A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning liberal progressive married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Everytime KCRW plays this, I have to stop what I am doing and dance
there is some great music out there
Music and love have magnetic properties
Wrote a scholar from the island that they kept from me
And I don’t need to solve my unknown identity
Just need an answer to the question in the taxi
My sister paints apathy like blasphemy
But I never thought names deserve such energy
It's my choice to choose who I embrace as family
It’s my choice to choose yeah my choice to choose yeah
Know who I am that’s important to me
Do what I can to see the wood from the trees
Know who I am that’s important to me
Let the branches wrap their arms around me
I could just wander always like a leaf on the southeast breeze
I do not need no rooting, I carry home with me
To be on Nomad floating on the waves of the channel sea
I can see England waving, white horses carry me
Music and love have magnetic properties
Wrote a scholar from the island that they kept from me
And I don't need to solve my unknown identity
Just need an answer to the question in the taxi
My sister paints apathy like blasphemy
I’ve seen god’s green earth with the people closest to me
It's my choice to choose who I embrace as family
I choose you yeah I choose you yeah
———
Credits:
Production Company - @ameliastudios
DOP - @george__beattie
1st AC - @__jonny_lewis__
2nd AC - @princessjiboye
Editor: Gary Coogan @garyvslife
Colourist: Johnny Richards @johnnyeditorvfx
Lyrics: Luca Brewster @lucabstar
Post Producer: Katie Harris @karris_
May we know we’ve been abandoned by the past, that the past has left us and moved on. So, too, have previous versions of our bodies left us, so, too, have previous iterations of the earth and its ecology left us.
Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis on which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on appreciative joy, for when you develop meditation on appreciative joy, any discontent will be abandoned. (MN 62)
Suppose there were a pond with lovely smooth banks, filled with pure water that was clear and cool. A person scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, would come upon the pond and quench their thirst and their hot-weather fever. In just the same way a person encounters the teachings of the Buddha and develops appreciative joy, and thereby gains internal peace. (MN 40)
Reflection
When lovingkindness encounters the good fortune and happiness of another, it transforms into appreciative joy. This is the emotion of feeling good for another person, of being glad that good things are happening for them. Appreciative joy arises easily for the people we care about, but so often its opposite—some form of jealousy, envy, or resentment—comes up for us. The antidote for these forms of discontent is learning how to feel good for others, which generally takes a lot of practice.
Daily Practice
Try reminding yourself on a regular basis that the world is ruled by impersonal laws of cause and effect, also known as karma. Sometimes good things happen, sometimes bad things, and we often have little control over these things. Why not feel happy for other people when they experience good fortune or reap the rewards of their hard work? Like a cool drink on a hot day, feeling happy is more beneficial than feeling bad.
Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity
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