‘You need to think about death five minutes a day’

A writer named Eric Weiner visited the small Himalayan nation of Bhutan, and was suddenly overcome by shortness of breath, dizziness and numbness in the hands and feet.  Fearing a heart attack or worse, he visited a physician name Dr. Karma Ura, who told him he suffered a panic attack.

“You need to think about death for five minutes every day,” Ura replied. “It will cure you.”

“How?” I said, dumbfounded.

“It is this thing, this fear of death, this fear of dying before we have accomplished what we want or seen our children grow. This is what is troubling you.”

“But why would I want to think about something so depressing?”

“Rich people in the West, they have not touched dead bodies, fresh wounds, rotten things. This is a problem. This is the human condition. We have to be ready for the moment we cease to exist.”

via BBC

Tony Benn’s five questions for the powerful

The family of Tony Benn, an old-time British Labor Party leader, announced today that he died at the age of 88.  Here is one of his favorite sayings:

If one meets a powerful person—Rupert Murdoch, perhaps, or Joe Stalin or Hitler—one can ask five questions:

1. 

   Tony Benn

   What power do you have?

2. Where did you get it?
3. In whose interests do you exercise it?
4. To whom are you accountable?
5. And how can we get rid of you?

Anyone who cannot answer the last of those questions does not live in a democratic system.

via Making Light.

Bertrand Russell on action and thought

Half the useful work in the world consists in combating the harmful work. 

A little time spent in trying to appreciate facts is not time wasted.

.
        ==Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

The wisest words I’ve read this week

.

Cynicism is consent.

.

A weed by any other name…

I found this on bewatts | life in the beautiful valley.

Stirling Newberry’s definitions

Morals are how you treat people you know.

Ethics are how you treat people you don’t know.

via Ian Welsh.

The true and only fairness doctrine

Will Smith on who’s in charge

Good advice from Marcus Tullius Cicero

Cicero

Everyone has the obligation to ponder well his own specific traits of character.

He must also regulate them adequately and not wonder whether someone else’s traits might suit him better.

The more definitely his own a man’s character is, the better it fits him.

Wise words from President Grant

Hat tip to jobsanger.

Voltaire on who rules

Words to live by

You know something is important when…

You know something is important when you’re willing to let someone else take the credit if that’s what it takes to get it done.

via Seth’s Blog.

Howard Zinn on civil obedience

Howard Zinn, who lived from 1922 to 2010, was a famous historian and radical, known for his The People’s History of the United States.

Click on Howard Zinn to learn more about his life and work.

Hat tip for the graphic to Ha! Tea ‘n’ Danger.

The inchworm

The butterfly has wings of silk.
The moth has wings of flame.
The inchworm has no wings at all.
But he gets there just the same.