Saturday, December 23, 2006

Symptoms of Inner Peace



An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

Loss of interest in judging others.

Loss of interest in interpreting actions of others.

Loss of interest in conflict.

Loss of ability to worry. (very serious symptom)

Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation or unattached giving.

A tendency to smile more often

Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.

Frequent attacks of smiling through the eyes from the heart.

Tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.

Tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fear based on past experiences.


From: www.dhammasukha.org

Sunday, December 10, 2006

the truth of desire



Our usual perceptions are tinged with “unwise consideration”. We ordinarily look only at the surfaces of things, scan them in terms of our immediate interests and wants; only rarely do we dig into the roots of our involvements or explore their long-range consequences. To set this straight calls for wise consideration: looking into the hidden undertones to our actions, exploring their results, evaluating the worthiness of our goals. In this investigation our concern must not be with what is pleasant, but with what is true. We have to be prepared and willing to discover what is true even at the cost of our comfort. For real security always lies on the side of truth, not on the side of comfort.

When desire is scrutinized closely, we find that it is constantly shadowed by 'unsatisfactoriness' (or dissatisfying). Sometimes 'unsatisfactoriness' appears as pain or irritation; often it lies low as a constant strain of discontent. But the two — desire and dukkha — are inseparable concomitants. We can confirm this for ourselves by considering the whole cycle of desire. At the moment desire springs up it creates in us a sense of lack, the pain of want. To end this pain we struggle to fulfill the desire. If our effort fails, we experience frustration, disappointment, sometimes despair. But even the pleasure of success is not unqualified. We worry that we might lose the ground we have gained. We feel driven to secure our position, to safeguard our territory, to gain more, to rise higher, to establish tighter controls. The demands of desire seem endless, and each desire demands the eternal: it wants the things we get to last forever. But all the objects of desire are impermanent. Whether it be wealth, power, position, or other persons, separation is inevitable, and the pain that accompanies separation is proportional to the force of attachment

Desire breeds fear and sorrow. Renunciation gives fearlessness and joy.


Bhikkhu Bodhi

the path



The search for a spiritual path is born out of suffering. It does not start with lights and ecstasy, but with the hard tacks of pain, disappointment, and confusion. However, for suffering to give birth to a genuine spiritual search, it must amount to more than something passively received from without. It has to trigger an inner realization, a perception which pierces through the facile complacency of our usual encounter with the world to glimpse the insecurity perpetually gaping underfoot. When this insight dawns, even if only momentarily, it can precipitate a profound personal crisis. It overturns accustomed goals and values,
mocks our routine preoccupations, leaves old enjoyments stubbornly unsatisfying.

No longer can we continue to drift complacently through life, driven blindly by our hunger for sense pleasures and by the pressure of prevailing social norms. A deeper reality beckons us; we have heard the call of a more stable, more authentic happiness, and until we arrive at our destination - we cannot rest content.


Bhikkhu Bodhi

Saturday, December 02, 2006

a battle hard to win



ONe who repays an angry man with anger
Thereby makes things worse for himself.
Not repaying an angry man with anger,
One wins a battle hard to win.

He practises for the welfare of both
His own and the other's
When, knowing that his foe is angry,
He mindfully maintains his peace.


Samyutta Nikaya

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

time



It is by living together with someone that his virtue is to be known,
and that after a long time, not after a short time;
by one who is attentive, not by one who is inattentive;
by one who is wise, not by a dullard.

It is by dealing with someone that his honesty is to be known,
and that after a long time, not after a short time;
by one who is attentive, not by one who is inattentive;
by one who is wise, not by a dullard.

It is in adversities that a person's fortitude is to be known,
and that after a long time, not after a short time;
by one who is attentive, not by one who is inattentive;
by one who is wise, not by a dullard.

It is by discussion with someone that his wisdom is to be known,
and that after a long time, not after a short time;
by one who is attentive, not by one who is inattentive;
by one who is wise, not by a dullard.

A man is not easily known by outward form
Nor should one trust a quick appraisal,
For in the guise of the well controlled
Uncontrolled men move in this world.

Some move about in disguise:
Inwardly impure; outwardly beautiful.


Samyutta Nikaya

Sunday, November 26, 2006

essential



Those who mistake the unessential for the essential
and in the essential see the unessential,
dwelling in wrong thoughts,
never arrive at the essence.

Those who know the essential as the essential
and the unessential as the unessential,
dwelling in right thoughts,
will arrive at the essence.


Dhammapada

Monday, November 20, 2006

in the realm of the spirit



This is the only satisfying way for the seeker of truth when the
diffuseness of the external world with its thin layer of
culture, comfort and allurement, ceases to be interesting and is
found to lack true value. The seeker knows to a certainty that
what he wants is to be found in the realm of the spirit.

Soma Thera

Saturday, November 18, 2006

beyond the horizon



... spiritual awareness and the quest for enlightenment do not arise spontaneously in harmony with our natural modes of world-engagement, but require a turn "against the current", a break away from our instinctual urges for expansion and enjoyment, and the embarkation in a different direction. This break is precipitated by the encounter with suffering. Suffering spurs the awakening of the religious consciousness in that it is the experience of suffering which first tears us out of our blind absorption in the immediacy of temporal being and sets us in search of a way to its transcendence.


Bhikkhu Bodhi

Thursday, November 16, 2006

listen



An interviewer asked Mother Teresa what she says to God when she prays.

"I don't say anything," she replied. "I just listen."

So the interviewer asked her what God says to her.

"He doesn't say anything," said Mother Teresa. "He just listens."

And before the astonished interviewer could press her further, she added,
"And if you don't understand that, I can't explain it to you."


Stephen Carter, Civility

Picture from www.travelblog.org

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Rory Peck Trust Award 2006

ZAKARIA ABU HARBID - Palestinian

Winner: The Rory Peck Award for Hard News

This piece shows scenes broadcast around the world of 12 year old Huda Ghalia after an explosion which killed her father, her step-mother and five siblings. The distraught young girl is seen running along the beach then weeping beside her father’s body. Zakaria had been filming another incident in the nearby village of Beit Hanon. As soon as he heard about the incident on Gaza Beach, he left and arrived at the scene just minutes later.





The Rory Peck Trust

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

no fixing



...she was philosophical about my moods. Sadness didn’t worry
her. On those occasions when I said, “But I’m not happy!” she
would say, “Where is it written that you are supposed to happy
all the time?”

I don’t remember this comment as a rebuke. I think of it now as
my introduction to the first of the Four Noble Truths of the
Buddha. Life is difficult because things change. Change means
loss and disappointment. Bodies and relationships are, from time
to time, painful. I was reassured by my grandmother’s response. I
didn’t feel I was making a mistake by feeling sad, and she didn’t
feel obliged to fix me.


Sylvia Boorstein

Monday, November 06, 2006

hurtling by



Days and nights go hurtling by
‘Till our lifetime comes to an end.
The life of mortals slips away
—Like the water of tiny streams.

Therigatha 145

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

China takes heat after shooting Tibetan pilgrims



NEW DELHI, India -- The two teenage girls were best friends. In their tiny farming village in Tibet, they had stayed up late many nights over four years plotting their escape.

Kelsang Namtso had become a Buddhist nun just last year, at the tender age of 16. Her friend, Dolma Palkyi, 16, wanted to go to India, and meet the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, before taking her vows.

Dolma says she managed to save nearly $1,400 for the arduous journey through the Himalayas. Half would go to the smugglers. In early September, the girls loaded their backpacks with yak butter, cheese, and barley, and finally set off.

Seventeen days later, Kelsang lay dying in the snow after an attack, captured by Western tourists' cameras, that is becoming an international incident and a stain on China's human rights record.

To continue reading article, goto:
China takes heat... from The Christian Science Monitor

Sunday, October 22, 2006

follow the path to the end



A good actor is a man who represents the sediment, the unexplored and unexplained powers that have drifted down through the centuries; he takes the lessons he has gleaned and hides them deep inside him; his self-mastery is awesome; never does he bare his heart; no one may know how powerful he is until he strides onto the stage. All his life, he travels down unfamiliar roads to perform at the most out-of-the-way theaters in the most godforsaken towns, and everywhere he goes he searches for a voice that will grant him genuine freedom. If he is so fortunate as to find that voice, he must embrace it fearlessly and follow the path to the end.


Snow, Orhan Pamuk

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Video footage of Chinese police shooting Tibetan pilgrims

Pro Tv cameraman Sergiu Matei returned to Romania after climbing Himalaya and brought home with him a shocking story.

To see video footage of Chinese police shooting Tibetan pilgrims on their way to see the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala, India,
Click: Video Footage

For info on Invasion n Illegal Annexation of Tibet,
goto Tibet

respect for all faiths



"I consider myself as someone who is a devout follower of the Buddha Shakyamuni.
I can actually claim that my admiration for the Buddha is grounded in a genuine
conviction based upon understanding of the essence of his teachings. I also feel
that at least in me there is the perfect realization of taking refuge in the Buddha,
Dharma and Sangha. So this is the case of my own personal belief as a committed
practicing Buddhist.

But at the same time when I look at other faith traditions such as Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism and other major world religions, I have a profound sense of admiration and
reverence for them. This is because each of the great spiritual traditions has served the spiritual
needs of millions of individuals in the past, they continue to do so and they will continue in the
future. They provide spiritual solace and inspiration as well as a deep sense of fulfillment of
peoples’ spiritual needs. In a sense these are very powerful and profound methods for other
sentient beings to bring about the fulfillment of their spiritual aspirations. They are in a sense
sources of profound benefit to millions of individuals.

So when I look at these other faith traditions from this angle, my admiration and reverence for
these traditions tremendously increases. One of the aspects this reflects is the diversity and
multiplicity of the mental inclinations, spiritual inclinations and mental dispositions and interests
of sentient beings."


The Dalai Lama at Illinois 1999
Picture: The Dalai Lama at the Western Wall in Jerusalem (www.guysen.com)

Thursday, October 12, 2006

CAIGENTAN 菜根谭




One who craves solitude understands the cosmos
just by looking at the white clouds and rocky crags.

One who seeks wealth and honour
finds respite in singing and dancing.

Only the self-sufficient person
is unaffected by noise or quiet,
the magnificent or the withered,
and finds any place to be just right.



CAIGENTAN by Hong Zicheng, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty
Translated by Robert Aitken with Daniel Kwok

Goto site:
CAIGENTAN 菜根谭

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

narrow road


Nowhere in this wide universe
have we a fixed abode.

Matsuo Basho
Narrow Road to the Interior

Monday, October 09, 2006

never seek to tell



Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears—
Ah, she doth depart.

Soon as she was gone from me
A traveler came by
Silently, invisibly—
Oh, was no deny.



William Blake

Sunday, October 08, 2006

eternity's sunrise



He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy.
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sunrise.

William Blake

Thursday, October 05, 2006

non-violence



"I am prepared to die,
But there is no cause
for which I am prepared to kill."

M. Gandhi

Pic: Displaced children in Darfur, US Aid

Monday, October 02, 2006

silent space



For language to have meaning,
there must be intervals of silence somewhere,
to divide word from word, utterance from utterance.
He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language.
Perhaps it is love and respect for the language
which impose silence upon him.
For the mercy of God is not heard in words unless it is heard,
both before and after the words are spoken,
in silence.

Thomas Merton

Sunday, October 01, 2006

not all



Not all who wander are aimless.

Especially not those who seek truth

... beyond tradition

... beyond definition

... beyond the image



Film, Mona Lisa Smile

Photo Credit: Seattle Times

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

pretensions



Consistent orientation towards death, which breaks the pretensions of everything which claims attention, my own pretensions above all, without any slackening of responsibility and energy in choosing and fulfilling the possibilities that are open on each occasion, that alone is the mode of existence of the enlightened and resolved human being.



HJ Blackham on Heidegger
Six Existentialist Thinkers

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Thich Nhat Hanh's Letter



Honorable George W. Bush
The White House
Washington DC, USA

Plum Village
Le Pey 24240
Thenac, France

Dear Mr President

Last night, I saw my brother (who died two weeks ago in the USA) coming back to me in a dream. He was with all his children. He told me, "Let's go home together." After a millisecond of hesitation, I told him joyfully, "Ok, let's go."

Waking up from that dream at 5 am this morning, I thought of the situation in the Middle East; and for the first time, I was able to cry. I cried for a long time, and I felt much better after about one hour. Then I went to the kitchen and made some tea. While making tea, I realized that what my brother had said is true: our home is large enough for all of us. Let us go home as brothers and sisters.

Mr. President, I think that if you could allow yourself to cry like I did this morning, you will also feel much better. It is our brothers that we kill over there. They are our brothers, God tells us so, and we also know it. They may not see us as brothers because of their anger, their misunderstanding, and their discrimination. But with some awakening, we can see things in a different way, and this will allow us to respond differently to the situation. I trust God in you; I trust Buddha nature in you.

Thank you for reading.

In gratitude and with brotherhood,
Thich Nhat Hanh
Plum Village

Plum Village

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Canon

Canon like you've never heard before.

walking away








...... how selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.





C. Day Lewis,
Walking Away

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

just walk



There is no problem so great
that it cannot be solved by walking.

Kierkegaard

Monday, September 18, 2006

I never am



Personal existence is self-projecting,
it is not what it is
but what it will be,
because it is not formed and finished
but has an open future.

I never am
but always will be.


HJ Blackham
Six Existentialist Thinkers

Thursday, September 14, 2006

lone kayak


The serious problems in life are never fully solved.
The meaning and the purpose of a problem seem not to lie in its solution but in our working at it incessantly.
This alone preserves us from stultification and petrifaction.


Carl Jung

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

the meaning you have given



The phenomenal world has no meaning
beyond the meaning given to it
by our own interpretation.


Treasury of Truth

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Remembering Mother Teresa 5 Sept 1997



“Mother Teresa,” Sr Nirmala added, “respected people of all faiths. Devotion to her is spreading across religious boundaries, and she is surely watching over us all, praying that universal brotherhood and love may encompass all humankind.”


To read full article, goto:
Sr Nirmala Remembers

Saturday, September 09, 2006

changing hues



Gain, loss, neglect and attention
Insult, praise, pleasure and pain
These unstable human experiences
Are transient changing vissisitudes of life

Knowing this, the mind of sage
Closely observes the changing experience
His mind not lured by pleasing experience
What is not pleasing, he does not hate


Treasury of Truth

Mastering Your Own Mind



From Psychology Today, Mastering Your Own Mind:

As Kabat-Zinn says: "Awareness gives you your life back. You can then decide what to do with it."


For full article, goto:
Mastering Your Own Mind Article

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

mirror mirror




Do not worry about what others do or not do.
Rather, look within yourself,
And consider what you yourself have done
or left undone.


Treasury of Truth

Friday, September 01, 2006

I am, am I not?



"I am, am I not?
but what am I?
What is this elusive self
that is always elsewhere
whenever I try to grasp it?
And this familiar world -
why is it silent
when I ask the reason for my existence here?"


Clearing the Path

Ven Dr K Sri Dhammananda 1919-2006


The Chief monk of Malaysia and Singapore, Ven. Dr K Sri Dhammananda Maha Nayaka Thera passed away peacefully at 12.42 pm today. He was 87.

Buddhist Channel
Webcast Life & Works

Thursday, August 31, 2006

anyone at all


Funny how I feel more myself with you
Than anybody else that I ever knew
I hear it in your voice, see it in your face
You've become the memory I can't erase

You could have been anyone at all
A stranger falling out of blue
I'm so glad it was you

Wasn't in the plan not that I could see
Suddenly a miracle came to me
Safe within your arms I can say what's true
Nothing in the world I would keep from you

You could have been anyone at all
An old friend calling out of blue
I'm so glad it was you

Words can hurt you if you let them
People say them and forget them
Words can promise words can lie
But your words make me feel like I can fly

You could have been anyone at allAnd let that catches me when I fall
I'm so glad it was you


Carole King


Music Tracks section below, rhs.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Restorative Justice



Restorative justice is a theory of justice that emphasizes repairing the harm caused or revealed by criminal behaviour. It is best accomplished through cooperative processes that include all stakeholders.

Restorative programmes are characterized by four key values:
1. Encounter: Create opportunities for victims, offenders and community members who want to do so to meet to discuss the crime and its aftermath
2. Amends: Expect offenders to take steps to repair the harm they have caused
3. Reintegration: Seek to restore victims and offenders to whole, contributing members of society
4. Inclusion: Provide opportunities for parties with a stake in a specific crime to participate in its resolution


More info@:
Guidelines - Restorative Justice Through Dialogue

Guidelines - Restorative Justice Site

Law, Buddhism & Social Change


International Conference

Law, Buddhism, and Social Change: A Conversation with the 14th Dalai Lama

Wednesday, September 20
Thursday, September 21
O'Brian Hall, North Campus
University at Buffalo, State of New York

A two-day academic conference "Law, Buddhism, and Social Change" at the University at Buffalo will open with a conversation with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama on the morning of Wednesday, September 20, in the Law Library in O'Brian Hall on the North Campus. This important conference represents the path-breaking efforts of the Law and Buddhism project at UB, the only such academic endeavor in the world. Although Law and Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism are established and well-endowed areas of study, the study of Law and Buddhism is new.

To read more, click:
Official Website

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Mitsuko Uchida



"You can practise as much as you like. You can study as much as you like, work as much as you like, think as much as you like at home. But exposure is dangerous. There are plenty of examples of people who have become addicted to exposure, musicians and otherwise. Exposure, power and money go hand in hand and are peculiarly dangerous and addictive.

I understood completely one day I was not going to be the most highly paid musician. I was not going to be the most famous. I was not going to cash in or play as much as possible. I wanted to keep my life my own and not be a great unhappy pianist. I need time to myself to relax. If you keep the balance right, nothing is better than a musician's life. Sometimes I'm asked if I would pay to give concerts, and I would - but instead they pay me. Aren't I lucky!"

Mitsuko Uchida

Click:
Official Site - Mitsuko Uchida
Borletti Buitoni Trust for young musicians

Monday, August 28, 2006

many n few



In the beginner's mind, there are many possibilities.
In the expert's, there are few.

Suzuki Roshi

deep within



"Centeredness is the cure for impulsiveness.
Serenity is the master of restlessness.
Knowing this, one of universal nature is placid
and never departs from the center of his own being.
Though he may move about all day, he never loses his poise.
Though he may be surrounded by splendor and comfort,
he is always dispassionate and undistracted."

Truly, he cherishes what is deep within.

Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu
道德经, 老子

To read Lao Tzu's works in English & Chinese, go to:
'Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu'

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Friday, August 25, 2006

interval between notes



"The notes, I handle no better than many pianists.
But the pauses between the notes -- ah, that is
where the art resides."

Artur Schnabel

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

is love enough?

John Welwood, PhD in Clinical Psychology, addresses a human peculiarity; why do relationships that begin in mutual tenderness sometimes end in mutual terrorism?

For the pdf article, click

'Is love enough? by John Welwood'

Tycoon backs multi-faith centre

To read article at BBC, click:

'Tycoon backs multi-faith centre'

Monday, August 21, 2006

ignorance


Ignorance is not an absence of knowledge,
nor a state of non-knowing.
It is an active misapprehension of reality.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

not lost




All that is gold does not glitter:
not all those that wander are lost.


J R R Tolkien

Friday, August 18, 2006

do not stand at my grave and weep



Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!



Mary Frye (1932)

hardwired spirituality

"Therefore, spirituality may be hard-wired," said Hughes, quoting Dr. Herbert Benson, founding president of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Chestnut Hill, Mass. “Spirituality is seen as an innate human trait that is very much like a drive. It’s a longing, a hunger for a connection with the transcendent and the divine,”

To read article,
'Sacred Minds' from Science & Theology News

Thursday, August 17, 2006

present moment



The present moment
contains past and future.
The secret of transformation
is in the way we handle
this very moment.

Vasubandhu

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Grown-Up Christmas List



www.yalibnan.com


GROWN-UP CHRISTMAS LIST
(D.Foster-L.Thompson Jennings)


Do you remember me?
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you
with childhood fantasies

Well,I'm all grown-up now;
can you still help somehow?
I'm not a child,
but my heart still can dream...

So here's my lifelong wish
my grown-up Christmas list...
not for myself,
but for a world in need...

No more lives torn apart
that wars would never start,
and time would heal all hearts.
Every man would have a friend,
that right would always win,
and love would never end...
this is my grown-up Christmas list.

What is this illusion called
the innocence of youth?
maybe only in our blind belief
can we ever find the truth.



David Foster

David Foster Site

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

not two, not one




we are two, yet one.

aml.2006

Toward the First Revolution in the Mind Sciences

Dr. Alan Wallace recently gave a lecture at Google headquarters in Mountainview California.

Alan Wallace, the Santa Barbara Institute’s founder and president, combines an extensive background in contemplative practice with equally rigorous academic and scientific training. From 1971 to 1984, he immersed himself in Tibetan Buddhist studies, first in Dharamsala, India, and then in Switzerland under the tutelage of the eminent scholar Geshe Rabten. He then received a B.A. in physics and the philosophy of science at Amherst College, followed by a Ph.D. in religious studies at Stanford University.

From 1997 to 2001, Dr. Wallace taught in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where his classes focused on Tibetan Buddhist studies and the interface between science and religion. He is the author of many books, including The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Conscousness, Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground, and Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind-Training, as well as numerous scholarly articles.


The lecture can be viewed by clicking here or visiting:

Google Video Online Lecture: Toward the First Revolution in the Mind Sciences



For more info on Alan Wallace and Santa Barbara Institute of Consciousness Studies, see

Alan Wallace Online

Santa Barbara Institute of Consciousness Studies

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Please Call Me By My True Names

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear water of a pond,
and I am also the grass-snake who approaching in silence, feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.

I am the 12 year old girl, refugee on a small boat, who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.


Thich Nhat Hanh

Friday, August 04, 2006

cross the abyss

"What can we gain by sailing to the moon
if we are not able to cross the abyss
that separates us from ourselves?"



Thomas Merton

Friday, July 28, 2006

ever changing times

Ever Changing Times

It's an ever changing time
I see, that clock upon the wall
Well it don't bother me at all
It's an ever changing time

And me, ever changing time
Everything is going so much faster
It seems like I'm
Watching my life, and everything I do
Wonder if the dreams that I believed in
Still come true

Caught in between, it comes back to
You and me running out of time, I gotta find me a better understanding
Everything keeps forgetting whats mine, I gotta find me a way, less-demanding
And we're holding on so tight, together, all of our lives

And I, I had some big idea
So much of my life, still not completed
Hopes and Fears
Watching it change, into something new
Wondering if Im gonna find the answer, loving you

All of my life, it comes back to
You and me running out of time, I gotta find me a better understanding
Everything keeps forgetting whats mine, I gotta find me a way, less-demanding
And we're holding on so tight, together, all of our lives

I see, that clock upon the wall, well it dont bother me at all
It's a ever changing time


Performed by: Aretha Franklin

Thursday, July 27, 2006

seeing

This is the supreme seeing: seeing what was not seen before.


Dudjom Rinpoche

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

spiritual path

There is the path of wisdom
and the path of ignorance.
They are far apart and lead to different ends...
Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned,
fools go aimlessly hither and thither like the blind led by the blind.
What lies beyond life shines not to those who are childish, or careless,
or deluded by wealth.


Katha Upanishad

Thursday, July 20, 2006

salter's tree

Huge Elm thy rifted trunk all notched and scarred
Like to a warrior's destiny - I love
To stretch me often on such shadowed sward
And hear the sighs of summer leaves above
Or on thy buttressed roots to sit and lean
In careless attitude and there reflect
On times and deeds and darings that have been
Old cast aways now swallowed in neglect
While thou art towering in thy strength of heart
Stirring the soul to vain imaginings
In which life's sordid being hath no part
The wind in that eternal ditty sings
Humming of future things that burns the mind
To leave some fragment of itself behind.


John Clare

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

endless wanderings

Mesmerized by the sheer variety of perceptions,
beings wander endlessly astray in samsara's vicious cycle.


Jikme Lingpa

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

right speech

Before admonishing another, one should reflect this...
In due season will I speak, not out of season.
In truth will I speak, not in falsehood.
For his benefit will I speak, not his loss.
Gently will I speak, not harshly.
In kindness will I speak, not anger.


Vinaya

Friday, July 14, 2006

Monday, July 10, 2006

water n ice

"On the path of practice, knowledge is an obstacle that must be overcome.
We must be ready to abandon our knowledge at any moment in order
to get to a higher level of understanding."

Thich Nhat Hanh

We may consider the perspective of water and ice.
A living encounter is water, continually flowing, always ready to take new shape.
Knowledge is ice: hardened, fixed.
Being mindful means the ice of our knowledge to melt into the living water of a
personal encounter with another human being.
It is only in such an encounter that true healing takes place.

Thomas Bien

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Friday, June 30, 2006

still flowing water

“Have you ever seen still water?” Ajahn Chah would ask.
They would nod, “Yes, of course, we’ve seen still water before.”
Then Ajahn Chah would ask, “Well then, have you ever seen flowing
water?” And that also seemed a strange thing to ask. They’d respond,
“Yes, we’ve seen flowing water.”

“So, did you ever see still, flowing water?”

Ajahn Chah would then explain that the mind’s nature is still,
yet it’s flowing. It’s flowing, yet it is still. He would use the word
“citta” for the knowing mind, the mind of awareness. The citta
itself is totally still. It has no movement; it is not related to all
that arises and ceases. It is silent and spacious. Mind objects—
sights, sounds, smell, taste, touch, thoughts, and emotions—flow
through it. Problems arise because the clarity of the mind gets
entangled with sense impressions. The untrained heart chases
the delightful, runs away from the painful, and as a result, finds
itself struggling, alienated, and miserable. By contemplating our
own experience, we can make a clear distinction between the
mind that knows (citta) and the sense impressions that flow
through it.

By refusing to get entangled with any sense impressions,
we find refuge in that quality of stillness, silence, and
spaciousness, which is the mind’s own nature. This policy of
noninterference allows everything and is disturbed by nothing.

Friday, June 16, 2006

regarding our mind

If it is sent far, it does not go away;
If it is closely bound, it does not stay;
If it is well examined, it is ungrounded;
So what is its nature?
Insofar as you crave it a litte,
You will be fettered.
If you know its nature,
You will be released from all fetters.


Sakya Pandita

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

You Don't Know Me

You give your hand to me
And then you say, "Hello."
And I can hardly speak,
My heart is beating so.
And anyone can tell
You think you know me well.
Well, you don't know me.
(no you don't know me)

No you don't know the one
Who dreams of you at night;
And longs to kiss your lips
And longs to hold you tight

Oh I'm just a friend.
That's all I've ever been.
Cause you don't know me.
(no you don't know me)

For I never knew the art of making love,
Though my heart aches with love for you.
Afraid and shy, I let my chance go by.
A chance that you might love me too.
(love me too)

You give your hand to me,
And then you say, "Goodbye."
I watched you walk away,
Beside the lucky guy
Oh, you'll never ever know
The one who loved you so.
Well, you don't know me

For I never knew the art of making love,
Though my heart aches with love for you.
Afraid and shy, I let my chance go by.
A chance that you might love me too.

Oh, you give your hand to me,
And then you say, "Goodbye."
I watched you walk away,
Beside the lucky guy
Oh, you'll never ever know
The one who loved you so.
Well, you don't know me
(you don't love me, you don't know me)


Performed by: Ray Charles

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

alone and drinking under the moon 月下獨酌

花間一壺酒
獨酌無相親
舉杯邀明月
對影成三人
月既不解飲
影徒隨我身
暫伴月將影
行樂須及春
我歌月徘徊
我舞影零亂
醒時同交歡
醉後各分散
永結無情遊
相期邈雲漢

Amongst the flowers I
am alone with my pot of wine
drinking by myself; then lifting
my cup I asked the moon
to drink with me, its reflection
and mine in the wine cup, just
the three of us; then I sigh
for the moon cannot drink,

and my shadow goes emptily along
with me never saying a word;
with no other friends here, I can
but use these two for company;
in the time of happiness, I
too must be happy with all
around me; I sit and sing
and it is as if the moon

accompanies me; then if I
dance, it is my shadow that
dances along with me; while
still not drunk, I am glad
to make the moon and my shadow
into friends, but then when
I have drunk too much, we
all part; yet these are

friends I can always count on
these who have no emotion
whatsoever; I hope that one day
we three will meet again,
deep in the Milky Way.

Li Bai 李白

It is I

Camerado, this is no book,
Who touches this touches a man,
(Is it night? are we here together alone?)
It is I you hold and who holds you,
I spring from the pages into your arms...


Walt Whitman

Monday, June 12, 2006

Ode to a nightingale

Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:--Do I wake or sleep?


John Keats

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Living alone

"If you live without being imprisoned by the past, not being pulled away by the future, not being carried away by the forms and images of the present moment, living each moment of your life deeply, that is the true way of living alone."


Buddha Sakyamuni

Sunday, June 04, 2006

Love moves in (mysterious ways)

Who'd have thought
This is how the pieces fit?
You and I
Shouldn't even try making sense of it

I forgot
How we ever came this far
I believe we had reasons
but I don't know what they are
So blame it on my heart, oh

Love moves in mysterious ways
It's always so surprising
When love appears over the horizon
I'll love you for the rest of my days
But still, it's a mystery
How you ever came to me
Which only proves
Love moves in mysterious ways

Heaven knows
Love is just a chance we take
We make plans
But then love demands a leap of faith

So hold me close
And never let me go
'Cause even though we think we know
which way the river flows
That's not the way love goes, no

Like the ticking of the clock
two hearts beat as one
But I'll never understand
the ways it's done

Love moves in mysterious ways
It's always so surprising
When love appears over the horizon
I'll love you for the rest of my days
But still, it's a mystery
How you ever came to me
Which only proves
Love moves in mysterious ways
Love moves in mysterious ways


Performed by: Julia Fordham

Thursday, June 01, 2006

I wish you love

Goodbye, no use leading with our chins
This is where our story ends
Never lovers, ever friends

Goodbye, let our hearts call it a day
but before you walk away
I sincerely want to say:

I wish you bluebirds in the spring
To give your heart a song to sing
And then a kiss
But more than this
I wish you love

And in July a lemonade
To cool you in some leafy glade
I wish you health
And more than wealth
I wish you love

My breaking heart and I agree
That you and I could never be
So with my best, my very best
I set you free

I wish you shelter from the storm
A cozy fire to keep you warm
But most of all
When snowflakes fall
I wish you love



Performed by: Frank Sinatra
Written by: C. Trenet, A. Beach

Thursday, May 25, 2006

hold on n let go

The challenge is simultaneously to
hold on and to let go; it is to see clearly what we are doing and at
the same time see through it.


Ajahn Amaro

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

My life has been the poem

"My life has been the poem I would have writ,
But I could not both live and utter it."


Henry David Thoreau

Monday, May 22, 2006

song unsung

I have spent my days stringing
and unstringing my instrument
while the song I came to sing
remains unsung.


R. Tagore
(1861-1941)

time enough

I touch God in my song
as the hill touches the faraway sea
with its waterfall.
The butterfly counts not months but moments
and has time enough.


R. Tagore
(1861-1941)

Saturday, May 20, 2006

all things pass

All things pass and nothing abides;
you cannot step twice
into the same stream.


Heraclitus

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Knowing the Other

Intimacy is tuning into someone else's reality,
and risking being changed by that experience.


Stephanie Dowrick

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

freely n fully

When a man and a woman love each other but do not avow their love, they are not yet in love. Their very silence meeans that their love has not reached the point of self-surrender. It is the love that each freely and fully reveals to the other that brings about the radically new situation of being in love and that begins the unfolding of its life-long implications.


Lonergan

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Nature n Art

Nature, it seems, must always clash with Art,
And yet, before we know it, both are one;
I too have learned: Their enmity is none,
Since each compels me, and in equal part.

Hard, honest work counts most! And once we start
To measure out the hours and never shun
Art's daily labour till our task is one,
Freely again may Nature move the heart.

So too all growth and ripening of the mind:
To the pure heights of ultimate consummation
In vain the unbound spirit seeks to flee.

Who seeks great gain leaves easy gain behind.
None proves a master but by limitation
And only law can give us liberty.



Goethe

Thursday, May 11, 2006

unlived lives

"The horror of death
is the horror of dying
with unlived lives
in our bodies."

Norman Brown

Friday, April 21, 2006

certainty

Certainty
is nothing more than
what results from the
inability to imagine otherwise.


Wittgenstein

Thursday, April 20, 2006

The Inner Eye of Love

Not infrequently one meets people who have spent years in dryness, in inner suffering, in darkness. Their meditation is sleepy and uncomfortable and seems like a waste of time: they think they are doing nothing. But the tiny flame of love is burning quietly in the depths of their being; the loving knowledge is there in secret; their experience is profoundly mystical. This will seem less strange if we reflect that human love is often just the same. It grows secretly at night when no one is watching like the seed scattered upon the ground. Then one morning we wake up - and there it is! Quite often it is only in moments of separation and death that we advert to the depth of our own love. Or again human love may at first be filled with rapturous love; but the lean and fallow years have to come.


The Inner Eye of Love
William Johnston

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

madness

There are some who think this man mad,
But I prefer the madness of this man
to the sanity of others.


Wordsworth on William Blake

Friday, April 14, 2006

Some Kind of Wonderful

All you have to do is touch my hand
To show me that you understand
And something happens to me
That's some kind of wonderful
Anytime my little world turns blue
I just have to look at you
Everything seems to be some kind of wonderful

I know I can't express this feeling of tenderness
There's so much I wanna say
But the right words just don't come my way
I just know when I'm in your embrace
This world is a happy place
And something happens to me
That's some kind of wonderful

I know I can't express this feeling of tenderness
There's so much I wanna say
But the right words just don't come my way
I just know when I'm in your embrace
This world is a happy place
And something happens to me
That's some kind of wonderful
Oh wonderful, some kind of wonderful


Performed by Peter Cincotti
Music & Lyrics by Gerald Goffin & Carole King

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

the unsolved in your heart

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and try to learn to love the questions themselves.....

Sunday, April 09, 2006

strong or miserable

We make ourselves miserable
or we make ourselves strong.

The amount of work is the same.


Carlos Castaneda
Don Juan, Journey to Ixtian

Thursday, April 06, 2006

disease of superficiality

The habit of prematurely cutting off processes of
thought, or slurring over them, has assumed serious proportions
in the man of modern urban civilization. Restlessly
he clamours for ever new stimuli in increasingly
quicker succession just as he demands increasing speed
in his means of locomotion. This rapid bombardment of
impressions has gradually blunted his sensitivity, and
thus he always needs new stimuli, louder, coarser, and
more variegated. Such a process, if not checked, can
end only in disaster. Already we see at large a decline
of finer aesthetic susceptibility and a growing incapacity
for genuine natural joy. The place of both is taken
by a hectic, short-breathed excitement incapable of giving
any true aesthetic or emotional satisfaction.


Nyanaponika Thera
The Power of Mindfulness

Sunday, April 02, 2006

Written in the stars

I am here to tell you we can never meet again
Simple really, isn't it, a word or two and then
A lifetime of not knowing where or how or why or when
You think of me or speak of me or wonder what befell
The someone you once loved so long ago so well

Never wonder what I'll feel as living shuffles by
You don't have to ask me and I need not reply
Every moment of my life from now until I die
I will think or dream of you and fail to understand
How a perfect love can be confounded out of hand

Is it written in the stars
Are we paying for some crime
Is that all that we are good for
Just a stretch of mortal time

Is this God's experiment
In which we have no say
In which we're given paradise
But only for a day

Nothing can be altered, there is nothing to decide
No escape, no change of heart, no anyplace to hide
You are all I'll ever want, but this I am denied
Sometimes in my darkest thoughts, I wish I'd never learned
What it is to be in love and have that love returned


Music by Elton John
Lyrics by Tim Rice
Produced by Peter Collins and Wilbur Rimes
Duet with Leann Rimes
Available on the album Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

movement of the will

Turning towards a spiritual path effects a deep-seated reversal in the movement of the will. The will tends to move in an outward direction, pushing for the extension of its bounds of self-identity. It seeks to gain increasing territory for the self, to widen the range of ownership, control and domination. When we turn to the spiritual path, the ground is laid for this pattern to be undermined and turned around. Our drive for self-expansion is the root of our bondage. It is a mode of craving, of grasping and clinging, leading headlong into frustration and despair. When this is understood the danger in egocentric seeking comes to the surface and the will turns in the opposite direction, moving towards renunciation and detachment. The objects of clinging are gradually relinquished, the sense of "I" and "mine" withdrawn from the objects to which it has attached itself. Ultimate deliverance is now seen to lie, not in the extension of the ego to the limits of infinity, but in the utter abolition of the ego-delusion at its base.


Bhikkhu Bodhi paraphrased

correct insight

In subtle ways, concealed from ourselves, our desires condition our perceptions, twisting them to fit into the mould they themselves want to impose. Thus our minds work by way of selection and exclusion. We take note of those things agreeable to our pre-conceptions; we blot out or distort those that threaten to throw them into disarray.

To reach beyond fear and danger we must sharpen and widen our vision. We have to pierce through the deceptions that lull us into a comfortable complacency, to take a straight look down into the depths of our existence, without turning away uneasily or running after distractions.

The real way to safety lies through correct insight, not through wishful thinking.


Bhikkhu Bodhi

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

to find progress

One of the ways of stopping science would be only to do experiments in the region where you know the law. But experimenters search most diligently, and with the greatest effort, in exactly those places where it seems most likely that we can prove our theories wrong. In other words we are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.

Richard Feynman

Let experience be primary

Let experience be primary, and let it never be over-ridden by an insistence that nature conform to our human concepts.


Alan Wallace

Saturday, March 11, 2006

what is reality?

Reality is what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is what we believe.
What we believe is based upon our perceptions.
What we perceive depends upon what we look for.
What we look for depends on what we think.
What we think depends on what we perceive.
What we perceive determines what we believe.
What we believe determines what we take to be true.
What we take to be true is our reality.


David Bohm
A physicist

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

that sphere of life

The mother sea and fountain-head of all religions lie in the mystical experiences of the individual, taking the word mystical in a very wide sense. All theologies and all ecclesiasticisms are secondary growths superimposed; and the experiences make such flexible combinations with the intellectual prepossessions of their subjects, that one may also say that they have no proper intellectual deliverance of their own, but belong to a region deeper, and more vital and practical, than that which the intellect inhabits. I attach the mystical or religious consciousness to the possession of an extended subliminal self, with a thin partition through which messages make interruption. We are thus made convincingly aware of the presence of a sphere of life larger and more powerful than our usual consciousness, with which the latter is nevertheless continuous. The impressions and impulses and emotions and excitements which we thence receive help us to live, they found invincible assurance of a world beyond the sense, they melt our hears and communicate significance and value to everything and make us happy.

William James
Letters of William James

Saturday, March 04, 2006

to embrace all

A human being is part of a whole, called by us the Universe, a part limited in time and space.He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This deusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a ferw persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.


Albert Einstein

Thursday, March 02, 2006

who are we

Who are we?

Who are we to reach
Toward that we cannot touch,
Illuminated by the scintilla
Of a passing thought.

Who are we to claim knowledge
In the midst of our ignorance,
To impose an order, a human scale
On the recalcitrant material of our worlds?

Who are we to stretch across the chasms
Of self-containment,
To indwell the otherness of a being so un(like) ourselves,
Supported only by the thin substantiality of flesh and words.

And yet,
How can we do otherwise,
Be otherwise,
Than to seek completion beyond the bounds of who we are?


Robert Neimeyer

Monday, February 27, 2006

no answers

Rationalism and doctrinairism are the disease of our time;
they pretend to have all the answers.


Carl Jung
Memories, Dreams, Reflections

Friday, February 24, 2006

WHY?

Many thousands of people have no real help in times of crisis, no one who is willing to talk with them and share the pain, frustration, rage and anguish in a healthy way. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have been given and are still given Valium as a substitute for human care, for the externalization of emotional pain, and who are left NEITHER DYING NOR LIVING.

And so we have to ask ourselves why we have become so callous, so uncaring, so unwilling to take some time out of our busy schedules to help those in need to solve and deal with problems when they happen. Instead, they are given drugs to cloud their consciousness, to sedate their emotions, to prevent them from living fully so they can leave their pain behind and experience life once again with all its beauty, all its challenges; yes, with all its pains and its gifts.

WHY?


On Children and Death
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Saturday, February 18, 2006

I went to the woods
because I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life and
see if I could not learn what it had to teach
and not,
when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.


Henry David Thoreau

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

The 5 things:

1. Recognizing that life is at times unfair and unjust.
2. Recognizing that ultimately there is no escape from some of life’s pain and from death.
3. Recognizing that no matter how close I get to other people, I must still face life alone.
4. Facing the basic issues of my life and death, and thus living my life more honestly and being less caught up in trivialities.
5. Learning that I must take ultimate responsibility for the way I live my life no matter how much guidance and support I get from others.


Existential Psychotherapy
Irwin Yalom

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

loss of spirit

"We exacerbate our suffering needlessly when we allow one loss to lead to another. That causes gradual destruction of the soul. This destruction of the soul represents the "second death", and it can be a worse tragedy than the first. The death that comes through the loss of spouse, children, parents, health, job , marriage, childhood or any other kind is not the worst kind of death there is. Worse still is the death of the spirit, the death that comes through guilt, regret, bitterness, hatred, immorality and despair. The first kind of death happens TO us; the second kind of death happens IN us. It is a death we bring upon ourselves if we refuse to be transformed by the first death."


A Grace Disguised: How the soul grows through loss
Gerald Sittser

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

free of me

Going within me,
I am finally free of me:
and that is a timeless liberation
from the fetters of being me.


Ken Wilbur

Monday, January 30, 2006

a sublime being

not delighted when praised
not perturbed when belittled
this is the mark of a sublime being

Friday, January 27, 2006

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Infinite Depth

The truly sacred attitude toward life... does not recoil from our own inner
emptiness, but rather penetrates into it with awe and reverence, and with
the awareness of mystery.
This is a most important discovery in the interior life. For the external
self fears and recoils from what is beyond it, and above it. It dreads the
emptiness and darkness of the interior self... The whole tragedy of
'diversion' is precisely that it is a flight from all that is most real and
immediate and genuine in ourselves. It is a flight from life and from
experience -- an attempt to put a veil of objects between the mind and its
experience of itself. It is therefore a matter of great courage and
spiritual energy to turn away from diversion and prepare to meet face to
face, that immediate experience of life which is intolerable to the
exterior man. This is only possible when we are able to see our inner
selves not as a vacuum but as an infinite depth, not as emptiness but
fullness. This change of perspective is impossible as long as we are afraid
of our own nothingness, as long as we are afraid of fear, afraid of
poverty, afraid of boredom -- as long as we run away from ourselves.

Thomas Merton

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Depression - Friend or Foe

"We are all the artists of our own lives. We shape them, as best as we can, using our experience and intuition as guides. But we're also natural liars and we get things wrong. It's so easy for the internal commentary that forms how we live to become a forgery. Approached in a certain way, depression is a lie detector of last resort. By knocking you out for a while, it allows you to ditch out-of-date ideas by which you've been living and to grasp a more accurate description of the terrain.

If you can cope with the internal nuclear winter of depression and come through it without committing suicide, then, in my experience, depression can be a great friend. It says the way you've been living is unbearable, it's not for you. And it teaches you slowly how to live in a way that suits you infinitely better. If you don't listen, of course, it comes back and knocks you out even harder the next time, until you get the point."

Geyneth Lewis
Sunbathing in the Rain