Practical Religion: Use the Teachings of Christ to Increase Food Supply

In the West, we're all familiar with Christ's miracles — feeding thousands of people with just five loaves of bread and two fish, and so forth. Now we may not be able to perform miracles like that, but using the teachings of Christ and the early Christians, we can increase our food supply and decrease costs if we live in groups. Here's how it works.

Normally, when we live in groups, we use Sharpies to mark up which food is ours, and everybody gets to eat their own food only. However, this is an inefficient way of managing food supply. Instead, use this rule: all the food in the house is community food, provided everyone contributes. This is pretty much the only way to ensure that everyone eats properly. Why? Because when everyone contributes food, people will naturally specialize in what kinds of food they buy. Joe might buy all the vegetables, while Karen buys the grains, and Jeffery may specialize in microwavable instant foods. Because everyone is contributing something, we can rely on other people in the household having the other food we need when we buy only our specialized food. And because we're buying specialized food, we can take advantage of deals and decrease prices by buying in bulk.

Note that people naturally specialize. It isn't necessary to plan out who will buy what food. The system actually works better when people organically decide what food to buy based on a number of factors, including need, price, knowledge, taste, and so forth. But people will end up specializing, and part of the point is to welcome this.

One reason why this works out better for everyone is because the food we buy will be less likely to go bad. Often, we're forced to buy more portions than we need if we are buying just for ourselves. This is especially true with fresh produce. But yet, we must buy the food or we will go hungry. This is less of a problem when we are buying for more than one person.

One subsequent effect of this is that we can take advantage of foods we don't need too often, and increase the richness of the diversity of our food. For instance, we may have a craving for radishes one day. But we know that we won't really want to eat radishes every day. So we buy enough radishes for one person one or two days, which is possible in most supermarkets, while buying the staple foods we need for the rest of our diet. That way, we satisfy our cravings and no food goes to waste.

We can also take advantage of cropping of foods. For instance, if we buy local, there may be an influx of a great deal of specialized food, like say, fresh Kokanee Salmon. Since we know we will all be eating it, we can buy more than we normally would. There will be leftovers, and none will go to waste.

We may balk at this idea because we won't necessarily be catering to our own particular tastes in food. Since we will be forced to eat the food of others, we won't necessarily have any guarantee that we will get our own favorite foods. But if we take a larger view, and look past merely our own tastes, forgiving the trespasses of others onto our food diets, we will begin to understand that our diets will be diversified, which is healthy for us, and that we won't go hungry on a low budget. Because of this, we can free up our money for more interesting activities than just eating every day. We can be more generous and liberal with our overall budgets, because the food budget will be less. All in all, following this system will work out better for everyone.

Practical Religion: Binary Buddhism

I'm sure you've heard of applying Buddhism to improve your spiritual quality. But there are very practical applications as well. For instance, the practice of breathing meditation, in combination with binary counting, can be used to tell time. This can be useful for telling time at a bus stop when there isn't a clock, or for timing sesshins or meditation sessions without a clock or phone or timer.

Here's how it works. First, time how long it takes to breathe in and out twenty-one times. This means one in-breath, one out-breath, times twenty-one. For me, it takes about two minutes. Then, make a strong habit of counting up to twenty-one breaths then returning back to one while doing breathing meditation. Do it like this: "In-breath, out-breath, 1. In-breath, out-breath, 2. ... In-breath, out-breath, 21. In-breath, out-breath, 1."

It will take some attention at first to get used to counting up to twenty-one when you breathe. Here I find the motivation to religiously follow the practice comes in handy. If you are able to count up to twenty-one without skipping numbers and without losing count, it means you're paying attention. If the religious goal of your practice is to know how to pay attention, this can be a strong motivation for keeping track of numbers. Pretty soon, you'll be doing it automatically.

Next comes counting in binary using the fingers. You can count up to 2047 in binary using your fingers. To do this, you must understand the math. In binary, there are only two digits: zero and one. In base-ten, the system we're used to, there are ten digits, and when you get to the last digit (9), you reset back to one in the second column and zero in the first, and so forth. In binary, it's similar, except you reset once you get to one. So, for example, the first four integers in sequence from one to four in binary are, 1, 10, 11, 100.

When counting in binary using the fingers, for the right hand, use the thumb as the first digit, the pointer finger as the second, and so forth. Treat the thumb of the left hand as the sixth digit, and the pointer finger of the left hand as the seventh, and so forth. When the finger is held up, that indicates a one. When it is closed, it indicates a zero. Thus, for the number 1010, which is ten, in your right hand, your pinky will be closed, your ring finger will be open, your middle finger closed, your pointer finger open, and your thumb closed.

You'll want to practice counting with your fingers until you're very proficient at it. The whole idea for the purposes of telling time using the breath is that you are going to count in binary the number of times you reach 21 breaths. Remember, each cycle of 21 breaths (for me, anyway) is 2 minutes. So ten cycles of 21, or 1010 in binary, is equal to 20 minutes. Fifteen cycles, or 1111 in binary, will be 30 minutes. An hour will be 30 cycles, or 11110 in binary (pinky, ring, middle, and pointer fingers up, thumb down).

Depending on the setting, you may not be able to use your hands to count the number of times you reach 21 breaths. For example, if you're leading a meditation session, you won't be able to use your hands. In this case, it's best to visualize counting in binary by holding up imaginary fingers in front of you. One thing which will help you remember which fingers to hold up is to remember that each zero digit represents a dedication to the buddhas, while each one digit represents the body of a new buddha to be dedicated. That way, when the digits switch, the meaning is significant and more easy to remember.

This method is accurate to the minute. If it is less accurate for you, you may breathe more slowly or more quickly. Instead of trying to change the rate of breathing, change the number of breaths in a cycle or the number of minutes each cycle is worth, or both. Work out a system that works for you.

In addition to being useful for telling time, this method also helps improve concentration in general. Concentration has a number of practical benefits, helping you to better do a variety of tasks including studying, listening to lectures, conversation, cooking, etc.

Finding Wonderland

I had a dream one time where a conspiratorial reptilian was harassing me and questioning me, harping on me for quite a long time. Because he was a reptilian, I was completely engaged with him during the confrontation. It was sort of similar to The Scarecrow in Batman Begins, though not quite as frightening in nature.

At one point I simply got tired of the whole thing. So I retreated from the world. The reptilian finally realized this and said, "Ah, it's no use. He's lost in Wonderland." He was right.

What is Wonderland?

We always worry about how fast time flies by us. Years become blurs in the past. Days don't even seem to exist. We can't remember if something happened last month, or three months ago. We have this notion that time goes by faster and faster until we reach the inevitable point of our destruction, having accomplished nothing. The only solution, I think, is to go down the rabbit hole.

I think Phillip Dick was right when he wrote about how we have the capacity to change the course of time. He wrote a story about a few punks who took drugs which changed how time flowed. Now, for me, days go by very slowly. They do not fly by. It is better to do things this way, I think. More fulfilling. And I think everyone has the capacity to slow their time down.

See, usually we get caught up in this notion of becoming financially secure. We want security for our jobs, our homes—we don't even want to entertain the possibility that we'll be without a job or without a home. This may be nice, for a while; we may feel we've accomplished something. But the problem begins when time starts to speed up. Which isn't good.

I think we should lose our jobs and our homes. At least, we should put them at risk. Then we should slow time down until it stops. Once we do that, we will have found Wonderland—a shimmering, still and celestial Wonderland where the Queen of Hearts is nowhere to be found. We will have found the place in the universe outside of time and space. It is the only true world of the forms: where every wished-for thing we ever knew is present, for all eternity, right at our fingertips.

Make no mistake, this is not enlightenment. One can live in the world of time and be enlightened. So Wonderland isn't exactly necessary for us. But don't you think it would be kind of nice to slow things down a little bit? Don't you think it would be pleasant for time to cease slipping through our fingers? I tend to think so, and I think that for our culture, finding Wonderland should be a goal.

The world shouldn't be so boring that we want it to pass us by as quickly as possible. Frankly, I think we are all celestial beings, and a little piece of Wonderland, however we get there, is worth finding.

An Urgent Call to Action!

We all know the exploits of our leaders in Washington. You can't read half a paragraph in the papers but find something amiss. For heaven's sake, we don't even need to step beyond our private life or community sphere to find problems: everywhere are angry egos and their petty manifestos. No one is without an opinion, or a "solution." Every day brings a new pill—red ones, blue ones, white ones, round or oblong—and everyone plays the doctor. But these answer-pills all seem like placebos. Where do they come from? I say they come from the herbs cultivated by good men and women who make up the backbone of this country. But the herbs go to waste: they are chopped down faster than they can grow. It is because there are too many pills! There is only one thing to do, which is what we do best: nothing.

Our lives are drenched in freedom: our egos are enslaved by freedom. We have the freedom to buy hamburgers and doughnuts—and many of us don't even need to raise the cows or farm the wheat. We have the freedom to spend money—this is actually quite significant, because not only does this freedom require money to spend, but places to spend it at, and there are plenty. We have the freedom to speak our mind to the general public and not fear a harsh response from the government—Chinese people do not have that freedom. We have the freedom to travel, the freedom to petition, and the freedom to start a business. We have the freedom not to be Muslim. We have the freedom not to be communist. We have the freedom not to be Christian. And, for long stretches of time, most of us have the freedom not to be bothered. That is the most important freedom of all, which is why we should use it. These freedoms have been granted to us by George Washington's seed and by everyone's photosynthesis. The medicinal plant has grown, and it's due time to let the medicine do its work. What wrong can come if no wrong is done? What wrong is done if we do nothing at all?

Some people say, "Write your Senator! Write your Representative!" But congress, like any mature institution, is a rock. It is mineral-rich, and healthy to grow plants on, but in what direction can a senator move without running face-first into a lobbyist? Or a union president? Or an activist? Or the wrongly-motivated part of his own constituency? Congress is a particularly interesting outcropping of solid rock—a geological specimen. A work of nature, which we should preserve and protect against harmful influences. Ask an environmentalist how to preserve and protect specimens of nature: I am sure, at the very least, he will not say, "develop it and build a mansion on it." We should not try to make our congressmen do our bidding—we should not make congress the house of our opinions. They are representatives; why not leave it at that? If you think you can change Washington, go be a congressman. And good luck to you. When you burn yourself out trying to dig up a giant rock, there is only one sensible course of action left: sit down and be another rock. This is something we CAN do.

No matter what the bumper-sticker says on the car in front of us, no matter what the man says on television, no matter what the tractors and bulldozers and chainsaws and men and women in red-orange shirts do to our wilderness, no matter who we trade insults with on our way to the next hard-earned paycheck, the tree of liberty—nay, the ecosystem of liberty—remains the triumphant emblem of our times. It's not going anywhere, but we are. We are always going places. When we sit still, or lie down to sleep, in our minds, we are still going places. It is no good. Since we have the ability to sit still at our convenience, why not use it? Then we can grow our own trees. But we do not do this. Even I have the audacity to write for two and a half hours about how we should stop doing stuff. (Though I assure you, these ideas were formed in stillness.)

So I urgently call upon all of you to summon all your courage, look your enemy straight in the eye, take a deep breath and, do nothing. Everything is perfect! Sit still, be still, and be happy!

Tree of Liberty

The above images are protected under Creative Commons licenses. The first and second images, entitled "Wild Animal Park" by Chris Ingrassia, are protected under an Attribution license. The third image, entitled "IMG_4415.JPG" by Tom Woodward, is protected under an Attribution ShareAlike license.