Infusing Western Life with Tibetan Buddhist Compassion
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #17 So, the paradigm has temporarily shifted, and we’re back to police shootings in the headlines. Violence of a somewhat different order, steeped not in international terrorism but domestic fear and hatred. Same “sport” – different playing field. The scenes are repetitive: raw videos, furious/heartbroken families, shocked and protocol-following police and government … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #16 There is a connection between Tibetan Buddhism and towering mountains. By the 1970’s most of the world’s major peaks had been scaled, and what were once remote base camps are now sprawling base villages. But the terrains of your mind to which Buddhist practice leads remain largely unexplored. *** The Dharma … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #15 We live at the bottom of an ocean of air. We take it in, then give it out . . . breathing . . . at all moments . . . including right now. There is no boundary between that which is inside and outside. It is all one element, and … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #14 There’s the deaths, killings and violence occurring around the planet. Hideous events of intentional slaughter and demise . . . with us every day. Sometimes I see a giant waiting room resembling NYC’s Grand Central Station, with newly dead people entering all the time, moving toward the track on which their … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #13 Is there any experience that is not mediated by language? Terror, bombing, murder, death, fear, despair, dread, horror, scare, panic, hatred, fundamentalism, anxiety, nightmare, phobia, revulsion, acre, suspicion, worry, apprehension and so much more. Paris, Orlando, San Bernardino, Dakar, Istanbul, Baghdad, Israel, Beirut, Charleston, Oklahoma City and so many more. Mass … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #12 When I see a “Ten Most Wanted” list I often have this thought: ‘Perhaps if we’d helped them feel wanted earlier, they wouldn’t be wanted now’. We live in a web, everyone connects to everyone else . . . not only materially, but through space and time as well. Therefore, everyone … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #11 Pain and horror shock and disrupt, and driven by loud emotion we want immediately to deal with and fix the situation. This is true of us all, including Dharma students and practitioners. But when pushed too far, we may turn and act without thought. And without fore-thought, we won’t know where … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #10 Explore how an understanding could oppose desire and hatred; is there something within your mind, which, when awakened, would make desire and hatred impossible? If and when identified, work to direct the mind toward refined and deeper understanding(s), aspiring to mindfulness to keep the “thought” and its web of supporting concepts … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #9 The events of the world, both far away and in our communities, involving strangers and loved ones, are unsettling, confusing, complicated and ever-changing. For many, these are extraordinarily fertile conditions in which to expose oneself to wise, new ideas . . . meaningful in both simple and/or profound ways. Ideas that … Read more
(Dharma) Bread Crumb #8 “This being human is a guest house.” 13th Century Persian poet Rumi’s beloved poem begins in the English translation by American poet Coleman Barks. The Guest House This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an … Read more