Etsy

An online marketplace for selling and buying all things handmade!

It's like shopping at the artists market, but from your own home. I discovered the website just in time for Christmas and along with my trip to Blue Banana Market in Toronto, have managed to get almost everyone on my list home made gifts.


Every morning, when we wake up, we have twenty-four brand-new hours to live. What a precious gift! We have the capacity to live in a way that these twenty-four hours will bring peace, joy, and happiness to ourselves and others.

Peace is present right here and now, in ourselves and in everything we do and see. The Question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We don't have to travel far away to enjoy the blue sky. We don't have to leave our city or even our neighborhood to enjoy the eyes of a beautiful child. Even the air we breathe can be a source of joy.

We can smile, breathe, walk, and eat our meals in a way that allows us to be in touch with the abundance of happiness that is available. We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive at the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.

Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment. ... Thich Nhat Hanh


My Photo
Name:
Location: Toronto, Ontario


Monday, June 26, 2006

Six Kinds of Loneliness

Another interesting article I happened upon. Finding the middle way in the midst of being here nor there.
"... years and years of going to the left or right, going to yes or no, going to right or wrong has never really changed anything. Scrambling for security has never brought anything but momentary joy. It's like changing the position of our legs in meditation. Our legs hurt from sitting cross-legged, so we move them. And then we feel, "Phew! What a relief!" But two and a half minutes later, we want to move them again. We keep moving around seeking pleasure, seeking comfort, and the satisfaction that we get is very short-lived."


Comments on "Six Kinds of Loneliness"

 

Blogger CE said ... (2:09 PM) : 

This is the reason I stopped meditating several years ago. It can become a form of escape, and suppression. It can become mechanical and time-consuming. You can easily become addicted to it, just like medication, smoking, drugs, alcohol or any pleasure that temporarily removes the tension, the pain, and the loneliness.
I found out the only effective way to deal with fear, discomfort, dis-ease, psychic pain, anger, or depression is to stare it down and endure it, without trying to change or push it away. Just letting it be.
And there is no such a thing as virtue or spiritual achievement, because most of the time these are nothing but forms of self-absorption. In the end the only thing that matters is reality as it is.
I don't mean we should be selfish and indulge in all kinds of pleasures. This would be like
escaping from reality. If we do this, there would be no end to escaping and suffering.

 

post a comment
Counters