Friday, November 30, 2007

Burma

I haven't been following Burma so closely. I have enough problems in my life, I can only take in so much suffering. But I work with people with HIV, and this article affected me.

BNN has an article too.

Book review

I reviewed a book!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Chuang Yen Monastery


Chuang Yen Monastery
Originally uploaded by thatwaszenphoto
I got this off a lovely blog, the name is underneath the photo. I just think this is a beautiful photo. See the web site for a description by the photographer.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

I may be stretching it

I may be stretching it, but I think Metalica lyrics for Wherever I May Roam, could also be about going forth. The video isn't so much about transcendence, seems very worldly, but I append it to the end of this blog entry. At age 40, with all my sophistication, I still feel a visceral reaction to heavy metal.

More MP3s in the ocean of dharma

One skill in being a Buddhist to cultivate is to learn to discriminate on how to take in information. I post things willy nilly, that I hope to listen to. I've just discovered some lectures by Bhikkhu Bodhi, who's stuff I've read before. I can't vouch for them yet, but I do like the stuff I've read of his before.

I found these lectures through this lovely blog.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

mens GFR retreat 2007 09 30


mens GFR retreat 2007 09 30
Originally uploaded by sravacitta
I need to remind myself of the power of this retreat. I keep forgetting it. I'm a worldling who loses touch with the dharma at times. I want to be a constant flow of compassion and creativity, but I'm not. The process of trying to get there is what it's all about. And then men support that process. Thank you guys!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Parenting Quote

Sometimes we are focused on developing concentration or investigation or some other quality. New Parents have to work hard at cultivating and maintaining a lot of spiritual qualities: patience, generosity, renunciation (as they give up so much of their freedom and time). But the gift that they receive is love, as well as what’s called mudita, or appreciative joy. There’s no work involved, no effort in developing metta and mudita for our children, they just blossom. Appreciating that this is happening for us can help us to be easier on ourselves when other aspects of our practice seem to be crumbling.

(Kevin Griffin in One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps, P.216)

Monday, November 12, 2007

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Thursday, November 01, 2007

puja

I suppose I'm a bit materialist about collecting pujas. But I've discovered another version of the Bodhicaryavatara puja the standard FWBO puja is based on, with a Bodhicitta emphasis. (That brings me up to 11, 9 of which are on line and blogged about here.)

Here is the page where the puja is. Or this is the link to the actual puja.

I'm looking for more pujas so if anyone has any leads, I would greatly appreciate it.

We had a lovely confession puja last Sunday in our mitra study. That's a very powerful one for me. I never thought I would like puja, but I really do.