I'm having a little get together at my house today. I'm teaching people how to meditate and about the basic precepts of Buddhism. 'Teaching' is really the wrong word to use....it's more of a guidance process.  I'm not telling them anything they don't already know; I'm just opening the door and pointing them in the direction of the dharma path. It's going to be good for me to have other people to talk to about this; I've been practicing mainly solo thus far and a sangha (community) ...

I'm taking refuge in the Buddha.  I'm immersing myself in the dharma.  Over the next few days I'm going to make myself sit with me, my thoughts and feelings and pain.  I'm not going to run and hide.  I'm not going to try and escape...because the escape has to come to an end at some point and those feelings will still be there.  I'm going to sit and examine my feelings, turning each one over in my head....looking at it from all sides, from every angle, analyzing and t...

I was reading the Tibetan Book Of The Dead and came across this: '0 nobly-born, that which is called death hath now come. Thou art departing from this world, but thou art not the only one; [death] cometh to all. Do not cling, in fondness and weakness, to this life. Even though thou clingest out of weakness, thou hast not the power to remain here. Thou wilt gain nothing more than wandering in this Samsara. 9 Be not attached [to this world]; be not weak. Remember the Precious Trinity. 10...

'How on earth did I get so jaded Life's mysteries seem to faded' So says Soul Asylum...and so say I. A big part of Buddhism is the 'beginner's mind'.  We are advised that in order to reach enlightenment, we should try to look at things with the eyes of child, of one who is experiencing whatever we are experiencing for the very first time. It's hard.  It's one of the hardest things for me to do (along with finding compassion for child molestors). Somehow along the way I got...

I'd like to share this passage from 'A Path With Heart' by Jack Kornfield with you.  I found it earlier.  I wasn't really looking for it, in fact it was just in the next page of the book I'm currently reading.  I'm a firm believer in the universe giving or telling us what we need (or need to know) when we need it: ' A sign in a Las Vegas casino aptly says 'You must be present to win'.......To come into the present means to experience whatever is here and now.  Most of us h...

When I started out on this Dharma (path, way) I was under the impression that, much like Siddartha himself, I would be meditating one day and all of a sudden, with a flash of light and trumpets sounding, enlightenment would come upon me and I would be a Buddha. The further along this Dharma I get, the more I see that's not the way it happens. Enlightenment, or wisdom, comes in small doses.  Little drops of it fall steadily into your life.  (Whether you absorb them and unders...

I'm conducting an exercise in self-discipline for the next couple of days. I'm not going to talk about anyone else unless they are in my presence. That means no gossip, no unnecessary chatter. I'm doing it as part of an exercise in 'right speech'.  I'm immersing myself in my buddhist practice again, and 'right speech' is a key element of that. My husband thinks it's great....says it will probably be the most peaceful day off he's ever had! He doesn't think that I'll be able t...

Tom Daschle has lost SD to John Thune. I've had the dubious pleasure of meeting Tom a couple of times....and I don't care for him.  He's manipulated the people and he's lied. He's paid people for their vote, and he's deliberately targeted the Native American population, going so far as to pay people for their vote (he was also accused of registering dead Natives to vote and of bussing intoxicated people to the polls last time around) He's used scare-mongering tactics,...

I found this quote about mindfulness, and thought that it applies especially well in the current climate of political insanity: 'What does it mean to be mindful?  It means to be fully aware right here, concentrating on what is going on inside....But mindfulness is not necessarily concentrating on an object. Being aware of confusion is also being mindful.  If we have all kinds of things coming at our senses -noises, people demanding this and that -we cannot concentrate on any one of ...

For no particular reason (other than I feel like it) and in no particular order (just as I recall them).... 'Do not weep; do not wax indignant.  Understand'    -Baruch Spinoza. 'You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.....You must do the thing you cannot do'.   - Eleanor Roosevelt 'We have met the enemy and he is us'   - Walt Kelly 'Nothing in the world can take the place o...

From the Dhammapada, the sayings of The Buddha: Do not think lightly of evil, saying "It will not come to me".  Even a water-pot is filled by the falling of drops. Likewise the fool, gathering it drop by drop, fills himself with evil. Do not think lightly of good, saying "It will not come to me".  Even as a water-pot is filled by the falling of drops, so the wise man, gathering it drop by drop, fills himself with good.  

There's a Buddhist saying that 'when the student is ready, the teacher will appear'. I found this in my daily readings book this morning.... 'Right Aspiration is what develops in the mind once we understand that freedom of choice is possible. Life is going to unfold however it does: pleasant or unpleasant, disappointing or thrilling, expected or unexpected, or all of the above! What a relief it would be to know that whatever wave comes along, we can ride it out with grace. If we got re...

I've been talking about food a lot recently, and it's made me think about what I eat...if I can reconcile what I eat with my Buddhist path. I've always held the philosophy that if I'm not having something killed specifically for ME then that's ok. Buddhist monks eat whatever is given to them, they have the thought that beggars can't be choosers (and I agree). For a while a couple of years ago I tried to be vegan. I ate no meat, no dairy products, and no eggs. I cooked using tempeh and...

I was reading about attachment and desire today. Buddhist philosophy is that attachment and desire lead to suffering (Dukkha), but that's not what I'm blogging about. I found an excerpt from my book that I think describes attachment very well: 'What happens when we do not let go? Asians have a very clever trap for catching monkeys. People hollow out a coconut, put something sweet in it, and make a hole at the bottom of the coconut just big enough for the monkey to slide its open ha...

'Garbage can smell terrible, especially rotting organic matter. But it can also become rich compost for fertilizing the garden. The fragrant rose and the stinking garbage are two sides of the same existence. Without one, the other cannot be. Everything is in transformation. The rose that wilts after siz days will become a part of the garbage. After six months the garbage is transformed into a rose. When we speak of impermanence, we understand that everything is in transformation. ...