Dipānkarā and her Deepāvali

Diwali is short for Deepāvali, which means a row of lamps. The one who lights the lamp is Dipānkar (mas.) or Dipānkarā (fem.). The practice of lighting lamps is an invitation to live the present moment joyfully. Light signifies mindfulness. Lighting lamps on Diwali signifies that we are mindful and willing to share our joy with others.

Dipānkarā lights five diyas (lamps) of mindfulness on each of the five days of Diwali.

The first day is the day of protecting life. It is the day of Ayurveda, the health science. According to the Sankhya School, what we consume can be divided into three categories - sātvik, rājasik and tāmasik. Rājasik foods are those which likely foster worldly desires like meat, onions etc. Tāmasik foods like garlic foster laziness. Sātvik foods like spinach, fruits, rice, wheat etc. are good for health. Protecting life also means consuming only vegan food. We also feed animals on this day.

The second day symbolizes the end of exploitation. On this day we share what we have with others practicing true happiness. We buy things for the poor.

The third day is dedicated to mothers. Mothers practice true love. Their love for their children is unconditional. Children give gifts to their mothers on this day.

The fourth day is the day of the wives. Married men practice mindful communication by letting their wives know of their unwavering commitment. They also buy gifts for their wives.

The fifth day is the day of brotherhood and sisterhood. Men go to their sisters' homes and practice mindful consumption. Brothers get gifts for their sisters on this day.

In Nepal, the women feed the crows on the first day, dogs on the second day, cows on the third day, oxen on the fourth day and their brothers on the fifth day. It is very important to have a sister or you might end up without food on their fifth day of Diwali (Tihar, in Nepal).

While lighting the lamps, Dipānkarā is aware of the relative nature of reality and knows that she must live mindfully. She is aware that through mindfulness she can help manifest joy.

Once upon a time a young man was very keen on becoming a statesman. In his country the King had established a selection procedure to hire state officials. So he applied but unfortunately he was unsuccessful. Disappointed he began on his return journey from the capital to his home. His home was far away and after walking for a long time he became very tired and hungry. He stopped by a hermitage where an old hermit woman was preparing lentil soup. He told her that he was hungry. The old hermit woman told him that food would be ready soon and that he could rest for a while if he wanted to. The young man, tired as he was, fell asleep under a peepal tree.

He experienced a strange dream. He dreamt that he was selected to be a statesman. The King was very happy with the way he answered questions and conducted himself. He made the young man the Minister of Defense and also his son-in-law. This kingdom was not very powerful. The neighboring kingdom was aggressive and always looking to acquire their territory. The young man made mistakes and the neighboring kingdom capitalized on his mistakes by extending their territorial gains. The King became very upset and the young man lost his job. The King appointed a new Minister of Defense. The young man's personal life was also in disarray. He was sad and miserable.

Suddenly, he woke up. The food was ready but he was no longer hungry. He was asleep for barely fifteen minutes but it seemed like many years.

Time is relative and our experiences are just like the perceptions in a dream. Any material acquisitions in a dream are illusory, what remains when we wake up is the mind, the consciousness. The truly rich is not one who has more material resources but one who has fewer needs. He is more content. So we must think very carefully if we really want to chase material desire. Do we really want to marry a princess and become the Minister of Defense? We should think if money, sexual activity, fame, power etc. can truly make us happy.

Aware of this Dipānkarā trains her mind to live in the here and the now. She lights her lamps not as an offering to Gods or Buddhas but as a mindful activity. Like the mindfulness bell, lighting a lamp too can bring the mind and the body together.

We may spend a lot of money building temples and decorating altars but that is of no use because Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Gods and Goddesses are not to be found in temples. They are in us, waiting to manifest and will manifest if we create the right conditions. We can create the right conditions by practicing the five mindfulness trainings.

We can light the five lamps not just on Diwali but everyday - reverence for life, true happiness, true love, mindful communication and mindful consumption. Wish you a mindful Diwali!

#ThichNhatHanh #5Mindfulness #विज्ञप्तिमात्र #Veganism #Vijñaptimātra #TrueLove #MindfulConsumption #Reverence4Life #TrueHappiness #MindfulCommunication #Diwali #VijñaptimātraDiwali #Deepavali

Wish You A Mindful Diwali

A Mindful Diwali Is A Happy Diwali.

#ThichNhatHanh #5Mindfulness #Diwali #Vijñaptimātra #विज्ञप्तिमात्र

500 Afghan Women Are Transforming Their World

I am delighted to report that five hundred Afghan women have successfully managed to create a space for themselves in Afghanistan's male dominated agro industry. Two years ago, these women, along with Global Partnership for Afghanistan, began working on a strawberry farming project in search of a sustainable income stream.

Providing more details, the project's Executive Director, Kate McLetchie mentioned, "The project has enabled women to corner a previously unexplored section of the agricultural market in Afghanistan. Because strawberries are a new crop, wholesalers and producers alike were able to move into a space typically dominated by men for other crops. Women wholesalers were able to make successful sales at local shops owned and operated by men. The project established women as the primary wholesalers and traders of strawberries in the three provinces where the project has operated. Networks are immensely vital to the economic success of women entrepreneurs and to this end this project has connected women producers and wholesalers to shops and retailers, creating relationships that will lead to a steady revenue stream for many years to come."

While the money will help them ensure a better lifestyle, education and healthcare for their families, these women are also learning first hand how true happiness comes from sharing.

Learn more and see if you can help our Afghan sisters - Click Here!

#5Mindfulness #TrueHappiness #GoodCitizens #GlobalGiving #GlobalPartnershipForAfghanistan #AfghanWomen #Afghanistan

1200 Employees Get Houses, Cars And Jewelry As Bonus

An Indian diamond jewelry export firm, Hari Krishna Exports, has rewarded 1200 employees with two-bedroom houses, Fiat Punto cars and jewelry as a part of their performance linked loyalty bonus plan.

"This is part of our rewards for loyalty program for employees who have shown high degree of performance in the past five years," Savji Dholakia, chairman and managing director of Hari Krishna Exports told reporters.

"Only 1,200 employees qualified for the rewards", said Dholakia, "the gift items were given based on the current needs of the employees. The employees who did not own a house were given the first preference for house. Those who owned a house were eligible for a car while the employees who had both a house and a car were given jewelry."

Hari Krishna Exports has a turnover of a little over $800 million and employs 6000 workers.

I am hoping that more companies follow suit to help improve the lifestyle of their employees. A good entrepreneur is not driven by greed but by the unselfish motivation of contributing to society in a manner that reduces economic inequalities. They don't need to make it to the Forbes list of billionaires.

Eating Mindfully To Heal Our Planet

Looking deeply at the way we eat from a global perspective, we can see that meat production is a huge drain on the planet. The United Nations' report Livestock’s Long Shadow, an in-depth assessment of the damaging impact of livestock on our environment, concluded that livestock’s negative effect on our environment is massive and that we need to address it with urgency. The report estimates that raising livestock uses 8 percent of our planet’s water and contributes strongly to water depletion and pollution. Some scientists have estimated that it takes one hundred times as much water to produce a kilogram of beef as it does to produce a kilogram of protein from grain. Part of the reason that so much water is needed to produce livestock is that cattle are fattened on vast amounts of grain, which requires water to grow. In the United States, cattle consume seven times as much grain as the U.S. population as a whole. An Environmental Protection Agency report on U.S. agricultural crop production in 2000 states that, according to the National Corn Growers Association, about 80 percent of all corn grown in the United States is consumed by domestic and overseas livestock, poultry, and fish production. Yet, ironically, more than nine thousand children die each day from causes related to hunger and undernutrition. It is a painful realization that the grain and resources we use to raise livestock could be used more directly instead to feed the starving and malnourished children in the world.

Furthermore, a 2008 report by the Pew Charitable Trust and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that factory farming in the United States is taking a heavy toll on human health and the health of the environment—and that keeping livestock in these “concentrated animal feeding operations” constitutes inhumane treatment. Animal waste pollutes the water and air around the farms, causing illness among farmworkers and farm neighbors, as well as land degradation. Heavy use of antibiotics in factory farming leads to new strains of viruses and bacteria resistant to antibiotics, creating “superbugs” that may pose a public health threat to us all. In the report, the experts recommended phasing out and banning the use of antibiotics in farm animals except for the treatment of disease, instituting tighter regulation of factory farm waste, and phasing out intensive confinement systems.

The devastating environmental and societal impact of raising livestock goes beyond the use of water and land to grow food. Our society’s hunger for meat contributes mightily to the production of climate-changing greenhouse gases. The livestock industry is responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, a higher share than the entire transportation sector. Seventy percent of forests in the Amazon have been cut to provide grazing land for cattle, and when such forests are destroyed, enormous amounts of carbon dioxide stored in trees are released into the atmosphere. The meat, dairy, and egg industries are also responsible for two-thirds of human-induced emissions of ammonia, which in turn plays a role in acid rain and the acidification of our ecosystem.

The data suggest that one of the best ways to alleviate the stress on our environment is to consume less meat and eat more plant based food, which results in reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. We do not need cattle to process the food for us. It is much better and more efficient for us to eat more plant-based food and process it ourselves. It may seem like a huge change for many people, but reducing the amount of meat and dairy in your diet is a great way to keep your weight in check, improve your overall health, and take steps toward improving the health of our planet. When we learn to eat more vegetables, grains, and beans mindfully, we will enjoy their taste, and we can be happy knowing that we are supporting a new kind of society in which there is enough food for everyone and no one will have to suffer from hunger.

We must take urgent action at the individual and collective levels. For individuals, going towards vegetarianism can have great weight and health benefits. Vegans and vegetarians tend to weigh less than people who consume animal products; they also tend to have lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers.

Although this practice is primarily based on the wish to nourish compassion toward animals, it also offers many health benefits. Now we also know that when we eat vegetarian, we protect the earth and help reduce the greenhouse effect that is causing her serious and irreversible damage. Even if you cannot be 100 percent vegetarian, being a part-time vegetarian and consuming a more plant-based diet is already better for your own health as well as the health of our shared planet. You may want to start by eating vegetarian for a few days a month, or you can eat vegetarian only for breakfast and lunch every day. This way, you are already more than half vegetarian. If you feel that you cannot eliminate animal products from your diet for even one meal, simply reducing the portion of meat and eliminating processed meats like bacon, sausages, and ham can lower your risk of colon cancer and your risk of dying an early death from heart disease, cancer, or other causes. This is a good first step to adopting a more plant-based, healthful, environmentally friendly diet.

Using mindfulness to look deeply at what you eat can make it much easier to make such changes, because you realize the benefits they can bring to the planet and yourself—lower weight, lower risk of colon cancer and heart disease, and more energy for doing the things you enjoy. We are “interbeings”: we and our environment are interdependent. And even small changes on our part can have a large impact when combined with others. Our market economy is driven primarily by consumer demand. As a population, if a large number of people make even small moves to eat less meat and more plant-based foods, the livestock industry will shrink. Over time, farmers will find other crops to support their livelihoods. Through such collective awakening we can make a difference in our world.

- Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung (from the book "Savor - Mindful Eating, Mindful Life").

#ThichNhatHanh #5Mindfulness #विज्ञप्तिमात्र #HowToEat #Veganism #Vijñaptimātra #TrueLove #MindfulConsumption #Reverence4Life #LilianCheung #VeganAngels

Lawsky, Warren closing in on the scavengers of Wall Street

Make no mistakes about this, in Ocwen, the regulators are taking on the ringleaders of the 1% and for once it looks like Wall Street are running for cover.

Benjamin Lawsky and his outstanding team at the DFS, NY have Ocwen in a bind. After careful research, DFS have highlighted various problems with Ocwen's processes that pushed borrowers into foreclosure. The DFS have also highlighted conflict of interest in Ocwen's relationship with Altisource.

To understand what the borrowers have been up against in Ocwen, I am quoting a case from the New York Post:
"Eartha Smith, 75, a former fire department nurse who retired on disability, tried to get a modification on her $131,000 home loan in 2009, according to her lawyer, Peter Gleason.
Gleason received a letter from Ocwen on either Jan. 18 or 19, 2010, demanding financial information, pay stubs, bank statements and tax forms in order to modify the terms of Smith’s mortgage, he told The Post.
But the letter — which Ocwen said should be returned “as quickly as possible”— was dated Aug. 29, 2009, according to a copy of the letter provided to The Post. That’s about five months before he received it, according to Gleason.
“They put us through hell,” Eartha’s daughter, Evette, told The Post. “She’s a senior — she can’t get a modification to own her own home.”
Evette, who has power of attorney for her mother, took a leave of absence from school to help her mother fight Ocwen.
Ocwen sent thousands of letters to clients denying them a loan modification and giving them 30 days to appeal, Lawsky’s office said. Those letters were backdated more than 30 days, making it impossible for homeowners to modify their mortgages and increasing the likelihood of default.
“Ocwen’s indifference to such a serious matter demonstrates a troubling corporate culture that disregards the needs of struggling borrowers,” Lawsky said.
The Smiths have made 16 appearances at Brooklyn Supreme Court since 2009, and are still fighting the company to get the interest rate on their home loan lowered to 4 percent from 6.75 percent.
“They’re playing games,” Gleason said. “If you miss a deadline in this madness, they turn around and say that defendant failed to respond, move toward a summary judgment, and move toward eviction.”"

The Scavengers Of Wall Street
--------------------------------

One day I received a call from a woman. She was trying to reach someone from my team at Altisource to check the progress of her "deed-in-lieu of foreclosure" request. When a borrower for some reason cannot be offered a loan modification and no short sale offer has been approved by the loan servicer, the homeowner can sign a deed transferring the ownership to the lender/investor and walk away hoping the lender does not pursue a deficiency judgment. However, there is one catch - a deed-in-lieu does not wipe out encumbrances like junior liens unlike a foreclosure so lenders prefer to foreclose on the loan unless the title to the property is clear.

I looked up the title report and found an HOA lien. I asked her if she would pay if I could negotiate a reduced settlement amount with the HOA. Her answer made me wish I hadn't asked. She said she was pregnant and left alone to deal with her fate. The HOA had, in the past, garnished her wages and she had no savings left to settle the HOA dues. She was poor but she was brave. You have to be brave to deal with a situation where you are about to lose your home. You don't know where you'll be living next. Perhaps under a bridge. Even if you somehow try to get back on your feet, you'll have judgments to deal with. There she was, this brave woman, not only about to face this ordeal all by herself but also about to bring a baby into a world where almost everything is linked to money and that was the one thing she lacked.

We were able to get the HOA to waive off 85% of the dues and Altisource to pay the remaining 15%. Altisource agreed to pay because it was less than what they would have had to pay to the HOA post foreclosure. She thanked us and walked away into an uncertain future, handing her home on a plate to Altisource Residential, L. P. (ARLP Trust).

You may think that deeds-in-lieu and foreclosures are means through which a lender recovers part of the money it has advanced. However, I knew something that many people didn't. Altisource had just managed to acquire her home for a lot less than what it was worth. It was not loss mitigation. It was a very profitable deal. Welcome to the worst side of the financial world. Allow me to introduce the scavengers of Wall Street.

The Men Behind Ocwen and Altisource
-----------------------------------------

William Erbey identified in the 80's that there was a segment of borrowers who were more likely to default than others. They were low income homeowners who were barely able to make their monthly repayments. William Erbey created ways, utilizing deliberately-flawed technology and other means, to push these borrowers into foreclosure and sell the foreclosed homes. When questions were raised about the software Ocwen used and how Ocwen were offering employees incentives to push borrowers into foreclosure (ex. Ron Davis' testimony in Sealy Davis vs Ocwen), he spun off the technology and real estate businesses into a new company, Altisource, and located it in Luxembourg.

Wilbur Ross is a member of and has served as the 'Grand Swipe' (ringleader) of the notorious Wall Street secret society 'Kappa Beta Phi'. Erbey purchased Homeward from Ross and immediately inducted him into Ocwen's board. They got along like a house on fire. Ross was a 'scavenger among scavengers' and had many political connections. It is quite likely that Ross's connection with Blackrock's CEO Larry Fink came in handy when Blackrock threatened to sue Ocwen along with PIMCO. Wilbur Ross was rewarded for publicly backing Erbey. In July, Ocwen repurchased shares worth $72.3 million at a price significantly higher than the present market price from Wilbur Ross. No doubt Ocwen management was well aware of the investigations against them and the impact it would have on the stock's market price. Despite that, company funds were used to reward Wilbur Ross.

Leon Cooperman has been termed as the 'Pope of the 1%' and holds no less than 2,584,007 shares of Ocwen Financial Corporation as per the 13F filed on 08/14/2014. “Lawsky should be ashamed of himself,” Leon Cooperman, founder of the investment firm Omega Advisors, has said in the past on the Ocwen issue. “He’s acting as a politician to advance his personal interest, not doing his job as a regulator.”

Another key man in all this is Orin Kramer, a major fundraiser for the Obama 2012 campaign in New York. Kramer introduced Erbey to various influential Democrats like Austan Goolsbee.

The New Yorker reported in its October 2012 edition about a dinner which included Al Gore, Leon Cooperman, Orin Kramer and Antonio Villaraigosa among others, "Kramer, the hedge-fund manager and Obama fund-raiser, was quiet, but others in the room were enthusiastic. Villaraigosa gave Cooperman his direct phone number. Barry Sternlicht, the founder of the W hotel chain, and an Obama donor in 2008, said that he agreed totally with Cooperman. Scaramucci, the organizer of the dinner, told me the next day that the guests had witnessed the “activation” of a “sleeper cell” of hedge-fund managers against Obama. “That’s what you see happening in the hedge-fund community, because they now have the power, because of Citizens United, to aggregate capital into political-action committees and to influence the debate,” he said. “The President has a philosophy of disdain toward wealth creation. That’s just obvious, O.K.? We talked about it all night.” He later said, “If there’s a pope of this movement, it’s Lee Cooperman.”"

You name the bank, from Wells Fargo to Citi, from BONY to BoA and they have a relationship with Ocwen. Top dogs like the Capital Group and Vanguard have a share in the Ocwen pie.

Clinching Evidence
---------------------

In his letter to Ocwen general counsel Timothy Hayes, Lawsky said an Ocwen employee had alerted a compliance executive to backdating problems about a year ago, and raised the issue again after being ignored for five months, yet the company failed to launch an appropriate investigation.

Lawsky, who runs the New York Department of Financial Services, demanded that Ocwen "fix its systems without delay."

This past June, a monitor discovered a 2012 letter, backdated 41 days, denying a loan modification. The company told the regulator over the summer it discovered the issue in April or May of 2014. It said it involved around 6,100 letters and it had changed its system to fix the problem.

"Each of these representations turned out to be false," Lawsky said in his letter.

Ocwen has faced more intense supervision from the New York regulator since February, when its proposed purchase of servicing rights on $39 billion of mortgages from Wells Fargo & Co was indefinitely halted.

Lawsky has also questioned Ocwen's business ties to affiliates, as has the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The servicer disclosed that the SEC has been looking into its restated financials as well.

The New York regulator and the SEC have been coordinating parallel probes, according to a person familiar with the matter. The person was not aware of any federal authorities looking into the backdating. Spokespeople for both agencies declined comment.

Michael Bresnick, former director of President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Task Force, said the U.S. Department of Justice might become interested in examining whether the backdating violated federal civil fraud laws.

"A central issue will be whether this was simply an isolated mistake ... or part of a larger scheme to defraud homeowners," Bresnick said.

The CFPB, an agency started at the behest of Elizabeth Warren, is also looking into and discussing the future course of action as are the Attorneys General.

Elizabeth Warren has also written to the GAO seeking a study of the non-banking loan servicing industry and the threats posed to the consumers.

What happens next will be very closely watched. Will justice be served or will Ocwen manage to get away with another gentle slap on the wrist?

Learn more -
Kappa Beta Phi - http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/i-crashed-a-wall-street-secret-society.html

Cooperman's Dinner Party - http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/10/08/super-rich-irony

Ocwen Shareholders Pay For Erbey's Excesses

William Erbey decided to move part of his business empire to a tax haven, U.S. Virgin Islands, to evade taxes. While relocating to the tax haven, Erbey forced Ocwen to pay $6.4 million to buy his home located at 4701 Northside Dr, Atlanta, GA 30327.

Erbey had enough money to have held on to that property until a buyer emerged but he did not do so. He knew nobody will pay $6.4 million for that home.

More than two years and two price cuts later Ocwen are still trying to sell the home. For 26 months Ocwen's shareholders have been forced to pay for the mansion's maintenance, utility bills, taxes etc. The mansion is a symbol of the Ocwen Chairman's material excesses and flashy lifestyle.

Here's a link to the listing which is NOT being sold through HUBZU:

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4701-Northside-Dr-Atlanta-GA-30327/35913688_zpid/