Michael Forbus's Blog – November 2009 Archive (11)

Awakening Now



Why wait for your awakening?

The moment your eyes are open,

seize the day. Would you hold

back when the Beloved beckons?

Would you deliver your litany

of sins like a child's collection

of sea shells, prized and labeled?



"No, I can't step across the

threshold," you say, eyes

downcast. "I'm not worthy"

I'm afraid, and my motives

aren't pure. I'm not perfect,

and surely I haven't practiced

nearly… Continue

Our willingness to share ourselves honestly with others opens the opportunity to create lasting relationships that enhance our lives. We often feel the need to mask our true selves and portray a perfected version of ourselves in social settings, believing that others will like us more than if we reveal our true selves. If we instead allow others to see the genuine person under the mask, we automatically begin attracting those who would resonate most deeply with us on a spiritual and emotional… Continue

To study the Buddhist way is to be intimate with all things.



-Master Dogen



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Being the Stream



Meditation is not just a rest or retreat from the turmoil of the stream or the impurity of the world. It is a way of being the stream, so that one can be at home in both the white water and the eddies. Meditation may take one out of the world, but it also puts one totally into it.



- Gary Snyder, from “Just One… Continue

Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. True peace with oneself and with the world around us can only be achieved through the development of mental peace.



~The Dalai Lama



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Good Guys and Bad Guys



We all love the struggle between good (us) and evil (them). It is, in its own way, deeply satisfying. Think of the plots of the… Continue

Loving the Enemy



If your own best friend went mad and came at you with a knife to kill you, what would you do? You would seek to disarm your friend, but then you would not proceed to beat the person, would you? You would disarm the attacker in whatever way you could—you might even have to hit the person in order to disarm him, but once you have managed to disarm him, you would not go on to hurt him. Why? Because he is close to you.



If you felt that everyone in the whole… Continue

This is a path of being, not doing. There's nothing to do. We're just discovering who we already are - by relaxing, by connecting with the waves of this moment, and by bringing the boundless love of our nature to touch just what's here.



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The eye of clarity is so called because it brings sight to everyone. It enables every single one to enter the uncreated and unconditioned reality, each in his own… Continue

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.





~ Buddhist Saying



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Make Peace with Your Mind



For the spiritual power of peace to touch every person on this earth, it must radiate out from a profound peace within our own mind: across political and religious barriers, and across the barriers of ego and self-righteousness. To this end, we should seek… Continue

Ultima Tiempo en Pamplona Para Mi Mariposa

The last run in Pamplona with the bulls



T

his blue black beast you see has the wine of my heart on his mighty horns. He has made a bouquet of red roses on my white blouse that matches my red cinched belt. I am bleeding now and my death is near. I see my angel in the mist, distant as always.



Today after much Don Pedro, I drank the liquid courage to take the run. My friends and family tried to stop me saying, "Miguel, she… Continue

A Handful of Knowledge



There aren’t that many fundamental, or root, principles of dharma. The Buddha said that his teaching is “a single handful.” A passage in the Samyutta-nikaya makes that clear. While walking through the forest, the Buddha picked up a handful of fallen leaves and asked the monks who were present to decide which was the greater amount, the leaves in his hand or all the leaves in the forest. Of course, they all said that there were more leaves in the forest, that… Continue

"Me," "Myself," and "I"



Holding to an ordinary notion of self, or ego, is the source of all our pain and confusion. The irony is that when we look for this "self" that we're cherishing and protecting, we can't even find it.



- Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche, from "Searching for Self,”



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This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;… Continue

"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist."



-- Archbishop Helder Camara



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An Easy Connection with Life



We all know what it's like to get trapped in dark, constricting states of mind—and how useless it is, in terms of awakening, to dwell there. That is exactly what the Buddha taught: we don't need to stay stuck in greed, hatred, and… Continue