We Are Stardust

Anger

In Buddhism, anger is regarded as the most destructive and perilous of all mental factors.

Buddhism defines anger as the flooding of the mind with violent and aggresive feelings, leading to hostility and conflict.

Anger is outlawed in Buddhism as in no other religious tradition. Even so-called righteous anger, so often excused as having injustice and abuse as its object, is utterly condemned because it involves the overpowering of the mind in a wave of uncontrolled and destructive passion.

Realizing Truth

The more you talk about it,
the further you wander from the truth.

---Seng-Ts'an---

Davy Jones

30 December 1945 – 29 February 2012

Good-bye, Sweetheart.

Karma

Karma is a Sanskrit word meaning 'action' or 'deed'.

Karma is not punishment or retribution but simply an extended expression or consequence of conscious acts. The effects of our actions are able to be mitigated by other actions and are not necessarily fated. That is to say, a particular action now is not binding to some particular, pre-determined future experience or reaction; it is not a simple, one-to-one correspondence of reward or punishment.

Karma is not fate, for humans act with free will creating their own destiny.

Karma is not a divine tool. It is as natural as gravity.

Karma

Student, beings are owners of karmas, heirs of karmas, they have karmas as their progenitor, karmas as their kin, karmas as their homing-place. It is karmas that differentiate beings according to inferiority and superiority.

---The Buddha---

Karma

Monks, these four types of karma have been directly realized, verified, and made known by me.

Which four?

There is karma that is dark with dark result.

There is karma that is bright with bright result.

There is karma that is dark and bright with dark and bright result.

There is karma that is neither dark nor bright with neither dark nor bright result, leading to the ending of karma.

---The Buddha---

Understanding

Let us not be downcast by the warring wants
Of childish persons quarreling.
Their thoughts are bred from conflict and emotion.
Let us understand and treat them lovingly.

---The Way of the Bodhisattva 5:56---

The Tao

When your mind is empty of prejudices you can see the Tao. When your heart is empty of desires you can follow the Tao.

---Master Lu---

In the Sun

Beautiful Mouth

Always Examine Yourself

Shantideva recommended that as soon as we feel the urge to do anything -- to speak or even to walk across the room -- we should get into the habit of self-scrutiny. The slightest impulse to negativity should be greeted with a total paralysis of the system.

"It's then that like a log you should remain." -- The Way of the Bodhisattva 5:50

Imagine

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger...

---John Lennon---

Imagine

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for...

---John Lennon---

From the Hsin-Hsin Ming

When you try to stop activity to achieve quietude,
your very effort fills you with activity.

---Seng-Ts'an---

Splendid Mexico

The Bee

The bee is more honored than other animal, not because she labors, but because she labors for others.

---Saint John Chrysostom---

From the Hsin-Hsin Ming

The arising of other gives rise to self;
giving rise to self generates other.

---Seng-Ts'an---

A Very Simple Potato Salad

2 1/2 pounds (just a hair over 1 kilogram) of tiny new potatoes, scrubbed clean
1/2 cup (118 milliliters) of balsamic vinaigrette
6 ounces (170 grams) of mixed baby greens
4 ounces (113 grams of goat cheese, crumbled

Boil the potatoes until tender but still firm. When they are cool enough to handle, cut them in half.

Combine the potatoes with the vinaigrette. Stir. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

Divide the greens among 4 salad plates. Drain off any excess vinaigrette from the potatoes. Drizzle this excess over the greens.

Divide the potatoes among the salad plates, placing them atop the greens.

Top each salad with the goat cheese.

Serve with a chilled white wine and a gentle bread.

Bridge at Huangshan China

Proud Lapland

Noble Tanzania

A Pivotal Stage in Our Evolution

Human beings have reached what may well be a pivotal stage in their evolution. They have been created by the universe, in the universe, as an integral part of the universe. They have passed through a difficult period when their strong day-to-day experience of selfhood and their cultural conditioning have made them feel detached from the reality in which they are permanently embedded. And now they are beginning to see beyond the self again into the truth of their condition.

---David Darling---

China Now

Self-Awareness and Compassion

Buddhism is an evolutionary sport.

---Robert A. F. Thurman---

Neuroses

I haven't gotten rid of a single one of my neuroses. But they don't have the power to define me anymore.

---Ram Dass---

Killing

Gasan instructed his adherents one day, "Those who speak against killing and who desire to spare the lives of all conscious beings are right. It is good to protect even animals and insects. But what about those persons who kill time, what about those who are destroying wealth, and those who destroy political economy? We should not overlook them. Furthermore, what of the one who preaches without enlightenment? He is killing Buddhism."

Blue Man

Real Prosperity

A rich man asked Sengai to write something for the continued prosperity of his family so that it might be treasured from generation to generation.

Sengai obtained a large sheet of paper and wrote: "Father dies, son dies, grandson dies."

The rich man became angry, "I asked you to write something for the happiness of my family! Why do you make such a joke as this?"

"No joke is intended," explained Sengai. "If before you die your son should die, this would grieve you greatly. If your grandson should pass away before your son, both of you would be broken-hearted. If your family, generation after generation, passes away in the order I have named, it will be the natural course of life. I call this real prosperity."

Words

Words cannot describe everything.
The heart's message cannot be delivered in words.
If one receives words literally, he will not
.....attain enlightenment in this life.

---Ekai---

James Garner

The Hsin-Hsin Ming

If you wish to know the truth,
then hold to no opinions for or against anything.

---Seng-Ts'an---

Warm Satin

Compassion, Companionship, Sharing Life

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.

---St. Francis of Assisi---

The Murder of Freedom

It is not marriage equality or liberalism or racial equality or equal pay for woman or vegetarianism or atheism or even Fox News that will destroy our Republic. Honest Abe said it best: "Corporate corruption will destroy our Republic."

The Corporate Kingdom of America

An extremely simplistic statement of a growing dangerous truth:

Socialism is the people owning business, fascism is business owning the government.

The United States is, daily, sliding into fascism. Huge corporations own the Congress and write our laws. Heads of companies guilty of crimes against democracy and freedom are not prosecuted. We in the United States are in true danger of losing our ability to decide our own future.

Ralph Nader once said the only difference between the Republican and Democratic Parties was, which one fell to their knees faster to their corporate masters.

Earth

Best Marines Homecoming Kiss Ever

by David Badash on February 27, 2012

Two Marines, Brandon Morgan and Dalan Wells share a passionate kiss as Morgan comes home after four tours of duty.

Joe.My.God. seems to be the first to publicize this photo, which is going viral right about… now. The photo, first posted to the Gay Marines Facebook page on Saturday, has now appeared on Towleroad and the Huffington Post, among there outlets, no doubt.

Comments on the Gay Marines page number over 3100, with of course some not very nice, but the vast, vast majority are supportive, including over 14,000 “likes.”

Brandon Morgan added this statement:

“To everyone who has responded in a positive way. My partner and I want to say thank you. Dalan, the giant in the photo, can’t believe how many shares and likes we have gotten on this. We didn’t do this to get famous,or something like that we did this cause after 3 deployments and four years knowing each other, we finally told each other how we felt. As for the haters, let em hate…to quote Kat Williams, everyone needs haters, so let them hate. We are the happiest we have ever been and as for the whole PDA and kissing slash hugging in uniform…it was a homecoming, if the Sergeants Major, Captains, Majors, and Colonels around us didn’t care…then why do you care what these random people have to say? In summation thank you for your love and support. I received a lot of friend requests off this. I don’t just accept requests so if your request was because of this post message me and let me know. Goodnight all, and Semper Fi.”

I think what’s perhaps best about this image, apart from how loving it is, is that no one else there seemed to care. We’ve come a long way.

A Moment to Smile

The True Spirit of Religion

The true spirit of religion does not arise from a desire for economic security or a hope of being cured of disease.

Peace

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.

---St. Francis of Assisi---

O Red, O Red, O I Do Love Red Men

Naughty Scotland

A First Step

To become a follower of the Buddha-Dharma one has simply to accept the Teaching that good causes produce good effects and non-good causes produce non-good effects.

The above sentence might be considered a wee bit overly sweet. Instead of non-good I could have written bad. But, I chose what I chose.

Charlotte

The Great Village

Politically and socially, materially and spiritually, the whole world is interrelated. The global population has become a single society on an enormous scale.

Arab Gold

Karma is Not Magic, Judgmental, or Personal

A person is the totality of all he or she has done (deed, word, or thought) in the past.

Live Your Beliefs

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.

---St. Francis of Assisi---

Enemy Where?

No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.

---St. Francis of Assisi---

Zen Wisdom

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.