A ROOTS AND WINGS BLOG by GLENN SCHIFFMAN

6/30/2021

6/23/2021

6/21/2021

6/17/2021

6/16/2021

Dipa Ma

“The whole path of mindfulness is this: Whatever you are doing, be aware of it.”~ Dipa Ma

6/10/2021

If you pour a handful of salt into a cup of water, the water becomes undrinkable. But if you pour the salt into a river, people can continue to draw the water to cook, wash, and drink. The river is immense, and it has the capacity to receive, embrace, and transform. When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We can’t accept or tolerate others and their shortcomings, and we demand that they change. But when our hearts expand, these same things don’t make us suffer anymore. We have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform.

Intellectual argument

Noam on fear

World Without

Realise this

6/08/2021

Nature of Prayer

“As my prayers became more attentive and inward

I had less and less to say. I finally became completely silent.

I started to listen—which is even further removed from speaking. I first thought that prayer entailed speaking.

I then learnt that prayer is hearing, not merely being silent. That is how it is. To pray does not mean to listen to oneself speaking. Prayer involves becoing silent, and being silent,

and waiting until God is heard.”

~Soren Kierkegaard

6/03/2021

God or Not

Godless John

5/29/2021

Long after

Elders know

5/28/2021

Inyan

"Inyan drained its blood to make each creation and kept getting weaker and weaker as this went on . . . When creation was complete, Inyan was dry and brittle and broke apart and scattered over the world . . . Then the phrase Mitakuye Oyas'in came into being . . . Mitakuye Oyas'in means 'all my relatives' or 'we are all related.' This is the most fundamental belief in our Lakota philosophy, that we are all related to everything on earth and in the universe. We were all formed from the blood of Inyan: humans, animals, trees, water, air, stones . . . Our word for stone is 'Inyan.' A stone tells me about Inyan, and that spirit of Inyan is in that stone. That spirit or energy in that stone is Inyan. That's my belief. In English when we talk about a rock, pebble, or stone, it describes a lifeless object, so that's what it becomes. It becomes just an object. But to us it's a living relative." Albert White Hat, Sr.

5/26/2021

Mockingbird

5/25/2021

As they are

If you understand things,

things are as they are...

If you don’t understand things,

things are as they are.

-Unknown-

On illusion

Niebuhr

5/22/2021

Ants to water

Black Elk

5/20/2021

Suzuki

5/19/2021

Guns Rights

Rules

Civilized

"Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones.

But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said."