Planning...

There is nothing wrong with planning for the future. But too often, we expend all our energy focusing on a future that never materializes.

People in the West are always getting ready to live.” - Chinese Proverb

The future is made up of only one element -- the present. The only way to prepare for the future is to take care of the present.

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Renounce your Attachment

There is a misconception that to be a Buddhist, one must renounce all that is worldly. I disagree. It is the unsatiable desire - the attachment - that we must renounce.

Usually, after you’ve obtained the object of your desire - your desire does not end - it simply shifts to the next object. You will always find yourself unsatisfied and in search of something new. I think Aitken Roshi put it best:

Renunciation is not getting rid of the things of this world, but accepting that they pass away.” - Robert Aitken Roshi
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Accept the Damage

When we are faced with natural disasters and other trajedy, we generally accept the damage as nature’s way or God’s will. When we are faced with damage to our emotions caused by another person, we don’t accept it.

We allow the seeds of anger to rise from our subconscious. We should learn to practice mindfulness when we feel angry and surround the seed of anger with thought, reflection, and patience. We should learn to see that the seed of anger is in us. This seed is not placed in us by another person.

We should learn to accept the damage caused by another person the way we accept a natural disaster. We cannot control other people no more than we can control a natural disaster. We can, however, control the way we react to it.
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Coal

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

- the Buddha
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I am

I am not my body, mind, thoughts, beliefs, or actions. For these do not exist if you are not there to perceive them. There is no "I" that is separate from everything or anything else.

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No thought, no action, no movement, total stillness: only thus can one manifest the true nature and law of things from within and unconsciously, and at last become one with heaven and earth." - Lao Tzu
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Belief

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.
Do not believe in anything simply because it is found in your religious books.
Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.
Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for generations.
But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all,
then accept it and live up to it."


- The Buddha

Thank you to those of you have written me and inspired my return to this blog.

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