Concerning the present conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, keep in mind three things. First, what’s called the Dangrek genocide or Preah Vihear pushback, resulting in the death of many mostly sino-Khmer refugees who wee denied asylum by the Kingdom of Thailand in June 1979. If one travels north of those Preah Vihear cliffs, one finds one of the ancient Khmer capitals, Phimai. Its Prasat or temple ruins are a prototype to Angkor Wat’s construction and is still a dominant cultural exponent in that much Cambodian influenced area, now situated on du jour Thai soil. Second, I mention this to suggest that any disputing of present day borders based on cartography and the so-called watershed natural boundaries, designated by French colonialists, to further reduce Cambodia is grossly unfair and absurd. This, as the Khmer people’s land once extended far beyond the Dangrek Mountains, its watershed plateau and, significantly, included what is now on maps as Ayutthaya and Thonburi. Third, in the modern era, the boundary disputes arising out of confusion caused by colonial cartography and happening yet once again, and being generated by aggressive Thai maneuvers, has already been settled twice before in favor of Cambodia. As is told replete in the following Wiki encapsulation: “On 15 July 2008 about 50 Thai soldiers moved into the Keo Sikhakirisvara Pagoda vicinity located in Cambodia's territory about 300 metres (980 ft) from the Temple of Preah Vihear. Thailand claimed the demarcation uncompleted for the external parts of the area adjacent to the temple, which was adjudged to be Cambodian by a nine to three decision of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 1962. By August 2008, the dispute had expanded to the 13th century Ta Moan temple complex 153 kilometres (95 mi) west of Preah Vihear (C 14°20'57"N 103°15'59"E), where Cambodia has accused Thai troops of occupying a temple complex it claims is on Cambodian land. The Thai foreign ministry denied that any troops had moved into that area until several were killed in an encounter in April 2011. An agreement was reached in December 2011 to withdraw troops from the disputed area. On 11 November 2013, the ICJ declared in a unanimous decision that the 1962 ICJ judgment had awarded all of the promontory of Preah Vihear to Cambodia and that Thailand had an obligation to withdraw any Thai military, police, or guard forces stationed in that area.’ However, it rejected Cambodia's argument that the judgment had also awarded the hill of Phnom Trap (three kilometers northwest of the temple) to Cambodia, finding that it had made no ruling on sovereignty over the hill.”
19/7
‘Hell is other people.’ That was Sartre’s conclusion in his play, No Exit. Others, are just misery until you learn the whole point to them is that their misery is yours. A problem left unsolved. Tell them, “Misery is wasted on the miserable,” as Charles Grodin tells Louis CK in ‘the TV series Louie,’ to promote his true feelings. This is because feelings are no other than oneself, as much as there’s any real self having them. So why review them? Why not just accept and ‘be’ them as much as ‘being’ anything else? It’s like any job. When you first see a person, place, or thing that needs help or improvement, your instinct may might be to avoid it. Call it laziness. But, if one has moral disciple and diligence, the challenge of the necessity to take up the work instantly ignites motivation.
21/7
The container and the contained are the same. They are both form and emptiness at the same time. They both exist and do not exist at the same time. We see this in a series of dreams. They’re mostly covered or happening indoors even if outside. There’s an artificial seeming atmosphere. Within that is a building. Within that are rooms. Within these rooms are often things we want to do but they’re either thwarted or wholly accessible. We are multiple people at the same time granted wish fulfilling scenarios covered or murky in their nature. Clarity is at a premium and doesn’t dawn until the dream changes into a vision. Or we wake but remain, to some degree, unconscious. What’s characteristic is mostly there’s no pure witness to machination. Little or no awareness to what is deemed ‘intelligence.’ To awake within or without this awareness however is what’s called meditation. Awakening should be all of our main concern. But we live in a universe of sleepy heads, all of whom need a better alarm clock, as famously pronounced by the Fourth Way Master, PD Ouspensky.
Similarly, the internet is also a cover, a virtual reality within frames, even as the great expanse of a natural habitat is offered. These often gorgeous vistaramas of places few people have seen are boxed, ultimately, within our own intelligence. Because this so-called intelligence, or information is memories of aggregated sense experience, arising with little or no awareness that that’s all it is, it’s obviously bounded. This purview of an alleged ‘reality’ is a step backward from the awakening to which we should all aspire. A conventional experiencing of nature, through aggregated sense consciousness, is a superior place the awareness of our mentation can occur as it’s less virtual or dreamlike. In terms of meditation, one needs to eat the sky and not simply drool over it.
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