Vipassana Meditation: Part IV

This picks up where I last left off a couple weeks ago about my previous meditation experience and preparing for a three-day refresher course. I just got back last night and had to write about it.

After sitting the refresher course I didn’t think I would feel so good again. During the meditation nothing particularly amazing or unusual occurred so I almost didn’t think it was working. I was able to achieve more levels of deeper concentration, and sustain it longer. I felt the bleeding feeling throughout my back of stress and attachments coming lose through much of the course, which I've learned to take as a sign that things are getting better. But I was expecting some crazy shit to happen like the previous time and that really didn’t occur. There was no epiphany, there was no hallucinations. So for some reason I took this to mean that it hadn’t really worked and that the practice had lost its magic on me. Eh, not a complete loss, I probably de-stressed a bit, the food was good, and it was better than a weekend catching up on season whatever of whatever show.

I couldn’t be more wrong. While I fully realized there were consequences to what the practice could provide, I had always been very critical and skeptical about its application and benefit to me once I had returned to the real world. Since I had no plans of becoming a monk and that I have things to do in the real world I needed a system which would actually help me here.

It was upon returning to the real world where all the benefits of my weekend of hard work were realized. Part of the meditation teaches you to control your reactions. That instead of going through this unconscious cycle of reacting one can cut it off before that happens and this will help avoid misery. When one encounter senses, the body has built up a series of reactions to these sensory inputs, conditioning. I'll show you. When a mosquito lands on you, you are trained to swat at it without really thinking about it. There is a sensory perception of feeling the mosquito land on you somewhere, this is usually enough to alert your conscience, followed by a built in evaluation of good or bad, then an emotional and physical response. In the case of the mosquito it goes, there’s a mosquito on my arm (perception), this is a bad thing (evaluation), I’m stressed, annoyed, and worried it’s going to bite me and suck my blood which will leave some swelling and itch for a while, and I may get West Nile Virus (emotional response), I’m going to smack it hoping to kill it but at worst it will go away for the moment (physical response). While one mosquito isn’t going to ruin your day unless it has West Nile Virus, it does leave most everyone noticeably cross for a short period of time, and if that happened every five minutes for an entire day it would definitely start to take its toll. That stress you incur from the one mosquito when multiplied by a large number becomes a significant amount of stress. That can certainly affect your mood, and you might be left wondering why you don't feel better at the end of the day. Modern life isn't swarms of mosquitoes but there are many little stressors which can build up throughout the day. Maybe it’s a beep on your phone each time you get a new message which indicates another obligation that could be stressing you out. It could be the way somebody talks to you. It could be the way that other people drive you feel is adversely affecting you. Many of these things you can't really control. When all these things happen on a daily basis it can aggregate into unhappiness.

Capital Gains Are Ordinary Income to Many

During the last election cycle the issue of unique treatment of capital gains tax surfaced as it was determined that Mitt Romney and many other very wealthy Americans pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries because much of their income is derived from investments and not a salary. Those investments, if held longer than a year prior to their sale are taxed at 15% in most situations which is significantly less than the rate high income earners pay on ordinary income, usually around 35%. The rate is on par with the ordinary income level for a single tax filer who earns $8,926 – $36,250 annually based on 2013 rates.

What makes capital gains so special? A capital gain occurs when an amount received when selling an asset is greater than the amount paid for it. Sale of stock is the most common capital gain, however it includes almost any investment including bonds, real estate, equipment, and works of art but usually do not include personal use items. For tax purposes capital gains have been distinguished from ordinary income since 1913 though the rate at which they are taxed has changed several times since then. The drop to current level of capital gains tax of 15% was achieved through Bush II era legislation and represents the lowest it has ever been in US history. Though I don’t recall the Occupy movement ever claiming it as a specific gripe it well should have, and in 2011 Warren Buffett, one of America’s wealthiest (and most successful) investors, added to wealth disparity discussion when he claimed that the favorable treatment he receives on his earnings is unfair

A Rich Man’s Game

With a base in long-term investments capital gains disproportionately affect the rich, and luckily this is not a significantly disputed fact. However, it is my belief that this favorable treatment is unethical and detrimental to the collective welfare of our nation, which will be disputed by some. I propose that capital gains should be taxed just like regular income because after I disprove all the reasons the rich say it is necessary, all that’s left is an unfair mechanism which systematically helps rich to get richer.

The proponents of capital gains getting taxed lower than ordinary income rates usually do so under the guise that it sparks investment which sounds like it could be accurate. Lower taxes on an activity increases the propensity to do it, but it’s actually an argument based only on speculation. When you apply the policy to the behavior options of the investor the capital gains tax makes no difference in the level of investment.

Regulatory Capture and Cognitive Capture

I was familiar with the concept of regulatory capture, the idea that an industry can persuade the government, or another entrusted regulator, to not do their job of regulating. This is usually done through the vast amounts of influence the business carries in the money it generates and it can be practically done through several means including lobbying, financial contributions (legal bribery), bribery (the illegal kind), insider appointment, blackmail, and situational/political leverage. This leads to a very favorable climate for the industry, allowing it to go on doing whatever it was planning on doing without interruption, and over time can even lead to opportunities to push the boundaries of its operations further since it can go on without any real consequences. This creates situations where lobbyists paid by the industry actually write legislation with built in loop holes so both the industry and the politician can come out winners. The industry gets the rules in place, or lack thereof, that it wants while the politician will boost their reputation claiming they are regulating or fixing something with their Swiss cheese legislation. This is the relationship we have in the United States between our corporate world and our politicians. It’s essentially the same relationship as bribery and corruption and it has existed for just about as long as both industry and regulation have. However, I was never acutely aware of the specific term regulatory capture, and I feel better now that I know it and can quickly refer to the concept by recalling this term.

There is a related term called cognitive capture, which I recently came across and it describes quite well what I’ve been feeling about US society on an even large scale, and really global society as well, for some time but didn’t quite have the vocabulary to say. The term is borrowed from the psychological condition where the mind cannot perceive even important things in its field of senses because it is too distracted with other things in that field. In its borrowed definition is means that nearly everyone who is connected to society is too mesmerized by the modern capitalist world, and in some sense bribed by it, that they can’t see the injustice and plutocracy of it. And even worse, the mind can’t realize the distractions are systematic, intentional, and yes, even logical.

Vipassana Meditation: Part III

Part I and Part II of this epic tale

Day 7 –So I woke up with a realization that after that literally insane experience when falling asleep that I definitely needed to see this process through. I had obviously touched on something and found some real scary things inside of me.

Even if it was making strange things happen, I was learning a whole bunch and that these new experiences and challenges were just the sort of things I wanted, and ultimately the type of thing that is on a road to a rare destination. I went to morning meditation with renewed energy and determination to get better at the technique and see what else there was I could learn. Even if I thought I was destroying some of the sankharas that I liked, I determined that I probably couldn’t do any long-term damage to my ambition, my sex-drive, or anything else worth caring about in just 10 days so I was probably going to be fine. Besides, I had committed to do this for 10 days, so I was going to give it a full 10 days.

But in another immediate twist of attitudes, and despite waking up so resolved that I was definitely seeing the process through, by the afternoon I had once again decided that I was going to leave. I thought I had reached the limit of how far I wanted to go…

Vipassana Meditation: Part II

Part I in case you missed it and want to start from the beginning...

Day 3 – I began to make up personalities about the other people who were taking the course with me. Without the ability to talk or gesture or make eye contact, you just had to assume a lot about people if you wanted to give them any sort of identity. I determined that I thought roommate #2 was really pretentious and didn’t like me. I was dead wrong about this. He turned out to be a very nice humble guy. I was kind of annoyed by anyone else in the class who would breathe loudly or make lots of noise in the meditation hall. I felt like they had no social awareness and I wished that they would learn how to be still and silent so that everyone else could focus on their meditation. It turned out that by Day 5 everyone had gotten pretty good at doing this and found a way for themselves to be comfortable (and silent!) during the class.

Vipassana Meditation: Part I

Last August after quitting my job and ridding myself of all other obligations in the world, I was able to take some time from what used to be my very busy and hectic life to go on 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat. Most times I would try to explain this concept to someone they would respond with some variation “Oh, sounds like Eat, Pray, Love.” While I feel it makes my experience seem generic, and perhaps even a bit girly since I don’t usually personally relate to storylines told from a female perspective, it undermined my true motives for trying it as many assumed I was inspired by images of Julia Roberts, the lead actress in the film version of Eat, Pray, Love; Pretty Woman; and some Hugh Grant and Richard Gere movies. While I currently feel being compared to Julia Roberts is more of an insult than a compliment, and having never read the book or seen film, I was insulted by the notion. Perhaps someday I will get around to watching the movie or reading the book for an actual comparison and when I will do I might admit that it isn't such an insult. But currently that's not the case.  

I think that an experience this interesting and personal should travel by word of mouth and not be mass marketed. But if it inspires people to take action in their life, I guess it really isn't a problem. For better or for worse that’s how good stories have been spread since the days of the Bible. So I should probably just get used to it.

Since this whole idea is really based on my own perceptions and experiences I really want to explain the concepts as best as I can in my interpretation. There are web pages you can find that will explain more about Vipassana meditation and explains it in a way perhaps more suitable to those who teach it, particularly S.N. Goenka, the primary person responsible for establishing many of these meditation centers around the globe, but since my purpose is to retell the story as I perceived and experienced it, I feel for this case I should explain this in my own words. Also, just as a warning, reading this may lead you to the conclusion that I'm a crazy person, and I'm OK with that.

The Fallacy of the Free Market

The free market is a brilliant idea. It, and many ideas stemming from it, have garnered countless Nobel Prizes and helped earn fortunes a million times over. Basic supply and demand curves which you read about in your Intro to Economics class in high school paint a simple, pretty picture which shows how a free market through many individuals acting in their own interests can find a price and quantity output efficiency point for any good or service. Based on cost to supply and the demand to purchase prices and quantities will naturally negotiate through the actions of the buyers and sellers and arrive at the efficiency point. The free market has been essential in my understanding of the world as I use it, often daily, in decisions and conversations about business, politics, international relations, poverty, you name it.

The issue is that today the free market frequently becomes something associated with political parties, with one claiming to believe in the virtues of the free market and therefore against any sort of government regulation, while an opposing party will propose some sort of regulation and in turn be labelled a non-believer in free markets that hates capitalism.

The Last Word on Gay Marriage

So the last leg standing for the ‘hetero-only marriage’ crowd, and at this point I’ll say it’s barely standing, like, starting to lean pretty noticeably, revolves around the word marriage. I think most rational thinkers in this country, and everyone who works in a modern generally non-discriminatory work environment, and everyone who has ever braved going to a gay bar even if it was just because they had the best drink prices, have generally agreed on a couple of things. They have agreed that gays are in fact people, that they have rights that allow them live lives of their choosing, and that they can contribute to society in a useful way. This does not mean everyone immediately wants to adopt the stereotypical gay lifestyle, and the gays I imagine would be offended if everyone did, but it is an acceptance of the fact that the sexual preferences of an individual does not necessarily make that person invalid. Many people have taken this thought and determined that for these reasons gays should be granted the same rights as everyone else including the right to marry the person they love even if they are of the same sex.

Junk Mail: A Problem We Can Fix

I’ve never been the type who was obsessed with tradition. Perhaps it was due to a bit of family dysfunction that tradition was never solidly engrained, or maybe it was just that life changed and the places where I lived changed so often that things were never too rooted. Rather than contemplate this much more, I will just call it a blessing as it has allowed me to be flexible, and to not look at things, no matter how long they’ve been around, as permanent. One thing we don't need around any longer is junk mail.

Junk mail is awful. It is so awful, that I think it should be illegal. Some just accept this as part of life. It’s been there, maybe not forever, but quite some time that it is now just a mainstay in life. I disagree though. I hate it. It is an out-dated form of marketing and it creates a burden for those who do not want it and for the environment in general.

The Last Word on Toilet Seats

I am writing this post to show that while I prefer to talk about intelligent things, some things that I figured would be common knowledge by now need explanation. I am also writing this post because I’m angry. That is actually why I write most of these posts. I am angry at stupid things that get posted on the internet that are then reposted all over my damn Facebook: http://funny2.com/mensrules.htm Men’s Rules for Women (I know this post was from a while ago, but someone posted it again and made me hate it all over again). I was upset on the first entry. Primarily because it must have been written by some unintelligent stubborn man who is making the rest of us look bad with archaic notions of gender roles. Second, the toilet seat should not be a problem anymore in this day and age. We are completely screwing up if we think that this is men vs. women battle. It’s not. It’s a situational battle and an attempt to overcome what amounts to a semi-awkward situation when we realize that there are more people in the world than toilets and therefore one of the most private and disgusting things that we all do has to occur at a shared location. Yes, men and women have different needs to these devices and we have collectively been intelligent enough to adopt designs that work for both genders. However, for some reason this is still an issue, one I would like bury now. 

First, here are a couple overall rules that, since we’re getting really meticulous here, probably need explaining:

Rule #1 - Guys when urinating while standing should always lift the seat up prior, it doesn’t matter which toilet you are faced with, this is universally true. If it has a seat, lift it.

Rule #2 – Cleanliness is always more important than general manners, and being clean should be the most essential manner.

Rule #3 - The long standing tradition where I come from is that you should always leave the seat down because women prefer it, I believe because it means that they don’t have to do any prep-work in order to use the facility. I imagine that polite also has something to do with it for instance, if you are in a private residence you should generally leave the environment as it was left to you, much like a nature preserve. That means if the seat was down and the cover was down, leaving it in a state where just the seat is down is generally inadequate. Every time one enters a restroom with the intent on using the facilities for their designed purpose, I presume they would generally prefer that things be in a polite respectful order, that would especially apply to the proprietor of the restroom but also any other regular users. This, however, is where we can run into our first predicament. What gets lost in this argument is that women prefer to have the seat down so it is ready for use, but more important than the position of the seat, is the cleanliness of the seat which is often taken for granted. Having urine or indirect toilet water (via splash back) anywhere on the seat, but particularly the top surface is a much more severe problem than a seat that is out of the users desired position. So keep these things in mind when evaluating your actions. So to sum up Rule #3: Always consider the interests of other users of the facility.

A Little Story on Karma

So there I was driving around with a weak key chain for my car key. It was an old loop that had probably been around about as long as the car had which is about 20 years. The only problem is that key chains back then weren’t built as well as the cars and extended periods in pockets and other cramped spaces had altered the integrity of the barely overlapped single looped ring. 

Over the past few weeks I had been unusually upset in parking lots quite frequently noticing that generally people don’t really know how to park a car and that they don’t care about the extent that their parking job might be affecting someone else. So on this particular evening while parking my car in a hotel parking while I was traveling for work, I happened upon another careless park job. Someone in a regular sized car had parked significantly over the edge of their space rendering the one to the right unusable by anything larger than a sideways smart car or a motorcycle, of which I was driving neither. Inconsiderate parking is such a pet peeve!

So I devised a plan. Actually it was really more of a reaction to the thought, “Screw this guy.” Since it was at a hotel in a white collar working city on a weekday, the odds were that this was a male between the age of 27 and 50 who was staying alone. And the man was wealthy enough to afford such a great car, or rent one, so he probably cared little about his effect on the more trivial people in life, e.g. those parking next to him. With these facts considered I used my skills as a former car dealership lot-boy to make this guy’s day a little more inconvenient.  Knowing he would have to enter from the left side of his car, I drastically over-parked in the empty space to the left running into his space and leaving about four inches between our doors. Since I was alone, I didn’t have to worry about using the passenger door of my car. If he was an inconsiderate fat man, this would frustrate him greatly, whereas I had enough space to dance the Virginia reel out the driver’s side of my car.