I wanted you to be the first to hear the news.
At the Democratic National Convention
next month, we’re going to kick off the general election with an event
that opens up the political process the same way we’ve opened it up
throughout this campaign.
Barack has made it clear that this is your convention, not his.
On Thursday, August 28th,
he’s scheduled to formally accept the Democratic nomination in a speech
at the convention hall in front of the assembled delegates.
Instead, Barack will leave the convention hall and join more
than 75,000 people for a huge, free, open-air event where he will
deliver his acceptance speech to the American people.
It’s going to be an amazing event, and Barack would like you
to join him. Free tickets will become available as the date approaches,
but we’ve reserved a special place for a few of the people who brought
us this far and who continue to drive this campaign.
If you make a donation of $5 or more between now and midnight on July 31st,
you could be one of 10 supporters chosen to fly to Denver and spend two
days and nights at the convention, meet Barack backstage, and watch his
acceptance speech in person. Each of the ten supporters
who are selected will be able to bring one guest to join them.
Make a donation now and you could have a front row seat to history:
https://donate.barackobama.com/yourconvention
We’ll follow up with more details on this and other convention
activities as we get closer, but please take a moment and pass this
note to someone you know who might like to be there.
It will be an event you’ll never forget.
Thank you,
David
David Plouffe
Campaign Manager
Obama for America
FEMINISM AND Teachings and Practice of the Exalted,
Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness
Teachings and Practice of
the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness is compatible with
feminism. This new movement break new ground in teaching and practicing in a way that was as relevant to women as
it was to men.
The extent of
feminism, and Teachings and Practice of the
Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness, enables women to
change both themselves and the world, to overcome a limited view of what they
are capable of, and to be effective in the world so that they can realize their
full potential.
There seem
to be almost as many versions of feminism as there are women (or men) who call
themselves feminists. The best general description come up with is that
feminism is both an ideology and a reform movement based on the belief that
women have been, and are, discriminated against because of their sex.
It may be more helpful to begin by looking at the why’ of feminism
rather than the what’. This involves examining our recent history.
The position of women in society was plain: they were
a subspecies of humanity. It is time to restore women to their lost dignity and
to make them … part of the human species,’
There remain
no legal slaves anywhere except for the woman in every man’s home.’
Until the
end of the nineteenth century women had no civil rights, could not own
property, vote, make wills, testify in court, or serve on juries. They could
not obtain divorces, and their children belonged, according to the law, exclusively
to the father. If married, a woman was the property of her husband; if
unmarried, the property of her father. Until 1885, scarcely more than a hundred
years ago, a man could still sell his wife or daughter for the purposes of
prostitution. (The law passed in 1885 made it illegal to sell or kidnap a
girl for the purposes of prostitution until she was 16 years old.) In 1889 a
test case prompted the passing of a further law which forbade men to keep their
wives imprisoned under lock and key.
But it was
not until 1918, more than a century after Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the
Rights of Women was published, that the first organized women’s political
movement, commonly known as the Suffragettes, brought about women’s suffrage,
the right of women to vote. The following year saw the Sex Disqualification
(Removal) Act which allowed women to enter the professions.
Twentieth-century
women owe a great deal to these early feminists. Without their efforts women
might still be regarded as the property of father or husband without the
freedom to choose our way of life. These women thought the unthinkable and
dared to express it. Whatever we may think of their methods, we do stand on
their shoulders.
Changes in
law, however crucial, do not immediately or necessarily create changes in
behaviour and consciousness. The whole weight of women’s cultural and gender
conditioning, as well as the entrenched attitudes of society, were stacked
against them in their efforts towards individual emancipation. The next wave of
feminism sought to explore gender conditioning: to what extent were women and
men formed by their biology and to what extent by their cultural conditioning?
It also sought to propound an ideology of a dialectic of sex. Taking Karl
Marx’s perspective one step further, sex war replaced class war as the truth’
of history In this war man has the role of the oppressor, woman the role of the
oppressed. This ideology led to visions of a future in which women would be
completely freed from their reproductive function, thus striking at the root of
their oppression. Other branches of feminism imagined a utopia in which,
conversely, women’s biology was celebrated, in which female’ values of nurture
and creativity would be supreme - a naive vision of a matriarchy free from war
and aggression.
Feminists
continued to protest, demonstrate, agitate. They protested against the sex
discrimination that persisted in many places of work and education; against the
presence of nuclear weapons in Britain; against the way women were depicted in
the media; against pornography They agitated for better provision of child care
so that more women could participate in the wider world. All over
centres sprang up, women’s bookshops, women’s refuges, women’s health centres
and self-help groups. The late sixties and seventies was a time of
unprecedented activity and enthusiasm among thousands of women of diverse age,
race, sexual orientation, and class background. The slogan Sisterhood is
Powerful’ resounded throughout the country.
It is in
describing this period that the terms feminism and feminist cease to have
coherent meaning. What has been retrospectively referred to as feminism was at
the time called the women’s movement’ or the women’s liberation movement’, a
description which gave a better idea of the diverse range of views, lifestyles,
and interests of the many women who were involved. It is, however, possible to
discern two broad theoretical trends in the response to discrimination against
women. The first of these is liberal feminism’. This approach sees woman as no
better or worse than man, intellectually or morally, but as simply human. As
such she is entitled to equal opportunities in work and self-development.
Liberal feminists are generally concerned with campaigning for changes in
legislation to redress inequalities, especially in the area of work and
financial independence, focusing on such things as equal pay removal of
discrimination in employment, provision of child care for working women,
maternity leave, and so on.
The second
approach is that of radical feminism’. Radical feminists see the inequalities
of a woman’s situation as the result of patriarchy, a deliberate attempt by men
to conserve power in their own hands and thereby to oppress women by depriving
them of this power. They place a high value on women’s concerns and
achievements and view women as both sexually pure and mystically nurturing,
whereas men are seen as aggressive and violent. Radical feminists are generally
more concerned with issues to do with sex and violence; for example, demonstrating
and campaigning against rape and pornography and initiating the Reclaim the
Night’ marches of the seventies.
In
describing these two trends within feminism it is emphasized that they are
broad generalizations and cannot do justice to the activities and experiences
of many individual women who call themselves feminists. But making this
distinction does give a starting point for a more in-depth discussion as to the
relative merits for women’s development of feminism and Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with
full Awareness.
What is
Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full
Awareness?
The Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with
full Awareness was of a human being who by diligent effort and practice
attained the state of consciousness that has since been called Awakenment. He
then communicated this experience through words and images to his followers to help
them also to become Awakened. This Teachings and
Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness is the Path shown
by Teachings and Practice of the Exalted,
Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness. It is both the
truth itself and any teaching which helps us to realize this truth for
ourselves. This Teachings and Practice of
the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness is essentially a
path of development by which we can grow beyond our particular conditioning and
realize our full human potential.
We can now
begin to see the link between Teachings and Practice
of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness and feminism.
Both are concerned with emancipation, with overcoming the limitations of our
conditioning and restricted self-view. Both recognize that to achieve this
there have to be changes in consciousness, and not merely changes in the
external world; and by this recognition both go beyond the sphere of political
activity in which external change is of paramount importance.
In this
respect it is worth mentioning two phenomena which arose out of the women’s
movement of the sixties and seventies: the consciousness-raising group and the
idea that the personal is political. Both were means for focusing on the
importance of inner change and of putting one’s ideals into practice on an
everyday level. The experience of being in a consciousness-raising group was
crucial to the development. It is hard to believe now that it was a radical
thing then for women simply to meet together to discuss issues concerning
women. Looking at conditioning as women: the effect that upbringing and society
at large had had in shaping them - mostly encouraging the development of
receptive, nurturing qualities and discouraging more robust, outgoing
qualities. These explorations were a revelation. They help to make a shift from
This is how things are’ to Why should things be this way?’ This shift raised
the possibility of change.
But change
in what way or in what direction? In order to be beneficial change needs to be
progressive, not just a swinging between action and reaction. Changing fixed
patterns of behaviour and methods of relating through feminism was definitely
beneficial. But the changes and consciousness-raising brought about by the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with
full Awareness were far more radical and far-reaching. The Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One
with full Awareness is concerned with spiritual development, the development of
skilful mental states and the eradication of unskillful mental states. Unskillful
mental states are those consisting of or associated with craving, hatred, and
delusion, the three poisons which are the causes of suffering in the world.
Skilful mental states are those consisting of or associated with the absence of
these three poisons - states associated with peace of mind, friendliness, and
wisdom.
This opens
up an ethical dimension which is absent in both liberal and radical feminism.
This is not to say that feminists do not express strong views about what is
right (morally and politically speaking) and what is wrong. But there is no
consensus among feminists about the criteria that distinguish ethical from
unethical actions. According to Teachings and Practice
of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness, the practice of
ethics is the necessary basis upon which higher states of consciousness can
arise. These states, combined with reflection on the Path, can lead in turn to
insight into reality an understanding of human life that goes far beyond the
intellectual and brings about a fundamental change in our being and our
relationship with others. Feminism does bring about change, but it is change on
a psychological and social level. Though this level of change can help us to
overcome some of our restrictive conditioning as women it does not begin to
give us access to our full potential as human beings. Indeed, some aspects of
feminism are inimical to this process.
In an
interview in Dakini, a magazine for women True Followers of the path shown by the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One
with full Awareness , Sangharakshita talks about the aspects of feminism he
considers to be a hindrance to spiritual development. He makes a distinction
between feminism and Feminism which largely corresponds to the one between
liberal and radical feminism. The first, he says, is the attitude that a woman,
no less than a man, should be free to develop whatever capacities and interests
she has’. The experience of feminism in this sense causes to think that it has had much to offer women
who wish to grow and develop. It helps to look at conditioning as women and
therefore to see that women can change. It widens our horizons and shows that
women have options other than to be a wife, mother, or single woman’. It
creates a culture that values the communication of women’s experience. It
encourages the development of skills and abilities that allow to create things
in the world and to participate in public life. Without these skills women are
confined to the domestic sphere or dwell in the inner world of the psyche.
Every human being needs a degree of autonomy both material and emotional, in
order to become an individual. Feminism has, I think, been a strong force in
creating the conditions for women’s autonomy.
Of Feminism
(with a capital F) Sangharakshita says that it covers many other attitudes. One
of these is the tendency to see woman as victim.’ To identify oneself as a
victim is not helpful to one’s development. It undermines one’s capacity to
take the initiative and act creatively however difficult the situation. In this
shift from feminism to Feminism the idea that women have been discriminated
against becomes the basis for an ideology a dogma that does not allow for the
individuality either of the woman who upholds it or of the man she casts in the
role of oppressor. Such an ideology, as Sangharakshita points out, also
encourages hatred, and hatred is utterly incompatible with the Path.It creates
oppression within its own sphere: certain views become taboo and politically
incorrect and are not allowed expression. A group mentality prevails. Bonding
with other women against the enemy’ is not the same as true friendship. One of
the fundamental practices of Teachings and Practice
of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness is the development
of loving-kindness or metta; and metta does not distinguish between male and
female. Within this ideology there is also the confusion of power with freedom.
Feminists demand the transference of power from the oppressor to themselves,
the oppressed - but there is no guarantee at all that women would use that
power, once gained, in a better way. Men and women are equally afflicted by
greed, hatred, and delusion.
From True
Followers of the path shown by the Teachings and
Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness perspective
feminism is clearly not enough. It is only a possible starting point in our
efforts to develop true individuality For while feminism asks us to look at our
gender conditioning, the Teachings and
Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness asks us to look
at our conditioning as human beings, at how the poisons of greed, hatred, and
delusion underpin everything we do and limit us to habitual reactive patterns.
While feminism investigates the dichotomy between men and women, male and
female, the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted,
Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness urges us to
strive to overcome the dichotomy of self and other, the view of ourselves as
the centre of the universe, a fixed self separate from other beings. In
overcoming this dichotomy we eventually transcend identification with being
either male or female.
No branch of
the women’s movement, whether feminist or Feminist, addresses the fundamental
facts of the human condition. The investigations do not go deep enough, the
goal is too limited, the scope does not take in the full range of human
experience. The Teachings and Practice of the
Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness offers us a far
greater challenge; it demands much more of us - and has much more of value to
give in return. It was the gradual understanding of this bigger picture that
causes ask for ordination into the True Followers of the path shown by the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One
with full Awareness, to come off the fence and commit myself to the task of
realizing my potential both as a woman and as a human being.
When the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness ’s attendant
Ananda asked him whether women were capable of gaining Enlightenment, the
Buddha was unequivocal in his response. He said that they were. So saying, he
admitted women into his community of spiritual renunciants. They left behind
their homes, families, and possessions, begged for almsfood, and lived a life
of meditation and contemplation in the forests of
For women to
take this step in the society of his time was revolutionary By agreeing to it, the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One with full Awareness could in fact be
regarded as one of the earliest feminists, in that he made his decision not on
the basis of women’s traditional role and society’s norms but on the basis of
their potential for development. The Therigatha (Psalms of the Sisters’), which
documents the experiences of these first women renunciants, attests to their
achievements. Many became Awakend.. Some were renowned as teachers and had many
disciples.
Returning to
the original spirit of the Exalted, Blessed,
Noble Awakened One with full Awareness ’s teaching, Sangharakshita has established
an order which is neither lay nor monastic and in which women and men receive
equal ordination. Both are free to take up any position of responsibility
within the movement. As well as giving this equality of opportunity, the structure
of the movement enables both women and men to develop on a broader basis and
gain access to both masculine’ and feminine’ aspects of themselves. Beyond
introductory level and outside public centres, most activities are organized on
the basis of same gender, so that the movement has a women’s wing and a men’s
wing. The women’s wing runs its own retreats, has its own retreat centres, and
conducts an ordination process for women. Many women live together in
residential communities and run a variety of businesses.
Today the
outlook is very different and the fruits of practicing within a same-gender
environment are apparent, many of them involved in teaching public classes, giving
talks, and leading Path study A further fifty women involved with this one
centre alone have asked for ordination. This is just a small proportion of the
women around the world who are increasingly discovering that the practice of the Teachings and Practice of the Exalted, Blessed, Noble Awakened One
with full Awareness can provide a context and a method for change and growth, a
context which can take them beyond the limitations caused by the conditioning
of gender, race, and class. I remain grateful to feminism for providing me with
the doorway through which I have been able to enter the realm of the True Path shown by the Exalted, Blessed, Noble,and Awakened One with full Awareness.
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New Delhi (PTI): Implementing their
threat to pull the rug over the Indo-US nuclear deal, the Left parties
today announced they would meet the President tomorrow to withdraw
support to the UPA government.
They said Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh’s statements on moving the IAEA soon had rendered any further
talks on the issue meaningless.
The four parties — CPI (M), CPI,
Forward Bloc and RSP — have sought an appointment with President
Pratibha Patil for tomorrow morning to submit their letter of
withdrawal of support and to demand that the government proves its
majority on the floor of the House.
“We will also urge the President to ask
the government to prove its majority on the floor of the House,” a top
Left leader said after the hour-long meeting of the four parties which
decided to pull the rug to end their four-and-a-half year relationship
with the UPA.
Responding to External Affairs Minister
Pranab Mukherjee’s suggestion for another meeting of the UPA-Left
Committee on the issue, the General Secretaries of the parties said the
meeting, proposed on July 10, had been rendered “meaningless” since the
Prime Minister had announced that the government would go to the IAEA
Board of Governors very soon.
“As you are aware, the Left parties had
decided that if the government goes to the IAEA Board of Governors,
they will withdraw support. In view of the Prime Minister’s
announcement, that time has come,” CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash
Karat told reporters.
U.P. unveils new scheme for energising farmers’ tube-wells, C.M. inaugurates the scheme
Lucknow: July 04, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Ms. Mayawati announced a new scheme
for energising the farmers’ tube-wells of the state. She also announced
to increase the assistance amount payable for energising private
tube-wells from Rs. 55,000 to Rs. 68,000 under this scheme. Thus, the
assistance amount under this scheme has been increased by Rs. 13,000.
Under this scheme, the farmers would not be required to spend any
additional amount except the connection charges and the line would be
provided upto 300 meters free of cost. As many as 20,000 farmers would
be benefited by this scheme during the current financial year and an
amount of Rs. 136 crore has been sanctioned for the purpose. The Chief
Minister was addressing a press conference at her 5-Kalidas Marg
official residence here today. She said that the condition of two
farmers for obtaining a connection under this scheme has been done away
with and now a single farmer can avail the facility for his private
use. She said that this scheme had solved a major problem of the
farmers. Ms. Mayawati said that because of the continuous negligence of
the agriculture sector by the previous governments, its growth rate had
dwindled. The State Government had set a target of achieving more than
5.7 per cent growth rate under the 11th Five Year Plan, she pointed
out. For achieving this target proper arrangement of irrigation
facility to farmers was necessary. She said that with the availability
of irrigation facility in un-irrigated areas, production and farmers’
income would increase. Keeping it in view the government had sanctioned
a new package for farmers today. The Chief Minister said that this
scheme was being run in the State through Power Corporation. In the
year of 2004-05 only Rs. 43,000 as financial assistance per farmer was
being provided which had been increased to Rs. 55,000 in 2007-08. Ms.
Mayawati said that irrigation work was being done through more than 35
lakh private pumpsets at present, out of which only 8 lakh pumpsets
were running on electricity. Due to the continuous increasing prices of
petroleum products, it had become necessary to run the diesel pump sets
through electricity, so that besides the enough facility of irrigation
the production cost of crops could be reduced. She said that keeping in
view the large number of small and marginal farmers in the State, the
Government had taken the decision for running the diesel pump sets from
electricity. ********