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(public domain image www.pixabay.com)
A 67-year-old Canadian Buddhist and skilled poker player Scott Wellenbach recently walking away from the table with US$671,240 after finishing in third place at a poker championship in the Bahamas.
Unlike other poker winners, Wellenbach doesn't keep the money, he donates it to Buddhist charities.
Wellenbach, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, works as translator of Buddhist texts in Tibetan and Sanskrit when he’s not doubling down at the poker table, as a member of the Nalanda Translation Committee, founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
Most of his poker winnings have been directed toward Buddhist charities, in particular those that support women’s education. According to media reports at the time, Wellenbach was still deciding on a worthy cause for his latest windfall.
“I made the decision last time actually a week after I did well in Barcelona,” Wellenbach said of his previous success some 18 months earlier, when he finished 17th in a poker contest, walking away with US$92,000. “At the time it went to support Buddhist nuns in Nepal. . . . I’m very interested in Buddhism myself, but also women's education is what this was about. I think they're both very important factors and causes in the world.”
(sources: Poker News and Buddhist Door)
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The Buddhist approach (to problems) is quite unique with respect to other religions because the emphasis is on the way out of suffering through wisdom, freedom from all delusion, rather than the attainment of some blissful state or union with the Ultimate. - Ajahn Sumedho
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Indra Devi, the "mother" of yoga in the West observed that a "harmonious combination of a healthy body and balanced mind should be he natural state, not the exception." Here are the top ten signs your body and mind need yoga:
1. You find it hard to get along with other people.
2. Other people find it hard to get along with you.
3. Irritation and anger are your lead emotions.
4. You don't have any spiritual friends.
5. Your body is tight, inflexible.
6. Your mind is inflexible, rigid.
7. Your life feels unbalanced.
8. You have zero patience.
9. You are concerned about your physical, mental and spiritual health.
10. Stressed, anxious, worried are the words which best describe you just now.
(feel free to re-post and/or link to your social media)
1. You find it hard to get along with other people.
2. Other people find it hard to get along with you.
3. Irritation and anger are your lead emotions.
4. You don't have any spiritual friends.
5. Your body is tight, inflexible.
6. Your mind is inflexible, rigid.
7. Your life feels unbalanced.
8. You have zero patience.
9. You are concerned about your physical, mental and spiritual health.
10. Stressed, anxious, worried are the words which best describe you just now.
(feel free to re-post and/or link to your social media)
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When someone is negative,
we should be positive.
When someone is angry,
we should try to be kind.
When someone is impatient,
we should be patient.
- Hsing Yun
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A Shanghai gym was ordered to pay one of its members $28,000 after she snapped her thigh bone and was permanently injured trying to follow her yoga instructor’s directions in a class, according to a Chinese media report.
The 55-year-old client, a woman identified only as Hong, first sued the unnamed gym in February last year, three months after she broke the bone as the instructor corrected her in a seated pose called baddha konasana or cobbler pose.
Hong spent six days in hospital being treated for the injury.
In its defense in the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court, the gym said Hong should have told the instructor to stop when she felt pain, the report said.
Yoga has become increasingly popular, with millions of Chinese having turned to the discipline for both fitness and mediation since the 1970s, when yoga was first introduced in China.
There are at least 10,800 yoga schools across the country, with some reporting thousands of members, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In defense of yoga and that yoga instructor, cobbler pose is quite harmless and easy to do. However, if a woman has osteoporosis - bone weakness - then she has a high risk of breaking a bone while doing any activity.
(source: South China Morning Post)
The 55-year-old client, a woman identified only as Hong, first sued the unnamed gym in February last year, three months after she broke the bone as the instructor corrected her in a seated pose called baddha konasana or cobbler pose.
Hong spent six days in hospital being treated for the injury.
In its defense in the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Court, the gym said Hong should have told the instructor to stop when she felt pain, the report said.
Yoga has become increasingly popular, with millions of Chinese having turned to the discipline for both fitness and mediation since the 1970s, when yoga was first introduced in China.
There are at least 10,800 yoga schools across the country, with some reporting thousands of members, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In defense of yoga and that yoga instructor, cobbler pose is quite harmless and easy to do. However, if a woman has osteoporosis - bone weakness - then she has a high risk of breaking a bone while doing any activity.
(source: South China Morning Post)
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Chuck Norris is well known as a martial artist, actor, and author. His life appears to be one success after another. While that’s true, there is another aspect to his life, one of deep grief.
Norris’ younger brother, Wieland, was killed in Vietnam in June of 1970. It was a devastating loss for Norris who was both an older brother and a father figure to Wieland.
Growing up, the Norris’ family struggled to get by. The father was largely absent and it meant his mother worked full time forced to leave Chuck Norris in charge of his two siblings. “Since we couldn’t afford a baby sitter and my mother and to work, I had to rush home from school every day to look after my two younger brothers.”
So, when Norris received the phone call informing him that Wieland was dead, it was a crushing blow. In his book The Secret Power Within, Norris writes: “I had nothing of greater value than my brother. I would have given anything not to lose him, and there was nothing I could do to get him back. That sunny June day was the saddest day of my life.”
With the passing of time, with support from family and friends, with grief work, Norris emerged from the tight grip of loss. He describes his grief journey this way:
“Consolation comes in many forms, all of them meaningful and helpful to a degree, and families, even small ones, can generate enormous amounts of power support to deal with such a terrible loss. The first piercing grief eventually becomes a kind of ever-present sorrow that doesn’t seem to want to go away ever, but then it does; or, rather it grows into something else, something you know you can live with, although at the same time you know you’ll never forget.”
In spite of this pain, Norris has lived a remarkable, fulfilling life. He is an inspiring example of this truth: the power of grief to disable us is temporary. There is within the human spirit a greater power, one that is able to overcome the troubles and trials of life.
(please feel free to re-post and/or link to your social media)
Norris’ younger brother, Wieland, was killed in Vietnam in June of 1970. It was a devastating loss for Norris who was both an older brother and a father figure to Wieland.
Growing up, the Norris’ family struggled to get by. The father was largely absent and it meant his mother worked full time forced to leave Chuck Norris in charge of his two siblings. “Since we couldn’t afford a baby sitter and my mother and to work, I had to rush home from school every day to look after my two younger brothers.”
So, when Norris received the phone call informing him that Wieland was dead, it was a crushing blow. In his book The Secret Power Within, Norris writes: “I had nothing of greater value than my brother. I would have given anything not to lose him, and there was nothing I could do to get him back. That sunny June day was the saddest day of my life.”
With the passing of time, with support from family and friends, with grief work, Norris emerged from the tight grip of loss. He describes his grief journey this way:
“Consolation comes in many forms, all of them meaningful and helpful to a degree, and families, even small ones, can generate enormous amounts of power support to deal with such a terrible loss. The first piercing grief eventually becomes a kind of ever-present sorrow that doesn’t seem to want to go away ever, but then it does; or, rather it grows into something else, something you know you can live with, although at the same time you know you’ll never forget.”
In spite of this pain, Norris has lived a remarkable, fulfilling life. He is an inspiring example of this truth: the power of grief to disable us is temporary. There is within the human spirit a greater power, one that is able to overcome the troubles and trials of life.
(please feel free to re-post and/or link to your social media)
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You have a problem? Great. More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in, and investigate.
- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
- Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
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A Buddhist center in Columbus, Ohio that was destroyed by arson fire in January 2016 has raised $1.5 million dollars toward its $2.3 million goal to rebuild, The Columbus Dispatch reports.
The Columbus Karma Thegsum Choling temple originally set their fundraising goal to $1.5 million, which was raised through a successful GoFundMe campaign, their local community, insurance proceeds, and donors around the world.
However, after reaching their initial goal, the congregation discovered they will need more funds due to inflation and growing construction costs. The congregation is now seeking another $800,000 — totaling $2.3 million — before construction can begin
The new building will be 10,000 square feet, with a 100-person meditation hall, classrooms, offices, and an area for children.
The congregation has existed in Columbus for 40 years, offering public meditation to the Columbus community for three decades. While waiting to rebuild, they have continued to meet in a local Jewish synagogue and hosted their weekly meditation at an Episcopal church.
(source: lionsroar.com)
The Columbus Karma Thegsum Choling temple originally set their fundraising goal to $1.5 million, which was raised through a successful GoFundMe campaign, their local community, insurance proceeds, and donors around the world.
However, after reaching their initial goal, the congregation discovered they will need more funds due to inflation and growing construction costs. The congregation is now seeking another $800,000 — totaling $2.3 million — before construction can begin
The new building will be 10,000 square feet, with a 100-person meditation hall, classrooms, offices, and an area for children.
The congregation has existed in Columbus for 40 years, offering public meditation to the Columbus community for three decades. While waiting to rebuild, they have continued to meet in a local Jewish synagogue and hosted their weekly meditation at an Episcopal church.
(source: lionsroar.com)
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Do not live in the past, nor should you allow your mind to be involved in expectations for the future. Learn to live in the present moment. - Swami Jyotirmayananda
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You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you. - Walt Disney