The Path Meets You.

Once you realize you were born to be a dancer, the music arises wherever you are.

Feast etc.

The meal after a sacred meal is also a sacred meal.

Mindful Cooking

Mindful cooking is one of the most potent paths to compassion.

If You Meet the Buddha on the Road.

A buddha traveling east on the road passes a buddha traveling west on the road.
Neither notices.

Body/Mind - No Conflict

The body is not 'superimposed' on the mind, heart, spirit, soul...

It is more 'sub-present' - to all of these.

The body is the 'sub-foundation' of all that we think - and more importantly - all that we truly feel.

When we accept our bodily reality, we are giving to ourselves our true home - We are restoring the ownership of the 'temple of the Holy Spirit.'

Our bodies - with all their desires - are not the 'enemies' to our true and pure hearts - they are actually our strongest allies - and as such, we should not only accept what our bodies are telling us - we should honor the wisdom that their evolution has brought to us....

Give and Take

Everyone you meet holds up a mirror to your true self.

If you are listening, then you will meet someone who holds both a mirror and a floodlight.

And if you are truly fortunate, your desire to listen will cause everyone you meet to turn that light on.

If you stand strong in this intention to listen deeply, your own light will shine back to them in a way that they will perceive, and that will be to their benefit, as well.

Centered

Live -
     -Right between your ears
     -Just behind your eyes
     -Always in front of the past
     -Rooted in Earth below
     -Growing towards Sky above
     -Heart at center

'Partial Freedom' Does Not Exist

We are...
     - blind until we see...
     - slaves until we're free...
     - ghosts until we learn to be...

Recent Book Honors - Part II

And at the Paris Book Festival:

The Antidote to Time: Lessons from the Dream
Honorable Mention: Spiritual

An Amazingly Kind Universe
Honorable Mention: Biography/Autobiography

Recent Book Honors

My two most recent books were awarded "Finalist" status in the National Indie Excellence Awards.
The Antidote to Time: Lessons from the Dream
"New Age Non-Fiction"
"Spirituality"

An Amazingly Kind Universe
"New Non-Fiction"

Slowly, With Great Haste!

Drop by drop, the bucket slowly fills.
Very suddenly, it is overflowing!

An Amazingly Kind Universe

My latest book, An Amazingly Kind Universe, is now available.
This tale recounts a fun little hitchhiking journey I took in 1983.
Enjoy!

An Amazingly Kind Universe

Kindle version -

An Amazingly Kind Universe - Kindle

Not so different from real life!

Three hermits sat at the opening to their cave, absorbed in their quiet contemplations.

One day a beautiful bird came by and sang a lovely song.

Five years passed, and then one hermit said, "Did you see that blue bird?"

Five years went by again, and the second hermit said, "It wasn't blue, it was red."

Another five years passed, and the third hermit finally said, "If there's going to be this constant bickering, then I'm moving out!"

The Empty House

The thief enters the empty house.
Room by room, he searches.
There is nothing to gain.
There is nothing to lose.
Long after, the thief realizes:  he was not searching the house; the house was searching him.

Introducing the Farewell of Doppler Dog

This whimsical poem was written by the character of 'Sonny Man' - hitchhiker and 'professional beggar' - in Sweet Unpleasant Realities, my first book.

Doppler Dog

I am standing
Like so many times stood before this time
Standing on the shoulders of highways
Eclipsed but unchained
in motion and balance He rides the road
The honored guest of the loyal one who owns but does not enslave him
Good master Good master
A strange happy sound
A small dog will happily happy in the bright blue skyway of a midday dawn
Growing quickly
Sadder older bigger
Is he a good sized dog he is
All yellow with shadowy black around those ears
And mouth and eyes
He gladly bays not so sad at high noon setting
Gruff and old he grows no less free, though weaker he is it seems
        that
He is now all but gone
Voices shift to shake off red approaches twilight,
night already come, not concerned if he rides round and round again
or sings the last you'll hear him sing forever.
If only heard across the vacuum of distant stars' far distance,
happily happy gladly not concerned,
could there not be beings inclined to mirth who could not resist the push
      and pull
of Doppler Dog?
Ears - auroral curtains around his magnetic head...
he grins in the solar wind...

Then standing near the shoulders of hydrants,
his lot no better no easier than our own...
And who can say - what else?
After all, we had a hand in shaping his paw.
Though food for thought he can produce plenty,
Of sufficient intellect has Doppler Dog
to avoid unnecessary excess in thinking

Who will growl at his freedom?
Let that one bark at the moon.

Example and Exception: How Bigotry is Sustained

Given:

-2 groups, A and B.

-A and B are reference groups of identity.

(In Buddhism, the flaw - thinking we "exist from our own side" - occurs at this point.)

-B is bigoted against/about A.

 (In Christianity, the flaw - failing to "love our neighbor as ourself" - mostly occurs here.)

************

-X is viewed by B as a negative behavior.
-Y is viewed by B as a positive behavior.

************

When:

-a member of A does X(bad), B sees this as an example of 'all' A's.

-a member of A does Y(good), B sees this as an exception to 'all' A's.

-a member of A repeatedly does Y(good), B sees this member of A as one who has transcended 'A-ness' and learned to behave like B's, though this designation is conditional on that member of A always doing Y(good).

************

When:

-a member of B does Y(good), B sees this as a "perfect example of itself."

-a member of B does X(bad), 'all' other B's see that as an exception to B's.

-a member of B repeatedly does X(bad), 'all' other B's see that member of B as "acting like an A." They are exceptions to all B's; an example of a "bad B."

To B, the only thing worse than an A is a "bad B."

*************

Therefore, through the flawed processes of misidentification, negative reference group behaviors, uncharitable actions and attitudes, and group social pressures - bigotry is sustained.

Perspective

Two birds waited for the sun to rise.

Said one, "Soon, I shall eat."

Said the other, "Already, I sing!"

'Beginner's Mind' is Not Just for Beginners

In Zen Buddhism, the notion of 'beginner's mind' - a state of receptivity - has been written about extensively.

I was wondering if there was a similar teaching in the Christian tradition, and ran across this astounding statement by Jesus:

"When, therefore, a teacher of the law has become a learner in the kingdom of Heaven, he is like a householder who can produce from his store both the new and the old." (Matthew 13:52)

Keep it Simple!

Bread feeds us. We are nourished and sustained.
Love is our bread.
Simplicity of the heart compels us to discover in our bread simple meanings to boundless love. Now is the time to discover our simplicity, our meaning, and our love.

excerpt from: The Antidote to Time, Lessons from the Dream.

Start Small!

Tibet's patron saint, Padmasambhava, said:

"Though my View is as spacious as the sky,
my actions and respect for cause and effect are as fine as grains of flour."

Start with the smallest details, and the big stuff will take care of itself.

The Eight Mundane Concerns

Four pairs of polar opposites are identified as "mundane" concerns.

One is defiled by the mundane concerns if one's motivation derives from:

Attachment to gain, or fear of loss.
Attachment to pleasure, or fear of pain.
Attachment to renown, or fear of infamy.
Attachment to praise, or fear of blame.

Source: "Essence of the Heart Sutra," His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Lynx: Wild Wanderer

It is said that the lynx, the beautiful wild cat of the vast northern boreal forest, may wander its entire life, never retracing its steps.

I find this example from nature to be a wonderful model of impermanence. Love is the ultimate wanderer, ever new yet always at home in the land that sustains it.

Let your mind be transported to the silent snowy lands of the lynx, and consider that our own spirits have a similar nature. Think of the marvels that the lynx eyes every day in its quiet refuge. What great natural wisdom it contains within...

The Dharma of Equanimity

Until we actually love our enemies,
Our love of family and friends will be quite limited.

(Actually, one of the most stunning aspects of learning to love our enemies is that we realize that many of the negative thoughts and feelings that we project on our enemies also seep into our interactions with friends and family. At first, we may excuse these things when we become aware of them because we know we love those that are closest to us; we can't possibly be seeing our loved ones in such a negative light. But if we truly practice equanimity - seeing all with an even eye - we will come to the understanding that we have barely scratched the surface of truly practicing love.)

The Blessing Call

Let us touch the light
We know shines behind the darkness between the stars.

And if not that
Then the light of the stars themselves

And if not that
Then the light of the sun in the bright day

And if not that
Then the light of the sun that glows on the moon

And if not that
Then the light of the fire around which we sing and sleep

And if not that
Then the glow of the fire on the faces of those with whom we sit

And if not that
Then the shine in the eyes of those at whom we gaze

And if not that
Then the darkness behind the glow
In the eyes of those whom we love

For in this darkness

We will touch the light
Which shines behind the darkness between the stars

         -excerpt from Sweet Unpleasant Realities.

Oceans and Seas

Every person has both a personal ocean of fear which they must master, and the collective one in which we are all forced to swim for at least a time. The two seas are connected. When we discover love, and abide in it, our personal ocean of time evaporates. This in turn diminishes the depths of the collective fearful abyss of all humanity.

Excerpt from "The Antidote to Time, Lessons from the Dream."