Delight in existence ...you become guide

"Overcome your uncertainties and free yourself from dwelling on sorrow. When you delight in existence, you will become a guide to those in need, revealing the path to many." B

Give up the bad; embrace the good

"Find out for yourself what is truth, what is real. Discover that there are virtuous things and there are non-virtuous things. Once you have discovered for yourself give up the bad and embrace the good."

B

INDIAN LEGEND

Cherokee Indian legend Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of Passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man! Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching over us, Sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him. Moral of the story: Just because you can't see God, Doesn't mean He is not there. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." If you liked this story, pass it on. If not, you took off your blindfold before dawn.

If problem is fixable, no need to worry, if not fixable, then no need to worry

"If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever."

 

~His Holiness The Dalai Lama XIV 

In meditative mindfulness ... Washington Post

In meditative mindfulness, Rep. Tim Ryan sees a cure for many American ills

By Neely Tucker, Published: April 4

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/in-meditative-mindfulness-rep-tim-ryan-sees-a-cure-for-many-american-ills/2012/04/04/gIQA1mk8vS_print.html

Rep. Tim Ryan (D) is a five-term incumbent from the heartland. His Ohio district includes Youngstown and Warren and part of Akron and smaller places. He's 38, Catholic, single. He was a star quarterback in high school. He lives a few houses down from his childhood home in Niles. He's won three of his five elections with about 75 percent of the vote.

So when he starts talking about his life-changing moment after the 2008 race, you're not expecting him to lean forward at the lunch table and tell you, with great sincerity, that this little story of American politics is about (a) a raisin and (b) nothing else.

"You hold this one raisin right up to your mouth, but you don't put it in, and after a moment your mouth starts to water," he says, describing an exercise during a five-day retreat into the meditative technique of mindfulness, developed from centuries of Buddhist practice. "The teaching point is that your body responds to things outside of it, that there's a mind-body connection. It links to how we take on situations and how this results in a great deal of stress."

For Ryan, the raisin was the beginning of a transformation. The retreat, conducted by Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, led Ryan on a search into how the practice of mindfulness — sitting in silence, losing oneself in the present moment — could be a tonic for what ails the body politic.

In "A Mindful Nation," published last week, Ryan details his travels across the country, to schools and companies and research facilities, documenting how mindfulness is relieving stress, improving performance and showing potential to reduce health-care costs. It is a prescription, he says, that can help the nation better deal with the constant barrage of information that the Internet age delivers.

"I think when you realize that U.S. Marines are using this that it's already in the mainstream of our culture," he says. "It's a real technique that has real usefulness that has been scientifically documented. . . . Why wouldn't we have this as part of our health-care program to prevent high levels of stress that cause heart disease and ulcers and Type 2 diabetes and everything else?"

In the book, Ryan meets with the parents of a young soldier who committed suicide. He talks with Richard Davidson, director of the Lab for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who has studied the effects of mindfulness on brain development. And he meets with Goldie Hawn, who established a foundation that teaches meditative practices to schoolchildren.

Ryan meditates in a half-lotus position for about 40 minutes each day, he says, sitting on his couch at home or on a cushion. He is optimistic about things. People are "fundamentally good," he writes in the book. "Our basic nature is not unadulterated self-indulgence and consumption. Our spirit is not violent. Our soul does not desire that we get rich by any means necessary."

Among other committee assignments, he serves with Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) as a co-chairman of the House Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus. Sullivan says Ryan's work on meditation has aided the caucus's mission.

"Tim brings a lot to our work on mental health, with addiction and recovery, with his focus on mindfulness," Sullivan says. "It adds to the cutting-edge brain research that's now developing on how to treat addiction."

At the moment, Ryan is stumping for book sales and the message, not for votes. In Washington, he'll speak Wednesday at the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda.

Back home, he's got a gig scheduled for early summer at the Congregation Ohev Tzedek in a suburb of Youngstown. Rabbi Josh Jacobs-Velde says the four-hour event will feature Ryan and others teaching, talking and practicing mindfulness. (A potluck dinner follows, of course.)

"Youngstown, Ohio, is not the center of mindfulness training in the country," Jacobs-Velde says, laughing. "But we're hoping to raise some awareness of the benefits of just stopping and allowing your mind to settle. It's really transformative. . . . That a congressman from Youngstown is doing this is wonderful."

 

The spirit that raised Jesus lives in you

When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit of God makes His home inside of you. That's the same Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That resurrection power can bring health, strength and life to your physical body, and it can bring life to your hopes and dreams. In fact, it can bring life to any area that may seem dormant on the inside of you. God has resurrection power for you today! Receive it and walk in His victory this Easter.

Forever Oneness

 

 

 

Forever Oneness,
who sings to us in silence,
who teaches us through each other.
Guide my steps with strength and wisdom.
May I see the lessons as I walk,
honor the Purpose of all things.
Help me touch with respect,
always speak from behind my eyes.
Let me observe, not judge.
May I cause no harm,
and leave music and beauty after my visit.
When I return to forever
may the circle be closed
and the spiral be broader.

 

-- Bee Lake (an aboriginal woman)

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Your enemies are your best teachers

"If you can cultivate the right attitude, your enemies are your best spiritual teachers because their presence provides you with the opportunity to enhance and develop tolerance, patience and understanding."

~His Holiness The Dalai Lama XIV