All Entries in the "Spirituality" Category

More reflections on the passage of time - Anushka Fernandopulle

Another new year …..Is it 2009 already?!? How did that happen?!? What happened to 2008?!?
Wait, isn’t there some deja vu with this whole new year experience (what happened to ‘07, ‘97, ‘87 ‘77, insert year here)?
Reflecting on the passage of time (including aging and death) is considered a positive tonic for your spiritual life in [...]

A Mindful Mom tries Kung-Fu, and lives to tell about it - Diana Winston

“We started with some shadow boxing. My half-hearted attempts to be aggressive were laughable even to me. But when we broke into pairs, that’s when I lost it. I can’t hit anyone. I’m a non-violent Buddhist. I’ve never swung a punch at anyone my whole life. How could I do this?”

Spiritual First Aid Kit - Amita Schmidt

Whether it’s a climate crisis, a financial crisis, a personal crisis, or a political crisis it’s important to remember how to maintain equanimity in times of change. It can be quite useful to write down a list of things that are essential, that you can trust and rely upon no matter what. This way, if you get disoriented or overwhelmed by what is happening in the world, this will be your emergency spiritual first aid kit.

Don’t Know Mind and Introspection - Susan Kaiser Greenland

Don’t know mind was a favorite phrase of Korean Zen master Seung Sahn and I bet it’s the perspective that the last question of this week’s presidential debate was intended to point the candidates toward. It refers to a state of mind that is open and receptive; one of non-reactive, non-conceptual awareness. It’s not empty, but a lens through which we experience life directly and clearheadedly.

I’m Right! Right?—Diana Winston

And in Buddhist teaching, one major cause of suffering is our attachment to our opinions. We hold on, polarize, entrench, and separate ourselves from others. You might say attachment to views is the source of a lot of large scale planetary suffering, perhaps a root of the mess we’re in. So am I fostering more divisiveness by holding fast to my view? But if I don’t, will anything get accomplished?

Rocky Mountain Why? — Susan Kaiser and Seth Greenland

10:39amSusan
Hey Seth, did you see McCain is going to visit the Dalai Lama in Aspen today? Do you think he’s a seeker?

10:40amSeth
I think he wants to discuss the four noble truths, and how he can use them to beat Obama.

Consciousness, the field and the new age

On Intent Blog Deepok Chopra has been posting some interesting video blogs on interconnection and the concept of self. Can’t help but think of Lewis Carroll’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, where Alice cries:

Curiouser and curiouser!’ . . .

A Powerful Teaching — Trudy Goodman

On June 9th, my birthday, this unknown girl touches my heart. She evokes the compassionate teaching of all the special kids who are different somehow: we don’t have to be afraid of what we don’t yet understand — we don’t have to be scared of shrieks and groans — or of our own minds and hearts.

Why can’t all children have what we do? Trudy Goodman

I had seen raggedy five year olds taking care of skinny babies and blind babies and begging children crippled from polio and moms with TB and, and, and…

You Can’t Handle the Truth - Sue Smalley

James Carse in his new book, The Religious Case against Belief, writes of various types of ignorance differing in the degree of effort present with each. As the flip side of ignorance is awareness, it also comes with various shades of effort. It does take effort to direct my eyesight inward and see the 1000+ regions of mind (good and evil) and to realize that perhaps the greatest purpose in in life is the discovery process.

Mother of Thousands - Trudy Goodman

Mindfulness is about balance: being aware of one’s own experience while being sensitive and attuned to our impact on others. In our lives, we are continually falling out of balance. . .

Post-Zionism in a diaspora world. Tom Teicholz

In Israel itself, 60 years of existential peril have created a sense of living in the moment — currently there is a surprising sense of well-being among certain strata of the Israeli population that comes from focusing on family, on work and on materialistic concerns divorced from national and political concerns. When you live in the moment, you can live anywhere:

Who knew the Pope and Chubby Checker had so much in common? Seth Greenland

Not long ago a group of Vatican theological advisors recommended eliminating the concept of limbo and Pope Benedict XVI signed off on it. This troubles me deeply. Although I am not a Catholic, I have great admiration for that religion. Their art collection is unsurpassed, their clergy know how to put on an excellent show, [...]

Mindfulness is not neutral. Diana Winston

Mindfulness is a matter of remembering to be mindful, and then shifting our attention to a more receptive and open state where we’re fully present with things exactly as they are. But what happens when you’re fully present as you’re committing a bank robbery?

Mystic Mom - Sue Smalley

All moms are mystics by virtue of experiencing this moment of self-transcendence, experiencing a moment where “I” doesn’t exist, where “I,” the objective I, and “Am,” the subjective “being,” blur together as one. . .

Memo to China: The Customer is Always Right - Susan Kaiser Greenland

Because of the Olympics, hearing from millions of customers that we are not happy could in fact have an impact on Chinese government policy - probably not this week, but eventually.

The Middle Way of Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama - Susan Kaiser Greenland

Faced with complex issues, factionalized supporters, and a high-stakes game both Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama chose to play to the highest common denominator.

American and Chinese Co-Dependence: A Bad Relationship - - Susan Kaiser Greenland

Why then was China conspicuous by its absence from the State Department’s annual list of the world’s most egregious human rights violators?