words

"I sought escape from a monochromatic world of monotony,
in the hope that I might find in a polychromatic world of diversity,
the means to rediscover and celebrate the enchantment of being human."



"Equipped with a fresh perspective, inspired in part by this lens brought to
us from the far expanses of space, we are empowered to think in new ways,
to reach beyond prosaic restraint and thus attain new insight."

-Wade Davis

leaving words

A familiar, yet distant, feeling of excitement,
anticipation,
fascination,
creeps into my consciousness;
another piece of the long, winding road of life waits to reveal itself;
in the smoky tea shops in crowded alleyways,
in the overburdened local bus plunging through the darkened countryside,
in the children playing innocent games on dusty roads,
in the spices of the curries,
in the gentleness in the eyes of a simple hello;
the darkness of uncertainty heightens my senses as i set off into the unknown.
Breaking the chains of ordinary life,
removing the shackles of the routine,
venturing,
journeying,
within and without,
at least for this brief while,
the beautiful, mysterious thread of this precious life.



"To love fully and live well requires us to recognize finally that we do not possess or own anything...not even our own body. Spiritual joy and wisdom do not come through possession but rather through our capacity to open, to love more fully, and to move and be free in life."
-Jack Kornfield

words of a master

"When your ability to care becomes boundless, 

this is noble strength.

Failure does not crush, 

we accept that nothing lasts.

The refusal to accept that all things pass, 

brings tremendous problems. 

Not only is all impermanent, 

all is an illusion. 

When we can face the facts of reality, 

we begin to accept all common need."

-Chokyi Ngima Rimppoche, 

Tibet House 7.15.09

The Four Noble Truths

From a teaching by Dr. Miles Neale, held at the ID Project, Monday, July 13th, 2009....

The Four Noble Truths, the first and fundamental teaching of the Buddha:

1. Suffering exists

2. This suffering has a cause

3. This suffering can be ended, ie, we can attain freedom

4. There is a path to end this suffering

The First Noble Truth: Suffering

-we mask and hide the realities of life in our society-old age, sickness, death, disease; we refuse to admit to ourselves that we will all get old, will all die

-the suffering of change tells us that all moments of happiness come to an end; they are never lasting, only ephemeral; everything is impermanent; in our modern society, the more buying power that we have achieved, the more we have realized that that the satisfaction wrought through giving into our selfish desires is completely non-lasting; the desire will simple be replaced

-the suffering of conditioning discusses the fight/flight tendency of humans; this has evolved over the millenia as an appropriate response to threat; however, this reactivity of the mind has also led to our downfall-it has been shown to atrophy the brain, and is slowly killing us-we must become conscious of the mind and its reactive nature, and stop living like zombies

The Second Noble Truth: The Cause of Suffering

Suffering is caused by attachment, aversion, and misperception

-Attachment: an exaggeration in the positive qualities of the object we seek; we magnify the positive qualities and filter out the negative qualities

-Aversion: an exaggeration of the negative qualities in the object we wish to repulse

-Misperception: not recognizing our innate quality of happiness; this already exists inside of us, as out Buddha Nature; we perceive, due to societal influences, that we do not contain the ability to be truly happy in this life by looking within

The Third Noble Truth: The Possibility of Freedom

We can control the fight/flight reactive nature of the mind. We have the ability to consciously override the habitual nature of the mind and gain awareness to override the the factors causing us suffering. This is a choice in the mind, to cultivate what causes happiness, and to be aware of the causes of suffering.

The Fourth Noble Truth: The Path

We can achieve freedom by following the classic Eightfold Path, simplified into The Three Educations by Nalanda: ethics, mental training, and wisdom.

-Ethics: right living; not harming ourselves and others

-Mental Training: to reverse the tendencies of our mind that cause great suffering takes great discipline; we have been inundated by our societal influences our entire lives; to reverse this takes a lot of hard work, to embrace the Dharma, to calm the mind, to make the mind receptive. 

-Wisdom: sitting is not enough; the mind needs substance and needs to know what this reality is for; we must feed our minds with reality instead of the garbage that society pushes at us. We need to learn to restrain the impulses in a society of excesses; this can be done through the learning of reading & listening, the learning of personal reflection, and the learning of practice. 

Hugo

"I met a man on the street,
a very poor man, who was in love.
His hat was old, his coat was out at the elbows,
the water passed through his shoes,
and the stars shone through his soul."
-Victor Hugo

sitting on the path

Sitting on the path,
a monk clad in red and orange robed passed.
I placed my hands together and bowed,
offering a simple "namaste."
His smiling radiance filled my heart with gladness.
His eyes permeated my chest, my mind.
And then he was gone.

sitting in the park

the tall, thick trees appear black
superimposed against the blazing midday sky.
the green leaves shine, shimmer, glow, catch the rays like living diamonds.
a simple breeze against my warm skin,
saving me the threat of the concrete's perspiration.

words from the forest

seeking permanence, 

the trees fall to earth, 

consumed into rebirth

and grey stone remains

the sun bringing day

on its cold, textured skin

until this, too, 

falls away

sun, earth, soil, stars.

Ryokon

So you must not be frightened
if a sadness rises up before you
larger than any you have ever seen
if a restiveness,
like light and cloud shadows,
passes over your hands,
and over all you do
you must think that life has not forgotten you
that it holds you in its hand
it will not let you fall
why do you want to shut out from your life
any goodness
any pain
any melancholy
why do you want to persecute yourself with the question
From where is this all coming?
And to where is it bound?