I hate to admit this, but I become afraid when I get into harm’s way. I try to avoid it. Try to go with the flow. But when harm settles in my general area, I become as timid as a rabbit jumping back in a hole after seeing his own shadow.
Running water. Somebody designed a way to allow it to flow from a water way directly into our houses. And not just to one spot in my Conshohocken, PA, home, but at least four: the kitchen, two bathrooms and a spigot for hosing plants outdoors.
Heaven on Earth. What a beautiful idea.
Why must one wait for death to enjoy this state of eternity? Why not enter while one is still alive?
Went “international” yesterday. Had breakfast near my home in Conshohocken and greeted 11 people from five countries as I “table-hopped” brandishing my All-American smile, learning you don’t have to travel the world to find your Self. The world can find you right where you live. If you open your heart.
I talk too much.
Didn’t always. I was one of those “quiet” ones when I was young. Seen, and not heard. I believed that “empty barrels made the most noise,” as the nuns taught us in grade school.
“He’s a real banana head,” the doctor who delivered you pronounced right after your birth. You looked more like a “prune” with all those wrinkles, kinda like an aging Dwight Eisenhower or a Winston Churchill, but with a lot more wrinkles.
Kneeling on my knees, I hold the bowl out with one hand, while placing the other hand on the wooden floor, crawling from one side of the chair to another.
My shoulders have grown enormously since this afternoon. I feel they’re “indestructible.” That I have durable lightweight plastic pads all around the neck, the collarbone and the head, as well as my upper chest and back. Energy of some sorts is protecting me from all harm to those areas. And it may be rubbing off on what they call the “Chakras‘ to my heart and higher parts.
Buddha came in the shape of a dark-haired, dark-skinned attractive yoga-practicing woman, smiling upon me in a dream.
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Calling a kid names could cause a lasting scar one may have to deal with later in life. It’s either that, or you learn to “toughen up“ as I did, and let the wise-cracks, the slurs, the hate-filled and ignorant remarks simply glide over you.
What was it like to be a pre-teen, meeting a person who’d, maybe one day, be the Love of your Life? And what did you do when someone turned down the lights in the cellar party . . . and you were alone . . . finally. Your hands touched, and your eyes melted while looking at the other’s face, their smile, their warm and inviting eyes.
* * * * * * * * *
“Letting go” is a process I thought I had completely bought into when I “gave up” trying to control things and had surgery done on my eye.
How can I deal with PTSD and prevent “squandering away” my life?
The first Buddha emerged in my dream as a muscular military-type, with short-cropped hair and engaging smile. Asian? No, Hispanic, but with a possible trace of someone from an exotic Asian island.
Meeting this Tuesday morning, Feb. 16, 2010, was an accident. My trip from Conshohocken to Philadelphia took less time than I had scheduled, and I had an extra 20 minutes until a 10 o’clock appointment. It gave me a chance to talk with my official advocate, the DAV (Disabled American Veterans).
The Buddha appeared in a dream. He took on the forms of a soldier, a counselor and then a computer printer. How could such an entity take shape in such different apparitions?
It all started as I entered a building. President Barack Obama’s picture beamed on a wall as I walked through a large room, cordoned off by dozens of partitions, creating offices upon offices of civil servants working for me and thousands of other veterans from the United States.
No, not the Paradise mentioned in our religious books about an Adam and Eve in a Garden of Eden. My Paradise was within, existing immediately before I had eaten from the fruit of the Knowledge Tree, the source of later intelligence, the later development of the mind and its control of my life.
“The mind replenishes itself in silence,” Deepak Chopra, M.D, says in his book, called a “Creative Action Plan.” It can be the “quantum source” of energy needed for most activities. Meditation and learning how to use silence to touch your core of creativity provides you with a “resting” period between bouts of “busy ness” [my words] that tend to consume us daily.
You can discharge pent-up energies by removing yourself from the artificial “man-made” world and get back to nature, Chopra says. Even for a few minutes a day. Let sunshine in, and the body will naturally help to nourish itself. [I focus on birds and small animals by feeding them in my back yard. I get “recharged” when I walk outside and not drive the car for an errand across a nearby park.]
Make a list of positive and negative emotions and see how often they crop up in a day, Chopra says. By reviewing them later, you come to know your emotions — something many of us are unable to do — and by understanding what they are, we take the first step in “mastering them,” according to Chopra. Don’t dwell on one single group, even if you get mad or angry several times in a given day.
Acknowledge the negative emotion, then skip over it to the positive. It is important to realize we have different ones affecting us throughout the day. They help connect to our “awareness” of the world around us and suppressing them may simply block an appreciation of our world. [I find this the hardest to follow.]
When things go crazy in the workplace or at home, try to separate yourself by looking within, according to Chopra. Center you attention inside of you, by focusing on your breath, and physically feeling the air going through the nostrils and into the chest. Eyes closed. In just a few minutes, Chopra says, you can return to do battle with a fresh approach.
Smile Often. Practice Alone. Think Love.
Do something that you recall was fun in your childhood, Chopra says. Eat ice cream, swing at the playground, laugh out loud “loudly” or be “stupid-happy.” There is a sense of aliveness, of being joyful, of being full of life in being “childlike.” We had it as children but lost that quality along the way. It is still there.
Chopra advises that you try something completely different from what you are used to doing. If you’re a practicing attorney, study reflexology (I did, and it’s fun!) Trade in your reporter’s hat for that of artist, and paint something. (Did that too; got a few “originals” hanging in my house.) Do something “totally incongruous to your self-image,” is what Chopra advised. You can do it — and at the same time change from being an observer to one observed. It gets rid of a lot of baggage and helps make you a “free, uncluttered person,” the doctor says.
Be passionate, be committed, be excited and completely involved, but know when to step back. Non-attachment means “letting go of expectations, preconceived outcomes, and egotistical points of view,” the author of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind, continues. A good soldier, Chopra says, can find himself becoming a peaceful unattached observer while in battle. You become free from outside influences that can hamper your true self.
Gotta get back to the book now. I look forward to a rich and happy ending. Enjoy!
Not once did I have to step on the brake. And I left my house shortly before 9 am — the tail end of rush-hour traffic — to get to a 10 o’clock appointment.
Sometimes, you just gotta learn the hard way. Take Blogging for example.
Oh no! I forgot my ID. Second day in a row I pulled such a stupid stunt. And here I am, braving the snow and cold to drive from Conshohocken, PA, to the Veterans Administration building in Philadelphia.
You may not know how much hell I went through in entering this building a few short months ago. Had to “strip” off my belt, hold up my pants, and lower my dignity to get through the metal detector. (See Terrorists force VA to strip vet of dignity.) And that’s when I had my Veterans’ identification card with a mug shot beaming my most honest smile.
The rooster crows outside my kitchen door. Not once, but several times. Wait a minute! It’s 7:30 in the morning. He’s supposed to be up the hill in the shed converted into a chicken coop. What happened?
You forgot to lock the trap door, Michael J. Forgot to close it. Or simply forgot to round-up the four feathered critters and herd them into their warm wooden environment. That could mean they spent the night outdoors.
I hope to start to tutor Natalka about the English language. And, at the same time, learn more of life than I ever could from any book.
Natalka needs to improve her language skills as a teacher of 2 and 3-year-olds at a pre-school outside Conshohocken, PA, here in the USA. She came from the “Old World,” the one behind the notorious “Iron Curtain.” And while she obtained a master’s degree in Chemistry while in Ukraine, her school “directors” want her to speak and write our language more fluently.
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In order to clear away the suffering of limitless beings, through the wisdom realizing the purity of the three spheres, to dedicate the virtue attained by making such effort for enlightenment is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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In brief, whatever conduct one engages in, one should ask, “What is the state of my mind?” Accomplishing others’ purpose through constantly maintaining mindfulness and awareness is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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When disturbing emotions are habituated, it is difficult to overcome them with antidotes. By arming oneself with the antidotal weapon of mindfulness, to destroy disturbing emotions such as desire the moment they first arise is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Because harsh words disturb others’ minds and cause the Bodhisattva’s conduct to deteriorate, abandoning harsh speech which is unpleasant to others is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Because the influence of gain and respect causes quarreling and the decline of the activities of listening, pondering and meditation, to abandon attachment to the households of friends, relations and benefactors is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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If influenced by disturbing emotions, one points out another’s Bodhisattva’s faults, oneself is diminished. Therefore, not speaking about the faults of those who have entered the Great Vehicle is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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If, having merely the appearance of a practitioner, one does not investigate one’s own mistakes, it is possible to act contrary to the Dharma. Therefore, constantly examining one’s own errors and abandoning them is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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If one lacks wisdom, it is impossible to atttain enlightenment through the other five perfections. Thus, cultivating skillful means that do not discriminate among the three spheres is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Having understood that disturbing emotions are destroyed by insight possessed with tranquil abiding, to cultivate meditative concentration which perfectly transcends the four formless absorptions is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Even hearers and solitary realizers, who accomplish only their own welfare, strive as if putting out a fire on their heads. Seeing this, taking up diligent effort — the source of good qualities — for the sake of all beings is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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If, lacking ethical conduct, one fails to achieve one’s own purpose, the wish to accomplish others’ purpose is laughable. Therefore, guarding ethics devoid of aspirations for worldly existence is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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It is necessary to give away even one’s body while aspiring to enlightenment, what need is there to mention external objects? Therefore, practicing generosity without hope of reciprocation or positive karmic results is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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When encountering pleasing sense objects, though they appear beautiful like a rainbow in summertime, not to regard them as real and to abandon clinging attachments if the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Indulging sense pleasures is like drinking salt water — however much one indulges, thirst and craving only increase. Immediately after abandoning whatever things give rise to clinging and attachment is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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If outer foes are destroyed while not subduing the enemy of one’s own hatred, enemies will only increase. Therefore, subduing one’s own mind with the army of love and compassion is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Though one may be famous and revered by many people or gain wealth like that of Vaishravana, having realized that worldly fortune is without essences, to be unconceitedly is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.  Continue reading
No one’s ever called me “baby-killer.”
I never was “spit on” upon returning home to the United States following a year at war in Vietnam.
And, while friends and co-workers I met through the years may have thought it, none have said to my face they believed I was one of those “Crazed Vietnam Veterans.”
Patty DeMarco made me cry. He called me names and wouldn’t stop as I tried to walk away, with him following me on the North Philadelphia street we lived. On and on he went, badmouthing me, until he saw my brother, who helped me into his little red wagon, and pulled it home, me sobbing all the while behind. I was four years old.
There’s nothing quiet as common as a cracker, one of those saltines, that is . . .
They’re plain. Made of basic wheat and some soy mixed in with salt, corn syrup, baking soda and yeast, according to Kellogg Co. of Battlecreek, MI.
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Even if for whom one has cared as lovingly as one’s own child regards one as an enemy, to cherish that person as dearly as a mother does an ailing child is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Even if, in the midst of a public gathering, someone exposes faults and speaks ill of one, humbly paying homage to and perceiving that person as a spiritual friend, is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Even if someone broadcasts throughout the billion worlds all sorts of offensive remarks about one, speaking in turn of that person’s qualities with a loving mind is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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Even if others try to cut off one’s head when one is utterly blameless, taking upon oneself all their negative deeds by the power of compassion is the Bodhisattvas’ practice.
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