Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for April, 2011

Easter Holiday

Going to take a break from the usual for this Easter.

In the meantime, here’s a bit about where the holiday comes from. Enjoy!

TTFN

Read Full Post »

It’s true, I do!

Okay, before I start I preface thus: this is going to be short. My internet’s been finicky the last two days, and I’ve been roaming about besides. So, even if I had wanted to up a longer post, the means were hardly at my disposal. That, and, due to these circumstance, this is going up a bit late, for which I apologize to anyone wanting to begin their Sunday morning with my fresh writings for the week. That being said . . .

Lately I’ve noticed how frustrated people seem to be quick to get with others from time to time. And so what occurred to me was this:

If something irritates you about another, and the reason for this is that you are capable in a way in which they are not, as their brother or sister, somebody who did not arrive on this planet capable of that thing which you now are, it behooves you to assist that person so far as your own mastery in that which you perceive yourself capable where they are not. Which is to say, if you know something about living they don’t, and you know it well enough you yourself are living it, it is your responsibility to shed some light and help others to share in said same preferred mode of living. Because, quite frankly, it will help you learn more about living too.

And that being said, the other flavor goes something like this: if the cause of your irritation with others is that you feel insecure because they seem to understand a certain something that you do not, the answer is to not be ashamed to learn. We all are learning, and practicing, and getting better at life. And we can all use all the help we can get when it approaches us accordingly. It’s a good thing!

So that’s it. With people either you share, or you respect someone for who they are and don’t take it personal. Or you get frustrated because patience can be hard sometimes, and sometimes it takes patience to love people, and that’s OK too.

So says the Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 27:

What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man’s job?
If you don’t understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret.

Peace!

Read Full Post »

Gratitude

So, I have a posting in progress about this little divine revelation I had one nice afternoon in June several years ago, but I don’t feel like I’m ready to publish it just yet. I mean, it’s not even fully written, but that could be taken care of in the time it takes me to type this posting. Which brings up the next point, I’m just not sure what to write about. . . So we begin with a ramble, or as my 12th grade English teacher would say, a mumble, and see what comes out of it.

I was thinking first about writing something about suffering, and how to make it stop, but I’m enjoying myself too much to right now so maybe I’ll come back to that one later; maybe on a day, God-forbid, in which I’m suffering.

As I write that, though, I’m immediately reminded that there are many, many people suffering. As in, they don’t even have a computer, or, like, you know, water to drink let alone piss in. And I mean that literally. I am so very blessed that I can piss in water without giving it even a second thought, and there are many, many people on this planet who don’t even have clean water to drink. And thank you Michael Foley for that observation!

So quickly, I suppose, the topic naturally progresses into: Gratitude.

And here’s the thing about gratitude: naturally feeling it is great as a symptom of one’s life, but it also, often, can act as a cure. I mean, people actually have the audacity to complain when it is raining. Now, I’m living in a state in which we have a drought and the water bill is high. And people complain when it is raining? How pathetic is that? I mean, if anything in this universe, call it what you will, is kind enough to regularly provide the basics for me continuing my life, I find myself considering how fortunate I am that the only inconvenience I possess is that my pants are a little damp, or that I have to use windshield wipers, rather than, you know, starvation or dehydration. How nice that nature, or whatever, is kind enough to replenish regularly my supply of life-giving substance which I can urinate in!

So, lately I am blessed enough that gratitude is a symptom of my life for at least the moment, but I have not forgotten that as I worked for these moments I perceive now, it was often I needed to thank existence for what I did have in the face of the suffering that seemed to try to pull my gaze toward the narcissism of self-pity. And so, in the face of what I longed for, I could at least thank God I knew of such a notion at all. And not only that, but that I had clothes on my back, food in my stomach, a way to pay the bills, and clean water to drink, never mind to piss in! In fact, truth be known, when it comes to water, my guiltiest pleasure is that I can even bathe in it rather extravagantly. Not only using the sacred common sustenance of life to keep myself from contracting disease, but also of enjoyment to cause pleasure, relaxation, surcease of pain!

Should one choose to bathe in gratitude, as water to filth, and inevitably disease, so will be washed away the film of the illusion of what one lacks, from the lens of one’s life. Gratitude will clean any of discontent who wish to have a clean, fresh-feeling heart with which to overcome any obstacle in one’s path.

Mahalo!

Read Full Post »

A Story

Nearheed turned to Anhai and asked, “Anhai, will this battle never end?”

Anhai responded, “Nearheed, do you still wrestle with this question?”

Nearheed’s mind instantly became clear. He turned to watch the waves of the ocean wash over the sands of the shore.

Peace

Read Full Post »