I read the book, Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh about 6 years ago. It was right after 9/11/2001. I remember how much I savored every word. This film sums up some of that sentiment. Continue reading “Peace is every step”
You shall not oppress your neighbor..
Oppressing the poor in order to enrich oneself, and giving to the rich, will lead only to loss.– Proverbs 22:16-16
I live in a very small town where there is a high percentage of poor folks, yet fuel prices are higher here than in surrounding villages where there are somewhat higher incomes. It seems to me that there is a concerted effort to fleece the poor. I sometimes wonder why I never see an investigative journalist taking note of this disparity.
Tonight
It’s a beautiful moonlit night. A few twinkling stars. Venus has risen in the western sky and its 72F at 10 pm. It doesn’t get much better in Western New York than that. I’m enjoying it. Continue reading “Tonight”
Not doing
My day began with Mass at Mt. Irenaeus. While there I met a young man whom I had previously met via the blogosphere. Another positive impact of blogging and reading bloggers in my life. Continue reading “Not doing”
If you live to be a hundred..
I gave this to my wife once upon a time and she keeps it in her room at work where she can see it everyday. It expresses very much the way I feel about her. God really smiled on me the day she walked into my life.
“If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.”–A.A. Milne
Recently she took a stand for truth and whenever you take a stand for truth you expose yourself to forces that can be unpleasant. In the end the truth won out and it was her willingness to stand in the gap on behalf of a less fortunate person that saved the day. The real measure of a person is what they do for people who can in no way repay them. By that standard my wife is in a league of her own.
Mountain moving faith
A couple of weeks ago I asked for prayers for a situation where a young co-worker was facing the loss of health insurance at a critical time in her life. That situation has been remedied and I’m sure that the prayers of the readers of this blog figured into that solution. Pax vobiscum.
When you reap your harvest..
Much is made these days of returning to our Judeo-Christian roots by ambitious politicians hoping to cash in on some religious sentiment or trying to drive a wedge between us. Here’s a quote that came in the mail from Sojourners today. How would you like to see public policy that actually represented these kinds of sentiments? What if businesses actually operated this way.
When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be left for the alien, the orphan, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all your undertakings.
– Deuteronomy 24:19
Living in the present moment
Reading the New York Times article detailing the use of mindfulness techniques in approaches to elementary school children has gotten me thinking more deeply about the profound effects of meditation and mindfulness. I think it was Mahatma Gandhi who once said that if we could get 1 percent of the world meditating we could eliminate war. Character education is routinely taught in schools. It’s a good thing too, but mindfulness is more about living than thinking. Character education is thinking good thoughts and thinking can never outdo doing. You can act your way into good thinking but very rarely if ever can you think your way into good acting. Therefore mindfulness education is one very simple way to nurture thoughtfulness from which will flow the other virtues that most character education programs would seek.
Yesterday’s post on Separating truth from half truth contained this line:
..how does one stop to separate the truth from the half- truth, the event form the pseudo-event, reality from the manufactured image?–Thomas Merton
Daily we are surrounded with images and words that call us to mindlessness. These come in the form of both events and pseudo events and how do we really know that we aren’t being manipulated for some purpose. What is reality and what is manufactured? We are surrounded by invitations to mindlessness, Both terrorism and the war on terror invite us to mindlessness. Terrorism and the war on it are two sides of the same sword. The answer lies in not hitting back but in sitting mindfully in the present moment and encouraging others to do the same. What has happened, what can happen and what will happen are not reality. What is happening at this instant is reality and that is where our focus ought to be.
Mindfulness in an elementary school
Several years ago I attended a Zen meditation session at Alfred University. The teacher, Dr. Benjamin Howard, continues to keep me on his mailing list and I receive Buddhist quotes periodically in my inbox. Today instead of the usual quote I received instead a link to an article that appeared in a recent issue of the New York Times. Continue reading “Mindfulness in an elementary school”
Separating truth from half-truth
In the mail today from the Merton Institute. Timely writing here.
“Though there are certainly more ways than one of preserving the freedom of the sons of God, the way to which I was called and which I have chosen is that of the monastic life. Continue reading “Separating truth from half-truth”