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Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 14h

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 · 14h

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 · 15h

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 · 15h

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 · 15h

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 · 1d

'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 · 1d

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 · 1d

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 · 3d

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 · 3d

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 · 3d

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 · 3d

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

2

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

...
- 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 · 3d

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 · 3d

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

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

youtu.be/Xz9DX_VMXdI

Metallica - King Nothing (Official Music Video)

YouTube video by Warner Records Vault

youtu.be

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

News companies don't broadcast news out of respect for those in the news. They do it to profit off their subjects, just as they're profiting off this sad story. If they can't profit, they don't print it (eg, the lack of news about the genocide in Myanmar).

www.telegraphindia.com/world/i-am-s...

'I am sorry, mother': Sudanese man’s final note lays bare cost of global migration crisis

Journalists share fragments of the text on their personal pages, calling it a haunting farewell, one that confronts the world with the quiet dignity of despair

www.telegraphindia.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 4d

People usually ignore the indigenous 'hill tribes' of SE Asia, which have their own traditions, eg in Thailand: Akha, Hmong, Karen, Lahu, Lisu, Palaung, Yao, and others. In Myanmar, a military dictator is trying to kill such people.

www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/look...

Look East 1.0

From the late 20th century, as Hindutva politics consolidated itself in India, there has been a natural tendency to seek to dig deep to analytically uncover its roots and identify its intellectual ori...

www.telegraphindia.com

1

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 4d

An Admiral may also have recently quit, over the drug boat attacks in the Caribbean (www.telegraphindia.com/world/us-nav...).

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

US Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey to step down amid military strikes in Caribbean and tensions with Venezuela

There had been tension between Admiral Alvin Holsey and defence secretary Pete Hegseth over operations in the Caribbean and questions about whether he would be fired in the days leading up to the anno...

www.telegraphindia.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 4d

On that last page, The Guardian uses analytics JavaScripts from Amazon, Google, Doubleclick, and others. That news company is obviously connected to large corporations.

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 4d

The idea that consumers can stop catastrophic climate change by consuming less or recycling is ridiculous. Most carbon emissions come from large energy companies, and companies should be responsible for making their products sustainable.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Overconsumption and ruin: before and after images visualise how tech could harm our planet

From Venice to the Iguazu Falls, an exhibition in London illustrates the hidden cost of our gadgets and devices

www.theguardian.com

1

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 4d

The only reliable way I know to stay out of debt is to never buy more than you can afford to pay out-of-pocket, even if it means taking the bus; riding a bicycle; living in a caravan/RV, boat, or tent; etc.

www.theguardian.com/business/202...

‘Finances are getting tighter’: US car repossessions surge as more Americans default on auto loans

Wall Street sounds alarm over strain throughout car lending market as experts warn of potential risks for wider economy

www.theguardian.com

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 4d

Fun fact: a lunar day is about 24hrs 50mins, because, due to the Earth's rotation, it takes the Moon 50mins to return to the same position on Earth's surface. That is also why the tide times go forwards 50mins every day.

tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predict...

Tide Predictions - NOAA Tides & Currents

This page lists stations where tide predictions are available on the Tides and Currents web site.

tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 6d

Supposedly like many Buddhas before him, Gotama Buddha discovered Nibbāna -- he didn't create it. Similarly, in the Brahmajāla Sutta (DN 1), an empty Brahmā palace appears out of nowhere, and the first born there wrongly believes themselves to be the Creator G-d.

www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/DN/DN...

DN 1 The Brahmā Net | Brahmajāla Sutta | sutta on dhammatalks.org

Theravada Buddhist Sutta from the Pāli Canon

www.dhammatalks.org

Anagārika Alāra, PhD @anagarikaalara.bsky.social · 6d

'...violence thrives when there is impunity. I don't think there is any society that is inherently violent more than others' (Human Rights Watch Interim Executive Director Federico Borello).

www.dailymirror.lk/hard-talk/We...

We’re still concerned about ongoing Human Rights violations in Sri Lanka: - Hard talk | Daily Mirror

Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the world’s leading human rights organisations that had been active in Sri Lanka, on Wednesday (October 15) released a report as to how the country’s disruptive econom...

www.dailymirror.lk