Presence

Busy is a decision. Presence is infinitely more rewarding than productivity. Wanting is our greatest source of unhappiness. (Kierkegaard)

Religion

Our children

Our children and our grandchildren are our elders in universe time. They are born into a more complex, more evolved universe than we can experience or than we can know. It is our privilege to see that new world through their eyes. ~Buckminster Fuller 

Do not believe

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers or elders. Do not pursue the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. The past no longer is, and the future has not yet come. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live to it. Look deeply at life, just as it is arising in the very here and now. Recognize it-- invincible, unshakable. Care for it with your heart and mind.   --The Buddha

Individual Awareness, One Mind

At present, people create barriers between each other by their fragmentary thought. Each one operates separately. When these barriers have dissolved, then there arises one mind, where they are all one unit, but each person also retains his or her own individual awareness. That one mind will still exist even when they separate, and when they come together, it will be as if they hadn't separated. It's actually a single intelligence that works with people who are moving in relationship with one another. If you had a number of people who really pulled together and worked together in this way, it would be remarkable. They would stand out so much that everyone would know they were different."  ~David Bohm (physicist, philosopher, & mystic)

Enlightenment

Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky. - From Genjo Koan, translated by Robert Aitken Roshi

Helen Keller

Biosphere

Our relatives

Must ask

"All things are tied together. When you cut the trees whose roots connect with everything, you must ask its forgiveness or a star will fall out of the sky."  ~ Lacandon Maya Indian Elder

Fooled again

Non-violence

Anger

Anger is just a bunch of thoughts. Angry is the feeling of those thoughts. Although it is our tendency to identify with anger, we must disassociate from the malevolent aspects of anger. Anger and feeling angry distorts reality. When anger fills our mental landscape, we project its distorted reality on people and events. When we identify with anger, we cannot dissociate from it. We perpetuate a vicious circle each time we see or remember that which makes us angry. To deal with anger we must avoid identifying with the trigger for our anger.

Wise words for the day:

"A good man gone wrong is usually a bad man found out.”        

Example

Mental attitude

  

"The most important factor in maintaining peace within oneself, in the face of any difficulty, is one's mental attitude. If it is distorted by such feelings as anger, attachment or jealousy, then even the most comfortable environment will bring one no peace. On the other hand, if ones attitude is generally calm and gentle, then even a hostile environment will have little effect on ones own inner peace. Since the basic source of peace and happiness is ones own mental attitude, it is worthwhile adopting means to develop it in a positive way.

~ Dalai Lama