The Passion for truth and Justice – An evening with Amy Goodman

(On April 16, 2009, Amy Goodman gave a speech in Palo Alto, as part of her book tour that was co-sponsored by Peninsula Peace and Justice Center.)

She looked frail and petite. In a flower-printed dress, she had an easy-going smile that softens her penetrating eyes. It is the familiar face you saw on TV or poster, but much softer and approachable. However, when she started to talk on the podium, she became something deeply powerful.

Amy Goodman started with a couple of contemporary topics: healthcare reform and war in Afghanistan. She pointed out how single-payer system was never formally discussed by Obama administration, and tens of thousands of troop were added to Afghanistan war. In her unflinching criticism of the current administration, I saw her familiar independent and truth telling spirit. That’s the hallmark of her radio program Democracy Now!, a program that is fiercely independent and always tells the uncomfortable truth. As Goodman dwelled on these public topics with no promotion of herself, you feel in the presence of greatness. From her radio program, I knew she was sincere and tirelessly promoting truth and justice. Only from her lecture, I started to know how devoted and passionate she was for the cause of justice.

Story after story, Amy Goodman told the heroic acts people made in history and are making today. She mentioned how a mother of a solider who died in Iraq spoke out, how that mother brought photographers and video man to meet her son’s coffin at the airport, shedding light on the death of a war. Goodman mentioned a courageous high school student who delivered a letter to George W. Bush, saying “We do not torture”. Goodman talked about her own experience of covering protest in St Paul for republican convention and was hit and pushed to the ground by the police, arm held back and arrested. That’s all because she stepped onto the frontline and be there to report the controversial actions.

Goodman retold stories of activists in the history, from Fredrick Douglas, the abolitionist to Susan Anthony, the woman rights movement leader. From Rosa Park to Martin Luther King, Jr.. Then all the way to contemporary heroes such as Noam Chomsky. She brought back the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. by recounting how King gave his mountain top speech the night before he was assassinated. She talked how King spoke out against Vietnam War a year before then and was ridiculed by news media at that time.

She talked about the responsibility of a journalist of speaking the whole truth and bringing all opinions to the table. She talked about how media is a big kitchen table around the globe where people share discussions.

Amy Goodman is gifted with incredible voice. It is musical, powerful and penetrating. You feel like listening to a great drama, or a theatre performance. There is not one moment you feel bored. Every story she recounted was deeply engrossing. The one-hour speech passed quickly with the whole audience listening quietly, broken only by occasional applauses for her speech.

We sat in a large church building, where every seat is filled by people coming to hear Goodman’s talk. As  she preached to this sympathetic audience, most of whom are members of local peace groups, I cannot help wondering if her topics have already become mainstream. Peace, truth and justice are principles everyone can agree on. People feel good about themselves by talking about these topics. However, it will be much harder to preach the topic of gun control, where this country is filled with noisy views and misinformation provided by NRA. When we stand against gun violence, it is much harder than standing for civil rights or women’s rights, where a group of people can identify themselves and come together. The victims of gun violence spread around all groups and there is no easy way to bring them together. This is why bringing sensible gun law to this country is so hard because there is no identifiable group to push the movement.

Amy Goodman says, “Democracy is messy”. Everything we struggle to bring to fruit will be messy. Social change requires constant fight, personal devotion and unwavering faith. As I start the journey of reducing gun violence in this country, I am inspired by Amy Goodman. Each of us can make a difference, if we only give ourselves.

Wayne Dyer vs. Dalai Lama

I have been a long-time follower of Wayne Dyer. When I was a freshman in college, I was captivated by his book Your Erroneous Zone (Chinese version). The book made me feel good and relieved me from mild depression. In later years, I read almost all his books and attended his lectures. I tried to apply his teaching to my life, and identified very much with his spiritual philosophy where there is a universal God that is loving. However, I found my personal life did not benefit from following Wayne Dyer’s teaching. In several cases, his teaching led to wrong actions and judgment.

This led to serious doubt. Why is Dyer’s teaching not effective for me? Wayne Dyer speaks with such certainty, as if his teaching is universal truth. It gives a lot of comfort in the beginning because someone already figured out an answer to your problem. But you pay a dear price after finding out that answer is worse than what you can come up with by yourself.

On the contrary, Dalai Lama does not claim he has answer to your problems. When pressed by an audience on some specific issue, he simply said “I don’t know.” Then he laughed. His laugh was so simplistic and genuine that you feel for him. Dalai Lama understands the complexity of human problems. By not claiming that he has the answer, he empowers others to make decision for themselves.

Dalai Lama is one of the most humble and unpretentious person in the world. This is because he has an enlightened concept on his own importance. “In Buddhism”, he said, “We try to eliminate Self”. Therefore he has not a single trace of self importance. This is how he can laugh and joke with anyone he meets, be that a dignitary or a cleaning person. He lacks any pretense that most people have. Without the sense of “self”, Dalai Lama does not worry how others perceive him when he makes mistakes. Thus he can freely reach out and make deep connection with people. In this man, you perceive deep congruity and honesty. This is the healthiest state of human existence. By watching him and learning from his lack of pretense, we enable ourselves to connect with others. Thus we create more connection and more happiness in our life.

Dalai Lama has a realistic view on success or achieving goals. He views himself as simply doing small things to help others. He does not view himself as a deity but rather a “simple Buddhist monk”.

There are some similarity between Wayne Dyer and Dalai Lama. Dyer emphasizes meditation, and a generic God concept which he calls “the source”. He talks about the importance of love and compassion. He talks about dealing with suffering from inside. All of these topics are mentioned by Dalai Lama, and are part of Buddhism teaching.

Both are excellent public speakers. Wayne Dyer can speak in front of a large audience with lots of humor and stories. He can speak for 2 hours without showing tiredness. Dalai Lama can hold a 20,000 audience captive, with his humor, candor and thoughtful ideas. People are filled with joy and inspiration after his talk.

Wayne Dyer has a lot of compassion for others, and he generously gives that to others he meets. He raises funding for PBS, and donates proceeds to the public broadcasting.  After one of his lectures, I approached him to chat. Before I began my story, he gave me a big warm hug. After listening to my story of immigrating to US from China, he said, “Do stay. We need you here.” Tears came to my eyes. For many years, I was asked by so many Americans on when I will go back to my home country. Dyer was the first person who expressed his welcome.

However, there is fundamental difference between Wayne Dyer and Dalai Lama. While Dalai Lama is very worldly (besides teaching Buddhism): engaging in a real political cause for Tibetan people and meeting world leaders to raise awareness, Wayne Dyer limits himself only on spreading self-help messages: his main audience is his believers who read his book or attend his seminars. While Dalai Lama promotes the idea of no “self”, a true selfless giving to others, Wayne Dyer promotes the way to personal success and personal worthiness. While Dalai Lama proclaims that he has no real answer to complex human emotional problems, Wayne Dyer indicates he has the right answers. He speaks with such definiteness that leads to simplicity of dealing with our complex life.

Dalai Lama teaches by his own example. By projecting deep compassion to people, he calms you and frees you. Much of our energy is spent on chasing love, which is deeply needed in our life. Dalai Lama gives to people the true unconditional love through his words and interaction. He provides the ultimate answer to our worldly problems—love and compassion.

If you want to learn more about Dalai Lama, check out this documentary movie 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama. It has actual interviews, and will give you a glimpse of Dalai Lama’s personality: Calm, loving, humorous, and free.

A Life of Service

Gandhi was originally a lawyer. He left India for South Africa to search for legal work.  If he just praticed law, he might be a good lawyer, but would never have his name known around the world. Instead, Gandhi found his calling by helping poor Indian people to sue their abusive employers, by organizing events to overturn the discrimitative law against Indians. He was selfless, devoting and hardworking in engaging the cause. In doing so, he found his calling and true enjoyment.

Combined with great personality: truthfulness, holding no grudge against individual, and rejecting wealth, in addition to his eloquence in writing and speech and tireless persistence, Gandhi became a leader of a movement. By giving himself to serving others, he arises to greatness.

Gandhi also mentioned how he nursed his dying brother-in-law and gave all his care to this man until his death. He had since discovered his enjoyment for nursing. This is another example of serving.

Later Gandhi devoted his life to the cause of India’s independence, going through all the hardship and scacrifice. But he succeeded. He became inspiration for all the nonviolence movement around the world.

We can all aspire that greatness by dedicating ourselves to the serice of others. It requires true unselfishness. It requires spiritual awakening that we are not on this world alone.

Charles Darwin and his Theory

His famous book The Origin of Species was published in 1859, about 150 years ago. Yet, the writing is so lucid and prose so vivid that you feel like reading a contemporary book. Even more powerfully is the argument and evidence he presented. Darwin covered almost all kinds of species on the earth. From plants to pigeons, and to cats and dogs, he exhaustively studied their patterns, varieties and change. He collected the same plants from 18 different countries to check out their local patterns. He participated in pigeon society to study the domestic pigeons’ sub-species and the change of their body after selection. He carefully studied insects and their interaction with flowers in the natural world.

I am awed by the depth and breadth that Darwin undertook to prove his theory. No species is out of his scope, and no variety is beyond his perception. The theory he put forth, is not a casual conjecture, but a solid scientific conclusion. It is backed by his decades of data collection and evidence sifting, and summarized in this wonderful book.

Darwin wrote, “it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts, might come to the conclusion that each species had not been independently created, but had descended from other species.” He started to ask the question in 1837 after he returned from a ship tour around the globe. He was not satisfied with the mere explanation of environment influence, but searched for a more coherent theory. He worked on his theory for 5 years, then gained more confidence. “From that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object.” His book was finally published after 22 years of dedication on this subject.

Today, the theory of evolution is pursued and enriched by geneticists, by behavior biologists and by epidemic researchers. Darwin’s theory fundamentally changed our view of the world. His thorough study created a scientific branch that withholds fact checking and becomes more powerful over time. How much we owe a man for his dedication, his deep and thorough study, and his breadth. His eloquent writing is still a joy to read today and a monument to inspire.

Related link:

http://naturalpatriot.org/2008/02/12/the-man-who-changed-the-world/

Meryl Streep

When she was young, she was beautiful, radiant and sweet.
When she is older, she is graceful, elegant and calming.
Her beauty has that lasting grace, never decreasing with age.

In every of her movies, her gives such outstanding performance that you are completely mesmerized. She can be a dying mother, yet still makes you feel her beauty (One True Thing). She can be a closed-up nun, yet you still care for her (Doubt). The talented Meryl Streep is such an unusual woman.

Among the Hollywood stars, Meryl Streep is the rare one who maintains an intact family and grow older with her husband and children together. He maturity is probably what makes a lasting marriage possible, which requires compromise and unselfishness.

Having the most nomination for Oscar and two-time Oscar winner, Meryl Streep is incredibly humble. She showed no vanity. She is funny, natural and at peace with herself. On the contrary Maddona is always trying to prove herself, her youth and her sexual appeal. All of these are external and can go with ages. It is sad that Maddona did not find her own peace and still chases the illusion of youth by dating younger man and recklessly breaking up her marriage.  On the contrary, Meryl Streep is fully grounded. She does not have to be “young” to be beautiful. She doesn’t have to be a sex icon to be attractive.

My favorite movie of Meryl Streep is Out of Africa, in which she played a brave European woman who set her foot in Africa and became an entrepreneur and pioneer. The woman in the movie is remarkably resourceful and courageous. She is also an excellent manager who leads her staff of household and employees of plantation. She built schools and created clinics. Abandoned by her husband, she finds her new happiness and fully enjoyed her life. Meryl Streep portrayed the heroine in such flawless way that you almost feel it is herself. As you watch her talking to the young African boy, as you see her overcome grief after her lover died, as you followed her in her ride to war frontier, you cannot help but deeply admire this woman.

Meryl Streep is my hero. She sets a standard for what is possible for professional achievement and personal fulfillment. She shows how a person can balance a family with an achieving career. With her remarkabe and consistent excellence in silverscreen through several decades, she brings so much joy to our life.