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THREE PITFALLS TO AVOID WHEN YOU ARE IN GRIEF

11/20/2018

Whenever you are grieving a loss whether it is a death, a separation, divorce, job loss, etc., don't hinder your healing. Here are three pitfalls to avoid.

unhealthy habits – eating too much or too little, running from your feelings.
going it alone – while independence can be a powerful, positive virtue, there are times when going it alone means going nowhere. Let people help you.
addictive/abusive behavior - “Addictions are serious problems in society and are never welcome in grief. Recognize that you may need to surround yourself with friends and sponsors who can provide a safety net at this difficult time.”

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HAVING A SENSE OF "PURPOSE" CAN LEAD TO A LONGER, HEALTHIER LIFE

11/20/2018

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When it comes to living happy and fulfilled lives, we humans need meaning, we need purpose. People who feel there is a deeper purpose and meaning in what they are doing in their day-to-day lives tend to be happier, healthier, and more satisfied. Research shows, for example, that a life orientated towards meaning brings greater satisfaction than a life oriented toward hedonic pleasure. Those that have a strong sense of purpose in life live longer, and having a strong sense of purpose may be just as good for your health as engaging in regular exercise. - Christopher Boyce

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

11/20/2018

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Listening does not simply mean letting a sound enter our ears.... We need to listen well and we must listen a lot. - Jampa Tegchok

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

11/18/2018

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Skillful farmers don’t throw away their manure.
They use it. - Buddha in Lakavatara Sutra

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DEEPAK CHOPRA'S ADVICE ON DEALING WITH AN ADULT CHILD ADDICT

11/18/2018

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Writing in Oprah Magazine, spiritual teacher and medical doctor Deepak Chopra responded to a parent asking how to deal with her adult child addict. Here's Dr. Dhopra's wisdom:

In spiritual terms, this is an issue about attachment. Attachment makes you feel obsessed about your children's lives. It makes their pain feel like yours. You all but lose the boundary between you and them.

You can get beyond such attachments through a process that involves the following steps:

See that attachment isn't positive. It helps no one. The most effective therapists tend to be unattached, even detached. It gives them clarity and objectivity. It allows their skills to be used most effectively.
See that your attachment is harming you. As close as you feel toward your children, the life that is closest to you is your own. Sacrificing a good part of it to suffering is destructive. You must value yourself enough to want a good life for yourself. From this goodness, you will offer more help to those in need, not less.
Reject false hope, wishful thinking and the constant recurrence of "solutions" that never work and which your children reject anyway. If they say no, be an adult and accept that no means no.
Heal your wounds. Most addicts have lost the ability to care about those around them. They are in the habit of hurting, rejecting, betraying, keeping secrets and breaking faith. The disease works that way. But all that negative behavior has hurt you. Don't let parental guilt turn you into a punching bag or a rug to trample over. Heal yourself where you hurt.
Fulfill your primary relationship. You don't mention your husband, but if you are still married, repair your bridges with him. This is not a path to walk alone. Realize your children are not your primary relationship. If they are all you have, that still doesn't make it your primary relationship, because they aren't relating to you at all. Find someone to relate to who cares for you. They certainly don't.
Find a vision to follow. Right now, your vision is an illusion. It is fixed on the false notion that if you found just the right key, you would solve your children's lives. Please see that no parent solves any grown child's life, which means you haven't failed. It's impossible to fail at what was unachievable to begin with. The mind abhors a vacuum, and you need a purposeful goal in life to fill the place where anxiety and guilt now reside.

If you seriously undertake these steps, you will go long way to reclaiming your own life from the self-destructive tendencies that have set in. It's never too late to find yourself.

(source:http://www.oprah.com/spirit/how-to-deal-with-your-childs-drug-addiction-ask-deepak )

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'WHY HAVE A VEGETARIAN THANKSGIVING?" - BEST ANSWER

11/18/2018

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You can brag about pardoning a turkey
You will stay awake for your entire favorite football game.
Your sensible vegetarian kid won't have to boycott the family dinner.
Plant-based holiday roasts don’t have to carry government warning labels.
You won’t have to call poultry hotline to keep your family out of the hospital.
Your body will appreciate a holiday from the fat, cholesterol, and hormones.
You won’t sweat the environment and food resources devastation guilt trip.
You won’t spend a sleepless night wondering how the turkey lived and died.

- Bob Cartier in The Baltimore Sun

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YOGA SHOOTING HERO GIVEN $30,000 FOR COLLEGE TUITION

11/18/2018

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Florida State University President John Thrasher and the board of trustees Friday committed $30,000 of their personal money to cover law school costs for Joshua Quick.
Quick, a second-year law student at FSU, has been hailed as a hero for his efforts in attacking the shooter who opened fire Nov. 2 at the Hot Yoga studio in Tallahassee.

Two people, Dr. Nancy Van Vessem, 61, an internist and medical director for Capital Health Plan, and Maura Binkley, a 21-year-old student majoring in German and English at FSU, were killed in the shooting.

Five other people were wounded.

Quick, in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” said after shooter Scott Beierle fired shots inside the Midtown studio, he confronted him with a vacuum cleaner, hitting him over the head when the shooter’s weapon stopped firing. Quick was pistol-whipped and bloodied, but went after Beirle again, hitting him with a broom. The exchange allowed others to escape the studio.

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THE MAN WHO HELPED A JAPANESE AMERICAN DURING WORLD WAR II: AN EXAMPLE OF COMPASSION AND COURAGE

11/18/2018

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Some time ago I read a New York Times obituary which lead with this headline "Bob Fletcher Dies at 101 Saved Farms Of Japanese Americans". Normally obituaries in the Times are mainly about the wealthy, powerful and influential. I'd never heard of Bob Fletcher so I read with increasing amazement.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the American government forced 120,000 Japanese-Americans on the West Coast out of their homes and businesses into internment camps. One of those affected by this bleak moment in American history was Al Tsukamoto, whose parents arrived in the United States in 1904. Tsukamoto owned and operated the family fruit farm in California. Rather than simply abandon the farm and see the business destroyed, Tsukamoto looked for a compassionate American he could ask to help him. This was not easy to do as Pearl Harbor had just been bombed by the Japanese placing anger toward those of Japanese ancestry at an all time high.

Tsukamoto approached Bob Fletcher, a young man in his early 30s who worked as a farm inspector for the State of California. Tsukamoto asked Fletcher to consider this business proposal: would he be willing to operate the family farm, pay the taxes and the mortgage while the Tsukamoto family were confined. In return, Tsukamoto told Fletcher he could keep all the profits. Fletcher agreed, quit his job and for the next three years worked 18 hour days operating a fruit farm. Faithfully, he paid the taxes and kept up with the mortgage payments. Fletcher kept only half the profits as his 'salary'. Though Tsukamoto told him to live in his family home, Fletcher stayed in the bunkhouse Tsukamoto had built for migrant workers. Each week, he cleaned and maintained the Tsukamoto residence while waiting for their return.

Whereas most Japanese-American families lost their property and businesses while they were in camps, Tsukamoto came back in 1945 to discover he still had his family farm and that he had money in a bank . . . all because one compassionate American was willing to help.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

11/18/2018

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Whereas disappointment can be the first step to wisdom, resentment brings only disaster. - Jampa Thaye

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"HOW IS BUDDHISM IS DIFFERENT FROM THE WESTERN RELIGIONS?" - BEST ANSWER

11/17/2018

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Most religions in the world fall under the categorical umbrella of monotheism or polytheism due to their unchangeable doctrine and the super natural beings who created the cosmos or harbor the might to save their souls. Buddhism falls under neither. Instead, it illuminates the mysteries of our existence through the law of karma as well as pratityasamutpada or interdependent origination. It is certainly not an ethnocentric tradition and cannot be used as a basis of class or cast, consecrated by the words of the highest Devine. It is an egalitarian spiritual system that regards all human beings as equal to each other, all have Buddha nature. It also should not be rendered as the building blocks for cultural and national identity. Those who practice Buddhism are Buddhist regardless of their race, gender, or location; be it in little hut community in the Amazonian jungle or tent in Sahara desert. - Anam Thubten Rinpoche

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THREE PITFALLS TO AVOID WHEN YOU ARE IN GRIEF

HAVING A SENSE OF "PURPOSE" CAN LEAD TO A LONGER, HEALTHIER LIFE

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

DEEPAK CHOPRA'S ADVICE ON DEALING WITH AN ADULT CHILD ADDICT

'WHY HAVE A VEGETARIAN THANKSGIVING?" - BEST ANSWER

YOGA SHOOTING HERO GIVEN $30,000 FOR COLLEGE TUITION

THE MAN WHO HELPED A JAPANESE AMERICAN DURING WORLD WAR II: AN EXAMPLE OF COMPASSION AND COURAGE

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

"HOW IS BUDDHISM IS DIFFERENT FROM THE WESTERN RELIGIONS?" - BEST ANSWER

Victor M. Parachin ...is a

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