hot July 29, 2020Phillip Moffitt, guiding teacher of teachers at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, used to teach tools to “be affected but not infected,” mostly in the context of being empathic and compassionate with other people but not being overwhelmed by their emotions or traumas. The practice could apply to being aware and accepting of our own experiences but not overwhelmed by critical inner messages about how well we’re handling our experiences (or not). The practice is relevant [...]

RECOMMENDED READINGS FOR COUPLES January 1, 2021 MINDFULNESS PERSPECTIVE: Peggy Rowe Ward and Larry Ward. Love’s Garden: A Guide to Meaningful Relationships.  Andrea Miller (ed.). Right Here with You. A collection of writings from a variety of teachers and therapists. Thich Nhat Hanh. True Love. Thich Nhat Hanh. How to Fight. We recommend that you start with this little book. OTHER: Brene Brown. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live and Love.  [...]

“Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows.”  ~Henry David Thoreau Reading Thich Nhat Hanh this morning, he talked about the necessity of being present with dark emotions.  He said it is necessary to practice, so that when a strong emotion comes, you’re able to lay down and put your hand on your belly and be present with a difficult emotion. He said that we can be like a tree. In a windstorm, [...]

Pariyatti Daily Words of the Buddha via dailywords list Daily Words of the Buddha for October 24, 2020 Atītaṃ nānvāgameyya, nappaṭikaṅkhe anāgataṃ; yadatītaṃ pahīnaṃ taṃ, appattañca anāgataṃ Listen: http://download.pariyatti.org/dwob/majjhima_nikaya_3_272.mp3 The past should not be followed after, and the future not desired; what is past is dead and gone, and the future is yet to come.Majjhima Nikāya 3.272 http://tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/s0203m.mul3.xml#para272 Gemstones of the Good Dhamma, compiled and translated by Ven. S. Dhammika http://store.pariyatti.org/Gemstones-of-the-Good-Dhamma-WH342-4_p_1679.html You received this message as a subscriber on [...]

Dhammapada Fragment "There is no fire like greed, No crime like hatred, no sorrow like separation, No sickness like hunger of the heart, And no joy like the joy of freedom.   Health, contentment, and trust Are your greatest possessions, And freedom your greatest joy.   Look within. Be still Free from fear or attachment, Know the sweetest joy of living in the way." The Teachings of the Buddha, edited by Jack Kornfield

The Summer Day The Summer Day Mary Oliver Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean- the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down- who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and [...]

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind will be punched in a card and shut away in a little drawer. When they [...]

One of Those Days Each day I am in love with something, in full wonder at what is given. Yesterday it was partly some sparkling Mozart but mostly, five minutes earlier, the announcer’ remark “Mozart’s coming up in five minutes” Today it’s the beginning of a sentence in a book about Tu Fu — “In the spring of 761…” — regarding several short songs, an ancient fresh breath. I realize that the museum next door is chock-full of [...]

Hymnus Ad Patrem Sinensis by Philip Whalen I praise those ancient Chinamen Who left me a few words, Usually a pointless joke or a silly question A line of poetry drunkenly scrawled on the margin of a quicksplashed picture—bug, leaf, caricature of Teacher on paper held together now by little more than ink & their own strength brushed momentarily over it Their world & several others since Gone to hell in a handbasket, they knew it— Cheered as [...]