성경구절을 풍선에 담아 보내는 기독탈북연합회 [탈북자:김수연]

성경구절을 풍선에 담아 보내는 기독탈북연합회 [탈북자:김수연]




성경구절을 풍선에 담아 보내는 기독탈북연합회 [탈북자:김수연]
2005.9.14


북풍(北風)이 부는 날 ‘기독탈북인연합회’이민복 대표와 회원들은 북한으로 보낼 풍선을 들고 길을 나섭니다. 풍선에는 성경구절이나 북한의 실상을 알리는 전단이 매달립니다. 이 대표가 풍선을 날려 보낸 것이 올해로 3년, 그는 왜 이 일을 시작하게 된 걸까요.

“북한 사회는 아마 역사 이래, 앞으로도 그런 나라가 없을 만큼 폐쇄된 사회 아니에요. 그 폐쇄된 땅에 외부 소식을 유일하게 그래도 들어갈 수 있는 것이 풍선이지요. 그래서 우리가 저 암흑의 땅, 정말 꽁꽁 틀어막은 그 땅에 꼭 좋은 소식을 보내야 되겠다, 그런 마음으로 우리가 시작을 했어요.”

이민복 대표는 90년 북한을 탈출하여 중국과 러시아를 거쳐 95년 한국에 입국했습니다. 그는 ‘유엔 탈북난민 1호’로 화제가 되기도 했습니다. 현재는 북한에 기독교를 전파하기 위해 활동을 펼치고 있는 이 대표를 만나 자세한 이야기를 들어보겠습니다.

북한으로 보내는 전단에는 ‘북한 사람들이 이해할 수 있도록 풀어 쓴 기독교 이야기’나 북한의 실상을 알리는 글이 실립니다. 이 대표는 북한의 실상을 알릴 때도 “감정을 담아서 없는 걸 보태서 말하지” 않는다고 합니다. “가장 유려한 것이 진실”이라고 믿기 때문입니다. 그가 북한 주민들에게 전달하는 북한 실상을 들어보겠습니다.

“예를 들어서 북한이 지상낙원이라고 하는데, 뭐가 지상낙원이냐. 그들이 선전한대 의하면 100% 찬성표, 무상치료, 무료교육 그런다고 하는데 왜 북한은 정말 유일한 나라가 그렇다. 예를 들어서 선거 100% 찬성 투표한다는 나라는 북한 밖에 없고, 약이 없으면서도 무상치료 한다는 데가 북한이고, 무료교육 시킨다면서 봄 한 달 가을 한 달 학생들 일 시키는 나라는 북한밖에 없다. 정치범수용소 있는 나라는 북한 밖에 없고, 통행증 있는 나라는 북한 밖에 없다.”

“그렇게 지상낙원이라고 하는데 왜 그렇게 꽁꽁 틀어막고 꼼짝도 못하게 하느냐. 자신감 있는 나라는 그렇지 않다” 것을 일깨워 주려는 목적에서 이 대표는 이런 전단을 북한으로 보내고 있습니다.

그러면 풍선을 통해 보내는 전단이 어느 정도 효과가 있을 까요. 이질 문에 이 대표는 “믿음은 바라는 것들의 실상이요 보지 못하는 것들 증거”라는 성경 구절로 대답을 대신했습니다. 그러나 이 대표는 전단보내기가 추상적인 활동은 아니라고 강조했습니다. 그는 북한 주민들은 폐쇄적인 만큼 역설적으로 외부 세계를 알고자 하는 심리가 매우 강하기 때문에

외부 정보에 민감하게 반응한다고 설명했습니다.

북한에 있을 때 한국에서 보낸 전단을 접해본 김철민(가명) 씨도 “삐라를 받아 보기만 해도 효과를 준다”고 견해를 밝혔습니다. 북한 주민이 전단지의 내용을 보게 될 경우 “북한의 체제 선전에 의문을 갖게 되고, 외부 세계에 대한 인식”을 하게 됩니다. 김씨는 “여의도에서 10만 명 가량의 사람들이 모여 기도하는 장면이 실린 삐라”를 보고 그들의 화려한 옷차림에 놀랐다고 합니다.

북한 당국이 선전하는 남한 사회와는 사뭇 다른 모습이었기 때문입니다. 자연스럽게 김철민 씨는 북한 당국의 선전에 대해 의문을 품기 시작했고 외부 세계와 북한 체제를 비교하는 마음이 들었다고 합니다.

북한 당국은 이런 파급효과를 우려해 외부에서 들어오는 전단은 무조건 수거해서 해당 기관에 바치거나 불태우도록 하고 있습니다. 보는 것 자체도 못하게 규제하고 있습니다. 또한 외부 소식을 확산 시키는 경우도 처벌대상으로 삼아, 전단 내용을 다른 사람에게 전달하기 어렵도록 하고 있습니다. 하지만 전단을 본 사람의 가슴 속에는 파문이 일기 시작한다는 게 김철민 씨의 설명입니다.

이토록 꽁꽁 틀어막고 있는 북한 땅에 기독교를 전파할 수 있는 방법은 없어 보입니다. 이 대표가 풍선을 선택한 것도 바로 북한의 폐쇄성 우리가 외식비 절약하고, 여기서 굶어 죽는 나라가 아니니까 사치하고 살지 않으면 그 돈 가지고 많이 보낼 수 있어요. 사람들의 생각과 의지가 문제지 그건 큰 문제가 아니에요.”

끝으로 이민복 대표는 북한에서 숨죽이며 신앙생활을 하고 있는 이름 모를 교인들에게 “당신들을 잊지 않고 있다는 것, 기도하고 있다”는 것을 잊지 말라고 당부했습니다.

“지하에서 신앙생활을 하는 분들 그런 분들을 우리가, 바로 당신들을 우리가 잊지 않고 있다는 것, 기도하고 있다는 것, 여러분들을 항상 생각하고 있다는 것을, 우리가 이렇게 전단을 통해서 보내고, 또 활동하고 있다는 데 그게 큰 힘이 되리라고 봐요.”

지금까지 서울에서 보내드린 탈북자 통신이었습니다.

07 '탈북지식인 48인 선언'

'탈북지식인 48인 선언'



'탈북지식인 48인 선언'
北주민들을 돕는 對北정책이어야.


자유북한방송

탈북지식인 48명이 제안하는 대북정책의 모습은?

10일 북한민주화위원회 창립을 맞아 선포된 <탈북지식인 48인 선언>은 현 남한 정부의 대북정책에 대해 정확한 정보와 상식에 근거한 것이 아님은 물론, 북한 출신인 탈북자들의 의견이 무시된 채 독단적이고 무책임하게 전개되고 있다고 비판하고 있다.



▶탈북지식인 선언낭독에 참가한 탈북자 조직 단체장들


현 대북정책은 北주민들에게 고통주고 있는 반인권적 대북정책

이들은 현재 대북 정책에 대해 김정일과 그 측근들에게는 이롭지만 2,300만 북한 주민들에게는 고통을 강요하게 되는 반인권적 대북정책이라고 평가하면서, 남북관계 개선과 북한 주민들에게 도움이 되는 대북정책의 우선순위를 다음과 같이 제안했다.
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▶남북관계 개선은 북한인권 개선을 목표로 이뤄져야 하며 

▶탈북자에 대한 소극적 수용정책은 적극적 구출전략으로 전환되어야 하고 

▶북한 인민에게 도움이 되는 금강산․개성공단이어야 하며 

▶김정일 정권의 변화를 유도하는 대북지원으로 전환되어야 하며 

▶핵문제 해결의 진정한 열쇠는 북한의 민주화여야 한다는 것이다.

이번 선언에는 황장엽 전 노동당 국제담당비서를 비롯해 홍순경 탈북자동지회 회장(김일성종합대학 법학부), 김흥광(전 함흥공산대학 교수), 조명철(김일성종합대학), 김영성(체코 프라하공대), 이영훈(전 김정일정치대학 교수), 장해성(김일성종합대학, 전 중앙방송기자) 등 북한에서 대학을 졸업하거나 중요 직책에서 근무했던 고학력층 출신 탈북 인사 48명이 참여했다.

김수연 기자 nksue@hanmail.net

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[다음은 탈북지식인 48인 선언문 전문]


<북한민주화위원회 창립 탈북지식인 48인 선언>

자유를 찾아 대한민국에 정착한 탈북자가 1만 명을 넘어서고 북한에 관한 정보는 차고 넘치지만 대한민국의 對北정책은 정확한 정보와 상식에 근거하지 않고 북한에서 살다온 탈북자들의 의견을 무시한 채 독단적이고 무책임하게 전개되고 있다. 우리 탈북지식인들은 대한민국 정부의 대북정책이 남북한의 진정한 평화와 협력을 정착시키는 정책이 되기를 진심으로 바라고 있다.

그러나 탈북자들과 탈북지식인들이 보았을 때, 현재의 대북정책은 김정일과 그 일당에게는 이롭고 2,300만 북한 인민들에게는 한없는 고통을 강요하게 하는 반인권적 대북정책으로 평가할 수밖에 없다. 우리 탈북 지식인들이 진지한 토의를 거듭한 결과 진정으로 남북관계 개선과 북한 인민에게 도움이 되는 대북정책의 우선순위를 탈북 지식인의 입장에서 다음과 같이 제시하고자 한다.

1. 남북관계 개선은 북한인권 개선을 목표로 이뤄져야 한다.

대한민국 국민 입장에서 볼 때, 이산가족 상봉, 납북자, 국군포로 문제 등 시급한 인도적 문제가 산적해 있다. 일본도 북한 인권문제 보다 납치자 문제에 치중하고 있다. 북한 인민 입장을 그 누구도 대변해주지 않고 있다. 북한의 열악한 모든 문제 가운데 가장 시급하게 해결해야 할 문제는 북한의 정치범 수용소다. 수용소는 한순간도 방치 할 수 없는 최우선적인 인도적 사안이다.

현재 다섯 곳에 이르는 정치범 수용소는 1960년대부터 운영되고 있으며, 남녀노소 수십만이 체계적으로 수감된 채 사람이 짐승처럼 죽어가는 인간 살육장이다. 가족이 해체되고 임산부와 어린아이들까지 이런 만행의 대상이 되고 있다. 공개된 죽음보다 보이지 않는 죽음이 더 끔찍하고 처참하다. 이런 수용소문제가 남북관계를 유지함에 있어서 단 한 번도 거론되지 않는다는 것은 북한에서 시급하게 해결 되어야 할 문제가 무엇인지조차 파악하지 못했기 때문이다. 만일, 그 사실을 알면서도 남북관계를 핑계로 묻어두고 있다면, 그것은 반인류적 범죄를 묵인하고 북한 주민의 인권을 포기하는 짓이다. 평화와 화해는 수용소가 존재하는 한 불가능하며 납북자․국군포로 문제 어느 것도 해결될 수 없다. 정치범 수용소 해체는 북한 인권개선의 첫 걸음이 될 것이며, 여행의 자유, 거주 이전의 자유, 언론의 자유 등 기본적인 인권과 자유를 해결하는데 남북관계의 기본 조건으로 다뤄져야 한다.

2. 탈북자에 대한 소극적 수용정책에서 적극적 구출전략으로 전환해야 한다

일제 시대보다 더한 폭정과 굶주림을 피해 독재정권을 탈출한 탈북자들은 북송될 경우 목숨을 보장받을 수 없다. 즉, 아무리 배고파서 탈북을 해도, 그 순간부터 탈북자는 ‘민족반역자’라는 오명을 쓰게 되며 정치범으로 전락하게 된다. 때문에 탈북자들을 단순한 경제적 난민으로 해석할 수 없다. 이런 탈북자에 대해 중국정부는 ‘불법월경자’ 라는 딱지를 붙혀 이유를 불문하고 체포해 강제북송 시키고 있다. 같은 사회주의 국가인 쿠바도 과거 베트남도 떠나는 사람들을 강제 송환해 처형하거나 수용소에 수감한 사례는 없다.

북한당국은 국경지역에 인민군대 30만을 동원해 탈북자를 막기 위해 총력을 다 하고 있다. 탈북은 북한체제 변화의 가장 중요한 요소이기 때문이다. 탈북자의 증가는 김정일 정권의 변화압력으로 작용해, 북한 민주화를 촉진시키는 촉매가 될 수 있다.

평화적으로 통일을 원하고, 진정으로 북한의 민주화를 바란다면 탈북자들의 안전에 한국정부는 최선을 다해야 한다. 소극적 수용전략에서 적극적 구출전략으로 전환해, 중국정부에 강제송환을 멈추도록 지속적인 요구를 하고, 국제사회와 협조해 탈북자의 난민인정을 중국이 인정하도록 노력해야 한다.

현재 한국 정부는 중국의 압력과 무례한 요구에 굴복해 중국 내에서 벌어지고 있는 탈북자에 대한 중국당국의 불법 체포 및 송환에 대해서 무대응으로 일관하고 있다. 치외법권외 지역이라는 이유로 대사관 문턱에서 중국 공안원들에게 끌려가는 탈북자들조차 외면하고 있다. 미국에는 할 말 다하는 정부가 왜 중국에는 할 말을 하지 못하는지 이해할 수 없다.

서독 정부가 탈출하는 동독 인민 250만을 구출한 사례는 남북한 통일의 좋은 모델이 될 수 있다. 탈북자 10만 명 시대가 오면 북한 체제의 변화는 급속도로 이뤄지게 되며, 평화적 통일 가능성은 높아지게 된다.

진정한 평화통일은 탈북자로부터 시작되며, 이들의 대한민국 정착은 하나의 작은 통일을 이루는 첫 걸음이 된다. 탈북자들의 노력과 정부와 국민의 관심으로 대한민국에 성공적인 정착을 할 수 있는 사회 환경 조성과 제도개선이 시급하다.

3. 북한 인민에게 도움이 되는 금강산․개성공단이어야 한다.

현재 남북한 정부가 진행하고 있는 금강산관광과 개성공단 사업은 많은 문제점을 내포하고 있다. 고질적인 독재 권력에 의한 횡포와, 한국 측의 요구가 제대로 반영되지 않은 금강산 관광과 개성공단 사업은 결국 북한인민에게도 전혀 도움이 될 수 없다.

금강산 관광의 문제점은 첫째, 한국국민들이 내는 관광비용이 모두 군부로 들어간다는 것이다. 두 번째로, 군부와 김정일의 외화벌이를 위해 대한민국국민들이 금강산관광을 하는 것 까지는 이해하겠으나, 2,300만의 북한인민들은 금강산관광이 모두 금지됐다. 남조선 사람들의 볼거리를 제공하기 위해 북한인민들의 금강산 관광권리는 무시해도 된다는 것인가? 김정일의 배만 불리고 남한 국민들을 동물원 원숭이로 만든 것도 모자라, 북한 인민들의 금강산 관광권리를 박탈한 야만적인 금강산 관광 사업은 즉각 중단되어야 한다.

세 번째, 금강산에 웬 철조망인가? 철조망과 군인들이 지키고 서있는 금강산에 국민들을 내모는 것은 매우 잘못된 것이다. 현대아산은 지금과 같은 조건들을 수용하지 않고 금강산관광사업을 계속할 경우 김정일을 타도하고 새롭게 선출될 북한지도부와 인민들로부터 금강산 관광 사업을 지속할 수 있는 명분을 잃게 될 것이다.

이런 맥락으로 개성공단도 마찬가지다. 개성공단에서 버는 외화는 모두 북한당국의 대남기관에서 흡수하고 있다. 개성공단의 문제점은 첫째, 남한기업가가 북한 근로자들을 직접 고용해 월급을 줄 수 없다는 것이다.

둘째, 북한근로자는 58~60불 정도로 지급하는 월급에서 2달러 안팎의 월급을 한국기업이 아닌 북한정부로부터 받고 있다. 월급의 95%를 갈취당하면서 아무런 권리도 주장할 수 없는 북한근로자는 노예노동을 하는 것과 똑같다. 김정일의 외화벌이를 위해 육체적 돈벌이 도구로 이용당하고 있는 것이다. 기업 사장이 인력관리조차 할 수 없고, 노동자는 사장의 월급을 직접 받을 수 없는 이런 개성공단 사업은 김정일의 돈주머니를 불리는 ‘노예노동사업’이다. 우리 탈북지식인들이 지적하는 이런 문제가 해결되지 않는 두 사업은 재고돼야 하며 북한 측이 성실한 자세로 변화를 하도록 정당한 요구를 해야 한다.

4. 김정일 정권의 변화를 유도하는 대북지원으로 전환돼야 한다.

김정일 정권이 변하지 않은 채 지속된 10년간의 대북지원은 인민이 아닌 권력집단에 이용됐고, 결국 인민들이 피해를 보는 악순환이 계속되고 있다. 국민의 피같은 세금으로 지원되는 모든 지원이 북한인민에게 제대로 전달되는지 철저한 모니터링이 전혀 이뤄지지 않고 있다.

대한민국 국민의 세금이 인민군대로 흡수되고 북한권력집단을 강화시키는데 악용되어도 대북지원만을 고집하는 것은 북한문제 해결에 도움이 될 수 없다. 게다가 북한인민들은 마치 남한국민들이 도와줘야 먹고사는 것처럼 인식되는 것은 북한주민의 입장에서 참을 수 없는 일이다.

북한 인민들이 남한 국민들이 보내주는 쌀이나 얻어먹는 ‘거지’가지 아니다. 한반도에 태어난 모든 조선 사람들은 똑같은 두뇌와 신체와 능력을 가지고 있다. 북한 사람들이 남한 국민들에게 얻어먹고 살 이유는 아무데도 없다.

북한 인민들이 굶어죽는 것은 김정일 정권이 그들에게 자유를 주지 않기 때문이다. 인민들은 스스로 살 수 있는 능력이 있는데 정권이 그것을 허용하지 않고 있다. 한국정부와 국민들이 북한 인민의 민주화운동에 적극 동참해 주면 쌀 수백 만 톤 보다 더 값진 선물이 될 수 있다.

독재기구인 150만 인민군대도 모든 외부지원을 흡수하는 돈 먹는 하마다. 이런 인민군대가 축소되지 않는 한 대북지원이 인민에게 돌아갈리 만무하다. 상호주의가 배제되고, 모니터링을 하지 않는 한국정부의 대북지원은 체제변화를 가로막고 김정일 개인의 부귀영화와 권력집단을 살찌우고 인민들이 계속해서 노예노동과 구걸질로 살아가도록 만들고 있다. 식량난 때문에 자연발생적으로 확대된 인민들의 자유가 대북지원 때문에 뒷걸음치고 있다.

대한민국 국민들의 세금으로 이뤄지는 대북지원이 북한인민에게 도움이 되고 북한변화를 이뤄내자면 첫째, 철저한 상호주의를 해야 한다. 지원의 대가로 남북이산가족 상봉확대, 인권문제, 경제개혁문제, 납북자-국군포로 문제 등을 하나하나 풀어나가야 한다. 두 번째, 철저한 모니터링이 가능해야 한다. 세계식량기구(WFP)도 북한당국의 비협조로 철수하기에 이르렀다. 식량지원에 대한 철저한 모니터링이 이뤄지지 않으면 지원이 불가하다는 원칙을 세우고, 북한 당국의 변화를 유도해야한다. 세 번째, 현금지원은 가급적으로 피하고, 어린이나 노약자, 환자 등 취약계층을 도울 수 있는 항목으로 대북지원을 집중해야 한다. 네 번째, 모니터링이 불가능하다면, 풍선기구 등 다양한 방법으로 북한주민들을 도울 수 있는 방법도 강구해야 한다.

5. 핵문제 해결의 진정한 열쇠는 북한의 민주화다.

김정일 정권의 핵무기는 무너진 경제와 군사력으로 절망에 빠져 있는 인민군대와 인민을 현혹해 결속시킬 수 있는 유일한 수단이다. 만약 북한에 핵무기마저 없다면 더 이상 인민군대와 인민을 통제할 수단과 능력을 잃어버렸을 것이다. 김정일에게 핵무기는 하늘이 무너져도 포기할 수 없다. 게다가 국제사회도 핵무기가 있어 상대해 준다고 믿고 있는 김정일이다. 아무리 막대한 경제적 지원으로 달래고 약속을 한다고 해도 김정일 정권은 마지막 순간까지 핵을 포기하지 않는다. 이러한 사실은 북한을 경험한 탈북자 1만 명에게 물어보면 모두 똑같은 답변을 할 것이다.

6자회담에서 미국이 김정일 정권의 불법자금을 동결시킨 금융제재를 해제하고 김정일에게 숨통을 열어준 것은, 핵무기 포기는 고사하고 체제연장만을 시켜줌으로서 문제를 더 어렵게 만들어 놓았다. 핵문제가 해결되기도 전에 벌어지는 한국정부의 대북지원도 오히려 핵문제 해결에 도움이 안 된다.

김정일의 핵무기를 제거하는 방법은 두 가지가 있다. 하나는 군사적으로 핵시설을 제거하는 것이고, 두 번째는 국제적인 압력으로 스스로 포기하게 만드는 것이다.

한반도의 현실에 맞는 두 번째 방법을 선택하자면 군사적 수단 이외에 북한에 취할 수 있는 압력수단을 동원해야한다. 그것은 바로 마약, 위조화폐, 등 불법으로 번 자금을 동결시키는 금융제재가 효과적이고, 군부에 대부분 충당되는 외부지원을 단호하게 끊어 버리는 것도 강력한 수단 가운데 하나가 된다.

핵문제 해결은 북한민주화와 직결돼 있다. 핵무기는 김정일 개인과 그 집단에 필요한 것이지 북한인민과는 무관한 것이다. 인권이 없고, 민주화되지 않는 체제 하에서 수백만 인민이 굶어죽으면서 만들어낸 핵무기는 결국 인권과 자유, 민주화의 힘으로 해결할 수밖에 없다.

2007년 4월 10일 (화)

The coming war on China | New Internationalist

The coming war on China | New Internationalist

The coming war on China

A major US military build-up – including nuclear weapons – is under way in Asia and the Pacific with the purpose of confronting China. John Pilger raises the alarm on an under-reported and dangerous provocation.




NI 498 - December, 2016
Features
China
United States




Preparing for conflict: guided-missile destroyer USS McCampbell patrolling in the South China Sea earlier this year.
Photo: US Navy

When I first went to Hiroshima in 1967, the shadow on the steps was still there. It was an almost perfect impression of a human being at ease: legs splayed, back bent, one hand by her side as she sat waiting for a bank to open. At a quarter past eight on the morning of 6 August, 1945, she and her silhouette were burned into the granite. I stared at the shadow for an hour or more, unforgettably. When I returned many years later, it was gone: taken away, ‘disappeared’, a political embarrassment.

I have spent two years making a documentary film, The Coming War on China, in which the evidence and witnesses warn that nuclear war is no longer a shadow, but a contingency. The greatest build-up of American-led military forces since the Second World War is well under way. They are on the western borders of Russia, and in Asia and the Pacific, confronting China.

The great danger this beckons is not news, or it is news buried and distorted: a drumbeat of propaganda that echoes the psychopathic campaign embedded in public consciousness during much of the 20th century.

Like the renewal of post-Soviet Russia, the rise of China as an economic power is declared an ‘existential threat’ to the divine right of the United States to rule and dominate human affairs.

To counter this, in 2011 President Obama announced a ‘pivot to Asia’, which meant that almost two-thirds of US naval forces would be transferred to Asia and the Pacific by 2020.

Today, more than 400 American military bases encircle China with missiles, bombers, warships and, above all, nuclear weapons. From Australia north through the Pacific to Japan, Korea and across Eurasia to Afghanistan and India, the bases form, says one US strategist, ‘the perfect noose’.

A study by the RAND Corporation – which, since Vietnam, has planned America’s wars – is entitled War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable. Commissioned by the US Army, the authors evoke the Cold War when RAND made notorious the catch cry of its chief strategist, Herman Kahn – ‘thinking the unthinkable’. Kahn’s book, On Thermonuclear War, elaborated a plan for a ‘winnable’ nuclear war against the Soviet Union.

Today, his apocalyptic view is shared by those holding real power in the US: the Pentagon militarists and their neoconservative collaborators in the executive, intelligence agencies and Congress. The current Secretary of Defense, Ashley Carter, a verbose provocateur, says US policy is to confront those ‘who see America’s dominance and want to take that away from us’.

Today, more than 400 American military bases encircle China with missiles, bombers, warships and nuclear weapons.
Photo: Charles Gatward: The Coming War on China, Darmouth Films
'Punish' China

In Washington, I met Amitai Etzioni, distinguished professor of international affairs at George Washington University. The US, he writes, ‘is preparing for a war with China, a momentous decision that so far has failed to receive a thorough review from elected officials, namely the White House and Congress.’

This war would begin with a ‘blinding attack against Chinese anti-access facilities, including land and sea-based missile launchers… satellite and anti-satellite weapons’. The incalculable risk is that ‘deep inland strikes could be mistakenly perceived by the Chinese as pre-emptive attempts to take out its nuclear weapons, thus cornering them into “a terrible use-it-or-lose-it dilemma” [that would] lead to nuclear war.’

In 2015, the Pentagon released its Law of War Manual. ‘The United States,’ it says, ‘has not accepted a treaty rule that prohibits the use of nuclear weapons per se, and thus nuclear weapons are lawful weapons for the United States.’

In China, a strategist told me, ‘We are not your enemy, but if you [in the West] decide we are, we must prepare without delay.’ China’s military and arsenal are small compared to America’s. However, ‘for the first time,’ wrote Gregory Kulacki of the Union of Concerned Scientists, ‘China is discussing putting its nuclear missiles on high alert so that they can be launched quickly on warning of an attack… This would be a significant and dangerous change in Chinese policy… Indeed, the nuclear weapon policies of the United States are the most prominent external factor influencing Chinese advocates for raising the alert level of China’s nuclear forces.’


'I don't want it to be a fair fight. If it's a knife fight, I want to bring a gun'

Professor Ted Postol was scientific adviser to the head of US naval operations. An authority on nuclear weapons, he told me, ‘Everybody here wants to look like they’re tough. See, I got to be tough… I’m not afraid of doing anything military, I’m not afraid of threatening; I’m a hairy-chested gorilla. And we have gotten into a state, the United States has gotten into a situation where there’s a lot of sabre-rattling, and it’s really being orchestrated from the top.’

I said, ‘This seems incredibly dangerous.’

‘That’s an understatement.’

Andrew Krepinevich is a former Pentagon war planner and the influential author of war games against China. He wants to ‘punish’ China for extending its defences to the South China Sea. He advocates seeding the ocean with sea mines, sending in US special forces and enforcing a naval blockade. He told me, ‘Our first president, George Washington, said if you want peace, prepare for war.’

In 2015, in high secrecy, the US staged its biggest single military exercise since the Cold War. This was Talisman Sabre; an armada of ships and long-range bombers rehearsed an ‘Air-Sea Battle Concept for China’ – ASB – blocking sea lanes in the Straits of Malacca and cutting off China’s access to oil, gas and other raw materials from the Middle East and Africa.

Nerje Joseph, a survivor of nuclear tests on the MarshallIslands between 1946-58, holds a picture of the blast injuries she sustained as a child.
Photo: Bruno Sorrentino and John Pilger

It is such a provocation, and the fear of a US Navy blockade, that has seen China feverishly building strategic airstrips on disputed reefs and islets in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Last July, the UN Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled against China’s claim of sovereignty over these islands. Although the action was brought by the Philippines, it was presented by leading American and British lawyers and can be traced to then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In 2010, Clinton flew to Manila. She demanded that America’s former colony reopen the US military bases closed down in the 1990s following a popular campaign against the violence they generated, especially against Filipino women. She declared China’s claim on the Spratly Islands – which lie more than 7,500 miles (12,000 kilometres) from the United States – a threat to US ‘national security’ and to ‘freedom of navigation’.

Handed millions of dollars in arms and military equipment, the then government of President Benigno Aquino broke off bilateral talks with China and signed a secretive Enhanced Defense Co-operation Agreement with the US. This established five rotating US bases and restored a hated colonial provision that American forces and contractors were immune from Philippine law.

Under the rubric of ‘information dominance’ – the jargon for media manipulation on which the Pentagon spends more than $4 billion – the Obama administration launched a propaganda campaign that cast China, the world’s greatest trading nation, as a threat to ‘freedom of navigation’.

CNN led the way, its ‘national security reporter’ reporting excitedly from on board a US Navy surveillance flight over the Spratlys. The BBC persuaded frightened Filipino pilots to fly a single-engine Cessna over the disputed islands ‘to see how the Chinese would react’. None of the news reports questioned why the Chinese were building airstrips off their own coastline, or why American military forces were massing on China’s doorstep.

The designated chief propagandist is Admiral Harry Harris, the US military commander in Asia and the Pacific. ‘My responsibilities,’ he told The New York Times, ‘cover Bollywood to Hollywood, from polar bears to penguins.’ Never was imperial domination described as pithily.
Malleable media and obsequious partners

Harris is one of a brace of Pentagon admirals and generals briefing selected, malleable journalists and broadcasters, with the aim of justifying a threat as specious as that with which George W Bush and Tony Blair justified the destruction of Iraq.

In Los Angeles in September, Harris declared he was ‘ready to confront a revanchist Russia and an assertive China… If we have to fight tonight, I don’t want it to be a fair fight. If it’s a knife fight, I want to bring a gun. If it’s a gun fight, I want to bring in the artillery… and all our partners with their artillery.’

These ‘partners’ include South Korea, an American colony in all but name and the launch pad for the Pentagon’s Terminal High Altitude Air Defense system, known as THAAD, ostensibly aimed at North Korea. As Professor Postol points out, it targets China.

In Sydney, Australia, Harris called on China to ‘tear down its Great Wall in the South China Sea’. The imagery was front-page news. Australia is America’s most obsequious ‘partner’; its political elite, military, intelligence agencies and the dominant Murdoch media are fully integrated into what is known as the ‘alliance’. Closing the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the motorcade of a visiting American government ‘dignitary’ is not uncommon. The war criminal Dick Cheney was afforded this honour.

Although China is Australia’s biggest trader, on which much of the national economy relies, ‘confronting China’ is the diktat from Washington. The few political dissenters in Canberra risk McCarthyite smears in the Murdoch press. ‘You in Australia are with us come what may,’ said one of the architects of the Vietnam War, McGeorge Bundy. One of the most important US bases is Pine Gap near Alice Springs. Founded by the CIA, it spies on China and all of Asia, and is a vital contributor to Washington’s murderous war by drone in the Middle East.

In October, Richard Marles, the defence spokesperson of the main Australian opposition party, the Labor Party, demanded that ‘operational decisions’ in provocative acts against China be left to military commanders in the South China Sea. In other words, a decision that could mean war with a nuclear power should not be taken by an elected leader or a parliament but by an admiral or a general.

This is the Pentagon line, a historic departure for any state calling itself a democracy. The ascendancy of the Pentagon in Washington – which Daniel Ellsberg has called a silent coup – is reflected in the record $5 trillion the United States has spent on aggressive wars since 9/11, according to a study by Brown University. The million dead in Iraq and the flight of 12 million refugees from at least four countries are the consequence.

‘I state clearly and with conviction,’ said Obama in 2009, ‘America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.’ Under Obama, nuclear warhead spending has risen higher than under any president since the end of the Cold War. A mini nuclear weapon is planned. Known as the B61 Model 12, it will mean, says General James Cartwright, former vice-chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that ‘going smaller [makes its use] more thinkable’.

‘The China trade’

James Bradley is the author of the best-selling The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia (Little Brown, 2015). In these excerpts from his interview with John Pilger, he describes how modern America was built on the ‘China trade’.

James Bradley: For most of American history, it was illegal for someone like me to know a Chinese. The Chinese came to America to mine gold and build the railroads, and Americans decided we didn’t like competition. So in 1882 we had the Chinese Exclusion Acts, which kept the Chinese out of the United States for about 100 years. Just at the point we were putting up the Statue of Liberty saying we welcome everybody, we were erecting a wall saying: ‘We welcome everybody except those Chinese.’

John Pilger: And yet, for the American elite in the 19th century, China was a goldmine.

JB: A goldmine of drugs. Warren Delano, the grandfather of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was the American opium king of China; he was the biggest American opium dealer, second only to the British. Much of the east coast [establishment] of the United States – Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Princeton – was born of drug money. The American industrial revolution was funded by huge pools of money – where did this come from? It came from illegal drugs in the biggest market in the world: China.

JP: So the grandfather of the most liberal president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was a drug runner?

JB: Yes. Franklin Delano Roosevelt never made much money in his life. He had public-service jobs that were very lowly paid, but he inherited a fortune from Warren Delano, his father. Now if you scratch anyone with the name Forbes, you’ll find opium money… such as John Forbes Kerry…

JP: That’s the present Secretary of State.

JB: Yes. His great-grandfather [Francis Blackwell Forbes] was an opium dealer. How big was opium money? Opium money built the first industrial city in the United States. It built the first five railroads. But it wasn’t talked about. It was called the China trade.



In 1959 a US fighter plane crashed into Miyamori School, Okinawa, killing a number of children.

Peaceful resistance

The Japanese island of Okinawa has 32 military installations, from which Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan and Iraq have been attacked by the United States. Today, the principal target is China, with whom Okinawans have close cultural and trade ties.

There are military aircraft constantly in the sky over Okinawa; they sometimes crash into homes and schools. People cannot sleep, teachers cannot teach. Wherever they go in their own country, they are fenced in and told to keep out.

A hugely popular Okinawan movement has been growing since a 12-year-old girl was gang-raped by US troops in 1995. It was one of hundreds of such crimes, many of them never prosecuted. Barely acknowledged in the wider world, the resistance in Okinawa is a vivid expression of how ordinary people can peacefully take on a military giant, and threaten to win.

Their campaign has elected Japan’s first anti-base governor, Takeshi Onaga, and presented an unfamiliar hurdle to the Tokyo government and the ultra-nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s plans to repeal Japan’s ‘peace constitution’.

The resistance leaders include Fumiko Shimabukuro, aged 87, a survivor of the Second World War, when a quarter of Okinawans died in the American invasion. Fumiko and hundreds of others took refuge in beautiful Henoko Bay, which she is now fighting to save. The US wants to destroy the bay in order to extend runways for its bombers. As we gathered peacefully outside the US base, Camp Schwab, giant Sea Stallion helicopters hovered over us for no reason other than to intimidate.

Fumiko Shimabukuro (right), an Okinawa World War Two survivor, is now fighting to save a bay from US bombers. With her is Eiko Ginoza.
Photo: Bruno Sorrentino and John Pilger

Across the East China Sea lies the Korean island of Jeju, a semi-tropical sanctuary and World Heritage Site declared ‘an island of world peace’. On this island of world peace has been built one of the most provocative military bases in the world, less than 400 miles (650 kilometres) from Shanghai. The fishing village of Gangjeong is dominated by a South Korean naval base purpose-built for US aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and destroyers equipped with the Aegis missile system, aimed at China.

A people’s resistance to these war preparations has become a presence on Jeju for almost a decade. Every day, often twice a day, villagers, Catholic priests and supporters from all over the world stage a religious mass that blocks the gates of the base. In a country where political demonstrations are often banned, unlike powerful religions, the tactic has produced an inspiring spectacle.


The world is shifting east, but the astonishing vision of Eurasia from China is barely understood in the West

One of the leaders, Father Mun Jeong-hyeon, told me, ‘I sing four songs every day at the base, regardless of the weather. I sing in typhoons – no exception. To build this base, they destroyed the environment, and the life of the villagers, and we should be a witness to that. They want to rule the Pacific. They want to make China isolated in the world. They want to be emperor of the world.’

South Korean woodcarver and Catholic priest, Father Mun Jeong-hyeon, leads a daily protest against the building of a naval base that the US will use to target China.
Photo: Bruno Sorrentino and John Pilger

I flew to Shanghai for the first time in more than a generation. When I was last in China, the loudest noise I remember was the tinkling of bicycle bells; Mao Zedong had recently died, and the cities seemed dark places, in which foreboding and expectation competed. Within a few years, Deng Xiaoping, the ‘man who changed China’, was the ‘paramount leader’. Nothing prepared me for the astonishing changes today.

I met Lijia Zhang, a Beijing journalist and typical of a new class of outspoken mavericks. Her best-selling book has the ironic title Socialism Is Great! She grew up during the chaotic and brutal Cultural Revolution and has lived in the US and Europe. ‘Many Americans imagine,’ she said, ‘that Chinese people live a miserable, repressed life with no freedom whatsoever. The [idea of] the yellow peril has never left them… They have no idea there are some 500 million people being lifted out of poverty, and some would say it’s 600 million.’

China today: a tourist snaps the bull of capitalism in front of Shanghai’s Bund hotel, bedecked with communist flags.
Photo: Bruno Sorrentino and John Pilger

She described modern China as a ‘golden cage’. ‘Since the reforms started,’ she said, ‘and we’ve become so much better off, China has become one of the most unequal societies in the world. There are lots of protests now: typically, land being grabbed by officials for commercial development. But farmers are more aware of their rights; and young factory workers are demanding a better wage and conditions.’
The world is shifting east

China today presents perfect ironies, not least the house in Shanghai where Mao and his comrades secretly founded the Communist Party of China in 1921. Today, it stands in the heart of a very capitalist shopping district; you walk out of this communist shrine with your Little Red Book and your plastic bust of Mao into the embrace of Starbucks, Apple, Cartier, Prada.

Would Mao be shocked? I doubt it. Five years before his great revolution in 1949, he sent this secret message to Washington. ‘China must industrialize,’ he wrote. ‘This can only be done by free enterprise. Chinese and American interests fit together, economically and politically. America need not fear that we will not be co-operative. We cannot risk any conflict.’

Mao offered to meet Franklin Roosevelt in the White House, and his successor Harry Truman, and his successor Dwight Eisenhower. He was rebuffed, or wilfully ignored. The opportunity that might have changed contemporary history, prevented wars in Asia and saved countless lives was lost because the truth of these overtures was denied in 1950s Washington ‘when the catatonic Cold War trance,’ wrote the critic James Naremore, ‘held our country in its rigid grip’.

Eric Li, a Shanghai venture capitalist and social scientist, told me, ‘I make the joke: in America you can change political parties, but you can’t change the policies. In China you cannot change the party, but you can change policies. The political changes that have taken place in China this past 66 years have been wider and broader and greater than probably in any other major country in living memory.’

Beijing journalist and outspoken maverick, Lijia Zhang.



For all the difficulties of those left behind by China’s rapid growth, such as workers from the countryside living on the edge in cities built for conspicuous consumption, and those Tiananmen brave-hearts still challenging ‘the centre’, the Party, what is striking is the widespread sense of optimism that buttresses the epic of change.

The world is shifting east; but the astonishing vision of Eurasia from China is barely understood in the West. The ‘New Silk Road’ is a ribbon of trade, ports, pipelines and high-speed trains all the way to Europe. China, the world’s leader in rail technology, is negotiating with 28 countries for routes on which trains will reach up to 400 kilometres an hour. This opening to the world has the approval of much of humanity and, along the way, is uniting China and Russia; and they are doing it entirely without ‘us’ in the West.

We – or many of us – remain in thrall to the US, which has intervened violently in the affairs of a third of the members of the United Nations, destroying governments, subverting elections, imposing blockades. In the past five years, the US has shipped deadly weapons to 96 countries, most of them poor. Dividing societies in order to control them is US policy, as the tragedies in Iraq and Syria demonstrate.

‘I believe in American exceptionalism with every fibre of my being,’ said Barack Obama, evoking the national fetishism of the 1930s. This modern cult of superiority is Americanism, the world’s dominant predator. Accompanied by a brainwashing that presents it as enlightenment on the march, the conceit insinuates our lives.

In September, the Atlantic Council, a US geopolitical thinktank, published a report that predicted a Hobbesian world ‘marked by the breakdown of order, violent extremism [and] an era of perpetual war’. The new enemies were a ‘resurgent’ Russia and an ‘increasingly aggressive’ China. Only heroic America can save us.

There is a demented quality about this war-mongering. It is as if the ‘American Century’ – proclaimed in 1941 by the American imperialist Henry Luce, owner of Time magazine – has ended without notice and no-one has had the courage to tell the emperor to take his guns and go home.


John Pilger

Protesters on Jeju, South Korea.
Photo: Bruno Sorrentino and John Pilger

The coming war on China


John Pilger's documentary, The Coming War on China, is in cinemas in the UK from 1 December, beginning at the BFI on London’s Southbank. On 5 December, Picturehouse cinemas will hold a nationwide with John Pilger. The website is picturehouses.com. On 6 December, ITV will broadcast the film and a DVD will be available the same day. The Australian release is early in 2017; SBS Australia will broadcast the film nationwide.

For worldwide distribution enquiries, contact Dartmouth Films: christo@dartmouthfilms.com. The film’s website address is thecomingwarmovie.com

The U.S. Military's Mission Is Clear: Crush Russia or China in a War | The National Interest Blog

The U.S. Military's Mission Is Clear: Crush Russia or China in a War | The National Interest Blog
The U.S. Military's Mission Is Clear: Crush Russia or China in a War


Dave Majumdar

January 22, 2018
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The Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy is refocusing the U.S. military onto traditional great power conflicts against nations such as Russia and China while still fighting terrorism. The new document, which was released last week, is the Pentagon’s first national defense strategy in over 10 years.

“The world, to quote George Shultz [former Secretary of State under Reagan], is awash in change, defined by increasing global volatility and uncertainty with Great Power competition between nations becoming a reality once again,” Defense Secretary James Mattis told an audience on Jan. 19. “Though we will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists that we are engaged in today, but Great Power competition, not terrorism, is now the primary focus of U.S. national security.”


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Mattis said that Russia and China are increasingly challenging the United States for dominance and Washington must respond accordingly. “We face growing threats from revisionist powers as different as China and Russia are from each other, nations that do seek to create a world consistent with their authoritarian models, pursuing veto authority over other nations' economic, diplomatic and security decisions,” Mattis said. “Rogue regimes like North Korea and Iran persist in taking outlaw actions that threaten regional and even global stability. Oppressing their own people and shredding their own people's dignity and human rights, they push their warped views outward.”

However, even as authoritarian regimes rise, the United States still has to contend with terrorism. “Despite the defeat of ISIS' physical caliphate, violent extremist organizations like ISIS or Lebanese Hezbollah or al Qaida continue to sow hatred, destroying peace and murdering innocents across the globe,” Mattis said.

Even as the United States grapples with those threats, Washington’s technological edge over would be challengers are starting to erode. “In this time of change, our military is still strong. Yet our competitive edge has eroded in every domain of warfare, air, land, sea, space and cyberspace, and it is continuing to erode,” Mattis said. “Rapid technological change, the negative impact on military readiness is resulting from the longest continuous stretch of combat in our nation's history and defense spending caps, because we have been operating also for nine of the last 10 years under continuing resolutions that have created an overstretched and under-resourced military.”

Mattis’ solution is to build a more “lethal” military and double down on America’s alliance network, which seems to contradict the White House’s approach to the problem. “We're going to build a more lethal force. We will strengthen our traditional alliances and building new partnerships with other nations,” Mattis said. “And at the same time we'll reform our department's business practices for performance and affordability.”

But even as he talked about building new partnerships with allies, Mattis noted that the United States has carried most of the military burden of maintaining the liberal international order. That can no longer continue as is. “We carried a disproportionate share of the defense burden for the democracies in the post-World War II era,” Mattis said. “The growing economic strength of today's democracies and partners dictates they must now step up and do more.”

Mattis says that America’s allies are starting to pull their own weight. “I'm very encouraged by what I've seen, and we could not be better served than by [NATO] Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, there in Brussels, with our primary alliance,” Mattis said. ‘The way he leads that alliance is one where we all have to work together and do our fair share.”

Time, of course, will tell if America’s allies will eventually pull their own weight. But, thus far, history shows that allies like Germany are unlikely to do so.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar.

U.S. War With China May Be More Likely, Deadlier

U.S. War With China May Be More Likely, Deadlier
U.S. WAR WITH CHINA MAY BE MORE LIKELY, DEADLIER
BY TOM O'CONNOR ON 10/4/17 AT 1:03 PM
Artillery is fired during a military drill in Qingtongxia, in China, on September 25. Widespread reforms to China's military have made the prospects of a future war with the United States more deadly, a report finds.STRINGER/REUTERS
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WORLDCHINACHINESE MILITARYU.S. MILITARYPACIFIC OCEANTAIWANSOUTH CHINA SEAEAST CHINA SEANORTH KOREAXI JINPING


The chances of the U.S. entering into a military conflict with China have increased in the past six years, and the stakes are higher than ever, according to a new report by the RAND Corporation.

The California-based think tank, which conducts research and analysis on behalf of the U.S. military, released the 16-page report on Tuesday. Titled "Conflict with China Revisited," it is a sequel to a 2011 report in which the group examined the contingencies of a potential war between the world's two leading economies. Six years later, the report has been revised to include China's many military reforms and advancements that make it a more formidable foe, and to examine a number of contemporary scenarios that could prove to be catalysts for such a confrontation.

Related: China may take over North Korea, Russia as greatest threat to U.S., top general warns

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"We still do not believe that a Chinese-U.S. military conflict is probable in any of the cases, but our margin of confidence is somewhat lower than it was six years ago," the report read.

Artillery is fired during a military drill in Qingtongxia, China, on September 25. Widespread reforms to China's military, including advances to its missile defense, have made the prospects of a future war with the U.S. more deadly.STRINGER/REUTERS

The U.S. and China have been at odds since the latter underwent a communist revolution in 1949, expelling its nationalist government to the island of Taiwan. Since then, Beijing has successfully isolated its rival diplomatically by inheriting its United Nations Security Council seat in 1971 and by taking punitive measures against countries that trade with Taiwan. While U.S.-Chinese relations have improved since the 1970s, China maintains a territorial claim to Taiwan, and the RAND report listed a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan as a potential cause for conflict. Taiwan receives arms from the U.S.

China's increased military activity in the Taiwan Strait is just one of many issues that pit Beijing and Washington against one another in the Asia-Pacific. China claims dominion over nearly the entire South China Sea, and the U.S. has accused it of building artificial islands to host covert military sites intended to back up these claims. As part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's overall effort to streamline and modernize China's military, he's also pushed for a more powerful naval force capable of defending its interests.

The RAND document identified the North Korea nuclear weapons crisis as the greatest threat to U.S.-China peace. Chinese diplomat Liu Jieyi said last week the crisis was "getting too dangerous," as President Donald Trump has doubled down on U.S. rhetoric against China's nuclear-armed neighbor. He has threatened to use military action to disarm Pyongyang's nuclear arsenal. North Korea claims it has a right to wield the weapons in order to deter an invasion.

China has been North Korea's greatest ally since the fellow communist states were founded in the late 1940s and the two joined forces against U.S. and U.N.-backed South Korean troops in the 1950s. Young supreme leader Kim Jong Un's defiant commitment to nuclear weapons and his rejection of his father's affinity for Beijing, however, has caused rare, visible cracks to appear in this relationship. In Tuesday's report, the authors said it was unlikely China would try to defend North Korea from a potential U.S. strike, but would rather move swiftly to defend its own interests, which would likely clash with U.S. goals and possibly precipitate a larger conflict.

"The likelihood of confrontations, accidental or otherwise, between U.S. and Chinese forces would be high, with significant potential for escalation," the report read.

"Beyond the pressures to intervene and deal with the immediate consequences of a failed North Korea, the United States would confront the thorny issue of the desired end state: unification (the preferred outcome of South Korea) or the continued division of Korea (China’s preference)," it added.

China's President Xi Jinping speaks during the ceremony to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on August 1. The PLA was formed in 1927 as the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army and has since grown from a communist guerrilla army to one of the world's most powerful warfighting forces.DAMIR SAGOLJ/REUTERS

The RAND report said that the U.S. still had a clear, overall military advantage over China, but that defending Washington's regional interests in the Asia-Pacific was becoming increasingly difficult as a result of China's modifications, which include a revamped missile force and the first aircraft carrier to be made in China. Researchers recommended that the U.S. work with China to de-escalate tensions rather than put China's new, more powerful forces to the test on the battlefield.

China has traditionally invested more in its economic expansion than military abroad, but Beijing has taken a more aggressive foreign policy stance in recent years, one that often opposes U.S. hegemony and aligns more closely with Russia. China's latest international spat, a border dispute with India this summer, threatened to bring the region to war and even drag in fellow nuclear-armed force Pakistan. China and India ultimately resolved the issue.

Admiral warns US must prepare for possibility of war with China | World news | The Guardian

Admiral warns US must prepare for possibility of war with China | 

World news | The Guardian


Harry Harris, the next US ambassador to Australia, says Beijing intends to control South China Sea

Ben Doherty
@bendohertycorro

Fri 16 Feb 2018

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Harry Harris says China’s military might could soon rival US power ‘across almost every domain’, and warned of possibility of war. 

Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images
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The navy admiral nominated to be the next US ambassador to Australia has told Congress America must prepare for the possibility of war with China, and said 

it would rely on Australia to help uphold the international rules-based system in the Asia-Pacific.

In an excoriating assessment of China’s increasingly muscular posture in the region, Harry Harris said Beijing’s “intent is crystal clear” to dominate the South China Sea and that its military might could soon rival American power “across almost every domain”.

Harris, soon to retire as the head of US Pacific Command in Hawaii, told the House armed services committee, the US and its allies should be wary of Beijing’s military expansionism in the region, and condemned China’s foreign influence operations, predatory economic behaviour and coercion of regional neighbours.
“China’s intent is crystal clear. We ignore it at our peril,” he said. “I’m concerned China will now work to undermine the international rules-based order.”


Harris also warned of a “cult of personality” developing around Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Harris praised Australia as one of America’s staunchest allies in the Asia-Pacific region, noting existing military cooperation at air force bases in the Northern Territory, joint naval exercises and the regular rotation of 1,500 marines through Darwin.
“Australia is one of the keys to a rules-based international order,” Harris said. “I look to my Australian counterparts for their assistance, I admire their leadership in the battlefield and in the corridors of power in the world.

“They are a key ally of the United States and they have been with us in every major conflict since world war one.”

Harris, the Yokosuka-born son of an American naval officer and a Japanese mother, has been nominated by President Donald Trump as the next ambassador to Australia. His appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.

Australia has been without a US ambassador since John Berry departed in September 2016.

Harris said he was alarmed by China’s construction of military bases on seven disputed islands in the South China Sea that neighbouring countries lay territorial claims to.

In 2016, the permanent court of arbitration in The Hague, sided with the Philippines in the dispute it brought, saying 

there was no legal basis for China’s claim of historic sovereignty over waters within the so-called nine-dash line in the sea.

Regardless, Chinese military build-up continues in the sea.
“China’s impressive military build-up could soon challenge the United States across almost every domain,” Harris said.

In a separate answer, he said of the risk of conflict with China: “as far as the idea of deterrence and winning wars, I’m a military guy. And I think it’s important you must plan and resource to win a war at the same time you work to prevent it.”

“At the end of the day the ability to wage war is important or you become a paper tiger. I’m hopeful that it won’t come to a conflict with China, but we must all be prepared for that if it should come to that.”

Should Harris be confirmed as the next ambassador to Australia, his hawkish position would present a challenge for Canberra, as it seeks to navigate an increasingly delicate diplomatic and economic relationship with Beijing.

Ties were severely strained last year after a backlash against China’s perceived influence on and infiltration of Australia’s political system, highlighted by the resignation of Labor senator Sam Dastyari over accepting cash from Chinese businessmen for private debts and his position, at odds with his party, on the South China Sea. The Australian government has proposed new espionage laws and tightening of rules around foreign donations to political parties.

China is Australia’s largest trading partner, but the US is its primary defence and security ally, and Australia has been a vocal defender of the US alliance network over issues such as the nuclear weapons ban treaty, which the US opposes.

The Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, who has previously met Harris in Hawaii, has publicly welcomed his nomination. “Great to see Admiral Harry Harris nominated by [Donald Trump] as US ambassador to Australia. Look forward to seeing you in Canberra, Harry,” Turnbull said on Twitter on February 10.

Turnbull will meet with Trump in Washington next week. It is not known when Harris’s confirmation hearing will take place.

------------

China says US stuck in Cold War thinking

China says US stuck in Cold War thinking

China says US stuck in Cold War thinking

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says the US seems stuck in a Cold War mindset. Source: AAP


Chinese Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying says she hopes the United States will abandon its obsolete notion of Cold War thinking and zero-sum game.
UpdatedUpdated 31 January



Beijing has retorted that the United States is holding on to "the obsolete notion of Cold War thinking" after President Donald Trump called China a "rival" in his annual State of the Union address.

The two nations shared both interests and differences, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said when asked by journalists to comment on Trump's speech on Wednesday.

"However the common interests of both countries far outweigh their differences," she said, adding that co-operation is "the only correct choice" for US-China relations.



MORE NEWS


Trump delivers his first State of the Union address



"We hope that the United States will abandon the obsolete notion of Cold War thinking and zero-sum game," she said, adding that the countries should respect each other and develop ties.

Trump's calling China and Russia "rivals" during his address was in line with the US national security strategy he unveiled in December, which reflected a harder line toward China than the previous administration.

"Around the world, we face rogue regimes, terrorist groups and rivals like China and Russia that challenge our interests, our economy and our values," he said.

Relations between the world's two largest economies are tensing as Washington prepares to unveil the results of a probe into alleged Chinese intellectual property theft, which could result into a big "fine," Trump says.

The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness

The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness









The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness Kindle Edition

by Culadasa (John Yates PhD) (Author),‎ Matthew Immergut PhD(Author),‎ Jeremy Graves (Contributor)







4.7 out of 5 stars 237 customer reviews



The Mind Illuminated is a comprehensive, accessible and - above all - effective book on meditation, providing a nuts-and-bolts stage-based system that helps all levels of meditators establish and deepen their practice. Providing step-by-step guidance for every stage of the meditation path, this uniquely comprehensive guide for a Western audience combines the wisdom from the teachings of the Buddha with the latest research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience.



Clear and friendly, this in-depth practice manual builds on the nine-stage model of meditation originally articulated by the ancient Indian sage Asanga, crystallizing the entire meditative journey into 10 clearly-defined stages. The book also introduces a new and fascinating model of how the mind works, and uses illustrations and charts to help the reader work through each stage.



This manual is an essential read for the beginner to the seasoned veteran of meditation.





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5.0 out of 5 starsGuidebook for Changing Your Life

ByHarvesteron June 19, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase

In trying to write a proper review for this book, it's first worth noting that this stands as a masterpiece of knowledge that has quite literally changed my life. It's not often that I'll read a book twice, but for this one I'm certain I'll be re-reading it for years to come. To be fair, I've not read many other books in this area, but I'm sure that I've somehow stumbled onto one of the best in its class.



I should start out by saying that I'm not a Buddhist, and quite frankly have developed a degree of skepticism and disappointment for all religions of the world. In saying that I'm not an atheist by any means, but really a seeker of the ultimate universal truth. Culadasa (and team) are able to guide the reader through a very thoughtful process of how to understand your own consciousness, where one's actual understanding of truth are compiled. Indeed, I've taken college level classes on neuroscience, and heard more than once that we know where all the components of your mind are located (emotions, memory, anger, happiness, etc.), but consciousness has no actual locus. This book takes you on a journey in the attempt to understand what that means, and ultimately provides one of the best articulations I have ever read on describing the conscious mind.



How can doing something so simple, like paying attention to one thing (i.e. breathing) for an extended period of time be so profound? How can this process cause so much turmoil as your entire belief system is turned upside down? And finally, how does this result in answering some of the deepest questions that have swirled around in your mind from as long as you can remember? As I began a practice of meditation using techniques outlined in the book, there were questions and thoughts that were followed by more questions and thoughts. I was (and still am) amazed at how thoroughly everything is addressed in complete detail. In fact, I went through something quite traumatic that's referred to as "The Dark Night of the Soul". It's ultimately caused when you come to the realization your whole concept of self is something fabricated in the mind. I went through a crisis of sorts, as the ego tried to hang onto its tenuous moorings in consensus reality. In letting go of the ego so to speak, and beginning the process of unifying the many components of the mind into one cohesive process has brought about an inner peace with clarity and focus like I've never had before. I'm convinced that this is just the beginning of something more profound as the journey unfolds.



I originally had just the Kindle version, but now went out and bought a hard copy for my coffee table in the meditation area. It's a book that gets opened just about every day. As mentioned, I'm now almost finished with the second cover-to-cover reading. I've actually created a document to outline the key points of the book. There are a number of lists, levels, and other important points that really need to be committed to memory. The book is organized using side notes, diagrams, and key points in offsets. It's suffice to say that the important points, are indeed *important* to remember.



If your looking for a treatise on mindfulness, or life changing guidebook to help you with the quest for truth, then I wholeheartedly recommend the knowledge in this book as the means to get you there.

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5.0 out of 5 starsIn a league of its own

ByK Knoxon September 11, 2015

Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase

The subtitle here, “A Complete Meditation Guide,” understates this astonishing book's comprehensiveness and profundity by half. This is a 475 page long magnum opus that's exponentially more useful than all of the previous guides to meditation I've read (and I've read plenty, having been involved in Buddhist study and practice since the early 1970's).



For a newcomer to meditation this book is the best possible introduction as well as a lifelong companion. For someone with an established practice, be it in the Theravadin, Tibetan or Zen tradition (or for that matter secular mindfulness or non-Buddhist contemplative approaches) The MInd Illuminated is a treasure trove of encouragement and clarification of key points in practice that no other book I'm aware of addresses. It comes as close as any book possibly can to having not just a teacher but a living meditation master with personal experience of every step of the path into your home.



While grounded in decades of obviously very serious and intensive practice and study of Buddhism this book uses the absolute minimum number of foreign words and defines them precisely. Someone with a purely secular interest in meditation will have no problem with the content, while devoted adherents of particular contemplative paths will feel supported. The tone throughout is kind, warm, clear and encouraging.



Anyone who's practiced meditation for years knows that motivation for practice often waxes and wanes, and that it's all-too-easy to run into dead ends that seem impossible to overcome, to stagnate in one's practice, or to stop sitting altogether out of frustration or fear. Culadasa anticipates all of this, starting with a chapter titled “Establishing a Practice” that in and of itself is worth the price of the book, and following up with dozens of pith instructions that seem to address even the subtlest mistakes in practice, obviously born from a combination of deep realization and extensive experience coaching meditators ranging from beginner to very advanced.



My only regret about this book is that it wasn't published decades ago!

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5.0 out of 5 starsThis book is the best instruction book on buddhistic meditation I have read since ...

Byreviewer1on December 29, 2015

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This book is the best instruction book on buddhistic meditation I have read since Daniel Ingram's `mastering the core teachings of the buddha'. However, Culadasa's book lacks the controversy surrounding the latter one. His book does not really deal with Buddhist orthodoxy but is a very precise and motivating manual how to meditate and how to achieve the higher meditation states that have been described over and over again in the oldest Buddhist literature (Pali canon and Visuddhimagga). These achievements are well-known within the Theravada literature and modern practice and can be achieved by proper practice (never withstanding the popular new wave/zen light misconception that the practice doesn't really matter and that there is nothing to be accomplished). I have never read a better and to-the-point manual how to start a dedicated meditation practice and how to actually do any relevant meditation exercise in a way that it leads to results. The book is extremely good in combining classical meditation instructions with the right mind set for motivation and positive reinforcement of the practice. If one has a decent background in some meditation discipline and some knowledge of the maps of what might happen with dedicated practice, then this book is in my opinion the only book one needs, together with actually doing the practice, to really get started and get a long way to achieve certain states and insights that can result from meditation. This is the one and only Dharma book you want to take to an inhabited island for a long time.

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4.0 out of 5 starsFantastic, but not as advertised

ByEzra Maureron March 27, 2017

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I hesitate to post a review, there are so many already here, but there are a few thoughts I would like to share in hopes they will be useful to potential readers of this book. I hope these observations will be of use to some of you.



I happen to be a licensed clinical psychologist who has also practiced meditation for the past couple of decades. I decided to put together a seminar on meditation for people in my area, but I wanted to take a neuropsychological perspective in organizing the materials. Like many people, I am hoping that the perspective emerging from empirical investigation into the brain will offer a trans-theoretical and trans-disciplinary

approach to healing. This book appeared to be in line with my intentions, so I bought it expecting to have an enjoyable entrance into someone else's perspective that would also alert me to studies I might not have already found. While I certainly got a taste of Dr. Yates' perspective, and it is a perspective I very much appreciate, I found very little in the way of neuroscience. In fact, there were only a handful of studies referenced, and the

majority of those were out of date. Oddly, this fact does not detract from my overall positive impression of the work, but I do feel compelled to make a point of it given the way the book was marketed. Both the subtitle and the "reviews" included by the publishers emphasized a scientific angle, and this is simply incorrect. I want to warn potential readers of this because, in what I can only assume was a hasty zeal on the part of the publishers to capitalize on the neuroscience zeitgeist, they have succeeded in potentially undermining the true value of the book.



In my honest opinion, this book is best described as a modern synthesis and partial reinterpretation of the Abhidamma Sutta. As a modern synthesis it certainly owes much of its language and perspective to cognitive science, but not in an academically rigorous sense (the Mind and Life Dialogues between the Dalai Lama and various leading scientists might be a better place to start). It is more an attempt to bring a Theravadan perspective on the wisdom of two thousand plus years of phenomenological investigation by advanced meditators to the English speaking public, and in this it is an astounding success. Culadasa shows himself to be a first rate teacher of meditation who has obviously guided a great number of people through the years. His compassion and experience come through from the initial chapter on just establishing a regular time to practice, to the advanced stages where the reader will find a very fine grained description of common experiences and how to best focus one's energies. As a meditation guide, it is certainly the most thorough and clear book I have ever encountered, and I would venture to say buying this book is a no-brainer for anyone seriously interested in taking up a practice. Certainly for those already inclined towards a buddhist perspective this book comes as close to being complete as any non-living guide could be expected to.



For those not commited to a buddhist world view, and even for those that are but are also willing to encounter some contradictory ideas, I would suggest that interested readers consider, "The Path of Liberation," by Adyashanti, the old gem, "Focusing," by Eugene Gendlin, and Judith Blackstone's several books. The first book will offer an interesting counterpoint to The Mind Illuminated that will help counteract the subtle but pervasive goal-orientedness that often leaks in to the types of practices Culadasa emphasizes. The second book offers an exceptionally useful method for working with feelings and emotions that come up in the middle and later stages of meditation. The third author provides a unique perspective that includes the body, feelings, and relationships in meditation. To Culadasa's credit, he clearly names many problems and offers his own suggestions, such as loving-kindness meditation as an adjunctive practice, but I have found over the years that many people are not best served by attempting to counteract negative emotions with positive ones. Rather than finding equanimity, they seem to more often feel guilty about their genuine experience and bypass the possibility of important psychological insight. They languish in the middle stages of their practice, and most eventually give up, discouraged and feeling like failures. I have found the authors above to be better medicine for people finding themselves awash in emotion and/or struggling with relationships. Of course, the best way to handle these kinds of technical questions that arise in the course of a consistent practice is on a case by case basis. No book or combination of books can replace a trusting relationship with a teacher and a community of supportive others, and again to Culadasa's credit, he is clear that there will be instances where people should consider therapeutic support, but I would suggest that later editions delve into the important issue of emotions and relationships more deeply. The basic stance that negative emotions are simple impedimets that should fade over time or be counteracted seems remarkably simplistic in the 21st century. Also, we are inherently relational creatures in many ways, so the experience of feeling angelic on the cushions only to immediately re-engage in old patterns with family and friends is legion. As Ram Dass quppied many years ago, "if you think you are enlightened, go spend a week with your family." I do not doubt that Culadasa has much useful advice on these questions, but there did not seem to be room in this volume.



Finally, there is the question of post-awakening experience and practice. In this area Culadasa is completely silent. Again, not a crticism as his intent is clearly to support the establishment of a solid practice, but his input would be fascinating. Theravadan Buddhism in particular has a clearly articulated map of awakening, so discussion among advanced practitioners and teachers would be tremendously useful in continuing the project of forging a modern and clear language regarding how and why to practice meditation. I hope we will hear more from him in the future on these questions.



I hope these reflections will be of some value to people looking for guidance on meditation, especially those without teachers who are encountering obstacles. I pray you find your way.

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5.0 out of 5 starsPurposeful practice applied to meditation

ByJack Islandon October 8, 2016

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I hastened to review this book after seeing the overwhelmingly positive reviews. Many books on spirituality enjoy something of an equivalent to grade inflation. Gratitude and reciprocity go together, sometimes to the detriment of a more objective, and useful review.



I read this book first on Kindle for the reduced price. Inspired to almost immediately purchase the print edition. The lush diagrams, artful cover, and tangible reading experience made for fuller immersion and better retention.



After six months and at least three readings later, I stick to my five star review.



Around the same time of my initial exposure to this book, I stumbled across Peak by Anders Erickson. He qualifies the oft cited 10,000 hour rule with the concept of purposeful practice. To master something we need both time and awareness.



I started meditating off and on almost ten years ago; merely sitting with a vague understanding of meditation meant many plateaus and confusion. I tended more toward what Culadasa calls insight practice, at the expense of calm abiding (in the introduction of this book, he explains how the two approaches interdependently produce fertile conditions for awakening).



I knew that I needed more concentration in my practice. I decided to make meditation my keystone habit. For the first time (with the watchful eye of this book) I maintained a daily habit now six months strong.



Make no mistake, this book demands effort. The first stage in the ten stages of mastery means making meditation a daily habit, and Culadasa advises longer sits (working up to at least 40 minutes). Without a strong commitment, not sure how much long term value one can expect. But that was exactly what I wanted - realistic expectations and vicarious coaching to make marginal gains and real progress.



Critically engaging with the techniques, setting goals both inside and outside sessions, and practicing the walking meditations, no doubt accelerated my progress. I started around stage two or three and now primarily practice at stage six. I noticed discernible differences in the stages. For example, overcoming subtle dullness considerably turned up the voltage on my sessions.



I would watch out for not identifying too much with progress. I'm also not sure how much you can expect to overcome a stage once and for all. Adding judgement to a temporary regression can only make it worse. I struggled to internalize positive reinforcement for whenever I caught my mind wandering because I thought it reflected poorly on my practice. I would recommended over blowing the positives in each session, with faith that time and awareness will inexorably improve your baseline of concentration.



Excited to see how my practice turns out over the coming months and years, but the fact that I practiced the teachings in this book now for hundreds of hours speaks volumes to my personal investment. I never had a book weave itself so thoroughly into my daily life.

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5.0 out of 5 starsMy Practice has Flourished Since Reading this Book.

ByYvonneon April 13, 2016

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I was very hesitant to buy yet another book on meditation. I passed on this book several times over the past months. Now, not only have I read the book, which runs about 460 pages (not counting the table of contents and index) in its entirety, but I am about 100 pages into a second reading.



The book is brilliant. It is extremely well-written in lucid prose. The text is clear, concise, packed full of practical instruction. This book has managed to illuminate the areas of meditation practice that have always seemed unclear and difficult to me before. The authors do not rely on the use of words taken from Pali, Sanskrit, or Tibetan, in order to describe concepts that other authors have found difficult to explain in English. They have found a way to fully explain the practice of mediation using words already in the English language.



Meditation Instructions are presented in easy stages, in such a way that even very advanced meditative states do not seem to be beyond reach. Each set of instructions builds on previous understanding and gently leads the reader through the stages of meditation. In addition, the instructions are provided within a framework of how the brain functions. This is especially helpful in providing a working concept of the interactions between the conscious, and the unconscious minds and how both can be influenced though intention. No longer will you perceive sheer will power to be the way to train the mind. The authors show how to use these models of brain function, to facilitate stable attention using positive tools; like intention, present moment awareness, relaxation and enjoyment.



Reading this book I have so much appreciation for how much knowledge the authors must have, from their teachers, from their own extensive meditative experiences and from what they have learned while teaching many, many other individuals. Every time I pick up this book, it seems impossible that so much knowledge could be contained in such a compact object. I did not think such a book could ever be written.



This book is exquisite and is sure to become a classic on the subject. In addition It is extremely well priced, and I want to thank the authors for making it so affordable.

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5.0 out of 5 starsSit, stay... enjoy! --> Thank You!

BySamyamaon December 12, 2016

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This has answered questions that I've been exploring for 27 years including how best to use my meditation time. Culadasa's guide is INDISPENSABLE in demystifying the signal-to-noise ratio of seated practice. He discloses how to effectively deal with the gap that seemed to exist between the real & ideal with steps that are simple, easy-to-follow & effective. I'm filled with enthusiasm & enormous gratitude to be able to practice with such clarity. This guide has made an immediate & tangible impact on the *quality*, consistency & quantity of my practice. The best part is that I'm able to sit on the cushion & stay for extended periods now. I refer back to this book again & again, as other reviewers have said --> read, reread & rereread. It's a pleasure to do so. I'm not sure that what I was doing before was entirely meditation--even though I did my best. Now, rather than by sheer force of will, I'm able to use the momentum ignited by Culadasa to fuel my attention & awareness. I daresay I'm enjoying meditation--though I'm sure there will be a range of experiences ahead along with a sine-wave type learning curve. I keep updating this review because the process is evoking so transformation. I feel blessed every day. Since discovering this book I've cleared away many books from the bookshelf. Meditation is one of my favorite subjects & I've been a long-time student. This volume clarifies many things (known & unknown--as others have noted as well). The bottom line is that I was able to clear/donate so many books because now I'm able to *practice* rather than second-guess myself, wondering if I'm doing it right. Sidenote: I also recommend "The Attention Revolution" by Wallace as an excellent counterpart (I especially find the audio version helpful). Both books shine light on perhaps the *most* important question: What allows real transformation to take place? (I also like what Einstein posed as the most important question we can ask ourselves: "Is the Universe a friendly place or not?") This book is such a gift. I trust this path & I'm grateful it found me. I'm overcome with relief, appreciation & delight. Thank You Culadasa & best wishes to all on your chosen path!

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5.0 out of 5 starsThe very best book on meditation I've read

Byerperreaulton March 24, 2016

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The very best book on meditation I've read, and I have read many. My primary interests have been in Zen, Theravada / Thai Forest Buddhist teachings, and S.N. Goenka's meditation teachings. Most secular Buddhist types will probably have a similar background so this review is for you.



I don't know Culadasa (John Yates) or any of his students or much of anything about his school. This book was my first exposure to his teaching. I came away from reading it with what feels like a crystal clear understanding in broad terms of the path of meditative practice. The ideas laid out in this book unified and stitched together various teachings I've bumped into across different traditions, and made sense of all of them by introducing clear standardized terminology and doing away with all abstraction and poetic pretense.



It was immediately obvious to me reading The Mind Illuminated exactly where in Culadasa's 10 step demarcation of the path I am currently. It was also immediately obvious how my years of spiritual practice so far lined up against the 10 stage model; it is not a simple forward progression. Demoralizing backslides and sudden bursts of insight are given perfectly sound rational explanation in this book, and in that way many of my greatest hangups about meditative practice have been put to rest.



The second major point here is that even the stages I haven't reached were absolutely clear on first reading. Without any grasping attempts at fully describing heightened meditative experiences, just enough reference is given so that even someone at an earlier stage will understand what later stages might be like, and exactly what changes/effort are required to reach them. The entire spectrum from bored / tentative beginner to full Awakening are represented such that any layman will understand what is meant, and in that way this book is extremely motivating.



A third striking feature of this book is that it hardly comes across as a book about Buddhism. If you read only the main body of text and ignore all the endnotes, you will see only two or three significant mentions of Buddhism or Buddhist-specific terminology (except for the quite vanilla Anapanasati Sutta, which is briefly referenced at the end of most chapters). It is presented as a basically secular layman's meditation manual. However if you are familiar with Buddhism and the various traditions of meditative practice, those concepts will jump right out at you and if you flip to the endnotes you'll be treated to lovely, lengthy selections and citations straight from the Pali Canon and other widely studied Buddhist sources.



The appendices are very helpful and flesh out all the most important peripheral practices that are NOT simple concentration on the breath: walking meditation, metta, jhanas, progress of insight, etc.



I have to add my main criticism here as well, to be fair. I feel Culadasa shied away from discussing ethical conduct at any great length, perhaps for good pedagogical reasons and not wanting to put anyone off. But at least in my experience, meditation never bore any fruit whatsoever until it connected with my daily life in the form of practicing sila. I would have loved to see an appendix discussing the traditional five precepts, or any other permutation of tangible moral guidelines. Instead the extend of ethical discussion is something like, "don't hurt people because it will destroy your peace of mind," which is fine, but too general to be useful. In terms of the eightfold path and three trainings model (sila, samadhi, panna), this book only really addresses samadhi. It is clear why sila is important to support samadhi, and why samadhi is important to cultivate panna, but actual teachings on sila or panna are extremely thin.



To summarize my glowing review, reading this book clarified and energized my practice unlike any other book I've read, and each chapter felt like another years-old mystery was laid to rest. I truly believe this is the best "owner's manual" for the meditator's mind that has ever been put together. Practicing meditation without having read this is like teaching yourself microbiology with just a microscope and no textbook or teacher... It'll take years to even figure out the basics for yourself, which could have been mastered in a few weeks with proper explanation.

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5.0 out of 5 starsTEN STARS!

ByTable_for_5on March 30, 2017

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The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide is just that -- a COMPLETE meditation guide. This book is a game changer for meditators, whether just beginning or those with years of experience and all points between. The book demystifies meditation and reveals it for what it is: training of the mind so the it can become unified and able to penetrate the nature of reality in the now. Dr. Yates comprehensively details the ten stages of meditation, clearly delineating the goals for each stage, the obstacles one will encounter in each stage, the mitigating practices to navigate through the obstacles, the states the mind can expect to experience with each stage, and the markers that one has successfully mastered each particular stage.



The book warns against training the mind to chase after the various phenomena that arise during meditation, which, while being pleasing, intriguing and seemingly profound, the phenomena are distractions that take one's attention off the meditation object and will thwart one's progress. Dr. Yates also writes about dullness of mind, during which seemingly profound experiences can occur, but, again, only thwart one's progress. He does not only list the various obstacles and distracting mind states that arise, but he teaches the reader to identify them and gives remediating practices to help the meditator move beyond them.



The book also includes a number of appendices with supplemental meditation practices, as well as a helpful glossary. I cannot recommend this book enough to those who are interested in meditation or who already meditate. The instruction and wisdom shared in the book will truly help your meditation practice to progress in ways that are verifiable and clear to the meditator.

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5.0 out of 5 starsI cannot express how much this book has improved my practice!!

ByFe S.on April 3, 2016

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Oh my goodness. I cannot express how much this book has improved my practice. I've been meditating on and off for years, but never really had clear enough guidance to help me feel totally comfortable and confident in what I was doing. Because of that I would fall away from practicing and go back a while later with a totally different approach. I felt like there was something wrong with me that I couldn't "get it." This book changed all that. Now I feel like I KNOW what I am doing and because of that I don't shy away from sitting every day. I actually look forward to practicing daily because I now experience joy during meditation instead of frustration. And because I'm sitting daily I can see the fruits of my practice. Today's session was a very different experience from 6 weeks ago. I'm in stage 3 of the 10 stages, am confident with where I'm at, and so look forward to where my practice will go from here. Culadasa so thoroughly explains what to expect & what one might experience so that when I do experience it I know I'm on the right track and because he's talked about it, I know how to get through it. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this book and will recommend it (and even gift it) to anyone I know who is interested in establishing a serious meditation practice.