that you need to do your part to help the planet.

Religion = child abuse?

Okay, so it's been a really long time since I've posted anything on here. But that is only because of the end of the school year, graduating from college, moving home and trying to get all settled in and stuff. Now I finally have the time to write because I am currently unemployed. Hopefully that will change, but hopefully I'll still have the time time to write on here because I really enjoy doing it.

Anyway, this is sort of a little rant. Earlier in the semester I read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Great book. There's a chapter in that book where he gives his opinion on why indoctrinating children in any religion is (in his mind) considered child abuse. If I remember correctly, his main point was that no child really understands or believes in a religion. Children are not religious. Think back to your own childhood. Even if your parents took you to church with them or made you go to Sunday school, would you say that you were religious in that you tried to cultivate a relationship with God or any other divine being? I'm guessing the answer is no. At the beginning of the semester, my introductory religion class was surveyed by the professor with this exact question. All of us, currently religious or not, conceded that we would not consider ourselves religious as children. Thus, Dawkins believes, and I believe as well, that there are no Christian or Muslim or Jewish children. There are only children of Christian or Muslim or Jewish parents. Dawkins also believes that if a parent tells a child that she is a Catholic, there is a good chance that she will grow up believing in Catholic dogma and never questioning the nature of life and the world, and this brainwashing is child abuse. To teach a child that is wrong to be inquisitive and to want to learn is child abuse. I can see Dawkins' point.

Lately, I have been watching a lot of the TV show Intervention. One thing that I and a friend who was also watching have noticed, is that the addict in every episode we watched had something traumatic to some degree happen in their childhood, and mostly every parent makes the mistake of using religion as a tool to fight their child's addiction. Some parents tell their child that what they are doing is a sin, and they must turn to God so they can live a better life. This usually pushes the addict away. They tend to express feelings of being misunderstood and attacked. In one case about a cutter, the addict was sexually abused as a child and the parents simply "turned to God" and prayed that she would get through it. She ended up severely self-mutilating in her adult life.

These cases from Intervention show how people attempt to use religion to get them through difficult times in their lives. In some situation in life, it helps. But in these situations from the show, it clearly didn't. Otherwise, the families wouldn't be on Intervention in the first place. What these cases show is dangerous. People believe that God can and will fix everything, simply because they believe in Him, because they have asked it of Him, because they are good people. Because they go to church and because they pray and live their life by the Bible. However, something that does not exist cannot actually do anything to help people. In the hope that God will solve their problems, these parents leave their children to suffer in an extreme way. They ultimately end up with mental problems and at times turn to drugs and alcohol in an attempt to feel better. Many end up destroying their lives, because instead of getting their children the help that they need, the parents just sit and watch and pray and hope. This is what religion does. It can cause people to ultimately screw their children over for life. Just another reason for me to be anti-religion.