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When you experience unwelcome or unpleasant situations, do not lose sight of the potential present for your growth and expansion. - Victor M. Parachin
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Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle, asked by a reporter about being raised by an alcoholic father, offered this insight:
It’s less about forgiveness than it is about acceptance. I can’t forgive my father for being an alcoholic — that has nothing to do with me. How can you forgive someone for being damaged? That’s for acceptance."
It’s less about forgiveness than it is about acceptance. I can’t forgive my father for being an alcoholic — that has nothing to do with me. How can you forgive someone for being damaged? That’s for acceptance."
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K A R M A
Though the word Karma is commonly known and used, it's generally perceived in a negative way. Do something wrong, inappropriate and you'll "pay the price". More fully understood, Karma is cause and effect. Do good and good returns to you in more powerful ways. Karma is a way of understanding that you do have a huge influence over your life. By taking skillful actions issues such as illness can be moved in the direction of health, poverty can be moved into the direction of financial stability, anger can be transformed and one can live with peace and joy.
The principle of karma simply means you can change a situation or condition into another situation or condition. Author Wu Wei explains karma this way: "Because of the law of cause and effect, a rock thrown into a pond makes ripples every time. The bigger the rock, the bigger the ripples. Just as we can depend on that to be true and never disappointed, we can depend on all the causes to produce their corresponding effects every time."
Though the word Karma is commonly known and used, it's generally perceived in a negative way. Do something wrong, inappropriate and you'll "pay the price". More fully understood, Karma is cause and effect. Do good and good returns to you in more powerful ways. Karma is a way of understanding that you do have a huge influence over your life. By taking skillful actions issues such as illness can be moved in the direction of health, poverty can be moved into the direction of financial stability, anger can be transformed and one can live with peace and joy.
The principle of karma simply means you can change a situation or condition into another situation or condition. Author Wu Wei explains karma this way: "Because of the law of cause and effect, a rock thrown into a pond makes ripples every time. The bigger the rock, the bigger the ripples. Just as we can depend on that to be true and never disappointed, we can depend on all the causes to produce their corresponding effects every time."
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One must allow the springs, summers, autumns, and winters, the winds, frosts, rains and snows to become causes and conditions of one’s growth. - Hsing Yun
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The Universe brings you situations, conditions and events that provide you with ‘workout situations’. Sometimes those workout situations appear as problems or events that hurt you or take something from you. In all cases, those events are there for your benefit. - Wu Wei
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In the ancient Indian province of Kosala, the king invited the Buddha to visit and dine with him. A lavish was prepared for the two men. Having eaten until his stomach felt completely full, the king visibly displayed discomfort and heaved a great sigh. Seeing this, the Buddha offered him these words of advice: "People who always keep their hearts and minds calm and know the right amount to eat experience few pains, age gracefully, and live long lives."
Hearing this, the king reflected deeply on this teaching and began to repeat the sentence before each of his meals - “People who always keep their hearts and minds calm and know the right amount to eat experience few pains, age gracefully, and live long lives." Gradually he reduced the amount he ate and became the beneficially of few pains, graceful aging and the gift of a long, healthy life.
Though this was a legendary exchange between the king and the Buddha took place thousands of years ago, the Buddha’s wisdom continues to be relevant today. When it comes to eating, too many people are at the mercy of their food lust. That is the reason why restaurants which advertise – "all you can eat" – are enormously popular. People eat mindlessly and over consume. This results is a wide array of health problems.
Today, it is important to remember the Buddha’s teaching - “people who keep their hearts and minds calm and know the right amount to eat” - and recall it prior to eating meals. Here are three ways to apply this wisdom and eat mindfully.
1. Eat only when you are hungry. Be sure that your previous meal has been fully digested before beginning another meal. Know the difference between true hunger and food desire.
2. Eat the right quantity for your gender, age, size. A good rule to follow is to have your stomach 1/3 full of solids, 1/3 full of liquid and 1/3 empty.
3. Eat in a comfortable place and at a comfortable pace. Eating a sandwich while driving your car is a negative dining experience. The same is true of eating while continuing to work. Your body needs an uplifting, peaceful, quiet environment to properly digest food. Make this available.
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Nothing in this world—wealth, name, fame, victory—is worth a fig or a straw, without character. Character must stand behind and back up everything. And, character is built by your thoughts. - Swami Sivananda
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Yesterday on the last day of 2017, I sat in meditation with my spiritual friend, Buddhist monk Tashi Nyima. He concluded our two hour time together by asking us to recite, with him, a Buddhist 'aspiration' for 2018. Although a Buddhist aspiration sounds much like a Western prayer, it is more like a mission statement articulating a purpose. Here is a brief excerpt from the Buddhist aspiration we offered for 2018:
May out leaders always care compassionately for the sick,
the unprotected, the victims of disasters, the stricken,
those suffering pollution and for beings in conquered areas.
May they cause the blind, the sick, the humble,
the protectorless, the destitute, and
the handicapped equally to obtain
food and drink without interruption.
May they protect the poor from the pain of wanting.
May they set up no new tolls and reduce those that are heavy.
May they free people from other lands from the afflictions
that come from waiting at our borders.
May they seek the counsel of good persons,
old in experience, of good qualities,
knowing good policy, who shrink from ill deeds,
are agreeable, and know what should be done.
(feel free to share and/or link this to your social media)
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In his book, I Ching Life: Becoming Your Authentic Self, Wu Wei writes that each person’s life journey is unique and should be walked joyfully with that awareness.
“Every spider web that has ever been woven is different from every other spider web. The face of every person is different from every other face. No leaf that has ever existed has been the same as any other leaf. Everything I different from everything else – the diversification is total. Can you not, therefore, imagine that the path to enlightenment is different for every person, must be different? The path that one person follows is not the correct path for another person. You must follow your own path. That is the way.”
“Every spider web that has ever been woven is different from every other spider web. The face of every person is different from every other face. No leaf that has ever existed has been the same as any other leaf. Everything I different from everything else – the diversification is total. Can you not, therefore, imagine that the path to enlightenment is different for every person, must be different? The path that one person follows is not the correct path for another person. You must follow your own path. That is the way.”
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There are no heretics in Hinduism, for God is everywhere and in all things. In such an open laboratory, Hindu spirituality has grown over the millennia so diverse and rich that it defies definition. - Sivaya Subramuniyaswami