Wednesday, October 24, 2007
My BDay Today
Hi all. Today's my birthday. I'm now 33 years old. Or is it 34? I'm pretty sure it's 33. Anyway, if you want to do something on my behalf for my birthday, how about rescuing some small animals? An easy thing to do would be to go to a bait or pet shop and buy some crickets and release them into the wild, or buy some bait fish and release them into a river. (Be sure you're matching the animal with an appropriate habitat. Don't release non-native fish species please!) The merit you accumulate from saving lives like this is vast, and it has the added benefit that you are training yourself to be kind to others.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
A poem
Orange and soft
Orangensaft
Idiom idiot idiolect idolatry izzitme
what am I trying to say,
scrawled
am I trying to stay sprawled
What is the difference between time and apes
Are apes like grapes, spherical, angelical, purple and perpendicular monstrosities of the idiolect idiot running water streaming careening and eating but I don't know why how them me you are we in this sentence together or what?
That's what I like a tense stream a careening tense stream a scream a word a feeling a new sentence into jail like that like house like me like you like the world spinning around a turd a turtle a tesseract a new amphibious encyclopedia spurning the vortex neutrinos nor eating the intense turgid meerkat like entities sprawled on the floor eating mice and singing aloud as though this were their last time on earth or perhaps the last time in the universe or the big crunch big bang bathsheeba beersheeba bear cat eat my hat no don't do that because it tastes like rat or maybe it doesn't these things are never clear to me though I pretend like the thoughts make sense careening sprawled on the dining room floor, naked as Alan Ginsburg Greenspan says though I am unsure of his intent, sprawled halfway between naked and illustrious and the words will flow a tense feeling in my heart but where did that go. Why is it gone? How come it's not there any more. It felt so good, but then I began editing the words. I began controlling the thoughts. I began channeling the flow, and gadzooks, it all petered... out...
Orangensaft
Idiom idiot idiolect idolatry izzitme
what am I trying to say,
scrawled
am I trying to stay sprawled
What is the difference between time and apes
Are apes like grapes, spherical, angelical, purple and perpendicular monstrosities of the idiolect idiot running water streaming careening and eating but I don't know why how them me you are we in this sentence together or what?
That's what I like a tense stream a careening tense stream a scream a word a feeling a new sentence into jail like that like house like me like you like the world spinning around a turd a turtle a tesseract a new amphibious encyclopedia spurning the vortex neutrinos nor eating the intense turgid meerkat like entities sprawled on the floor eating mice and singing aloud as though this were their last time on earth or perhaps the last time in the universe or the big crunch big bang bathsheeba beersheeba bear cat eat my hat no don't do that because it tastes like rat or maybe it doesn't these things are never clear to me though I pretend like the thoughts make sense careening sprawled on the dining room floor, naked as Alan Ginsburg Greenspan says though I am unsure of his intent, sprawled halfway between naked and illustrious and the words will flow a tense feeling in my heart but where did that go. Why is it gone? How come it's not there any more. It felt so good, but then I began editing the words. I began controlling the thoughts. I began channeling the flow, and gadzooks, it all petered... out...
Thursday, October 18, 2007
The A.A. Promises
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not.
They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
They will always materialize if we work for them.
-Alcoholics Anonymous p83-84
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not.
They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
They will always materialize if we work for them.
-Alcoholics Anonymous p83-84
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Four things to contemplate
1. We have a great and rare opportunity to do good in the world, to practice a spiritual path, and to uncover our true spontaneous wondrous nature. This opportunity is easily lost, however. It can be lost through death, which comes like a thief in the night, or simply through inaction and distraction. To appreciate the rarity of our opportunity, think about how many life forms there are on the planet. Almost none of them have the cognitive ability to follow a spiritual path, and many of them are relegated to vast suffering and hellish experiences. Think of all the poor lobsters boiled alive in pots. None of them has had the opportunity to practice that we have. Think of all the people in the world who don't have the freedom to practice as they wish. For example, people who must work all day without stop and people living in countries with brutal governments. From this perspective, the number of people who can practice a spiritual path are as rare as a star in daytime.
2. Everything is impermanent. That which comes together must dissolve. In fact, the only two certainties in life are that we will die, and that we don't know when. Since we know that our time is limited, what better time to start practicing a spiritual path than right now!
3. Virtuous actions leads to happiness whereas negative actions (for example the 7 deadly sins) leads to suffering. This is the principle of karma.
4. The objects and people of the world cannot be relied upon for lasting happiness. Thus, if we wish to find lasting happiness, we need to look elsewhere.
2. Everything is impermanent. That which comes together must dissolve. In fact, the only two certainties in life are that we will die, and that we don't know when. Since we know that our time is limited, what better time to start practicing a spiritual path than right now!
3. Virtuous actions leads to happiness whereas negative actions (for example the 7 deadly sins) leads to suffering. This is the principle of karma.
4. The objects and people of the world cannot be relied upon for lasting happiness. Thus, if we wish to find lasting happiness, we need to look elsewhere.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
On Doubt (Sogyal Rinpoche)
Doubts demand from us a real skillfulness in dealing with them, and I notice how few people have any idea how to pursue doubts or to use them. Isn't it ironic that in a civilization that so worships the power of deflation and doubt, hardly anyone has the courage to deflate the claims of doubt itself, to do as one Hindu master said: turn the dogs of doubt on doubt itself, to unmask cynicism and to uncover the fear, despair, hopelessness, and tired conditioning it springs from? Then doubt would no longer be an obstacle, but a door to realization, and whenever doubt appeared in the mind, a seeker would welcome it as a means of going deeper into the truth.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Traveling again
I'm going up to Ithaca, New York next week to see the Dalai Lama, and after that I'm heading down to Kagyu Thubten Chöling Monastery for a two day retreat. It's going to be awesome. :)
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