NURTURING THE BABY BUDDHA

Please watch my video about nurturing the baby Buddha inside of me, you, and the next guy. Click here. And here's a video about the birth of the Buddha.

WHY CELEBRATE BIRTHDAYS, ANYWAY?

I will be giving a presentation entitled "Why do we Celebrate Birthdays, Anyway?" on Sunday, May 11, at 1 p.m. at the Dae Yen Sa International Buddhist Temple and Meditation Center at 19 Kinsey Road in New Hartford. The event is free and open to the public. A light Korean lunch will follow the presentation.

This is the day Buddhists celebrate the birth of the Buddha, so I want to talk about celebrating the Buddha's being born in our hearts every day and what that means in terms of doing good in the world," said Vaugh, who is vice abbot of the temple. "I hope families will come and that children will enjoy a story about the Buddha maybe for the first time and that we can all stop and consider what we can do for others.

EMPTY YOUR CUP!

The Zen master Nan-in received a visit from a university professor and offered him tea. When the tea reached the top of the cup,Nan-in just kept on pouring so that it spilled all over the table.

"Stop! Stop!" cried the professor. "It's too full!"

"And you," said Nan-in, "are too full of your own opinions. How can you learn Zen like that? Empty your cup!"

MEDITATION CHANTS

Because some of the folks who attend my twice-monthly meditations asked for some, there are now three meditation chants in my podcast. (These are large files, so give them a moment to stream.) The podcast player is in the tool bar all the time. This is what it looks like:

Subscribe Free
Add to my Page

THE LAST LECTURE: DR. RANDY PAUSCH

Dr. Randy Pausch knows he is dying, and he presents his "last lecture" on Oprah. Click here to watch it. This video will leave you thinking when it's over, so please take 10 minutes of your time to watch it. In the video, Pausch says, "This is about more than how to achieve childhood dreams. It's about how to live your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself; the dreams will come to you. If you live properly, the dreams will come to you."

Click here to visit Pausch's site, where you'll find links to a transcript, a PowerPoint slide show, the full lecture, and much, much more.

THE FIRST NOBLE TRUTH

No one really cares when soldiers get killed. Most of us are OK with that as long as we are comfortable here in the Home Land. But I draw your attention to the suffering of those who have put in disability claims--a quarter of a million. That suffering will go on for ever. So what is a follower of the Buddha to do?

~*~

Please join me at this event sponsored by Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice. Please send me an email so we can arrange some carpooling.

LAMENTATION and PROTEST
Remember the Dead ♦ Count the Cost ♦ End the War
Wednesday, March 19 at Noon
HARTFORD
Interfaith Prayer Service
Center Church
Corner of Gold Street and Main Street
(diagonally across from the Wadsworth Atheneum)
followed by a silent procession, ending with a
Public Witness to the Destruction of War
Federal Building
450 Main Street

Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice, a statewide interfaith network of religious leaders and people of faith, will mark this 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq by bearing witness to the horrifying costs of war (human, economic, and moral) and to the complicity of silence (by individuals, institutions and corporations).

A brief interfaith prayer service on the steps of Center Church (featuring AFSC’s “Cost of War” banners and boots representing CT’s soldiers who have died) will be followed by a procession to the Federal Building, stopping in front of United Technologies headquarters along the way.


Participants are encouraged to wear black and to bring one or more stones to add to a pile, making visible the destruction and human cost of the war. On each stone, please inscribe the name of an Iraqi civilian who has died in the war (one list is available at www.iraqbodycount.org/database/individuals/). Stones should be large enough to write on with a permanent marker but small enough to carry five blocks. Clergy are asked to wear visible signs of their office.

VISUALIZATION

We tried a visualization meditation last night that involved touching each of the four fingers to the thumb with each new thought and being aware of your breathing between each thought. Try this:

1. Touching your index finger to your thumb, remember a time when you were in a very beautiful place.....Breathe....
2. Touching your middle finger to your thumb, remember a time when someone gave you a compliment....Breathe....
3. Touching your ring finger to your thumb, remember a time when you heard and felt the words, "I love you."...Breathe....
4. Touching your pinky to your thumb, remember a time when you were exhausted from a healthy physical activity....Breathe....

CENTERING PRAYER

Tonight we tried centering prayer as our method of meditation. Here's a way to approach centering prayer:
1. Choose a word that is sacred or meaningful to you.
2. Sitting comfortably and with eyes closed, settle briefly, and silently introduce this word.
3. When you become aware of thoughts, return ever-so-gently to the sacred word.
4. At the end of the prayer period, remain in silence with eyes closed for a couple of minutes. (Click here for more on how-to.)

Here's what Thomas Keating says about Centering Prayer in Open Mind, Open Heart. (He talks about it from a Christian perspective, but you can bring this approach to any form of meditation and substitute words wherever you feel comfortable.):

"The root of prayer is interior silence. We may think of prayer as thoughts or feelings expressed in words. But this is only one expression. Deep prayer is the laying aside of thoughts. It is the opening of mind and heart, body and feelings--our whole being--to God, the Ultimate Mystery, beyond words, thoughts, and emotions. We do not resist them or suppress them. We accept them as they are and go beyond them, not by effort, but by letting them all go by. We open our awareness to the Ultimate Mystery whom we know by faith is within us, closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than choosing--closer than consciousness itself. The Ultimate Mystery is the ground in which our being is rooted, the Source from whom our life emerges at every moment."

THE TEA CEREMONY

Beliefnet has some interesting thoughts on "the healing power of tea." Like this one:

Green tea is considered a "pure" tea, meaning it doesn't undergo an oxidation process. Most green teas are grown in Japan or China. Its health benefits are manifold. Although green tea naturally contains caffeine, one mug's worth contains less than a fourth as much as the average cup of coffee. For people trying to cut their caffeine consumption, switching from coffee to green tea is a very healthy alternative. Scientists have shown a correlation between green tea consumption and reduced cancer risk, weight loss, and improved heart health. Green tea also possesses a small amount of natural fluoride, an element which strengthens bones. And anyone who has ever had a sore throat can definitely attest to the soothing power of green tea with honey in it.

Here's what Thich Nhat Hanh says about tea meditation:

Tea meditation is a practice. It is a practice to help us be free. If you are still bound and haunted by the past, if you are still afraid of the future, if you are carried away by your projects, your fear, you anxiety, and your anger, you are not a free person. You are not fully present in the here and the now, so life is not really available to you…In order to be really alive, in order to touch life deeply, you have to become a free person. Cultivating mindfulness can help you to be free…When you drink tea in mindfulness, your body and your mind are perfectly united. You are real, and the tea you drink also becomes real…..This is genuine tea drinking.”

WHAT KIND OF WELL IS IT?

A man dug a well by the side of a road. For years afterward, grateful travelers talked of the Wonderful Well. But one night a man fell into it and drowned. After that, people avoided the Dreadful Well. Later it was discovered that the victim was a drunken thief who had left the road to avoid being captured by the night patrol--only to fall into the Justice-Dispensing Well. (a Chinese story found in Benjamin Hoff's The Te of Piglet)