Volume 68. October 8, 2025
Halloween is just around the corner. ’Tis the season of goblins, ghouls and hell on earth. Cometh October, cometh the nightmare.
Unfortunately, our bad dream started in September. Take a look at a few examples.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth convened a rare assembly of the military’s top brass to impart an extremely important message: Lose weight and shave your beards.
“It’s about the look,” he said.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr issued an ultimatum to ABC regarding the content of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, stating, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Critics called Carr’s threat a dangerous attack on free speech.
Interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan indicted former FBI Director James Comey on two criminal counts. Lindsey, a former personal lawyer for Donald Trump, was appointed to the job (by Trump) after no self-respecting attorney would sign off on the charges.
Question: What happens when a grandiose narcissist with no capacity for human kindness is given unlimited presidential power and immunity from any abuse of that power?
Answer: He surrounds himself with incompetent sycophants, exacts revenge on his “enemies,” and lets the bad times roll.
And here we are. Nightmare Town.
Buddhism seems to say, “Who wouldn’t want to wake up from a nightmare?”
In Buddhism, we wake up to an experience of Buddha-nature.
We are here forever in one form or another, but while we are human, we have an important task: Wake up! Become a Buddha! Achieve enlightenment!
If you don’t keep your mind pure and free from thoughts, if you don’t act kindly and consider the welfare of others, if you don’t appreciate the transience of life and the impermanence of time, you’re only a yakking fool.
Consider the following story.
One day, in medieval Japan, a Buddhist priest performed funeral rites for a monk.
He said, “In the seven days since the death of this virtuous monk, loneliness has deepened over the Zen gardens. His gentle disposition and humility made all who knew him regard him as their elder brother. His kindness and sincerity made all who met him wish to become his friend. We miss him dearly.”
The next day the priest presided at the funeral of the shogun. He offered these words in eulogy: “That old coot was as hard as flint, ruthless to the core, as venomous as they come. Even the Buddhas and the patriarchs found him impossible to endure.”
One man woke up to Buddha-nature. The other did not.
This Halloween let’s take off our mask and let our True Self shine.
Otherwise, it’s back to the nightmare.
The Buddha Times 