May I meet this moment fully.These blessing phrases cultivate and sustain a mind of peace and goodwill. For me, they represent the promise of practice. “May I meet this moment fully” expresses my faith that an alert and balanced mind is a possibility for human beings. “May I meet it as a friend” reminds me that my mind’s natural benevolence is my best refuge. Although most of my daily practice has always been the simple practice of alert attention to changing experience, I often begin periods of simple sitting with some repetitions of this two-phrase mantra as a kind of mood-setter, an incliner of my mind toward relaxing.
May I meet it as a friend.
May I meet this moment fully.I realize that I am feeling sad because I love my friend, and am sad to be losing her. I think about how long we’ve been friends. The pleasure of that thought settles my mind.
May I meet it as a friend.
May I meet this moment fully.I realize that everyone needs to wait and that I feel particularly sensitive because I’m sad. A helpful person standing in line says, “If we phone the airline while we stand here, we can probably get faster service.” I decide to do that. I dial. The phone rings and rings. I am feeling irritable.
May I meet it as a friend.
May I meet this moment fully.I am told, electronically, that my call is very important to the airline and that an agent will be with me soon. That message repeats many times. I hear my mind again composing indignant letters to Customer Service.
May I meet it as a friend.
May I meet this moment fully.My mind calms down and I realize that I am disappointed with myself because my friend is sick and I am indulging myself in indignation. “Really, Sylvia! What are you thinking?”
May I meet it as a friend.
May I meet this moment fully.The line progresses slowly. I repeat my phrases slowly, paying attention to what I am saying. I look around at the other travelers and wonder where they are going. In my mind, I begin blessing them.
May I meet it as a friend.
May I meet this moment fully.It is my turn at the ticket counter just at the point that my phone call is answered and so I hang up. I realize I’ve calmed down. The agent is courteous. I learn that all the flights until mid-afternoon have been cancelled because of the thunderstorms. I rebook for the next day.
May I meet it as a friend.
May I meet this moment fully.I travel without difficulty the next day to be with my friend.
May I meet it as a friend.
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The Two Extremes | November 12, 2014
These are the two extremes, O bhikshus (Religious Wanderers) which
the man who has given up the world ought not to follow—the habitual
practice, on the one hand, of self-indulgence which is unworthy, vain
and fit only for the worldly-minded—and the habitual practice, on the
other hand, of self-mortification which is painful, useless and
unprofitable.
- The Buddha, "Wake Up, Episode Five" |
Elder Steven E. Snow, the church historian and a member of its senior leadership, said in an interview, “There is so much out there on the Internet that we felt we owed our members a safe place where they could go to get reliable, faith-promoting information that was true about some of these more difficult aspects of our history. “We need to be truthful, and we need to understand our history,” Elder Snow said. “I believe our history is full of stories of faith and devotion and sacrifice, but these people weren’t perfect.” The essay on “plural marriage” in the early days of the Mormon movement in Ohio and Illinois says polygamy was commanded by God, revealed to Smith and accepted by him and his followers only very reluctantly. Abraham and other Old Testament patriarchs had multiple wives, and Smith preached that his church was the “restoration” of the early, true Christian church. Most of Smith’s wives were between the ages of 20 and 40, the essay says, but he married Helen Mar Kimball, a daughter of two close friends, “several months before her 15th birthday.” A footnote says that according to “careful estimates,” Smith had 30 to 40 wives. The biggest bombshell for some in the essays is that Smith married women who were already married, some to men who were Smith’s friends and followers.The revelation notes that Smith probably didn't have sex with all his wives as some of them were merely "sealed" into being his eternal wife in the next life. And on the next planet.
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Premature Equanimity | November 11, 2014
Western Buddhists are very suspicious of
attachment. They feel they need to be detached . . . so don’t get upset
about racism, or injustice, or the poison in the rivers, because that
means you’re too attached. I think one of the problems with Westernized
Buddhists is premature equanimity. When the Buddha said ‘don’t be
attached,’ he meant don’t be attached to the ego.
- Joanna Macy, "Don't Just Sit There, Do Something" |
