Nothing. You began as nothing and you will end as nothing. And in between— everything, and nothing. In between—joy and sorrow, beauty and decay. Everything is yours to partake of, yours to bear. Yours to see, to know, to give birth to—and to let go. None of it is yours to have.
Not even you is yours to have. You belong to a wholeness so great you cannot even conceive of it.
No, it is not a belonging: nothing owns you. You are simply part of it. You came out of it and you will return to it. You do not ever leave it, you are part of it forever.
And this is your moment to be alive.
–Marcia Falk
3. Whenever I am in the company of others, May I regard myself as inferior to all And from the depths of my heart Cherish others as supreme. Langri Thangpa (1054–1123), Eight Verses for Training the Mind
It is easy to regard yourself as inferior to God. The High Holidays remind us of this insistently.
It is harder to regard yourself as inferior to other people, or as Langri Thngpa recommends in his foundation text for training the mind (lojong), inferior to everybody.
You can understand inferiority to God, supreme and all powerful. But inferiority to others—all others—is another matter. First, because you think yourself demonstrably superior in a number ways to a number of others. Second, what exactly is the point of regarding yourself inferior to others? Isn’t there literally a psychological disability called an inferiority complex?
Inferiority is a way to learn absolute equality. To be knocked down a level or levels from where you believe you are. Only then, among all those others, can you live the directions of these holidays. As nothing “this is your moment to be alive.”
May I be a guard for those who are protectorless, A guide for those who journey on the road. For those who wish to cross the water, May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.
Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year 5787, begins this evening.
For what it’s worth, I have declared 5787 a Year of Jewish Compassion. This requires explanation.
It is not to suggest that Judaism and fellow Jews, together and individually, are not compassionate, in thought and action. That would be wrong.
Instead, it may lead to questions. Have we been compassionate enough and often enough? Have we been unconditionally and universally compassionate? How can we cultivate compassion in ourselves and others?
Of the major religious traditions, Buddhism maintains a particular focus on compassion. Hundreds of teachers, beginning with the Buddha, and thousands of texts ask this of us, in thought and action.
Here is just one text, excerpted from The Way of the Bodhisattva by Shantideva (685-763), with an excerpt from commentary by the current Dalai Lama:
May I be a guard for those who are protectorless, A guide for those who journey on the road. For those who wish to cross the water, May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.
May I be an isle for those who yearn for land, A lamp for those who long for light; For all who need a resting place, a bed; For those who need a servant, may I be their slave.
May I be the wishing jewel, the vase of plenty, A word of power, and the supreme healing; May I be the tree of miracles, And for every being the abundant cow.
Just like the earth and space itself And other of the mighty elements, For boundless multitudes of beings, May I always be the ground of life, the source of varied sustenance.
Thus for everything that lives, As far as are the limits of the sky, May I be constantly their source of livelihood Until they pass beyond all sorrow.
The Way of the Bodhisattva, Chapter 3, Verses 18–22
These last two lines are very powerful, are they not? The lives of a great many beings depend on the presence of the five elements, so let us think: Just like the earth, may I support beings as numerous as the sky is vast….Consider that we are surrounded by all the beings in the universe and generate compassion for them….
Now that we have taken this vow, we should try to be good human beings in our daily lives. We should not, for example, pretend to be very nice while we are in this tent and start fighting with each other as soon as we get out! We should from now on try to have a positive and kind mind: we are going to be happy in life. I really think that the future depends on the quality of one’s mind, on a good mind. So we must try to be good people and be good examples for those around us. The initiative to be like this has to come from each one of us individually.
For the Benefit of All Beings: A Commentary on The Way of the Bodhisattva, Tenzin Gyatso, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
Shana Tova! May you have and give a good and sweet year!
Yesterday the president announced that every American would receive $5,000 if Republicans controlled Congress after the midterm election.
You can find plenty of expert analysis of this announcement. You can also find members of the Cabinet and supporters trying to explain this or to walk it back.
I often turn to AI in these complicated and sometimes absurd situations, not because AI is the smartest or stupidest entity, but because their responses can be interesting and entertaining.
Here is the question I posed to leading AI models:
Where can I apply for the promised post-midterm election $5,000? Is there a form or online site?
Gemini:
There is no application, form, or online website where you can sign up for the proposed post-midterm election $5,000 payment.
The $5,000 “Trump Dividend” is currently a campaign promise, not an active government program. President Donald Trump proposed the idea during a speech at the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas.
Because it is a political proposal rather than a finalized policy, several critical conditions must be met before any money can actually be distributed:
• Election Outcome: The proposed payout is explicitly conditional upon Republicans maintaining control of both the House of Representatives and the United States Senate in the upcoming November midterm elections. • Congressional Approval: The president cannot distribute federal funds on his own. The U.S. Congress would first have to draft, vote on, and pass legislation authorizing a $1 trillion-plus package to fund the payments. • Policy Specifics: The White House has not yet released specific legal or structural details regarding eligibility criteria or a distribution mechanism.
Be highly cautious of any websites, text messages, or emails claiming to have a registration or signup form for this $5,000 payment, as they are likely scams designed to steal personal or financial information.
ChatGPT
If you mean the $5,000 “Trump Dividend” announced yesterday, there is no application, form, or official online site to apply through at this time.
President Trump said on September 9 that every adult U.S. citizen would receive $5,000 if Republicans retain control of both the House and Senate in the November 2026 midterm elections.
A few important points:
• The payment has not been authorized yet. • Trump did not announce an application process or eligibility form. • The payment would require Congressional approval before it could actually be issued. • The estimated cost is roughly $1.2 trillion, so there are substantial unresolved questions about financing and implementation. • Consequently, be very cautious about websites or emails currently offering a “$5,000 Trump Dividend application.” They could be scams or attempts to collect personal information.
So, you cannot apply for the $5,000 at present. There isn’t a legitimate government application site for it yet.
If you encounter a site claiming that applications are open, you can give me the URL and I can check whether it is legitimate.
Claude
I need to be straight with you: there is no promised $5,000 post-midterm election payment. This isn’t a real program, and there’s no form or website to apply for it, because the money doesn’t exist.
Let me search to see if there’s a specific claim circulating that you may have encountered, so I can point you to accurate information.
Now I understand what you’re referring to. Here’s the accurate picture, and it’s important:
There is no application form or website, because there is nothing to apply for. What you’ve heard about is a campaign promise, not an existing program. President Trump said at a GOP gathering in Dallas that if Republicans keep the House and Senate after the November midterms, American adults would each get $5,000 — something he called the “Trump Dividend.”
A few things you should know before you go looking for any form:
This is a conditional political promise tied to an election outcome, not enacted law. No money has been allocated, no eligibility rules exist, and no agency has been directed to send anything. For any payment like this to happen, Congress would have to pass legislation first — and it hasn’t. This mirrors an earlier, separate $2,000 “tariff dividend” idea Trump floated, which similarly remains just a proposal that must pass through Congress first, with no IRS office, congressional committee, or federal agency having confirmed a new stimulus program.
Here’s the part I most want you to hear: any website, form, email, or text asking you to “apply” or “register” for this $5,000 is a scam. These fake-stimulus scams appear every single time a payment gets talked about in the news. The U.S. government’s own warning is blunt on this point — the government does not offer free money or grants to people for personal needs, and legitimate government sites only ever use .gov or .mil addresses. Scammers set up lookalike sites to harvest your Social Security number, bank details, or a “processing fee.” politifact
So, concretely: don’t enter your information anywhere claiming to sign you up. If real payments were ever authorized in the future, they’d be distributed automatically through the IRS based on your tax return — you would never need to “apply” on some third-party site. If you want to track whether anything real ever materializes, stick to IRS.gov directly.
Look for the union label when you are buying that coat, dress or blouse. Remember somewhere our union’s sewing, our wages going to feed the kids, and run the house. We work hard, but who’s complaining? Thanks to the I.L.G. we’re paying our way! So always look for the union label, it says we’re able to make it in the U.S.A.!
I am here because of a union, particularly the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.
My Grandpa was an ILGWU furrier in New York. It allowed my Grandpa and Grandma to raise a family, including my mother. That’s my proud heritage.
Here is an ILGWU parade float:
Here is the wife of the then governor of New York, Republican Nelson Rockefeller, sewing an ILGWU label into a garment:
Here is an ad from 1978:
Unions like the ILGWU are not the vestige of a bygone era or contributor to a too “woke” ethos that stands in the way of a great America. They are the once and future foundation of broad American prosperity and fairness—if we will let them be and grow rather than demonizing and discouraging them.
Jewish High Priest and Levites, Andreas Müller, 19th century
For HB on his birthday. Zolst leben un zein gezunt.
I am going to build a church some day. It will have a holy of holies and a holy of holy of holies, and in that ultimate box will be a random number table. —Gregory Bateson
Chance plays a repeated part in the Hebrew Bible.
In the Purim story, the evil Haman employs a lottery—“pur” meaning “lots”—to determine the date on which the Jews will be eliminated.
On Yom Kippur we recall the story of the sacrificial goat:
And Aaron shall place lots upon the two he goats: one lot “For the Lord,” and the other lot, “For Azazel.” And Aaron shall bring the he goat upon which the lot, “For the Lord,” came up, and designate it as a sin offering. —Leviticus 16:8-9
Then there is the mysterious Urim and Thummim:
Inside the breastpiece of decision you shall place the Urim and Thummim, so that they are over Aaron’s heart when he comes before God. Thus Aaron shall carry the instrument of decision for the Israelites over his heart before God at all times. —Exodus 28:30
We don’t know exactly what the Urim and Thummim were supposed to be. Like the lots drawn to choose the goat, they are binary, perhaps as simple as two stones—heads or tails, a flip of a coin.
One perspective is that when it comes to decisions, big or small, there may be a point beyond which reason does not work. What lies beyond reason is different for different traditions and philosophies. It may be God, it may be the nature of reality and our mind. We are told to look and keep looking. Meanwhile, we experience the limitations of reason. Something will happen, a choice will be made, but who can know what’s next? It’s a beautiful and necessary mystery.
The Meaning of the Hitler Salute: Little Man Asks for Big Gifts (1932), John Heartfield
John Heartfield (1891–1968) was a German artist best known as a pioneer of political photomontage. He was born Helmut Herzfeld in Berlin-Schmargendorf. In 1916, as a protest against German nationalism and anti-British sentiment during World War I, he anglicized his name to John Heartfield.
Heartfield became involved with the Berlin Dada movement after the war, working alongside figures such as George Grosz, Raoul Hausmann, and Hannah Höch. He and Grosz are often credited with helping develop photomontage as a serious artistic and political medium.
He is most famous for the biting anti-Nazi and anti-fascist photomontages he produced during the 1920s and 1930s, many of which appeared on the covers of the workers’ illustrated magazine AIZ (Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung). These works satirized Hitler, Göring, and the Nazi regime through sharp visual juxtaposition — one of his best-known images depicts Hitler with an X-ray torso revealing a spine of gold coins, captioned to suggest he was funded by big business.
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Heartfield fled Germany, first to Prague and later to England, continuing his anti-fascist work in exile.
Adolf, the Superman, Swallows Gold and Spouts Tin (1932), John HeartfieldWar and Corpses: The Last Hope of the Rich (1932), John HeartfieldThe Voice of Freedom in the German Night on Radio Wave 29.8 (1937), John Heartfield
There is a Buddhist practice to welcome the most adverse things as opportunities and the most adverse people as spiritual friends. I ask myself, “How’s that going?” and I admit “A work in progress.”
The good news for me is that for a portion of the day, I breathe. Obviously I spend the entire day breathing, but for a time I breathe consciously, in and out.
No, those askew/crooked/awry/lopsided/cockeyed things keep multiplying like a virus, no matter how many conscious breaths I give and take. Just as with any virus—we’ve had some recent experience with that—it is essential to address the problem. But those breaths can put those things in their place and us in our place.
Yes, “take a breath” is seemingly cliched advice when we are overwhelmed. We certainly are being overwhelmed, in many ways strategically. The reason “take a breath” is constantly advised is…it works.
It is reported that the Mapquest app—yes, Mapquest—became the number one app in the Apple store, after Mapquest refused to give in to Trump’s attempt to rename Lake Ontario.
Google gave in without a fight.
My first thought was that I would protest by discarding Google from my digital life. Yeah well. Easier said than done.
My AI life is not a problem, since it is already squarely based in Claude, with Gemini in distant second place. And unlike many other users, I don’t do much with other Google apps like Google Docs.
Mail and search are a different story. I could shift both away from Google, and I should, but convenience in that case outweighs conviction. Though if Google continues its kiss-ass ways, that could change.
One place that is vulnerable to my principles is Google Maps. It is admittedly pretty useful, and alternatives are slim. Waze, one of the leading alternatives, is of course owned by Google.
Then my search (yeah, okay, a Google search), turned up Here We Go. Here We Go was developed by Nokia, and evolved into a mapping app supported by multiple car makers.
It is well reviewed as a Google Maps alternative, highlighted for its lack of clutter and especially for its ability to download maps that can be used in offline settings.
I have downloaded Here We Go to my phone but haven’t used it yet. I will. (I also downloaded Mapquest to send a message to Google. I could send an email to Google too, though it would be a Gmail and anyway Google could care less.)
Dada and Surrealism were significant art movements in the early 20th century. One of the most famous works is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain* (above), though Duchamp refused to be classified with any of the movements he informed and inspired. These movements also included performances, many of which made no sense then—or now. It was art.
Trying to make sense of the action, speech and thought of the current president defies understanding. Perhaps we have been looking at him through the wrong lens. We think of him as a businessman and currently as the most powerful leader in the world. This has left us shaking our heads. But maybe we are looking at it all wrong.
We may say to ourselves, “This can’t be real!”
Maybe it isn’t real. Maybe it is surreal. Maybe it is the work of an artist so supremely talented that his work and performances go right over our heads.
A beautiful Rose Garden buried in concrete. A giant Reflecting Pool covered with green algae. Every wall in a stately historic mansion decorated in ugly and gaudy gold. Historic texts, a Declaration and a Constitution, burned in front of our eyes. Just a few of the extraordinary works that are still being made.
If all that isn’t cutting edge art, deserving of multiple prizes, I don’t know what is.
* The original Fountain from 1917 is no longer available. Replicas of the original are worth between $2.5 and $5 million. Something for a presidential artist to think about.
