The Non-Profit businesses that I've worked or volunteered for depend on a paradigm which prevents a long term solution. It separates our population into Takers, Givers, and Normals. Takers are at the bottom of the totem pole, and are considered helpless and needy. Givers are willing to sacrifice the opportunity to live normal independent lives to …
Category: Opinion
I’ve Established My Practice, Now What?
I've been sitting 2 hours a day for 4 years, and my life has changed for the better, but there is still a major disconnect between my practice and the world around me. I've strived to contribute to the world throughout my adult life, and this meditation practice is the most powerful tool for personal positive change that …
Breaks
Continuity of practice is the secret of success. Another word for that is consistency. Consistent practice brings success. I've read a lot, and seen in my own experience, of artists, especially writers, who say that their success comes from showing up at the desk every day to write. It is the showing up that counts. …
A Perfect Destination
This writing is taken from my previous blog, which I haven't written in since I started writing for this site. Most of these ideas stem from Alan Watts' talk entitled, "The Veil of Thoughts." It's been advertised to you. Wake up. The reason someone is asleep, in the terms of awareness …
Concerning Creativity
I have an increasing concern with how we use the word creative. Creativity is not taking our repetitive conditioning and modifying it slightly to get some attention. That is what the form of it is in modern times. Most 'artists' get a big stance in the headlines out of doing something that is disturbing or …
Be Soft, Go for the Matador
“Be soft with your practice. Think of method as a fine silvery stream, not a raging waterfall. It'll go meandering here, and trickling there. It'll find the grooves, the cracks, and the crevices. Just follow it, never let it out of your sight, and it will take you.” - Shen Yen If the bull went for …
Insects as Insects
“Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit …
Background Static
"Awareness and Equanimity are the only measurements along this path," repeated our Dhamma doot (translation: messenger, ambassador), aka S. N. Goenka. I remember hearing the words awareness and equanimity on the speakers every day, multiple times a day during long and short Vipassana meditation courses. Understanding it is still a work in progress. For the most part, …
One Step
I think that as long as we do our best in each moment we are on the path of Dhamma. That doesn't have to be direct meditation. It has to simply do with being good to ourselves and anyone else. Everyone has the potential for that, just like we can all become Buddha. We all …
Let Them Be
Meditating / Sitting in silence, quiet and alert, observing the self without reacting brings forth many awarenesses. With continuous practice, this awareness grows, comes alive and stays alive in the undercurrents, ever-present even off-the-cushion. Which is exactly the point of daily meditation. I think it is accurate to say that at one point in time, I …
Living Vipassana 