Via Daily Dharma: Accepting the Way Things Are Right Now

When practicing mindfulness, even directed toward something as ordinary as breathing, we enhance the part of the mind that is aware of the way things are while diminishing the part that is stressed because things are not the way we want them to be.

—Andrew Olendzki,“What’s in a Word? Sati”

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Via FB:

Hold Your Head Up High - Darlingside (Lyrics)

Lyrics

 

How it rambles 'round the moon
A let-go-of balloon
Nothing is forever, everything is soon

And my father as he stands
A perfect cartoon man
Heavy-sighed and open-eyed, I heard him speak

Hold your head up high
Hold your head up high

Rise it up, it's fine terrain
The time will come again
And misery's no rest for weary gentlemen

See that humankind is you
Like all the rest, down to
The scratches on the album that you're singing to

Hold your head up high
Hold your head up high

Through the light and through the shadow
I won't wait it out, wait it out

Hold your head up high
Hold your head up high
Hold your head up high

Biting clovers in the lawn
A solitary fawn
Underground, the new life thunders up and on

 

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Caitlin Elizabeth Canty / Auyon Mukharji / Harris Andrew Paseltiner / Donald Lewis Mitchell / David Culver Senft

Hold Your Head Up High lyrics © Silver Giblet Publishing

Via FB: Rather than a Wall

Via Jean Tetsuj / Budismo FB:

"Pelo mérito de todas as boas ações que acumulei até agora, que eu possa ser aquele que enxerga todas as coisas.
Que o meu Voto Universal jamais desapareça.
Que o meu Voto Universal se realize.
Que o mérito de minhas boas ações seja suficiente para alcançar e beneficiar todos os seres viventes.
Que eu e somente eu, possa colher os severos frutos de todos os maus atos praticados por mim.
E desta forma, executarei a minha prática no mundo.
Executando a prática com a mente sem-apego.
Girarei a Roda do Dharma sem igual, honrado e reverenciado pelos Devas e pelos homens.”

「私が今まで積んできた善によって、一切を見る者となるように。私の誓願がなくなってしまわないように。私の誓願が実現するように。私が積んだ善根がすべての衆生に十分であるように。私がなした悪業が私だけに厳しい果となるように。このように私は世間で行じよう。このように無執着の心を以て行じよう。無二なる法輪を転じよう。天、人によって尊重され、尊敬されるように。」

Tradução Revª. Sayuri Tyôjun

Votos feitos por Shakyamuni em vidas passadas quando se encontrou com o Buda Dipamkara

CHOIR sings OM SO HUM Mantra (Must Listen)

Panic Attacks and Getting out and Over it

Last night, I stayed up for an online concert (One World: Together At Home Special to Celebrate COVID-19 Workers) well worth it, of course, I missed the part where it went live earlier, so I stayed up late watching and enjoying way past 2am, and so I woke up about 10am. I had a few strange and not too Freudian dreams, to make a long story longer, and resolved that I would go out and walk in the morning. 

Background: I have been increasingly more and more freaked out every time I go out. I wear a mask, and as soon as I get to the house, I remove my shoes and clothes and put clothes in the washing machine and take a shower. But I only go out on Mondays as I have a doctor appointment with Fernando the acupuncturist, about 8 or 9 blocks down Rua Alvarenga. It´s all good, people either wave and say hi because you have a mask on or glare at you because you have a mask on. I resolved that particular assault on my self-esteem problem by taking my glasses off (they do get foggy with the mask), and so then I can´t really see folks all that well.

But I get a bit jiggy, nervous and very, very sad. I really hit us when we went to the grocery store on Thursday before  Good Friday and the Supermarket was full, and no one really social distancing, and a lot of seniors mixing with families, and only a few of the employees were masked. We couldn´t wait to get out of there, and spent the next few days really sad, as one felt that a lot of the folks there were going to die. My heart just breaks. So, we resolved to order wine online and therefore avoid the supermarket. So now via a wine club, a couple of boxes is headed our way. I forgot to say, the reason we had gone to the supermarket was to grab a few things but stock up on wine.  

After that I began having some nervous attacks… nothing serious that a few hours of mahjong or SimCity didn´t cure. But just thinking about leaving the front door, got me more and more nervous. I realized about that time, that going to visit my kids in Denmark or parents and friends in the States, is going to be at least 2 years away now… as going to the USA or Denmark (borders closed) but if I did make it in, I´d have to quarantine myself  for 2 weeks there, and then 2 weeks back here… 4 weeks of quarantine for a hug and the Apple Store just doesn´t seem right. So, until vaccination is discovered and made available, here we are, face timing it and skyping. I am perfectly happy with staying remote in relation to my classes and colleagues, but my kids… I descended into deep weepy sadness on the verge of depression.

So, listening to the concert was good, some happy stuff, and feeling the energy and hopefulness helped a lot. One of the dreams I had was related to my resolving my fear of electrical saws, that I beat when I was in Sacramento. After talking to a couple of psychology amigos, and my counselor, I bought a saw, got a bunch of chocolate, and scraps of lumber, and sent Spencer and Milton away for the day. Every time I turned on the saw… I let it run until I broke out in a sweat, and then took a bite of chocolate… by the time the guys came home, I was cutting up wood and made plans for some shelves I needed to build with bricks´n boards. There I was in my dream, sawing away with gusto, and Spencer came in while I was working the saw, and said, “you can use this to get outside”. It made little sense but when I woke up I realized, all I needed to do was walk on our little street (we live on a flat dead-end street). 

So this morning, I got up, had coffee, some yogurt n granola, did my yoga online class (See: Manflow Yoga) and then went out, first put on my walking shoes and mask (not in that order) and started walking… stopping once in a while to say hello to neighbor ladies in their windows, and asking a couple who looked out from the 2^nd story apartment if everything was ok. When I got nervous, I took out my gel and gave myself a handwash and smelled the fragrance… no chocolate, as I figured that it was counter-productive. A couple of laps later, and I looked, and I had walked over a km, and so kept going… up and down, one end of the street to the other, soon it was almost 30min and over 2km and I was happy. GOOOOLLL!

Tomorrow, we need to go to the bank/ATM and my doctor's appointment. Sigh… a bunch of folks are organizing help for those who need food and help, and so to pay, we have to make a bank transfer. Masks on!

P.S. NPR had a fun story of a mayor in the States who was having fun with posts, at the end he mentioned that everyone is feeling a little crazy, and nervous, and its ok to go to your mailbox in your boxers, just don´t show your stuff. Just for the record I wasn´t in my underwear.

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation // Words of Wisdom - April 19, 2020 💌

"The Living Spirit, the Beloved, is always right here. It is merely your mind that prevents you from acknowledging its existence. The minute you either quiet your mind or take your heart and open it out so that it draws your mind along with it, only then do you rend the veil to see that the Beloved is right there."

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Changing Your Mind’s Patterns

Purification is not about being pure. Purification is about changing our relationship with the reactive patterns that run our lives. 

—Ken McLeod,“Forgiveness Is Not Buddhist”

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Via Sounds True // [New Podcast] Meet Tara, the Beloved Female Buddha

According to Dr. Rachael Wooten, a Zurich-trained Jungian analyst and author of the new book Tara: The Liberating Power of the Female Buddha:

Tara appears in a beautiful, subtle body of green light, and she appears with her right foot forward. That right foot forward symbolizes that she's ready to come the minute you think of her. In the tradition, the idea is that Tara is already here, but if we're not thinking of her, we don't really know that. When we think of her … we might say her mantra, we might visualize her … then she's instantaneously ready to come to our assistance.

Dr. Rachel Wooten reports that some people, when they hear about Tara, about her origin story or her mantra, or when they see a picture of one of her emanations, feel an immediate draw to connect in a deeper way. If you are one of those people, I encourage you to follow your instinct and explore your own connection with this inner and outer presence that is always available and known in Tibetan as Dolma, "She Who Liberates, the One Who Brings Us Across." You can listen to the podcast here.

Via Daily Dharma: How Mindfulness Can Benefit Your Life

When the Buddha taught mindfulness, he always taught it as part of a whole. He never said, “Pay attention to your breath and you will be free of suffering.” More like, “Pay attention to your breath as a way of steadying the mind, and then look at your life.”

—Craig Hase and Devon Hase, “In Brief”

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Via One Earth Sangha

May our fierce and tender longing
fuel the fire in our souls. When we
stand side by side, let us dare to focus
our desire on the truth. 

— from Danna Faulds "Sangha"

Via Tricycle: What If Buddha and Jesus Were Roommates?

An award-winning manga about the Buddha and Jesus living in modern Tokyo, now available in English, offers a humorous yet profound commentary on the role of religion in contemporary life.

make the jump here to read this and more

Via Daily Dharma: Let Go of What You Cannot Change

Why be unhappy about something
If it can be remedied?
And what is the use of being unhappy about something
If it cannot be remedied?

—Shantideva,“Shantideva Patience”

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Via Daily Dharma: Realizing that Thoughts Are Not Facts

Once we recognize that thoughts are empty, the mind will no longer have the power to deceive us. 

—Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, “Teachings on the Nature of Mind and Practice”

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Via FB:

Via FB;

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation / Words of Wisdom - April 15, 2020 💌

"If we only work with our intellects and with the emptying of our minds, as in some yogas, and we fail to open our hearts, our journey becomes very dry and brittle. Ultimately, no matter what our methods, we have to find a very even balance between our energy, heart, and mind. "

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: How to Turn Suffering into Connection

Compassion allows us to use our own pain and the pain of others as a vehicle for connection. 

—Sharon Salzberg, “A Quiver of the Heart”

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