"A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/30/2011
"A further sign of health is that we don't become undone by fear and trembling, but we take it as a message that it's time to stop struggling and look directly at what's threatening us."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/29/2011
"Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what's out there without knowing yet if we have the courage to face it."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/29/2011
"Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what's out there without knowing yet if we have the courage to face it."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Deleting Buddha Torrents?
Buddha Torrents has recently come under pressure from Blogger as well as Publishers to close its doors and cease postings and delete the blog. I have mixed feelings on this and know that the majority of people that use this blog would say no, however if you feel it should continue or should not I would invite you to comment below.
If you use Buddha Torrents and have never left a comment now would be the time!
If you dont use Buddha Torrents now would also be your time!
Below is the original letter received.
Hi there
I see that you are responsible for posting many Buddhist books up on the web via buddhisttorrents.blogspot.com and other avenues. I am sure your intention is really good – its so wonderful to be able to make so many precious teachings available to people.
However, what you are going is actually really harmful in a number of ways and I wanted to bring these to your attention for your consideration. I am not trying to engage in a philosophic debate or anything, I just want to paint the whole picture for you.
Authors, publishers, and booksellers who create, produce, and make these books available are not getting rich off of these, but their enumeration is what makes it possible to continue putting these books out there. We are not producing any Tom Clancy or Danielle Steele novels here. If the economics of producing our types of books breaks down, far fewer will be made – that is just a reality, and frankly it is already happening due to the changing economics with bookstores closing and Amazon becoming the gorilla that it is. So making these available to people for free ultimately does a lot of harm. For example, one of our authors donates all her proceeds to her monastic practice center to ensure that it can continue in the future. This is one of many, many examples. Many of our authors barely make enough to do what they do.
It is a difficult time for publishers of all books these days – many will not survive the next few years, and those that will are struggling to find new ways of revenue to enable their employees to do what they love, which is making these books. Having free downloads undermines this.
As for those people who do not have enough money to afford these books, we do make them available for libraries to have. Additionally Shambhala, and I assume Wisdom, Snow Lion and others, donate many books to worthy causes – each year we send them to prisons, military personnel, and other organizations.
So I respectfully request that you please stop your activity in this area, remove links to these files that enable others to take what is not given. I know your heart is in the right place, and you could be doing so much to help people connect with this meaningful activity. Become a reviewer! Blog about these books! We’ll send you reviewer copies for free.
Thanks for your consideration,
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/28/2011
"As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never
learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find
compassion."
~Pema Chödrön
learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find
compassion."
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/28/2011
"As long as our orientation is toward perfection or success, we will never
learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find
compassion."
~Pema Chödrön
learn about unconditional friendship with ourselves, nor will we find
compassion."
~Pema Chödrön
Monday, June 27, 2011
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/27/2011
"We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/27/2011
"We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don't really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It's just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/26/2011
"So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn't sit for even one, that's the journey of the warrior."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/26/2011
"So even if the hot loneliness is there, and for 1.6 seconds we sit with that restlessness when yesterday we couldn't sit for even one, that's the journey of the warrior."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Sorry, friends...
.... This is just too complicated from the road. Please check back with me next weekend! I'll be back.
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/25/2011
"No one ever tells us to stop running away from fear...the advice we usually get is to sweeten it up, smooth it over, take a pill, or distract ourselves, but by all means make it go away."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/25/2011
"No one ever tells us to stop running away from fear...the advice we usually get is to sweeten it up, smooth it over, take a pill, or distract ourselves, but by all means make it go away."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Friday, June 24, 2011
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/24/2011
"The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/24/2011
"The more we witness our emotional reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/23/2011
"As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/23/2011
"As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The Buddha in the Classroom: Zen Wisdom to Inspire Teachers.
"The Buddha in the Classroom: Zen Wisdom to Inspire Teachers," by Donna Quesada is primarily a book that long-time teachers, new teachers and students studying for a teaching job will find helpful. I must say, however, that while there are some helpful Buddhist tips for anyone, they are fairly basic and can be found in greater depth in books that are primarily about Buddhism in general. But, for less ardent students of Buddhism, it might just be the right amount of Dharma mixed with career advice.This book is really geared toward the teaching community, and how they can use mindfulness techniques to keep teaching fresh for both teacher and student. The book advertises itself as helpful to anyone and while that it's true, you have to read through a lot of specific advice to teachers. Still, I can see how the tips the author gives would be helpful to anyone who feels stuck in a rut with their career.
I get a lot of books and this one wasn't horrible but it wasn't great, either. I'm probably give it a 6 out of 10 rating; one being worst on that scale and ten being best.
~Peace to all beings~
Success!
I finally managed to post a picture on the blog on my I-Pad! What a cumbersome procedure, though!
Well, half a picture, it appears...
Well, half a picture, it appears...
DOCTORING THE BUDDHA
The Buddha has been acting up recently. The one in the garden, I mean. The fountain...
We have had it for years without problems, but recently--well, a few months ago--it started losing water faster than could be accounted for by splash or evaporation. The fountain is built in two parts: the basin, which catches the water and returns it to the top, via a pump hidden behind, where it emerges again from a lotus and spills down over the upper part, which is Buddha's face. It looks a bit like he's weeping for the suffering of the world. The problem, I discovered through prolonged observation, was that the water had discovered a path along the seam between the two parts, and was disappearing out behind. Over several years, too, the weight of the water, combined with that of the fountain itself, had caused the whole thing to sink down and back, encouraging that wayward flow.
Having tried a variety of minor fixes and adjustments--ranging from museum wax to drilling holes to create alternative paths for the water--it came down to a matter of major surgery yesterday. I enlisted the help of my sturdy neighbor, Richard, and together we dismantled the whole thing, took the two parts down, and leveled out the base on which the fountain stands with bricks and gravel, tamping it down to avoid, if possible, any further sinkage. Then we restored the basin to its proper place, and Richard--who knows about these things--brought in some chemical guck from the hardware store, running a bead of the stuff along the troublesome joint, where it began to swell alarmingly like The Blob from Outer Space. (You can see better what it looks like here...
... where we used it to seal the deck to prevent the rains from flooding the area down below.)
The guck continued to expand even after we had replaced the Buddha himself, creating what we hope will prove to be an effective seal to contain the water and block its route to the rear. Just to be sure, however, we used more of the stuff to block off the rear conduits for the flow, thus...
... directing the water away from the rear. We hope to be able to carve it down to a less unsightly shape today.
I have a twinge of guilt about having used such anti-natural stuff on the Buddha--and indeed in the garden. God knows what damage to the environment was caused in simply producing, containing and propelling it, but I can be reasonably sure that, like much of the stuff we use in our daily lives, it was of no benefit to the planet. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa...
Let's hope it works. And that we haven't given the Buddha more to weep about.
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/22/2011
"At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/22/2011
"At the root of all the harm we cause is ignorance."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
No Mountains. No Desert.
Sage advice yesterday from MandT (see "Comments") "Take a week sabbatical," they say, "go up into the mountains or desert by yourself and do nothing but listen." I know that would be just the thing to do... instead, this Thursday, I'm flying Jet Blue from Long Beach to Chicago, O'Hare, and taking a rental car to drive to Iowa City for a long weekend's visit with my son; then north to Wisconsin, to visit Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin East near Spring Green; and east for a couple of days in Madison, where Ellie spent a couple of her undergraduate years, before heading back to O'Hare.
No mountains, then. No desert. Just the Midwest. Ah, well. Still, it will be good to spend a bit of time with my son, and travel usually brings its own rewards. It's the anticipation of travel, I think, that gets to me. Such a hassle, these days. And an uprooting experience. I find I work better when my roots are secure. I'm wondering whether it's that anticipation--along with the pre-flight nerves--that has got me in the stew that I describe.
Today, the Prius needs a service. I'll be spending the morning in the waiting room of Toyota, San Juan Capistrano. No swallows there!
No mountains, then. No desert. Just the Midwest. Ah, well. Still, it will be good to spend a bit of time with my son, and travel usually brings its own rewards. It's the anticipation of travel, I think, that gets to me. Such a hassle, these days. And an uprooting experience. I find I work better when my roots are secure. I'm wondering whether it's that anticipation--along with the pre-flight nerves--that has got me in the stew that I describe.
Today, the Prius needs a service. I'll be spending the morning in the waiting room of Toyota, San Juan Capistrano. No swallows there!
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/21/2011
"I used to have a sign pinned up on my wall that read: 'Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/21/2011
"I used to have a sign pinned up on my wall that read: 'Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Monday, June 20, 2011
DOLDRUMS
I'm the "persistence" guy, right? I wrote a whole book of essays on the the subject. It's ironic, then, that I find myself in the persistent doldrums. I can hardly bring myself to write. I chastise myself for failing to find anything new or interesting to say. I wake in the morning without an idea in my head, and without the slightest motivation to write another post. The only thing I feel is an unforgiving sense of guilt for not being able to do myself what I have urged others to do: persist.
I was talking about this to my friend Brian at dinner the other evening. At least he helped me find a way to laugh about it. We concluded it was time to take the opposite approach. Write some essays titled "It's Not Worth It," or "Why Bother"? "Chuck It In" might be another good topic. Or "Time to Quit." There was an interesting op-ed piece in this morning's New York Times, "In Praise of Not Knowing." With so much information instantly available to us, we are suffering from a surfeit of knowledge. The author, Tim Kreider, concluded that "learning how to transform mere ignorance into mystery, simply not knowing into wonder, is a useful skill. Because it turns out that the most important things in this life--why the universe is here instead of not, what happens to us when we die, how the people we love really feel about us--are things we're never going to know."
I like that idea, and I see it as somehow related to my problem. It's like I have reached a plateau in my writing where I know what I'm doing, I kind of understand the things I talk about, and for this reason I get bored with myself, get bored with the sound of my own voice. I wish I'd just shut up. And I do toy with the idea of shutting up. Not blogging. Not writing tedious essays. Not trying to understand or explain things, even to myself. Not endlessly stroking my own ego with the imagined importance of what I have to say. Instead, I'd like to be able to "transform mere ignorance into mystery, simply not knowing into wonder." But I'm not sure how to go about it.
At our sangha this morning, after our hour's sit, talk turned to the matter of "letting go." I have two books in progress, one of which--the one I put on the back burner in order to concentrate on the newer one--is tentatively titled "This Is Not Me." The essays in this book have all to do with my interest in letting go parts of myself that are no longer particularly useful but which I cling to simply because I have so much identity wrapped up in them. Suppose I were to let go of "the writer"? A dreadful, fearsome thought. But a challenging one. I might just launch myself into the mystery, the wonder of it all...
I was talking about this to my friend Brian at dinner the other evening. At least he helped me find a way to laugh about it. We concluded it was time to take the opposite approach. Write some essays titled "It's Not Worth It," or "Why Bother"? "Chuck It In" might be another good topic. Or "Time to Quit." There was an interesting op-ed piece in this morning's New York Times, "In Praise of Not Knowing." With so much information instantly available to us, we are suffering from a surfeit of knowledge. The author, Tim Kreider, concluded that "learning how to transform mere ignorance into mystery, simply not knowing into wonder, is a useful skill. Because it turns out that the most important things in this life--why the universe is here instead of not, what happens to us when we die, how the people we love really feel about us--are things we're never going to know."
I like that idea, and I see it as somehow related to my problem. It's like I have reached a plateau in my writing where I know what I'm doing, I kind of understand the things I talk about, and for this reason I get bored with myself, get bored with the sound of my own voice. I wish I'd just shut up. And I do toy with the idea of shutting up. Not blogging. Not writing tedious essays. Not trying to understand or explain things, even to myself. Not endlessly stroking my own ego with the imagined importance of what I have to say. Instead, I'd like to be able to "transform mere ignorance into mystery, simply not knowing into wonder." But I'm not sure how to go about it.
At our sangha this morning, after our hour's sit, talk turned to the matter of "letting go." I have two books in progress, one of which--the one I put on the back burner in order to concentrate on the newer one--is tentatively titled "This Is Not Me." The essays in this book have all to do with my interest in letting go parts of myself that are no longer particularly useful but which I cling to simply because I have so much identity wrapped up in them. Suppose I were to let go of "the writer"? A dreadful, fearsome thought. But a challenging one. I might just launch myself into the mystery, the wonder of it all...
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/20/2011
"Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma
Early Morning Buddhist Inspiration - 6/20/2011
"Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world."
~Pema Chödrön
~Pema Chödrön
Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)