There was once a powerful samurai warrior in Japan, he was a leader of men and very faithful to his country. He would think nothing of giving his own life if it meant helping his emperor or country.

This warrior was used to battle and he had killed many men and so he was beginning to wonder if there was a heaven and a hell and if so how could he get to heaven and stay clear of hell.

He was concerned that he may not be allowed into heaven due to the fact that he had killed so many men this lifetime.

He had heard of the famous Zen master Hakuin and was told he could show him how to get to heaven. He decided to go and meet him and traveled long and far to find him.

After many days of gruesome travel over mountains and rough terrain he finally found the master. The warrior was doubtful when he met master Hakuin, he looked just like a simple peasant and the warrior really wondered if this simple man could authentically answer his question.

After all this travel it would be pointless to go back without asking the question and so the strong warrior asked Hakuin if indeed there was a heaven and a hell, and if so how could he get to heaven and avoid hell?

Master Hakuin being a very wise man, answered the question in a way the warrior would never forget.

Master Hakuin replied, “who are you?” to which the warrior replied, I am the chief samurai warrior of Japan and I work directly with the emperor, I am the leader of all samurai in Japan.

Hakuin laughed and said, you a warrior, you are nothing but talk, you could not save your self never mind our emperor, don’t waste my time, go!

At this the warrior was deeply offended and was immediately angry, he drew his sword ready to kill this peasant man in front of him, but just before he made the strike, Hakuin shouted, “Stop!” and continued, “this is hell.” The warrior stopped and put his sword back in its sheath and Hakuin smiled as he said “and this is heaven.”

The samurai got the message, the master had shown him how his anger was his own hell and his alert consciousness was his own heaven.

He realized that heaven and hell exist within us, it is always a choice as to how we respond to life.

It is said that the great samurai warrior threw down his sword and armour and followed the path of the spiritual warrior.

Always remember that if you react you are unconscious, work on watching your reactions so that eventually you begin to respond to life with conscious awareness.

A reaction is following a pattern of behavior from the unconscious that you have used to stop seeing yourself more clearly, or that you have used to avoid feeling your feelings, especially if those feelings are painful.

With time you will learn to respond to life rather than react, then you become conscious of who you are in each given moment and you start to create life the way you want, you become the conscious director of your own life.

It is not the outside that creates your inner feelings, it is always the meaning you give to what is happening that creates your inner world and this meaning you always have power over, you can decide what meaning you give to everything in your life.

Decide to allow heaven into your daily reality, its a choice away and the more often you do it, the easier it becomes to create regularly.

The Wild Heart – A Journey through the Southwest Wilderness by Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo

Take a journey through the wilderness in the heart of the American Southwest – Eastern Sierras, Grand Canyon, Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons, Rattlesnake Canyon, Vermillion Cliffs, North Coyote Buttes, the Wave, Yosemite National Park, Monument Valley, Grand Staircase Escalante and the December 2011 Lunar Eclipse.

Joshua Tree Under the Milky Way by Henry Jun Wah Lee on Vimeo

Timelapse video of the Perseid Meteor Shower and the galactic core of the Milky Way as seen from Joshua Tree National Park.

Here are some of my images from Joshua Tree:

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Yosemite HD by Project Yosemite on Vimeo

This video is a collaboration between Sheldon Neill and Colin Delehanty. All timelapses were shot on the Canon 5D Mark II with a variety of Canon L and Zeiss CP.2 Lenses.

Here are some of my pictures from Yosemite:

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Going To California by Luke Humphrey on Vimeo

5D MKII + Steadicam Merlin footage taken on a road trip from Seattle through California last winter, visiting Redwood, Sequoia, Yosemite, and Death Valley National Parks along with Mono Lake.

Here are some of my own pictures from North Coast, CA:

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Eastern Sierra Time Lapse by Jeff Chen Kuo Chih

A second 6-day trip through the California Eastern Sierra, from 350 feet below sea-level at the Badwaters in Death Valley National Park to 12,000 feet above, in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Very exhausting trip with only few hours sleep a day. The weather kept changing very suddenly, from sunny to stormy and back. Gusts of wind blew up several of my night time scenes. I hope you enjoy my video.

Here are images of my own travels through Yosemite and the Eastern Sierras:

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Epic Skies by Tony Rowell on Vimeo

Epic clouds and stars were captured while filming in Arizona’s Saguaro National Park, Redwood National Park, Utah and several areas in the Eastern Sierra.

Here are some of my own pictures from Redwood National Park:

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Here are some of my own pictures from the Eastern Sierras:

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Congratulations to these Kaiser Permanente caregivers who found an innovative way over the weekend to show their commitment to improving their health, and thus the health of the communities we serve. Think Beyonce, flash mob and Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

I agree. I absolutely refuse to pay for government insurance and would rather go to jail. If I am in jail I will get free healthcare so they can kiss my rear end.

-Kenton Seay

Expensive Healthcare

The reality is, no matter what side of the fence you are on, everyone can agree that our current healthcare system is broken. And needs to be reformed. Here are some interesting statistics:

• The United States spends twice as much on health care per capita ($7,129) than any other country . . . and spending continues to increase. In 2005, the national health care expenditures totaled $2 trillion. (source).
• To put this in perspective, we spent more on healthcare in 2009 than the entire GDP of the UK (source).
• 75% of all health care dollars are spent on patients with one or more chronic conditions, many of which can be prevented, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, lung disease, high blood pressure, and cancer.
• From 2000 to 2006, overall inflation has increased 3.5%, wages have increased 3.8%, and health care premiums have increased 87% (source).
• The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system (source).
• 16.3% of the American population is uninsured. The number of uninsured people increased from 49 million in 2009 to 49.9 million in 2010 (source).
• 9.8% of children under the age of 18 (7.3 million) are without health insurance. The uninsured rate for impoverished children (15.4%) was greater than the rate for all children (source).
• The primary reason given for lack of health insurance coverage in 2005 was cost (more than 50%), lost job or a change in employment (24%), Medicaid benefits stopped (10%), ineligibility for family insurance coverage due to age or leaving school (8%) (source).
• About half of the bankruptcy filings in the United States are due to medical expenses (source).

To sum this up: we spend more on healthcare than any other developed country yet we have the least reliable health care. In other words, we are not getting a very good return on investment.

Why can’t the Republicans have some common sense? Everyone should share the burden and bring the cost down for every one. Why can’t they see such a simple thing?

-Dennis Evel

With the Supreme Court case in the news recently, there has been a lot of discussion on the individual mandate of  healthcare reform – specifically as it relates to business. Insurance of any kind – including health insurance – is a game of risk. For insurance companies to make money, it is important to minimize claims. This is true of auto insurance, life insurance, casualty insurance, etc. Therefore, for health care reform to work, it is essential for all Americans to be insured. And share the risk, thereby averaging the costs of insurance for everyone and sharing the risk.

Shared Risk

Here is an illustration of shared risk. The blue bars represent individual Americans’ use of health care (risk). The tall bars are very high risk (chronic illness) versus the shorter bars which represent the average (healthy) American. The black curve represents shared risk whereby the high risk users very slightly raise the overall risk.

Health Care Reform under President Obama is built on this premise of shared risk. For the system to work, everyone must be insured. If only high risk consumers purchase insurance, they will sky rocket the overall risk and thus skyrocket the price. And so far that is what we have seen.

But this is where the disagreement begins. Libertarians denounce the system as “Socialism!” and claim that it is not their responsibility to share the risk of other people. They do not believe that the government has the right to tell them what to do with their money or their lives. Socialism or not, the reality is that we ultimately “foot the bill” regardless. Uninsured people lack access to primary care and thus go to the emergency room for issues that could have been treated by a primary care doctor. As it turns out, emergency rooms are really expensive. When uninsured people cannot pay for their service, the hospital has to make up for it somehow. So the cost gets indirectly passed on to people who are insured byway of higher insurance charges which translates to higher premiums and deductibles.

President Obama Health Care Reform

If a system – such as an individual mandate – was in place to deal with minor health problems through primary care and preventative health, it would save all of us money. Yes, the libertarians would positively benefit.

What sounds better? The current broken system, where the average American (or business) pays $300-$500 per person per month and as much as 20% are uninsured – or a reformed system where this cost is significantly decreased and everyone is looked after?

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