—Metta Sutta
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.
Spiritual
practice is nutrition for the soul, and you can neither cook nor eat
while you are weeping. Cooking requires some happiness, and happiness
may require letting things slide from time to time, so that we can get a
little relief from the seriousness of our troubles.
—Norman Fischer, “Sailing Home”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
The
good thing about mind training is that it can be practiced in all kinds
of situations. You do not have to wait for the right conditions to
arrive or make special arrangements in order to work with mind training.
The only rearrangement that needs to be made is to your own attitude.
—Judy Lief, “Train Your Mind: Don’t be swayed by external circumstances”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
| A Fan’s Guide to Modern Buddhist Music |
The
dharma speaks through music — it always has, it does today. From jazz
to metal to rap to emergent hybrid forms, Buddhism’s influence on the
musical realm can be discovered at almost every turn.
|
|
|
- Ram Dass-
When
you begin to look at life through the lens of vows, you are touched not
only by the dedication of human beings to form an aspiration to grow,
change, and overcome obstacles but also by their unselfish efforts to
dedicate themselves to a larger beneficial purpose.
—Jan Chozen Bays, “Brief Teachings”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
The mind has to be fully aware of itself—all around, at all times—in its focused contemplation, to see feeling as empty of self.
—Upasika Kee Nanayon, “A Glob of Tar”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
In the presence of Sangha, in the light of Dharma, in oneness with Buddha
– may my path to complete enlightenment benefit everyone!
In this passing moment karma ripens and all things come to be.
I vow to affirm what is:
If there’s cost, I choose to pay. If there’s need, I choose to give.
If there’s pain, I choose to feel. If there’s sorrow, I choose to grieve.
When burning, I choose heat. When calm, I choose peace.
When starving, I choose hunger. When happy, I choose joy.
Whom I encounter, I choose to meet. What I shoulder, I choose to bear.
When it’s my birth, I choose to live. When it’s my death, I choose to die.
Where this takes me, I choose to go. Being with what is, I respond to what is.
This life is as real as a dream; the one who knows it cannot be found;
and truth is not a thing, therefore I vow to choose THIS Dharma entrance gate!
May all Buddhas and Wise Ones help me live this vow.
We
can radiate peacefulness to the people we meet. We’re all part of an
invisible emotional economy, a give-and-take of feelings.
—Interview with Daniel Goleman by Sharon Salzberg, “I Feel Your Brain”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Every event in your life is incredibly significant on level upon level upon level. Were you to attempt to think of each of these levels at the moment someone says something, you would be swamped by an overwhelming number of thoughts. Meditative awareness is not one of intellectual analysis nor one of labeling different "takes" of reality. It allows all ways of seeing to exist in the space surrounding an event.
- Ram Dass -
Guidelines for an Ethical Life
With Leslie Booker
|
To
get over yourself, appreciate what is other than you and get on with
living, being liberated, free of the karma that we create. Trust the
universe and let it carry you along.
—Roshi Robert Althouse, “After Awakening”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Experiencing
the disappearance of discomfort soothes the mind, makes it confident,
and allows for the insight of impermanence: Everything passes.
—Sylvia Boorstein, “The Wisdom of Discomfort”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE