I want to give “thanks” today, but don’t want to offer it the Norman-Rockwell, “fake-it-‘til-you-make-it” way of the holidays. Instead, I want to share how grateful I am for such taken-for-granted “gifts” that I am only beginning to realize most of us have been given. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Buddha nature
War is never the answer today (11-11-11)
On this Veterans Day, 11-11-11, what would you tell yourself if you could go back in time and greet that young man recently returned home from the war?
A noble banker needs to occupy here
Is there a noble banker in the world? Only someone in the lending business who sees his calling as a “service for the people,” I believe, could correct past abuses and recommend changes for, and in the best interests of, us “99 percenters.”
Twice snow uncovers October awakenings
It snowed along the East Coast of the United States today (October 29, 2011), making it the first time in more than 30 years the white stuff appeared this early outside my Conshohocken, PA, window.
These are the True Signs of Our Times!
When I read the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators were unfocused and without a coherent message, I took a closer look at them in Philadelphia, and discovered some were disheveled street persons looking for handouts, and one was a graduate school political science major spouting Marxist teaching.
“For the Signs, they are a ‘Changing'”
(From Part I, These are true signs of our Times/)
The greatest protest of our generation is seeking change in all shapes and sizes. You can see it in the signs the demonstrators carry, writing the letters out really big with magic markers so that passersby need not squint to get the messages.
Bliss Arises when I Still My Self Inside
Ah, Bliss!
Choosing death so that others might live
Eight Tibetan Buddhist monks set themselves on fire to protest the Chinese occupation of their country. They took their own lives when soldiers of the army set up quarters in Tibetan monasteries.
End needless suffering in US debates
Tone it down, America. You are cutting off your nose to spite your face. The face of the body politic, that is, we are creating needless hurt for the countrymen we’d like to lead to our mutual goal: the pursuit of happiness.  Continue reading
You ask me: ‘WHY I AM A DEMOCRAT?’
Why am I a Democrat?
Setbacks Arise in Road to Life’s Answers
- Enroute to Shangri-La, I lost my Passport.
- My ticket to Israel and India disappeared along with all paperwork that would allow me to leave the United States to begin a 12-day pilgrimage. The trip of a Lifetime.  Continue reading
Kabbalah To Mingle With Buddhist Jaunt
What do Israel and India have in common with Istanbul and Amsterdam? Other than all starting with a vowel?
Acupuncture: ‘Dragon drives out Demon’
A Dragon entered me and drove away a Demon last night!
A student at the WON Institute performed acupuncture, penetrating into my psyche as well as my epidermis. More importantly, she opened her heart with such compassion I wept, feeling her healing spread throughout my body and soul.  Continue reading
Kabbalah pulling here, there, everywhere
I heard some familiar words spoken in a foreign language by two women and a man sitting at the table next to me, but what drew my attention was something that sounded like “Kabbalah.”
Something or Someone got to me!
Nature changes its rhythm just in time
Heard a knock at the dining room window.
Denise serves up memories at gas pump
I saw you as a little girl with a smile as bright as Shirley Temple, a chocolate-haired “Annie,” a young Rosie Perez.
‘Give Something Back’ starts from within
“I Want to Give Something Back.”
How many times have you heard this? How many times have you said it? “Give something back.” Not sure what that “something“ is, but you know you got it, and you got a “need” to share “it.”
Compliments lift spirits, ages you nicely
You man a job right, job’ll right the man
Jobs have a way of defining us. We become “the job,” or rather grow into what we perceive to be the “ideal performer“ of that job. Whether we like it or not. The job. Or ourselves.  Continue reading
Utopia Exists in a Mere Change of Focus
Another Reality exists within the here and now, if I can disengage and step out of the World that I am sleep-walking in.
Short Stature Grows Larger With Love
Meditation helps writer find a gem within
The excitement would start while half asleep, tossing and turning, waiting for morning to jump out of bed, freshen up, and make my way downstairs to discover my latest surprise.
Can A Wrong Ever Serve Into A Right?
“Conduct Unbecoming an Officer and a Gentleman.”
Never thought an affair I had with a married woman before turning 21 would qualify for “conduct unbecoming,” but looking back, I see how conflicted parties to such an act could become.
500th milestone within October 1st reach
Lord, I’m One, Lord, I’m Two, Lord,
I’m Three, Lord, I’m Four, Lord,
I’m Five Hundred Miles Away from Home.
Truth once hidden usually surfaces later
“State Trooper Using Hypnosis for Investigation“
That was the headline for one of the strangest cases I ever reported.
Seeking the ‘Bliss Queen’ in Philadelphia
I wanted so much to be the Queen’s Concert.
But at what age? What stage of her life called out to me the most, as we, the audience members, watched her grow into a Spiritual goddess, one I desired to be like, to become with as One?
Buy yourself a friend – read his good word
“Make yourself a Rav, and buy for yourself a friend.”
— Rabbi Yehoshua Ben Perachya
The Great Awakening can be hard on a guy
Ashamed. Impure. Dirty.
All these feelings flashed through me as I slowly came out of what seemed like a trance, halfway between sleep and wakefulness, only to notice growth at a part of my body where there was none before.
Swimming meditation floats troubles away
Swimming meditation can work. You heard it here first. One can “nudge” out most thoughts and focus on the “here and now” as you swim one lap after another. I did. Got so relaxed, I lost count for a while, but then didn’t care how many lengths I had traversed.
Saying ‘I Love You’ Over & Over Again!
“I love you” was not in the way you said it, but how you said it.
Recovering from my road rage confession
Bless me Father, for I have sinned. I have cursed out drivers on the open highway and prayed their mothers had never conceived them. In or at of wedlock, those dirty b . . . . . .
Living like I’m one of ‘All God’s Creatures’
I dove into a World of Make Believe, changing from one past life to another while underwater and on land yesterday.
A tough road makes journey a little easier
When my father spoke Greek with the disciplinarian of the Catholic High School where I played hooky at age 14, I thought I had it made.
Continue readingImpeachment turns a loser into a winner
Each day for twenty years, the spirit of Don Quixote welcomed me into my law office. This picture hung above my desk reminding me that it was the “impossible cases” a good public defender relished. The ones you didn’t expect to win, but somehow, now and then, you’d convince a jury to see the facts your way, which in most cases, was the right way.
Continue readingBestowing spirit & essence to a new friend
I told someone I’d give up my life for them. And, I meant it. Continue reading
Forgive warrior’s defense of the sensitive
You invited me to your House, and I broke confidence in you.
Walk a Labyrinth full with love & no desire
All I want to do, is Give. Not Take. Continue reading
Radio Plays to My No. 1 Heart’s Desire
Music touched an emotional chord in me that may have been different from most folks.
The shame of it all starts an upward ascent
Be careful what you wish for. You could get your heart’s desire and wish you had never asked for it in the first place.
College Life Repeats Itself Each Generation
Sat next to a long hair, skinny, “Hippie” guy at an orientation in a community college yesterday, and felt thrown back to a time years ago, sitting cross-legged on the floor across from a similar fellow wondering what the hell I was doing there.
Attract Them to a Higher Calling in Life
St. Michael Strikes and Heals All at Once
I felt like Alice falling in the hole after chasing a White Rabbit. But, falling “upwards” defying the laws of Gravity and Rational Sense.
Act of Contrition Helps Regain My Purity
Got Blanket Absolution yesterday. And, it felt so good, I became a 12-year-old again. Ready to face the world with a clear conscious and a pure heart.
I See You for the Very First Time, Don’t I?
- I see You more and more each day. All I need do, is look for You. Kinda scrunch up my mind a bit, squint, and let my Self go. Continue reading
I ‘intend’ nothing but positive bestowals
How do you explain “unexplainable” events?
Willie, 20 Years Later, I Still Mourn You
Although you “passed on” after your 17th birthday, you’ll remain alive for me forever. I see you in my dreams. I “feel” your presence as I walk with you, watch you, and hear the footsteps on the steps leading from the dining room to the bedroom upstairs.
Suffocate? Let go of Control & Open up Self
Grace suffocated and I retaliated by smashing my ego to help free up her passageway during group meditation this morning.
Hawk carries HSPs to their highest ideals
The hawk glides across the sky, soaring high above us as the first person to notice shouts, “there’s one.” Like children, we stare toward the heavens, at the beautiful blue sky. A normally humid August has graced us with a mild and glorious summer day, blending light breezes and the scent of flowers that drift our way from below the wooden platform we look out from.
Continue reading
Unexplained ‘Pull’ leading me back Home
A gentle “pull” manifested in my Life recently. I noticed it last night while driving and wanted no more than to live in each passing moment.
‘I confess!’ I cut school with Franny O
I’m going to confess. I played hooky in seventh grade and refused to “squeal” on the kid I stayed out of class with that day.
Nature Provides Bird’s Eye View of Living
There’s a true “pecking order” that’s developing in my back yard. And all I have to do is be patient and watch it unfold moment by moment.
Continue reading
Kabbalah ‘Receiving’ Helps Me in ‘Giving’
How can I divert pleasure I “receive” into pleasure I can “give?”
You can’t make Promotions Your Life’s Goal
You can keep the promotion. Wouldn’t take it, even if offered. Not if I have to make “achievements” my aim, to set a new “goal” in Life.
“Start Over’ the instant you feel a need to
Start over. That’s all I gotta do . . . Say it to myself and simply “START OVER!”
Angels Appear as Earthly Messengers
(This story was created in October 2009 but not published in its entirety until now.)
It’s just like heaven . . . Being here with you . . . You’re like an Angel. Too good to be true. When You are near me. My heart skips a beat. I can hardly stand on. My own two feet. Because I Love You; I Love You, I Do.
‘Angel Baby‘. My ‘Angel Baby‘. Oh, Ooh, I Love You, Oh, Ooh, I Do . . . No One Could Love You . . . Like I Do!
Concealing & finding self –a life-long effort
Hello! Anybody here? It sure is dark inside. Like a huge cavern with hardly any light.
Falling in Love with the Love of Your Life
Fell head over heels in love the past few weeks. Didn’t want to do it. Had always gotten “hurt” in relationships, knowing from the start they’d come to an end one day. Love seemed to change that way. To peter out. End not with a “bang,” but with a “whimper.”
Nysiros holds Secrets of Life and Death
I’ll never know what drove Anthoula to take her own life.
Angels Re-enter when You’re Open to ‘Em
I started seeing angels again. No, hold off on the straight jacket, don’t reserve a room at an asylum. I’m not totally crazy. Yet.
‘Open Your Eyes’ to a Journey of a Lifetime
The snake slithered along the bed of the forest, winding its way beneath a pine tree. Climbing upwards, it twirled around the trunk, moving ever so slowly, centimeter after centimeter, as it sought the “higher ground” where it could shimmy onto a tree branch and make its way closer to my eye level.
Women Elevate all our Desire for God
Did the Creator make a mistake in His design of women’s “purpose?“
Can ‘spiritual indigestion’ be all that bad?
Thought I was dying Monday morning.
Weekend Euphoria Needs Time To Set
The Greatest Weekend — No. II
* Uncertain if my true love would ever be mine, I fell to my knees . . . praying for her affection. It was . . . a Sunday.
When Coincidence Occurs, Look Out & In!
Uncanny coincidences kept cropping up yesterday as I attended a gathering of one of those “Meet-Up” groups.
Conspiracy of Love to Heal Us All, Now!
Glenda “laid hands” on me; I lost track of who I was and why!
Won’t let go until animal instinct tells me to
My jaws clamp down, insuring I won’t let go of what I just uncovered. It’s taken me for what seems forever to get my teeth around it, and I won’t give up without a fight. Even if I get kicked. Again. Square in the face where it hurts, but I’ll get over it.
Hello! What would God do if He was you?
Wouldn’t it be great to make a phone call and ask a receptionist to put you through to the Creator? The next time you have a problem, and you want to do the right thing, you could simply dial “G . . . O . . . D” long distance.
Labyrinth opens a hidden maze inside me
Walked a Labyrinth and stepped back into the Vietnam War last night.
Trouble is . . . I liked it. Did not want to leave the maze despite what lay ahead. Strangely, I felt “safe” there. Secure in my “skills.” Didn’t want to come home. Just like years earlier.
See you in a ‘next life’ Sombitch Rooster
(Cont’d from series on a-mean-rooster)
Dropped Sombitch Rooster off in a wooded area near a weed and gravel-covered path leading to an Urban Homestead with rows of corn in what appeared to be a good-sized farm enclosed by a six-foot “mesh” fence and a locked gate.
Animals feel freed after Rooster’s absence
An eerie silence greeted me as I opened my bathroom door, stepped inside, and looked at the window facing the yard. I had just woken up. This, the first morning without a rooster in my daily life.
Speaking truth ain’t easy but always right
“What’s wrong with the Truth?” the White Knight asked.
Revenge could change, once ‘you’ change
Never thought “revenge“ had anything good to say about itself. It’s a negative trait. Falls in with Anger, Rage and “getting even.”
Step into a reality governed only by ‘Now’
Imagine there were Two Realities
Taking First Steps on the Kabbalah Path
Let me give all of my Blog post readers a hint at what my next Spiritual Journey will Involve:
Continue readingShiatsu workout straightens out back & Chi
Back talk. Anyone experiencing pain might know where I’m headed. My back is talking loud and clear, and no matter what I do, I can’t shut it up.
Goin’ to farm; pick blueberries barefooted
Cousin Rosemarie Lieb.
Explore the stillness found deep within you
I Find a Vibrant Life in Stillness
Renewal can come Once a Month in Life
“Once a Month, You Deserve to Die.”
Spirituality’s fun, whether you like it or not!
Something’s wrong. I shouldn’t enjoy this much fun in Life.
A Hagel/Westergom Union Fits my Granny
The Only Grandfather I Ever Knew was a Hobo.
Don Quixote battles PTSD in Philly courts
I never felt more like Don Quixote than when I represented a woman charged with a crime.
Answer is Within, 2nd Coming Proclaims
“The Gospel Writers got it All Wrong!“
Connect to ‘Mother’ for Enlightenment
I saw the “Observer” of my Thoughts the other day.
All’s Well that Ends Well With a Not Guilty
Part II cont’d from jury-trial-first-day-on-the-job
Sometimes, while trying a case to a Jury of 12 people, a transformation would take place when I least expected it.
Continue readingJury Trial Faced My First Day on the Job
You gotta be careful for what you wish for . . .
Your Dream just might come true. Over. . . and over . . . and over again.
Listen to the sigh; might be saying ‘Let Go’
I feel a bit of God in a good healthy sigh.
City differences create a variety in my life
Cherry-Chocolate
Soda
I’d give anything to taste the flavor of a that drink again.
Not the ones from a bottle. A soda fountain drink! Nothing compares to the delicious mixture of “realchocolate” and cherry syrups combined with that seltzer-like substance that produced a drink that could have originated only in Paradise.
Continue readingAl Brown Taught me a Lesson of a Lifetime
I always looked up to Al Brown. I met him when I was only eight-and-a-half years old in the 1950s.
Bliss arises in cherishing of another’s woes
An African American woman showed me how to take on the suffering of the world during a five-day retreat on perfecting perpetual peace in my soul.
‘Letting Go’ Today Frees Me for Tomorrow
Taking a step today that scares me. Going to become an “Initiate“ Buddhist at a morning ceremony. Do a prostration, touch my forehead to the floor, and recognize a Power greater than myself.
‘Do the Right Thing’–do what’s right for you
Part II from Escaping-Brewerytown
The moment of truth came down to one question: “Who else was with you?”
Escaping Brewerytown in 1 Piece Not Easy
I never took my eyes off the gun. The man’s hand shook. I was afraid it would go off. Raising my own hands, I prayed that he would not shoot, and said “I’m coming out,” slowly climbing out of the window, placing one foot on the ground and then the other as I exited the ACME supermarket warehouse building two blocks from my home. Continue reading
Love generates within for no reason at all
I Tasted Love before I ever “Entered” an Age of Reason.
I had not reached 7, but I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was attending a birthday party for a friend of my brother, John, who is two years older than me. Her name was Carolyn, and the love I felt came from her sister, Regina Gross, who the older kids enjoyed “fixing up” with me, her school classmate.
‘Garlic’s Imprint’ Holds Many Limitations
A friend dreamed she could not swim well in water and had to return to the shore or face peril. It seems the dream reflected her real life. (See “To Be Me.”) She said she was not a very good swimmer, and she wondered why — even in one’s dream — we impose such limitations on ourselves?
‘Sound Bath’ Calms & Heals us with Love
I feel a healing begin, as tears form, and I am so grateful to release what’s building inside — something so wonderful it becomes too good to contain.
Love & compassion’s for all God’s creatures
Did not know what a Buddhist sangha could mean to me, until four of us aspiring students focused on a multi-colored insect at lunch, discussed its past and future life-aspects, and showed compassion to a sentient being whom we might have swatted away before gaining our insight on Sunday.
Freedom of Religion depends on religion
Read some comments attacking the Dalai Lama on someone’s Blog which championed freedom of religion on its website.
I’m heartily sorry for having offended thee
“Michael J,
The biggest lie you ever told was that you could say something about sexual orientation and not hurt someone whose way of life might be different from yours.
Courtroom awakens karma understanding
One of the most humbling times in my life occurred in Court.
Contoveros 