Very bright moon over Pasadena tonight 2-14-2014
Friday, February 14, 2014
Sunday, February 2, 2014
2014 New Years Resolution
Not just this year, but for every moment of everyday... from this day forward... unconditional kindness is my resolution.
From my center to be calm and collected as needed. To apply myself in all situations to bring peace and harmony.
Some circumstance may require a forceful hand and others a soft and gentle one.
But always from the intent of unconditional kindness.
Now not all kindness is nice. Sometimes we have to jerk someone out of the street quite forcefully if they are about to get hit by a car. But the intent must always be honest and true.
I resolve to live this way of peaceful living from this day forward.
From my center to be calm and collected as needed. To apply myself in all situations to bring peace and harmony.
Some circumstance may require a forceful hand and others a soft and gentle one.
But always from the intent of unconditional kindness.
Now not all kindness is nice. Sometimes we have to jerk someone out of the street quite forcefully if they are about to get hit by a car. But the intent must always be honest and true.
I resolve to live this way of peaceful living from this day forward.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Peaceful
Woke up being very peaceful... Full of Peace.
When full of Peace there is no room for anything else; by definition we are full of of Peace.
The Peacefulness both emanates from us, filling an ever expanding space around us, to the extent that we remain Peaceful. Also the Peacefulness inside attracts Peacefulness to us... it gravitates to us. In this way more than just around us, Peacefulness everywhere is exponentially increased.
With our own Peacefulness we create a Peaceful world, there is no other way.
Peace begets Peace is an eternal Truth, taught by sages of all time.
When full of Peace there is no room for anything else; by definition we are full of of Peace.
The Peacefulness both emanates from us, filling an ever expanding space around us, to the extent that we remain Peaceful. Also the Peacefulness inside attracts Peacefulness to us... it gravitates to us. In this way more than just around us, Peacefulness everywhere is exponentially increased.
With our own Peacefulness we create a Peaceful world, there is no other way.
Peace begets Peace is an eternal Truth, taught by sages of all time.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Rules to live by
The other day I noted that many of us don't follow the 'rules'.
Then the person with me said, "Well, what are the rules, where are they written down?
I responded that there were 84.200 of them, and that it wasn't knowing all of them or even obeying them, but just trying to was the key.
Once we open our awareness, and pay attention to those who came before, the way becomes obvious and we follow it;
so by follow the rules, I really meant pay attention and follow those that came before.
They said, "well, you really have no right to complain if you haven't written the rules down for people to follow.
And you know, they are right.
I'm going to stop complaining about it, and just let people learn to pay attention.
But you know, I wonder if it's possible to extract all 84,200 rules from the teachings and write them down?
Just as an experiment, I'm going to try and list some of them;
Though I wonder about what order to use, they kind of interlink, oppose each other to some degree, and run in circles a bit;
I suppose I can cut and paste later to play with the order.
Let's get started.
They say the first rule is: Never quit; Never give up.
Also the pratice is every moment of everyday.
Watch the seniors, do what they do, and only what they do.
Once awake, do what awake people do; before awake... do what awake people do.
The practice and the Path are one. They are the same.
Everything should be natural.
It's funny in order to be truly free, we follow the natural path... but the natural path can be quite narrow sometimes.
We're supposed to both follow ourselves, and follow the rules; this is because ourselves goes beyond the individual and includes All.
This is the tricky part. We are both our individual selves and a wholeself, which is All.
So we find ourselves, but in realtion to All.
We begin to see why the words are tough... none of them are quite right. No wonder we say the words only point the way, and don't write the rules down. They need to be discovered naturally for ourselves.
But let's keep trying anyhow, let's point the way a bit; perhaps we need to point to opposite directions now and then to include both halves, both sides of the coin, or my favorite... both wings of the bird.
Individual and All... Not two we is The Teaching.
I used to like "All is One" and sometimes I still do, but it's not the Teaching... The Teaching says 'Not Two'. It is more accurate, I suppose, but I still like All is One. Part of my rose colored glasses of seeing things in a positive light I suppose.
We rarely say what the Way is, cause that's impossible, so we're usually left with what it is not. But still let's keep trying.
Then the person with me said, "Well, what are the rules, where are they written down?
I responded that there were 84.200 of them, and that it wasn't knowing all of them or even obeying them, but just trying to was the key.
Once we open our awareness, and pay attention to those who came before, the way becomes obvious and we follow it;
so by follow the rules, I really meant pay attention and follow those that came before.
They said, "well, you really have no right to complain if you haven't written the rules down for people to follow.
And you know, they are right.
I'm going to stop complaining about it, and just let people learn to pay attention.
But you know, I wonder if it's possible to extract all 84,200 rules from the teachings and write them down?
Just as an experiment, I'm going to try and list some of them;
Though I wonder about what order to use, they kind of interlink, oppose each other to some degree, and run in circles a bit;
I suppose I can cut and paste later to play with the order.
Let's get started.
They say the first rule is: Never quit; Never give up.
Also the pratice is every moment of everyday.
Watch the seniors, do what they do, and only what they do.
Once awake, do what awake people do; before awake... do what awake people do.
The practice and the Path are one. They are the same.
Everything should be natural.
It's funny in order to be truly free, we follow the natural path... but the natural path can be quite narrow sometimes.
We're supposed to both follow ourselves, and follow the rules; this is because ourselves goes beyond the individual and includes All.
This is the tricky part. We are both our individual selves and a wholeself, which is All.
So we find ourselves, but in realtion to All.
We begin to see why the words are tough... none of them are quite right. No wonder we say the words only point the way, and don't write the rules down. They need to be discovered naturally for ourselves.
But let's keep trying anyhow, let's point the way a bit; perhaps we need to point to opposite directions now and then to include both halves, both sides of the coin, or my favorite... both wings of the bird.
Individual and All... Not two we is The Teaching.
I used to like "All is One" and sometimes I still do, but it's not the Teaching... The Teaching says 'Not Two'. It is more accurate, I suppose, but I still like All is One. Part of my rose colored glasses of seeing things in a positive light I suppose.
We rarely say what the Way is, cause that's impossible, so we're usually left with what it is not. But still let's keep trying.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Solstice & Equinox
We have 4 marks of the seasons: Winter Solstice, Summer Solstice, Vernal Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox. In our tradition the Winter Solstice is considered the 'first' in this cycle. The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of sunlight during the year. From that point on the sunshine begins to last a little longer each day until the Vernal Equinox occurs. This is the first day of Spring. On that day the hours of sunlight and the hours of night are equal. Then the sunlight continues to last longer and longer until, the Summer Solstice or first day of Summer. This is the longest day of the year. From that day on the days get shorter and shorter until the Autumnal Equinox happens. This is the first day of Autumn. Day and night are equal lengths again. The days get shorter until the Winter Solstice. And the cycle repeats itself year after year, season after season.
Monday, July 19, 2010
More on the Environment
My teacher once told me that the teacher could not give anything to the student that they weren't ready to receive.
He said that the teacher creates an environment that was conducive for the student to figure everything out on their own. In this way the student 'owned', and truly understood, the answer found. This process of discovery, in fact, was just as important as the answer that was uncovered.
The Teaching he passed to me were the methods and processes for creating this environment. We call this process, The Way. The Way balances inside and outside; it walks a tight rope line along the gap in-between, while simultaneously including both sides too.
He said that the teacher creates an environment that was conducive for the student to figure everything out on their own. In this way the student 'owned', and truly understood, the answer found. This process of discovery, in fact, was just as important as the answer that was uncovered.
The Teaching he passed to me were the methods and processes for creating this environment. We call this process, The Way. The Way balances inside and outside; it walks a tight rope line along the gap in-between, while simultaneously including both sides too.
Environment
My latest mind meanderings have revolved around the environment. Not just reduce, re-use, and re-cycle for the ecology. But all the environments we create. What is the atmosphere in a room, and what caused that?
How do a 'clean up' a space to make it the most useful?
How do we 'prepare' the space for a certain effect?
In my tradition we have many principles that help.
Mostly these are based on being clean & simple.
But we need to be effective and efficient,
exactly wear to begin and when to stop is not always clear,
We just keep polishing 'our act' till it becomes just enough.
Not too much and not too little, but just right (like the 3 little bears [did I mention that I like bears?]).
It seems that most important is doing the disciplines and habits that build the relationships we want in our lives and not 'feeding' those that don't.
We polish our lives in this way, and sure enough the ancient teachings turn out to be correct... imagine that.
There's some food for thought I suppose.
Building clean simple relationships.
Creating clean simple lives.
ummm?
How do a 'clean up' a space to make it the most useful?
How do we 'prepare' the space for a certain effect?
In my tradition we have many principles that help.
Mostly these are based on being clean & simple.
But we need to be effective and efficient,
exactly wear to begin and when to stop is not always clear,
We just keep polishing 'our act' till it becomes just enough.
Not too much and not too little, but just right (like the 3 little bears [did I mention that I like bears?]).
It seems that most important is doing the disciplines and habits that build the relationships we want in our lives and not 'feeding' those that don't.
We polish our lives in this way, and sure enough the ancient teachings turn out to be correct... imagine that.
There's some food for thought I suppose.
Building clean simple relationships.
Creating clean simple lives.
ummm?
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