The "Don't-know Mind" [A Clean Slate] - by Seung Sahn

The "Don't-know Mind" *

[A clean slate]
  by 

Zen Master Seung Sahn Soen-sa
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Throw away all opinions, all likes and dislikes, and only keep the mind that doesn’t know… Your before-thinking mind, my before-thinking mind, all people’s before-thinking minds are the same. This is your substance. 
Your substance, my substance, and the substance of the whole universe become one. So the tree, the mountain, the cloud, and you become one… 
The mind that becomes one with the universe is before thinking. Before thinking there are no words. “Same” and “different” are opposites words; they are from the mind that separates all things.

The Three Pillars of Zen's Don't-Know Mind
Zen practice … requires great faith, great courage, and great questioning.
What is great faith? Great faith means that at all times you keep the mind which decided to practice, no matter what. It is like a hen sitting on her eggs. She sits on them constantly, caring for them and giving them warmth, so that they will hatch. If she becomes careless or negligent, the eggs will not hatch and become chicks. So Zen mind means always and everywhere believing in myself…
Great courage … means bringing all your energy to one point. It is like a cat hunting a mouse. The mouse has retreated into its hole, but the cat waits outside the hole for hours on end without the slightest movement. It is totally concentrated on the mouse-hole. This is Zen mind — cutting off all thinking and directing all your energy to one point.
Great questioning … If you question with great sincerity, there will only be don’t-know mind.

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 * Source: "Dropping Ashes on the Buddha" - The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn

 

Deep in the Gilded Age - by TPO

Deep in the Gilded Age 

- by TPO -
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  "What is the chief end of man?--to get rich. In what way?--dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must."
-- Mark Twain-1871

 
The Rise of the Modern-day "Gilded Age"
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Between the years 1870 - 1900, it was common to observe poor people work as slaves or laborers under the rich, who exploited them to work hard in deplorable conditions, and paid them meager wages, while retaining the profits. This made the rich richer, and the poor poorer.

The Gilded Age was the encapsulation of the unfettered capitalism present at that time, e.g., the railroad company of Jay Gould and the oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller. Individuals controlled entire capitalistic ventures and reaped the profits, while the employees of the venture were given fixed low wages, thus deepening the chasm between the rich and the poor.

The Return of "Gilded Age" with a Vengeance 

(beginning in the early 1980's and into the present day)
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- Unregulated Corporate Capitalism, especially the poorly regulated financial industry

- Union busting being done by the government at the behest of corporations

- Unheard-of levels of Income  Inequality through systematic attacks on the middle class by plutocrats

- Citizens United essentially allows corporations and plutocrats to openly buy elections

-An aggressively partisan Supreme Court that takes interpretation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to illogically logical lows

- Violations of Civil Liberties ... eg, the abuses of the Patriot Act

- Voter repression by means of voter ID laws and the questionable gerrymandering practices of some States

-The promotion of anti-immigration, xenophobia, and the scapegoating of the powerless for the current problems of society.