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Showing posts from June 21, 2009

Lovingly binds us to virtue...Quote

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‎"Verbindet uns liebevoll mit der Tugend...Zitat Gleichmut stellt ein Gleichgewicht zwischen den Befürfnissen des Selbst und der Anderen her und bindet uns dadurch liebevoll an die Tugend. Die Weisheit des Gleichmuts ist Tugend."

Chemistry of Change part four

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How do we perceive the connection between stress and change? Change is by nature stressful because it is dismantling, reshaping, and moving energetic patterns into new configurations. That means that some perceptions that we use often are now placed into a minor role. New perceptions that are unfamiliar are now expected to perform a new role flawlessly, without practice, and that is stressful to new perceptions! Some people want to be completely certain how they will react to stress before they subject themselves to situations that might be stressful. They want to have assurance that they can endure the feeling of living with the new them, without resorting to old habits and reactivating poor strategies. For example, our dear old cranky cousin Joe had decided to become more loving and more spiritual. However, when Joe encountered “guff” from his family and friends he could not help himself and pushed his new loving method on them in an aggressive way to show them just how spiri

Laugh and laugh and laugh... Quote

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Mind of a Pilgrim

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During the winter of 2002 and 2003, my students began retreat near the great stupa of Boudhanath in Nepal. For them it was glorious to be able to join the flow, the river of people who were circumnambulating the great stupa. This is one of the eight original great stupas containing holy relics of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni The devotion and the feeling around the stupa is absolutely marvelous. However this is lost on those arriving with the mind of the tourist who can hardly wait to get some quality photographs of people holding their little prayer beads in their hand or turning a prayer wheel. It is perhaps also lost on some others with the mind of a shopper taking the shortcut around the stupa counterclockwise to get to the shop to buy something. But for those who have the mind of a pilgrim, who have come from far away and they are there...I watched my students glow with the happiness of actually being there. In my just before life, the eight Domo Geshe, I did not go to Nepal. However, G

Higher altruistic..... Quote

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I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

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I was in India some years back. One night I was resting and doing my meditations when I felt the earth move. I instantly remembered I was, of course, back in Kalimpong and we do get temblors from time to time. We just ride them out. No problem- these buildings have been through many earthquakes. I went back to meditation and then I sat up quickly because I here in Deki Lodge in the new section and this is quite new construction. I did a quick logical analysis and realized that where I was lying may not have experienced any earthquake before. In the Orient, the only way you really know if a building is strong enough to tolerate an earthquake is by letting it go through an earthquake. If it fall down it not safe. I got out of bed and went outside to the balcony. A friend told me one time to be alert if you see a little, teeny tiny scorpion, like the size of a fly. You might think, “That’s nothing.” Except little teeny tiny scorpions always ride on the back of their mama. Like that

Blind but Wise Child

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A blind boy in Tibet accidentally fell off a cliff and landed on the back of a kiang,a kind of wild horse. As he was clinging to the animals back the kiang jumped and raced around trying to knock him off. Nearby villagers rushed to the scene and shouted to the boy "Jump off, jump off" as he and the kiang dashed by. The blind boy shouted back, "no, this came by unusual method and who knows when I will get this chance again?" Like that, human birth is not easy to attain and we should make effort while we have it because it is not known it we will get the chance again! A story from the Lam Rim stages of the Buddhist path to enlightenment "Blindes aber weises Kind In Tibet fiel ein blinder Junge versehentlich von einer Klippe und landete auf dem Rücken eines Kiang, einer Art von wildem Pferd. Während er sich an den Rücken des Tieres klammerte sprang und rannte das Kiang her um und versuchte ihn abzuwerfen. Die Dorfbewohner rannten aus der Nähe herbei und rie