Better

The best relationships are the long-lasting. This is why all spiritual teachings emphasize the importance of maintaining a healthy relationship with self.

Doubt

Doubt causes a person to give up on practice and then we get into trouble. This is why it is essential to remain in mindfulness and thus preserve the clarity of the mind.

 - Gil Fronsdal

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“Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal”

By Naomi Shihab Nye

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, please come to the gate immediately.

Well — one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her problem? We told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she did this.

I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu-biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew — however poorly used – she stopped crying. She thought our flight had been cancelled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the following day. I said, No, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late, who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him.

We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and would ride next to her. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and found out, of course, they had ten shared friends. Then I thought, just for the heck of it, why not call some Palestinian poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours. She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering questions.

She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies — little powdered sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts — out of her bag — and was offering them to all the people at the gate. To my amazement, not a single person declined one. It was like a sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, the lovely woman from Laredo — we were all covered with the same powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies.

And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers — non-alcoholic — and the two little girls for our flight, one African-American, one Mexican-American — ran around serving us all apple juice and lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar, too.

And I noticed my new best friend — by now we were holding hands — had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, with green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere.

And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, "This is the world I want to live in. The shared world." Not a single person in this gate — once the crying of confusion stopped — has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other people, too. This can still happen, anywhere.

Not everything is lost.

Responsible freedom

At the foundation of who we are there's really nothing at stake.

Reflection by Gil Fronsdal

A perspective on enlightenment

To be enlightened is to be intimate; to be intimate with oneself, with this whole dance of life and death, and with one another.

- Zen master Dogen Zengi

Knowledge and Compassion

Interacting with knowledgeable people may serve as a learning experience. Interacting with people who are knowledgeable and compassionate, however, offers an experience of a lifetime. 

Lucky

...

Do you hear me? I'm talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying

 ...

And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music fill the air
I'll put a flower in your hair
Though the breezes through trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keeps spinning round
You hold me right here right now

...

Is there a limit on what we have?

The most that we can give is everything that we have. It's knowing what we have that's difficult.

- Koun Franz

It seems that our understanding of the limit on what we have is determined by our awareness of life, which changes slowly and steadily with time. With time the boundaries keep expanding more and more.

Remain in love

If you are stranded somewhere and exhausted, love is an Arabian horse.

~Rumi

Source: Rumi Quotes on Facebook

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What!

...

In the monastery of Great Master Ungo Dōyō  there was once a monk who was in his quarters chanting a Scripture. The Great Master, from outside the window, asked him, “What Scripture is the acharya reciting?” 
The monk replied, “The  Vimalakirti  Scripture .” 
The Master said, “I am not asking you if it is the Vimalakirti Scripture.  What you are reciting is a Scripture of What!” 
Thereupon, this monk gained entry into the Truth.1.

...

Footnote:

1. The Great Master’s question and exclamation  are translations of the same phrase in the original, but reflect how the monk interpreted them. The monk understood the latter statement as pointing him away from an intellectual understanding of Scripture to That which is the True Source of all Scriptures. 

Source: Excerpted from the Chapter "Kankin: On Reading Scriptures" in the book "Shobogenzo" by Dogen Zenji.

Walk as if...

I think he's really cool.

Just for laughs

What did Scientist 1 say  to Scientist 2 when Scientist 2 proposed love to her?

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Prove It! :))

This I Promise You

Let's make it last

Let's find a way

We've got now

Why don't we stay?

Source: Verse in the lyrics of the song "We've Got Tonight" (somewhat..)

Isn't it amazing how singing these love songs to our dream has the same meaning as singing it to the one we love? I guess this is when we realize that we've fallen in love with our dream. :)

by Guru Singh

Accomplishment only takes place when you actively participate with your intentions. All the “shoulds” and the “coulds” are great indicators—but time-space requires your active participation. Therefore, fully commit to participate in the dreams of your choice in spite of all the risks confronting you.

Learn the living art of the martial arts. Become responsive to the offensiveness of this material world without taking offense, without being offensive or defensive. Leave no trackbacks in the fabric of space, and time will not knock you down in its defection from—or its reaction to—your projection.

Reflection

Just to sit in stillness and reflect on the wonders in this image. 

It reveals to me the merging of natures...the merging of natures which are akin. And thus it shows, how man isn't created to have dominion over plants and animals, but to be one. And in so doing, he can see, with clear eyes, oneness with beings of his kind.

Poetry pleases the heart

Short film made on the life and works of the 2011 Nobel Laurette in Literature, Tomas Transtromer.

Do you hear voices like that?

Source: Excerpted from the "Field of Dreams" movie transcript.

Stuck on You

is in love...

I'm in love, not only but also, with a person who lived many many years ago. His name is Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī, also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī. Yup, you guessed right! I'm talking about the mystic writer popularly known as Rumi. His words to me are magical, mystical, fascinating, enchanting, awe-inspiring. To really reach their depths, merely using one's intellect doesn't suffice, it takes as much of our being as possible. In having done this so many times, I felt love.

‎"In generosity and helping others
  BE LIKE THE RIVER
In compassion and grace
BE LIKE THE SUN
In concealing others’ faults
BE LIKE THE NIGHT
In anger and fury
BE LIKE THE DEAD
In modesty and humility
BE LIKE THE EARTH
In tolerance
BE LIKE THE SEA
EITHER EXIST AS YOU ARE
OR BE AS YOU LOOK.”
~Rumi

Compassion

It was the Christmas holiday season; kids were home from school. On one such day, a mother decides to take her 5 year old to the shopping mall as a fun activity. Once there, they roam about the different stores. The mother tries to keep her son engaged all the while. But nothing she does or says makes him happy; he just remains very restless. Finally at one point he starts to cry. This causes the mother loose her calm and she starts yelling at him for being a cranky kid. He says that his laces have come untied. On hearing this the mother scolds him all the more for crying over silly matters, and bends down to tie his laces. At one point when she is down on her knees, angrily tying her son's laces, something causes her to look around. That was the moment of her enlightenment. She was able to see the world as her son saw it. All she could see clearly from that low was the legs of people walking around, it felt scary; the counters were too high, the shelves were too high, the view seemed intimidating. It was then that she was able to understand her son's feelings and they left the shopping mall right away.

What does it mean then to feel compassion?

It is to have an exchange of hearts, for however short the while. For in the instant that this happens, we get a glimpse of what goes on in the world of the other.

What is it that we know?

Below are some lines taken from Buddhist teachings:

1. There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting at all.
2. The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
3. Your job is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

Call for a wrestle, don't they? :)

Remembrance

Remember who you are...not what you look like, or not what you sound like, or not even how you express; but just remember who you are as a being that is all inclusive.

“I Am Not I”

By Juan Ramón Jiménez

Translated By Robert Bly

 

I am not I.

                   I am this one

walking beside me whom I do not see,

whom at times I manage to visit,

and whom at other times I forget;

who remains calm and silent while I talk,

and forgives, gently, when I hate,

who walks where I am not,

who will remain standing when I die.

Good to have

The smallest book on English Grammar I have read to date, and by far, my favorite. It presents the case for cleanliness, accuracy, and brevity in the use of English; this theme is tightly held together through the course of the entire book. 

The snippet paragraph shared below offers a slight flavor of the English Grammar writing wisdom in this book.

Flow

Life needs to flow through being. Ever so often, the idea of "ideal" situations, different from the one being experienced, presents itself as a barrier to this flow. I speak of this feeling of dissatisfaction as a barrier, especially because it shows up again and again. I do believe that dissatisfaction is an integral part of the human life experience, and maybe this reflects my own limited understanding. The interesting part, however, is that the experience of dissatisfaction can be constructive. It can serve to construct when related to the bigger picture of life and to the basic understanding that all of life is a growth process. So, as long as this dissatisfaction can be experienced as a motivator, it's quite beneficial to life in general. This is not to say that it makes life easy; on the contrary, it presents all the more challenges. But along with presenting these challenges, it also shows us what we are capable of overcoming. It shows us how this process of expansion of the human capacity is unlimited. We really need this -- it's not always that we want it, but we need it. This is all good, but a change in the camera angle view shows us the darker side of this feeling. Most times the feeling of dissatisfaction takes us on a different road; it takes us down the road of despair. For a life needing to be constructed this needs to be identified as the extra part. The effort then is not only to channel dissatisfaction in a way which encourages growth, but first to recognize that in order to do so effectively, the extra part leading to despair needs to be deeply felt as unnecessary. Once we are able to feel intuitively the uselessness of the extra, we can move on; we can move on to grow in the best way. 

Truly! Life can be creatively beautiful.

Bow, submit, yield...

Bowing to another being, with all the strength and sincerity one can muster, aids in a deep understanding of trust. It causes perception shifts which only silence can describe most eloquently.

Out of the world

The quote below is one of the best I've read to date.

"A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas—a place where history comes to life." 

—Norman Cousins 

Rhythm

Isn't it curious how we "feel" the rhythm?

Step by Step

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

-Boyzone

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Dream House

My dream house is in the midst of..., blends into..., and reflects its own unique nature. 

Something like this...

General Observation

Skillful driving requires reading the minds of other drivers, or people in general, if we are considering a busy street with cyclists and pedestrians. In Dallas, skillful driving requires reading the minds of squirrels more than people. :)

Will it cross? ...hahaha...

Gardening

The compost doesn't smell good, but without the compost we can't have beautiful gardens.

Xièxie

May the Peace Be with You

Instead of taking your fears seriously & doubting your dreams.. Take your dreams seriously & doubt your fears.....

Yes, doubt your fears, doubt it's reality, and then verify it's illusionary nature by facing it, and overcoming every single opposing thought. Once the unknown which caused the fear has been completely included into one's being, the fear is replaced with a deep sense of peace in understanding.

Take heart in knowing that "difficulties are meant to awaken, not discourage the soul. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.."