Author | Lightnews

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 11h

The larger and wealthier a church/temple is, the more likely it is to treat you like a corporation -- to use tech to profile and monitor you, in order to extract money from you and maybe surveil you for the govt. Spirituality is in your heart, not in a building.

youtube.com/shorts/fpIrS...

Churches Are Using Facial Recognition on You #surveillance #cctv #privacy

YouTube video by Proton

youtube.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 11h

I find it suspicious that, a few years ago, the Tor/Tails Project badmouthed Whonix (their Canadian competitor), without providing evidence. Whonix has several security features Tails doesn't, and no US govt funding, which could be threatening to Tails.

blog.torproject.org/tor-heart-wh...

Tor at the Heart: Whonix | Tor Project

UPDATE, AUGUST 2020 - Since the writing of this blog post, the Tor Project Community has become...

blog.torproject.org

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 11h

The Telegraph in India (Kolkata) blocks Tor. I guess they want to help repressive regimes (eg, China). It's strange for a newspaper to do this.

www.telegraphindia.com

Telegraph India | Latest News, Top Stories, Opinion, News Analysis and Comments

Read Latest News on Politics, Business, Sports, Bollywood, Technology, and Science on The Telegraph India. Stay with us!

www.telegraphindia.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 11h

Although gold is a good hedge against societal failure, its value does decrease sometimes, it pays no dividends or interest, & it can be stolen. Other useful hedges include: land/real-estate, inflation-protected bonds (TIPS, etc), intl bonds & currencies, & crypto.
www.dailymirror.lk/news-feature...

Gold in Sri Lanka: The Ultimate Safe Haven for Wealth and Stability - News Features | Daily Mirror

Discover why gold remains Sri Lanka’s most trusted safe haven amid inflation, rupee weakness, and global uncertainty. Learn how liquidity, scarcity, and stability make gold essential for 2025 investor...

www.dailymirror.lk

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 1d

As I understand, some Buddhist monks/nuns participate in politics in Sri Lanka, today, because of Anagārika Dharmapāla. Only Buddha himself is qualified to change the Vinaya, and Buddha was clear that monks/nuns shouldn't participate in politics (cf last post, about Bhikkhu Vinaya, Saṅghādisesa 13).

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 1d

'...a man of depraved conduct... He practises wrong modes of livelihood. ...running messages and errands for kings, ministers of state, householders, etc. [A modern example would be participating in political campaigns]' (Bhikkhu Vinaya, Saṅghādisesa 13).

www.dailymirror.lk/expose/How-a...

How a Buddhist monk braved torture to pursue political dream - Expose | Daily Mirror

Following the accusation levelled against the former Member of Parliament, Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thera, over the alleged abduction and intimidation of General Secretary of the Ape Janabala Pakshaya,...

www.dailymirror.lk

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 1d

I could easily devote an entire blog to how the rich and powerful screw the poor (but I won't). Another example...

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/w...

London Became a Global Hub for Phone Theft. Now We Know Why.

www.nytimes.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 1d

It took my 65-year-old mother, who is still quite mentally capable, months to understand the US govt's Medicare programme. And, though the govt says things like 'she earned it' from having a long career, she has to pay $20-200/month, for each of the five parts of Medicare, which is very expensive.

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 1d

See how elaborate corporate attempts to screw the poor (and be racist/nationalistic) are... hiring cheap workers in foreign countries to remotely operate robots in wealthier countries, until AI is good enough to replace even the foreign workers.

restofworld.org/2025/philipp...

Japanese convenience stores are hiring robots run by workers in the Philippines

Filipino tele-operators remotely control Japan’s convenience store robots and train AI, benefiting from an uptick in automation-related jobs.

restofworld.org

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 1d

'Amazon executives believe the company can avoid hiring more than 160,000 workers in the United States by 2027 through robotic automation [and 600,000 by 2033].'

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/t...

Amazon Plans to Replace More Than Half a Million Jobs With Robots

www.nytimes.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 2d

Religious missionaries to other countries sometimes use coercive tactics, such as 'if you let us build this church, and if you say you've converted to our religion, we'll use our money or technology to dig the well your family needs to survive' (rhetorical).

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 2d

The Guardian seems to be running this story because people around the world are interested in fighting cybercrime and human trafficking, not because they care about the genocide happening in Myanmar.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Thousands detained as Myanmar military raids notorious KK park scam compound

Myanmar's military moved in to tackle a major online scam operation near the Thailand border, state media reported

www.theguardian.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 2d

I wouldn't call 90% of Papua New Guineans' having converted to Christianity a 'moment of national pride'. Colonialism is alive and well.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

‘Moment of national pride’ as Peter ToRot becomes Papua New Guinea’s first saint

Thousands celebrate across the country and in Rome after Pope Leo canonised Peter ToRot in what the prime minister called a ‘historic moment of pride, faith and inspiration’

www.theguardian.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 2d

Most humans' inability to stop doing things they want to do which are harmful to the environment might be what, ultimately, kills us.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

Delhi awakes to a toxic haze after Diwali as pollution season begins

Air breathed by people in the city categorised as ‘severe’ in quality after fireworks contribute to thick smog

www.theguardian.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, working class people are gullible: we've been brainwashed to accept (indeed, to desire) whatever the rich and powerful feed us. Now that the elites can replace us with AI and robots, they're using that same brainwashing to replace us.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Joke’s on you, fleshbag! Channel 4’s first AI presenter is dizzyingly grim on so many levels

The AI-generated host of Dispatches raises worrying questions about Channel 4’s environmental impact. She’s also a dead-eyed host who might leave Krishnan Guru-Murthy and Kevin McCloud fearing for the...

www.theguardian.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 3d

'As the cosmos contracts, sentient beings are... mind-made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, wandering in midair.... Then those beings started to eat the Earth's nectar.... But, when they did this their luminosity vanished... [and] the moon and sun appeared...' (DN 27, Sujato trans).

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 3d

In Buddhism, different lifeforms are what happen, when minds get attached to, or identify with, certain aggregates (physical forms, sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and awareness). If, when dying or dead, you get attached to anyone or anything, you will be born and live as/near that thing.

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 3d

The mind & body (nāmarūpa) are separate, in Buddhism, but they arise dependent on each other: awareness (viññāṇa) arises only when it's looking at some object, & that object can be either external/physical (sights, etc) or internal/mental (thoughts & feelings).

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

Feel like your mind and body are separate? Here’s how life changes when we become whole

When I was younger, I valued my body only for what it could do for me. A quick jog was enough to make me see where I’d been going wrong

www.theguardian.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 5d

The power to interpret rules/laws is what gives authority figures the ability to do whatever they want. The rule of law doesn't actually exist anywhere; the rule of interpretation by powerful people is what exists.

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 5d

Whether you're conservative or liberal, the rich and powerful cannot be trusted. They got rich and powerful by putting themselves first, and they have usually never met you. The only person who can accurately and faithfully represent you is you.

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Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 5d

People focus on the top levels of dictatorships/oligarchies, but every level of a hierarchical management structure (in corporations, militaries, families, etc) is a smaller-scale dictatorship -- one or more managers, whether elected or not, lording themselves over a group of people.

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 5d

Notice the connections between companies, colonies, and monarchy/dictatorship/oligarchy. Companies are usually hierarchical, and the top of the hierarchy is the king/CEO/oligarch. The US colony/state of Virginia began as a company of the British Crown.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgini...

Virginia Company - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 5d

...
- When people are addressed as customers, patients, users, etc (ie, their role to a company), instead of by name or as 'people'.
- Corporate retail websites sometimes falsely show that stores have cheap inventory in stock, but, if you go there, the cheap stuff is out-of-stock.

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 5d

Examples of ways corporations dehumanise or value people less than money:
- If someone (a doctor, therapist, etc) is charging you a lot of money, they don't 'care' about you. It's not healthCARE.
- On hot days, stores with air conditioning often kick people out, unless they're actively shopping.
...

1

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 5d

Kings claiming to be either gods or G-d-sent are nothing new (eg, Chinese emperors as Sons of Heaven, Egyptian pharoahs, etc). In the Pāḷi Canon, Buddha and his Arahants advised kings, and kings paid their respects to Buddha, not vice versa.

www.dailymirror.lk/internationa...

Digital faith under surveillance in China: CCP expands control over religion with new online code of conduct - International | Daily Mirror

Last month, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) extended its already suffocating grip over the nation’s religious life with the release of a new code of conduct for the online activities of religious cl...

www.dailymirror.lk