Michael Franti

Sharing a message of universal acceptance.

letting go

Judy Lief teaches us to walk through life without holding on. - From Tricycle

IN OUR FAST-PACED SOCIETY, letting go is often paired with moving on. People encourage friends who have suffered a loss to learn to let go of the past and get on with living. In New Age terminology, “just let go” has become an all-purpose piece of advice. But we humans are very cunning: While we talk a lot about letting go, we usually find a way to have our cake and eat it, too—to let go and still manage to hang on. In fact, it is easy to use the notion of letting go as yet another ego-tool. We can use it to prop ourselves up, to cloud things over, and uphold our illusion of solidity. We are so clever: we can take a concept like letting go, so threatening to our ego-fixation, and turn it completely on its head, so that instead it becomes a credential, an ego adornment. We can take pride in our letting go and revel in how pure we are now that we have pared down and simplified and become so much less materialistic. We can mask our laziness by seeing it instead as a letting go of ambition; we can mask our inability to connect with other people with the more spiritual notion of letting go of frivolous attachments. The possibilities are endless. So if we are to deepen our understanding of letting go, it is important to begin with an insight into how easily it can be distorted. Then we may be able to discriminate between a pretense of letting go and the real thing.

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Picture from Tricycle

alone

In the mountain, stillness surges up
to explore its own height;
in the lake, movement stands still
to contemplate its own depth.


R. Tagore, Fireflies

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Illinois couple save $25,000 for a selfless Christmas gift -- latimes.com

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i know i've loved you before

I've Loved You Before

When there's no one else
that makes me whole
i get this feeling
That i've loved you before.

Were we lovers in an army
marching all for Rome?
Side by side in battle
Did we bravely leave our home?

Did i hold you in my arms
As you were taking your last breath?
Did i shout to all the Gods
that i would love you beyond death?

Have i wondered through the desert?
Have i looked and learned all the stars?
Have i rode the days and nights
on rails to get back where you are?
And every time i floundered
It's your eyes i know for sure.

I know, i've loved you before
I've loved you before

Melissa Etheridge

troublesome mind

By Priya Devi R, OneIndia, Dec 14, 2009

New Delhi, India -- A Buddhist story about freeing oneself from the tyranny of thoughts, paving way for a silent mind. A short story about leading one from the mind to the no mind, a state of eternal peace. Gautama Buddha one day asked one of his disciples to beg alms from a certain household and report to him at dusk. The monk returned to the master as per his command only to let him know that he would not beg for alms in that particular house again. When pressed for the reason, the monk answered, " I savoured the delicious food served and I suddenly felt an urge to eat something sweet. The lady of the house offered me a sweet dish. I then felt like sleeping and the lady immediately asked me to rest for a while. I was surprised by her ability to read my thoughts that I asked how she knew of my desires?"

"The lady replied, 'Witnessing my thoughts, my mind has become silent now that I can now see other thoughts as well."

The monk continued to Buddha, " Looking at her I had sexual thoughts also and now I am embarrassed to see her again for alms as she would have read my sensual desire as well. So I do not want to visit her house for alms"
The Buddha said that the monk ought to go to the particular house for alms again. He advised, "This time you will go as a changed person. Just be aware of your thoughts, every bite of your food and every step that you take. You will just have to watch every thought that arises, but do not co-operate with it . Disassociate with it and do not analyze it. No thought is yours, they come from outside!"

The monk did as advised by Gautama Buddha. He remained a mere witness to his thoughts and there was no co-operation from his end. There was a change within him, an inner peace, though the world continued to remain the same.

The one and only trouble is one's own mind. When one knows one's true self, the mind ceases to be.


Taken from Buddhist Channel

Picture: All Rights Reserved ® aml.2008

Ven. Dr. Yifa’s Response to the Bhikkhuni Ordination at Perth

Los Angeles, CA (USA) -- Thirty years ago, I visited a Buddhist monastery for the first time in my life. Two weeks later, I decided to shave my head and become a nun. At the time, I was a student at the law school of National Taiwan University, and wanted to be a lawyer or even a politician. I had felt, since I was a child, great sympathy toward the suppressed classes in society and was attracted to fairness and justice. These have been the guiding values in my life.

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