Forgiveness is not forgetfulness

A friend realised something rather amusing yet enlightening. He became a more forgiving person when he realised that he had been letting himself off again and again, readily forgiving himself for his own misdeeds to others big and small, while being easily unforgiving and grudge-bearing towards others for their little mistakes. He realised how fat his ego was. It was as if he alone had all the right in the world to be wrong and forgiven, while the rest of the world should do him no slight wrong.

Being a forgiving person is part of the path of practice towards Enlightenment. Forgiveness liberates both pain and guilt. It unties knots of tensed negative karma, stops ill seeds from growing into greater hatred. Being unforgiving is nurturing our sense of hatred - which is no less than one of the three poisons that keep us swirling in Samsara's vicious cycles.

However, forgiving another does not mean we allow the same wrong to be repeated. We have to realise that while it could be our negative karma that we are wronged, we should put in the effort to prevent the person who did us wrong from doing more harm, creating more negative karma for himself.  By being complacent, we could well be creating more negative karma for ourselves! Remember - forgiveness is "for giving".  It is a gift of reassurance - it sets both parties' hearts and minds at peace.

The Daily Enlightenment - Ambidexterity

Perhaps all enlightened beings are perfectly ambidextrous. To be ambidextrous means to have equal efficient ease of using both hands. Most of us are only either right-handed or left-handed. This physical bias of ease in control and strength comes from habitual one-sided mental biasness.

There is the belief that right-handed people tend to be more one-track-minded and rational while the left-handed are more creative and emotional. How does an enlightened being come into the picture? He is evolved spiritually, and thus physically (as "mind over matter"), to perfection. So, His rational and emotional aspects are equally perfected as Wisdom and Compassion respectively. He is a balanced individual with no unhealthy biasness in body or mind. So He is ambidextrous!

We all have our personal particular "handedness" or biasness mentally and physically. Being a right-hander does not mean you are more "normal" than a left-hander. In a sense, both are equally unbalanced. We should learn to be more and more balanced mentally, without any form of prejudices. The attempt to balance is the practising the Middle Path itself.

Sean'ice in Chains

Is there something that binds you?
Or is the thought that you are bound
that which binds you?

You are not bound by any chains now.
Only your thoughts bind you -
there are no metal chains, only mental ones.

Any mental chains have to be broken,
let go of, by mental effort.

Die Young

How do you train yourself to truly live your life?

Train your "self" to die
before your actual death.

With the death of the egoistic self,
comes freedom in this very life.

The Daily Enlightenment - Book One: Reflections for the Practising Buddhists

Life is meaningless
in the sense that there is no obligatory purpose in life.
Death is meaningless
in the sense that there is no specific purpose in death.

This means that
the only meaningful thing to do,
is to get out of life and death,
out of the cycle of rebirth,
towards Enlightenment, liberation.

Only when we are liberated
can we effectively help to liberate other beings.

Idea Creation

Impulses of intelligence constantly create the body in new forms every second. - Deepak Chopra..

Think on These Things

Think on These Things for Monday, December 03, 2007

"Think on This ... . . the church is within yourself and not in any pope nor preacher, nor in any building but in self! For thy body is indeed the temple of the living God, and the Christ becomes a personal companion in mind and in body; dependent upon the personality and individuality of the entity as it makes practical application of the tenets and truths that are expressed.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5125-1"

Brahman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brahman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Brahman (nominative brahma ब्रह्म) is the concept of the supreme spirit found in Hinduism. Brahman is the unchanging, infinite, immanent, and transcendent reality which is the Divine Ground of all matter, energy, time, space, being, and everything beyond in this universe. The nature of Brahman is described as transpersonal, personal and impersonal by different philosophical schools. In the Rig Veda, Brahman gives rise to the primordial being Hiranyagarbha that is equated with the creator God Brahmā. The trimurti can thus be considered a personification of hiranyagarbha as the active principle behind the phenomena of the universe. The seers who inspired the composition of the Upanisads asserted that the liberated soul (jivanmukta) has realized his identity with Brahman as his true self (see Atman (Hinduism))."

The Paradox Of Our Age

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense;

more knowledge but less judgment;

more experts, but more problems;

more medicines but less healthiness.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble in crossing the street to meet our new neighbour.

We built more computers to hold more copies than ever,

But have less real communication;

We have become long on quantity,

but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall mean but short characters;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It’s a time when there is much in the window

But nothing in the room.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

sounds alot like a certain Hollywood blockbuster starring Chad Arm..... er I mean Tom Hanks

. . the church is within yourself and not in any pope nor preacher, nor in any building but in self! For thy body is indeed the temple of the living God, and the Christ becomes a personal companion in mind and in body; dependent upon the personality and individuality of the entity as it makes practical application of the tenets and truths that are expressed.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Live your life in happiness, even though those around you lead lives which are unhealthy, and wish to spread their illness to you. Be Happiness itself. - Buddha...

where are my glasses.....???

A man who is seeking for realization is not only going round searching for his spectacles without realizing that they are on his nose all the time, but also were he not actually looking through them he would not be able to see what he is looking for

aNgER dAnGeR

Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha...

As long as there is a 'you' doing or not-doing,
thinking or not-thinking,
'meditating' or 'not-meditating'
you are no closer to home
than the day you were born. "The Tenth Man" by Wei Wu Wei

amidabuddha.org

Oh the thinks you can think......

Whatever one thinks about and ponders over often, one's mind gets a leaning in that way.

daily

These ten things nourish the ten things that are desirable, liked, charming and hard to win in the world. What ten?

Energy and exertion nourish wealth.

Finery and adornment nourish beauty.

Doing things at the proper time nourishes health.

Friendship with the beautiful nourishes virtue.

Restraint of the senses nourishes the holy life.

Not quarrelling nourishes friendship.

Repetition nourishes great knowledge.

Lending an ear and asking questions nourishes wisdom.

Study and examination nourishes the teachings.

And living rightly nourishes rebirth in the heaven world.

Owner of my Actions

I am the owner of my actions (karma),

Heir to my actions, I am born of my actions, I am related to my actions and I have my actions as refuge.

Whatever I do, good or evil, of that I will be the heir.

Can you happy me now?

The purpose of our existence is to seek happiness.

Happiness is determined more by one's state of mind than by external events.

In fact, whether we are feeling happy or unhappy at any given moment often has very little to do with our absolute conditions but, rather it is a function of how we are perceive our situation, how satisfied we are with what we have.

Our feelings of contentment are strongly influenced by our tendency to compare.

Once basic needs are met, the message is clear: we don't need more money, we don't need greater success or fame, we don't need the perfect body or even the perfect mate -- right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.

Meditation, means the practice of mindfulness/awareness. We practice being mindful of all the things that we use to torture ourselves with. We become mindful by abandoning our expectations about the way we thing things should be and, out of our mindfulness, we begin to develop awareness about the way things really are. We begin to develop the insight that things are really quite simple, that we can handle ourselves, and our relationships, very well as soon as we stop being so manipulative and complex.

This..... some guy believes

In my universe, there is no evil. There is only the light of God.
In my universe, there is no hierarchy. There is only the truth of our shared Divinity.
In my universe, there is no required poverty. There is only the divine promise of universal abundance.
In my universe, there are no excuses. We take responsibility.
I don’t share many of the standard beliefs that so many of us share. For example, I do not believe in Darwin (although I am convinced of evolution).
I do not believe in Satan (though I do understand people do bad things).
I do not believe in perdition and I do not believe in sin.
I do not believe life is supposed to be a struggle to survive.
I do not believe that some people deserve to starve.
I do not believe that some people deserve to die.
In fact, I believe we are all the same.
I believe we are all equal and, because of that, I believe there is no excuse for suffering.

I believe there is no excuse for poverty.
I believe there is no excuse for war.
I believe we (you/I) create the world and the universe.
I believe we (you/I) are the source of all things.
I believe we (you/I) are Divine and if something is wrong on this world, not only is it our responsibility to change it, but we are in fact the only ones who can change it.

Verse 163

Doing Good Unto One’s Own Self Is Difficult

Easy is what’s bad to do,
what’s harmful to oneself.
But what is good, of benefit,
is very hard to do.

Explanation: Those actions which are very bad and harmful to one’s own self can be very easily done. But if some action is good for one’s own self; that kind of right action will be found to be difficult to do.

Never Free

WE MAY IDEALIZE FREEDOM, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO OUR HABITS, WE ARE COMPLETELY ENSLAVED.

Four Truths of Noble

1. Suffering exists and all states of being are essentially unsatisfactory.
   
2. All suffering and rebirth are caused by craving for existence, for non-existence or for pleasure.
   
3. The extinction of desire will bring an end to suffering and rebirth.
   
4. There is a way to relinquish the constant agitation of desire, the Noble Eightfold Path.
   

Sensual Pleasures Never Satiated

Verse 186. Sensual Pleasures Never Satiated

Not by rain of golden coins
is found desires’ satiety,
desires are dukkha, of little joy,
thus a wise one understands.

Explanation: Insatiable are sensual desires. Sensual desires will not be satisfied even with a shower of gold. The wise knows that sensual pleasure bring but little satisfaction and much pain.

The Greatest Warrior

Though one man conquers a thousand times a thousand men in battle, he who conquers himself is the greatest warrior.

The Dhammapada

Chasing Amy..........er,.... Sean

So i have decided to start keeping track of my chase dreams. It seems like i have quite a few of them. I think they are all pretty similar, but i did want to keep track and see of there were any patterns.


"I'm Being Chased"

Chase dreams often stem from feelings of anxiety in your walking life. The way we respond to anxiety and pressure in real life is typically manifested as a chase dream. Running is an instinctive response to physical threats in our environment. Often in these dream scenarios, you are being pursued by some attacker, who wants to hurt or possibly kill you. You are running away, hiding, or trying to outwit your pursuer. Chase dreams may represent your way of coping with fears, stress or various situations in your waking life. Instead of confronting the situation, you are running away and avoiding it.�Ask yourself who is the one chasing you and you may gain some understanding and insight on the source of your fears and pressure.

The pursuer or attacker who is chasing you in your dream may also represent a part of yourself. Your own feelings of anger, jealousy, fear, and possibly love, can assume the appearance of threatening figure. You may be projecting these feelings onto the unknown chaser. Next time you have a chase dream, turn around and confront your pursuer. Ask them why they are chasing you.�

One may be consumed by their own anger, jealousy, love, or self-destructive behavior. For example, you may be drinking too much or exhibiting open hostility toward others around you. You may subconsciously be threatened by these actions which have been jeopardizing your relationships and/or career. Your dreams are a way of calling attention to these self-destructive actions.

A more direct analysis of chase dreams is the fear of being attacked. Such dreams are more common among women than men, who may feel physically vulnerable in the urban environment. These dreams are inspired by fears of violence and sexual assault in which we are so over-exposed from the media. The violence that the media portrays magnifies our fears and how at risk we all are.�

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1. Last night i had a dream. what made this dream different was how it started. It started out as a dream, about me having a dream, and it was a precognative dream. I dont really remember all the details of the premonision but the point was that in my dream, i had a precognative dream.
   
   Another part that was weird was that it wasnt actually me being chased. It was another guy. But it wasnt even like i was there in that reality. It was like i was there, simply "Witnessing" the entire event that i had had a premonition about.
   
   So as I was saying, the guy was being chased by the police department. but he had jumped on this bulldozer like tracker, and was able to go thru this ruff terrain next to a lake, where there was not any roads. The police where unable to follow him, so once he got like 100 feet away, they started firing their weapons at him. THe tracker had a bucket on the back, and so he raised it up so the police had no clear shot.
   
   

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   so, this technically wasnt a dream about me being chased, althought it was a dream were i was involved in the chase.