Thursday, April 26, 2007

Be Back



Gone to India to study with my new Guru, Puppetji.

























See Puppetji's Myspace




Thanks, Dan!




Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Full Of It

I am so full of it.

Isn’t it funny how it usually takes others to point out how full of it we are instead of us recognizing it ourselves? And what do we do, we generally go off on the person who’s doing us a great favor, and tell them we think they’re the one full of it and we hold a grudge instead of thanking them for allowing us to…to… dump our load.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Bono's Web

Please, someone wake me up and say that Bono & the Edge aren't really writing the music & lyrics for Broadway's Spiderman: The Musical! Now, Springsteen will pop up soon on TV singing his heart out for American Express or Ford... wait and see.

When I first started cringing with fear after Michael Jackson bought the Beatles Catalogue it was some time before my heroes (not that Michael Jackson was ever one of them) started selling off their catalogues for cash-olla. Hearing a Beatles tune to sell shoes, financial advice…and Target brand merchandise turns one’s stomach. The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Sir Paul, even Bob Dylan have sold their music for cars, TV programs, credit cards, financial firms, etc. Who would have ever thought?

When U2 turned down money from Apple a few years back to partake in the i-pod campaign… I thought that was class. Fitting with what one would expect U2 to do.

Spiderman? Bono, the Edge? I just don’t get it.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

This Is Depressing

U.S. has best depression money can buy
By Julie DeardorffMcClatchy-Tribune News Service
Published Tuesday, April 17, 2007


America is one of the richest countries in the world. It's also one of the worst industrialized places for kids to grow up and has a greater percentage of depressed people than impoverished, war-torn nations do, according to two major studies.

The first finding comes from a recent UNICEF child-welfare study that measured everything from the number of books in the home to infant-mortality rates, drinking and drug use and the percentage of children who eat meals with their families.

Of 21 wealthy nations surveyed, the U.S. ranked second to last. Child well-being was highest in the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, places that invest heavily in their children. (*As we Americans file tax returns this week, let's consider what we are getting for our money . For every dollar we pay in federal income taxes, 36 cents goes toward past and present military spending.)

The problem isn't just that, compared with the European countries, the U.S. lacks day-care services and has poorer health and preventive-care coverage, which has left 9 million children without health insurance.

America finished dead last in terms of infant-mortality rates, vaccinations, the percentage of newborns with low birth weights and deaths from accidental injuries. We finished second to last when the researchers assessed a child's diet, physical activity and weight, exposure to violence and bullying and the number of 15-year-olds who smoke and drink and have sex.

And, in what could explain why we're among the most depressed people on Earth, according to a study of 14 nations conducted jointly by the World Health Organization and Harvard Medical School, we finished second to last when researchers examined relationships with family members, friends and family structure.

American children often don't eat the main meal of the day with their parents. Children say they don't spend time "just talking" to their parents. And they generally don't find their peers "kind and helpful," according to the study.

It shouldn't be a surprise, then, that 9.6 percent of Americans suffer from depression or bipolar disorder, according to the WHO/Harvard study, that binge eating or drinking is up or that children are medicated heavily for depression and attention-deficit disorder.

In material goods, American children have it all. But to make them feel loved, cherished and supported, they need family, community, and meaningful cultural traditions -- all things money can't buy.

*I added this sentence from Sojourners as it seemed fitting to the discussion.

Monday, April 16, 2007

When There Are No Answers

"In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity;
In our doubt there is believing, in our life, eternity,
In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."

Today's events in Virginia leave us with many questions, many broken hearts.

My heart goes out to the families and friends.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Where Am I?


Working with Where We Are

When people start to mediate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, the often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are. It's a bit like saying, "If I jog, I'll be a much better person." "If I could only get a nicer house, I'd be a better person." If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person."...

But loving-kindness--maitri--toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years. We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness.

The point is not to try to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest. ~Pema Chodron


"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thought. With our thoughts, we make our world." ~The Buddha

Thanks to James at The Buddhist Blog for posting this thought by Pema Chodron

Monday, April 09, 2007

Darshan: The Embrace

"...There is an unchanged truth for changing the universe."
Amma

See the theatrical trailer for Darshan here.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

I Am Reminded...

...that, I Am. And so are you.

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