On Thursday 22nd May, we will mount a unique creative event through the streets of central London - a 3-mile-long "human chain handshake" from the Dalai Lama to the Chinese Embassy.
Not liking it here, you go traveling over there; not liking it there, you come touring back here. That's all there is to it, following your noses everywhere. You don't have to do a lot of traveling around; just stay here and develop the practice, learn it in detail. Make an effort, all of you.
~ Ajahn Chah in Food For the Heart
]]>Awareness cannot be practiced. There has been some confusion between awareness and mindfulness. They are related, but distinct. Sati, or mindfulness, implies there is action of the mind. We purposely set ourselves to pay attention to our minds. We exert effort. Awareness is different. Awareness is devoid of any action. The mind simply "awares." There is no action here, only a collected and spontaneous awareness that just "sees." Here, mindfulness is the cause, and awareness is the effect. You cannot practice or train the effect. You can only practice something that will cause it. We have to start with mindfulness so that awareness may arise in us.
~ Thynn Thynn, in Living Meditation, Living Insight
]]>Modern culture would have us worship before the altar of the thinking mind, with its endless capacity to produce ideas, fantasies, and formulas. We are taught that the thinking mind is the possessor of all wisdom, and we dedicate much of our lives to the pursuit of knowledge and information. Seeing the world and ourselves through the filter of all the information we have accumulated, we can be imprisoned by the very ideas and images we have so ardently pursued. Often we think that we know ourselves, when what we know is only what we think about ourselves. When we think we know the world around us, our static images bar us from seeing the mystery held within each changing moment. What is an image if not just a description of the world that is bound to the past?
~ Christina Feldman and Jack Kornfield, Stories of the Spirit, Stories of the Heart
]]>Details of events and booking information, what to bring with you etc to our wonderful retreat centre in the middle of France.
]]>I must say I have to deal with quite a bit of this 'illness dukkha'. I'm down with another gastric flu virus. Now that the sickness and splitting headache phase has passed I'm at the wobbly and weak stage - ha, just an increase of my usual state! It's at times like these that I really appreciate this BlackBerry for emailing - I've had a report of the last year to write for the Amida Trustees meeting tomorrow, my iPod, the Powerbook (although the wifi signal doesn't reach my bedroom, up here in 'the gods', I can watch DVDs) - technology rocks - and I'm so grateful for all the Buddhist magazines and a pile of Saga mags I brought back from my Dad's - just right for my attention span. Glad, too, that we listened to so much k.d. lang last weekend, so that, at my sickest, I had her singing in my head.
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Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
]]>On Thursday 22nd May, we will mount a unique creative event through the streets of central London - a 3-mile-long "human chain handshake" from the Dalai Lama to the Chinese Embassy.
Hardly surprising - and maybe a safer person to have behind you than Hillary?
::read more hereAlthough John Edwards has suggested that his endorsement was purely a decision made on the merits of the candidate, the New York Times reports that privately he has an interest in being a part of an Obama administration.
]]>GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan (Reuters) - Former U.S. presidential candidate John Edwards endorsed Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday, giving a major boost to the Illinois senator's effort to unify the party behind his bid for the White House.
]]>TAIPEI (Reuters) - A senior Chinese official has asked whether Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama would agree to attend the Beijing Olympics to ease recent tensions, a Tibet government-in-exile legislator said on Monday.
The Dalai Lama would consider going, the law maker said.