I deci
ded to resurrect a previous blog post that I created in December of 2012 the year I started writing my blog posts. I’ve up dated it a little for 2020 but the message is still the same. What did I discover? Nothing has really changed in my life or in the world. I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing or just a thing….
I hope you’ll take the time to read it and let me know what you think and if it resonates with your life as well. Namaste! Best wishes for a loving and peaceful 2020 and beyond!
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Yikes, another year is coming to an end and I haven’t even completed all the goals and to-do lists for 2019! The older I get the faster time goes and the more fun I’m having the faster time goes! When I am feeling sad, mad, bad, or bored the time seems to be endless dragging like my car with a flat tire screeching and thumping along. Sometimes I feel as though—soon there will be no time left at all.
Some people think the world will end in a few days as they follow the Mayan Calendar. When I’m feeling down some days I hope that the Mayan’s were right, but when I’m feeling great I’m sure hoping they were not!
So how do I plan for the next minute, hour, day, week, or year? Do I just let it come as it comes or do I set new goals? Do I plan, organize, collate, separate, and loudly pronounce “the New Year is coming!” But who made up time anyway? I’ve always figured that we had time just so we didn’t have to do everything all at once. It was a great idea to be able to stretch things out, take one thing at a time or simply rest and relax and say the heck with it all and pull the covers up over my head!
Several years ago someone thought of a great idea and they began publishing a magazine entitled “Simple Life.” I’ve looked at it several times and even found some wonderful things in it. I even decided to take up the mantle. And so, over the years I have moved from a 4 bedroom home to a 2 bedroom home and I even lived in a one-room efficiency apartment in Tennessee. I especially loved that (so little to clean!) until the squirrels moved into the attic and kept me up all night dancing and prancing like a family of sugar plum fairies dancing in the night.
But without my goals I feel like I would be a rudderless boat just floating around the ocean. I can’t imagine a life without goals. Even the Buddha had goals he searched and searched for enlightenment for many years, through many pathways, until he discovered it. Then he continued to teach and spread the word to anyone who wanted to listen.
In the Metta Sutra of Shakyamuni Buddha he says, “May all beings be happy. May they be joyous and live in safety. All living beings, whether weak or strong, in high or middle, or low realms of existence, small or great, visible or invisible, near or far, born or to be born, may they all be happy.” Is this yet another goal?
Jesus had goals. He set down the Beatitudes didn’t he? He taught, shared, prayed, and lived a life for others to emulate. It is written in Matthew 5:18-19 just after the listing of the Beatitudes these words:
“For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
To me it sounds like a very powerful set of goals that he was laying out for each of His followers to accomplish. You may want to set goals for your life, live those goals freely and fully, and then watch your life move in the direction of those things that you have envisioned.
If you don’t set goals you may be letting the winds of fate, and time, and circumstance rock you like that small boat on the Atlantic trying to cross the sea to a new land. Life is a magical experiment that needs to be played with, tested, viewed, reviewed and begun each moment of each day of each year. And who cares if my goals from last year have not been finished or fulfilled I can try to get them done in 2020. I can throw them out like that old worn out pair of sneakers I let go of last week or I can just wish and hope and dream that my life gets better rather than worse.
But regardless of which way I chose, the path is mine to create and live.
After watching the news this morning and seeing all the “un-peace” going on in the world I decided to add another chapter to my blog on peace. As I looked around my office, I could see my two little doggies sound asleep in their beds with visions of supper soon to appear. Suddenly Bubbles the barker heard the sound of the cat in the other room using the kitty liter and up she jumped barking and trying to run to where she heard the noise. My peace and hers had been interrupted with the simple sound of a cat in the other room. Has some simple thing, or words, or newscast interrupted your peace today? Mine has and I’m writing a series on peace! Yikes…
We feed our mind with many things and what we feed it with can determine who we are, how we treat others, and what will manifest in our lives. Words can be sweet like the taste of a ripe apple in Spring or sour like a pickle that has been soaked in brine for many weeks or months. But it is always up to us which we will eat and which we will share with others. And how we share it…
Cleary titles a section in the book “The Great Task.” “We are swept away by memorizing sayings and living inside conceptual consciousness. Has it not been said, ‘Concepts act as robbers, consciousness becomes waves’? If you have not mastered the great task, nothing compares to stopping, in the sense of quiet cessation, the purifying and quieting of the body and mind. At all times avoid dwelling obsessively on things, and it will be easy to unveil this (page 42).” [1]
This last chapter will totally debunk the 9 chapters before it! What a fabulous way to end my story…
Kaz Tanahashi writes about it so clearly. What an “original face” he has! Filled with joy for sure!
Many of us may remember the wonderful play and movie “Oliver! the Musical” with warmth and laughter. There is a song in it that is so powerful and yet sad if you really listen to the words. Watched by his fellow orphans, Mark Lester, as Oliver Twist, dares to ask for more, in the film “Oliver!” (Columbia Pictures). [1]
She represents the feminine energy of the world as the “holy spirit” represents the feminine energy in the Christian triad of the “father, son, and the holy spirit.” She represents the fundamental aspect of Buddhahood: Great compassion. In China she is named Kuan-yin, in Japan Kannon (or Kanzeon or Kwannon), and in Tibet Chenresi. In some cultures, Avalokiteshvara is a man not a woman so which ever pronoun you prefer to use for Avalokiteshvara is perfectly divine!
There are so many kinds of meditation from the simple Zen method of clearing your mind and counting your breath 1 on the in breath and 2 on the out breath. Then there is the wonderful description by Frances W. Foulks in her iconic book Effectual Prayer where she writes: “To meditate on a subject is to give it attentive, earnest thought with the idea of having all its meaning revealed; that is, all the meaning that one is capable of receiving at the time (page 65).”
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The Secret to a More Fulfilling Life: Part 5 Atonement
Posted in attachment, birth, BUddhism, cause and effect, chant, Christianity, death, enlightenment, fears, happiness, hate speech, human race, Kazuaki Tanahashi, love, prayer, religion, self-help, sickness, suffering, Uncategorized, wisdom, Zen, tagged anger, atonement, faith, greed, ignorance, inspiration, karma, learning, Living by Vow A Practical Introduction to Eight Essential Zen Chants and Text., Living by Vow A Practical Introduction to Eight Essential Zen Chants and texts, relationships, sitting, thoughts, thoughts are things, Truth, Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary on June 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »
Atonement has been defined in many ways such as reparation for a wrong doing or making amends for your actions, words, and/or deeds. Or even read as “at one meant.” In, Buddhism we have a gatha or chant that we recite at the end of our sitting period. It is simple yet powerful.
All harmful karma ever committed by me since of old
On account of my beginingless greed, anger, and ignorance,
Born of my body, mouth, and thought,
Now I atone for it all…
Kaz Tanahashi in his book Zen Chants reminds us that “We are in the midst of changeable and unchangeable karma in each moment. We are bound by cause and effect, but at the same time we are partly free of cause and effect. This is the case during meditation, when we can be completely free from the chain of causation. At this time, we can be anybody and anywhere. We are what we meditate. We are also the source of cause and effect (page 146).[1]
Each time I recite this chant I feel like I’ve been given a new life, and a new opportunity to get something right! To have a “do over” as we might say today. I may not be able to have a “do over” with someone who has passed away or no longer will take my calls, texts, or emails, but atone I must—to forgive myself for my behavior or words or deeds that harmed or hurt another. Regardless of whether the person is someone you know or a total stranger if we have harmed then atonement is the best action to take. If we decide not to take that action it doesn’t mean that we’re done with it anyway!
I once worked with a congregant of mine who had a very bad relationship with his brother. Upon his brother’s untimely death, he went into a great depression for how he had left their relationship. It came to me when we were together one day for him to simply meditate on the love that he had held back from his brother and ask an imaginary angel to deliver him a message of repentance, love, and compassion. Not long after he said that his brother had come to him in a dream and they hugged and forgave each other, and his pain and suffering was relieved. His love for his brother was evident in his countenance he was smiling joyfully.
He was freed from the chain of causation through atonement! How chained are you? What will you do about it? Will you atone and be released from those thoughts and emotions? Or do you choose to live with the pain, anger, and animosity? The choice is yours—which will it be.
[1]Tanahashi, K. (2015) Zen Chants Thirty-Five Essential Texts with Commentary. Shambhala: Boston and London
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