With palms together,
Good Morning All,
May all beings be free from suffering.
I repeat this short prayer every time I put my palms together in gassho. It is attached to each email post. Like the Tibetan prayer wheel, it is launched by my breath and my touch into the universe.
I recognize that this being, "I", am a suffering being, with all suffering beings. In truth we are one being completely. So to free one being, frees all beings, just as my behavior defines a set of possibilities for all other human beings, and their behavior, mine. There were great and fundamental truth in the basic statements of the existentialists.
Just so, it is not enough to say, we must do. In the doing we are being, never becoming.We are what we do.
So, this morning "do" love, "do" peace, "do" complete oneness.
These things then become realities for us all.
Be well.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Take a Bite!
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
If we keep a piece of fruit too long without enjoying it, it becomes unenjoyable. Nothing can be saved for very long: the universal processes, revealing the truth of impermanence, cannot be stopped. Yet we try. My, do we try.
Trying to stop change is like refusing the Universal. Here comes the flood, let's stop it! Right!
If we are "lucky" or willing to work hard, we might slow it down, yet in the process, it is interesting to note, we lose touch with that which we are now because our attention is directed toward keeping change from happening.
Enjoy this moment, as it is. If you are exercising, you are enjoying your exercise, not working to forestall a weakened future! If you are eating healthy, enjoy eating healthy, not the thought that you are pushing away cancer or some other dread inevitability.
Take a bite of life and savor it!
Be well.
Good Morning All,
If we keep a piece of fruit too long without enjoying it, it becomes unenjoyable. Nothing can be saved for very long: the universal processes, revealing the truth of impermanence, cannot be stopped. Yet we try. My, do we try.
Trying to stop change is like refusing the Universal. Here comes the flood, let's stop it! Right!
If we are "lucky" or willing to work hard, we might slow it down, yet in the process, it is interesting to note, we lose touch with that which we are now because our attention is directed toward keeping change from happening.
Enjoy this moment, as it is. If you are exercising, you are enjoying your exercise, not working to forestall a weakened future! If you are eating healthy, enjoy eating healthy, not the thought that you are pushing away cancer or some other dread inevitability.
Take a bite of life and savor it!
Be well.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Being
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
Being in suffering, I walk recklessly. Being in suffering, my attention is on my pain. Being in suffering, I need to escape my pain. Being in suffering I cannot feel for others.
Being at peace, I walk lightly upon the earth. Being at peace, I am mindful of my actions and my speech. Being at peace, love has an opportunity to exist.
Through practice, develop the wisdom and insight to know these are both seeds within each of us and that they are of the same source. Our path is to begin with one and conclude with the other.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
Being in suffering, I walk recklessly. Being in suffering, my attention is on my pain. Being in suffering, I need to escape my pain. Being in suffering I cannot feel for others.
Being at peace, I walk lightly upon the earth. Being at peace, I am mindful of my actions and my speech. Being at peace, love has an opportunity to exist.
Through practice, develop the wisdom and insight to know these are both seeds within each of us and that they are of the same source. Our path is to begin with one and conclude with the other.
Be well.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
A Candle Against Hate
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
May all beings be free from suffering. A simple prayer, yet so challenging. When people hate us enough to kill us, and do so with glee, it is quite natural to want to kill them first. Natural, but not kind. Natural, but not correct. Natural, but not good enough.
I read a prayer this morning from a religious list that essentially petitioned God to punish our enemies. I was struck by this. It was an opening statement on a ethics text commentary.
When we ask God to take sides, we are our discerning self to take sides. The process of taking sides divides humanity into lumps: those we like, and those we don't like. Simple enough on its surface, but in the end it is very dangerous, as it is very easy to be tempted to see those we don't like as somehow different from us, less than us, or just plain evil.
People who hate are people who suffer. When we pray for an end to suffering we must pray for an end to hate, especially within ourselves. Hate has a place to germinate when we close ourselves off. Hate loves the darkness of ignorance. It thrives in the shadows.
Today, light a candle specifically for illuminating the dark places of your heart. Place your attention on the light of that small flame. Witness its steady warmth. One small flame, one large light.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
May all beings be free from suffering. A simple prayer, yet so challenging. When people hate us enough to kill us, and do so with glee, it is quite natural to want to kill them first. Natural, but not kind. Natural, but not correct. Natural, but not good enough.
I read a prayer this morning from a religious list that essentially petitioned God to punish our enemies. I was struck by this. It was an opening statement on a ethics text commentary.
When we ask God to take sides, we are our discerning self to take sides. The process of taking sides divides humanity into lumps: those we like, and those we don't like. Simple enough on its surface, but in the end it is very dangerous, as it is very easy to be tempted to see those we don't like as somehow different from us, less than us, or just plain evil.
People who hate are people who suffer. When we pray for an end to suffering we must pray for an end to hate, especially within ourselves. Hate has a place to germinate when we close ourselves off. Hate loves the darkness of ignorance. It thrives in the shadows.
Today, light a candle specifically for illuminating the dark places of your heart. Place your attention on the light of that small flame. Witness its steady warmth. One small flame, one large light.
Be well.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Not Always So
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
When we pray for peace, what are we doing? What does it mean, to "pray" for peace? Prayer is typically thought of as an appeal to God or to a government, or some other such authority.
But this is not always so.
An appeal suggests a disconnect between two or more parties. If we are one, then what would prayer be?
I see prayer as less an appeal to Other than as a modeling of the thing itself. To pray for peace thus becomes modeling peace. To pray for non-violence becomes modeling non-violence. To pray for the health of others means modeling healthy living. And so on.
When we pray this way, we are expressing the true nature of things.
Be well.
Good Morning All,
When we pray for peace, what are we doing? What does it mean, to "pray" for peace? Prayer is typically thought of as an appeal to God or to a government, or some other such authority.
But this is not always so.
An appeal suggests a disconnect between two or more parties. If we are one, then what would prayer be?
I see prayer as less an appeal to Other than as a modeling of the thing itself. To pray for peace thus becomes modeling peace. To pray for non-violence becomes modeling non-violence. To pray for the health of others means modeling healthy living. And so on.
When we pray this way, we are expressing the true nature of things.
Be well.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Matters of Consequence
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
The rain came down hard last night. I watched it from my living room as it soaked the ground. It is a real blessing to witness rain fall. Water is so precious. So much of life's preciousness goes unnoticed when we are not present to witness it. We are often not present for such things because our attention is distracted by 'matters of consequence.' And yet, like The Little Prince, we should stay aware that it is the simplest things that are of the deepest consequence.
A rain, a shining sun, the feel of our feet on the ground: these are matters of consequence. The water we drink, the food we eat, the clothes we wear: these are matters of consequence. The love in our life, the hate in our life, and our practice with them: these are matters of consequence.
So we practice to pay attention. We practice to witness true matters of consequence, allowing our witness to nurture the good and burn away the evil.
This is not difficult. Do it now.
Be well.
Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
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Saturday, July 15, 2006
The Middle East
With palms together,
Good Morning All,
May all beings be at peace and be free from suffering. War is not a helpful activity. No joy should be felt in the killing of beings, regardless of the cause.
The Middle East is a place that challenges us all. Deep divisions of culture, time, and faith coexist in increasing conflict and tension. Victims of violence cry and feel angry. Everyone wants to hurt everyone, yet every one wants everyone else to stop. No one trusts anyone. A place where humanity should shine, a so-called jewel of western religion, birthplace of monotheism and three major religions, and what is there today?
Hell.
Still, it is too easy for us here in the USA to point fingers at one side or the other, and especially at peoples and cultures we do not understand. Aren't we naive to suggest that everyone should just stop all this fighting and learn to get along?
It is not so simple to practice serene reflection in the middle of bombs and rockets, or while people are blowing themselves up calling for the utter destruction of another country. Reason seems pale. Compassion is seriously challenged.
Violence and the threat of violence never curtails violence, just as the death penalty never curtails murder. This is so because violence at its root is not rational and, in its presence, incites additional irrationality in the form of fear. We must work hard to train ourselves to resist fear, to resist catastrophic thinking, and embrace our enemies as best we can by trying to understand them.
How do we accomplish this? We practice zazen. We look deeply within ourselves and embrace our true nature, a nature which we all share, a universal nature. We must each respect each other, agree each other has a right to exist and a place to do so. We must support each others differences as well as our similarities. It never does any good to only seek the similarities, while pretending the differences don't exist. Those differences then become splinter's in our fingers.
Our world is precious, as is each being that inhabits it. Practice this.
Be well.
Harvey So Daiho Hilbert, Ph.D. May All Beings Be Free From Suffering
On the web at:
Want to be your own boss? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.
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