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Re: Bringing light into the world
I like that.
My fundamental purpose these days is to "be a light unto others".
To do that, I must "be a light unto myself" first.
A work in progress.
“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. It is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love." Gandalf (Hobbit movie).
marcitko
Re: Bringing light into the world
Bringing light into the world
The light I try to shine onto the world stage....
Don't take life too seriously, for things are never quite what they seem
life's just a mind-made simulation - a make believe adlib dream
This is not to say that one should take the suffering of others as not real
for in this somewhat lucid dream, actual pain we really feel
Take things as they come, but never for granted should one take
the suffering of other sentient beings, for their suffering is not fake
I guess what I'm trying to say is I may know my life's a dream
but I take the suffering of others seriously, for theirs like mine can be extreme
Sadness is just the joy of what might have been...
Shoshin1
Bringing light into the world
I know I wasn’t going to spend too much time on spiritual topics, but I found myself watching a number of wonderful near-death experience reports, and I thought to myself, these are almost spiritual in nature. They talk about the hereafter, the nature of what we are, our purpose here on Earth, it’s almost like a complete life philosophy. And you can see the people who have had these experiences have been genuinely transformed by it, their reactions give it away, it’s like they know something and have had their lives changed by it.
This man says, our purpose in life is to know joy. So to help ourselves and others we should teach them about joy. This is not always easy, life’s ups and downs teach us first about pleasure and pain, and only later do we find out about joy. When you’re young, life is about chasing happiness, and when you’re older, life is about appreciating joy.
For me, joy is to be found in the real world, not a virtual one. It is about nature, it is about family, it is about meditation. It is about caring for people, about good food, about sharing. In a way, all the things that isolate us make it more difficult for us to find our joy, and modern life with its houses and its cars is great at isolating.
So if we all pay a little more attention to giving others joy, we can succeed in bringing a little more light into the world.
Jeroen
Re: All Things Apple (was MacBook Air, but things evolve...)
There are certain aspects of Apple’s business which I like and admire.
- The commitment to product quality, good design, privacy and the environment
- The philosophy of making things “just work”, and requiring user input only when necessary
- The ecosystem of cloud-connected services, which are simple and easy to use
- The iPhone and the Mac for me are the pinnacle of Apple’s achievement
And then there are things which I am not so fond of.
- Their attitude of charging premium prices for products
- The sometimes egregious charging for upgrades
- The obsoleting of old products through a lack of software updates
I’ve never been very fond of the wearables like the AirPods, the Apple Watch and so on, and I’m slowly getting a feeling that I will add the Vision lineup to that list. I just think it is a shame to spend your time in a virtual world all the time with screens and a computer plastered to your face.
Jeroen
Re: No Buddhist Quotes
"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion"
~Steven Weinberg~
Shoshin1
Re: Buddhist quotes
“The proliferating mind tries to avoid this truth, saying, “that’s good” or “this is beautiful,” but if there is Buddho in the mind it can no longer deceive us, because we know the mind as it is. The mind can no longer create deluded mental states, because there is the clear awareness that all mental states are unstable, imperfect, and a source of suffering to one who clings to them.”
— Ajahn Chah
Jeroen
Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
The Lions roar link with the different view points, was an interesting read....thanks @lobster
All the view points revolve around politics and societal issues, more often than not from Buddhist perspectives . highlighting the interconnectedness of individuals and societies, emphasising the need for a Dharmatic (just made that word up) and dramatic approaches to political and social challenges., and the limitations of conventional politics, (which for the most part is prone to corruption) which is in urgent need of major overhaul/revamp, and the importance of individual and collective action in creating positive change.
In other words 
Shoshin1
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. "WORTH WHILE"
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX.
April 12th, 1910.
WORTH WHILE
It is easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
Is the smile that shines through tears.
It is easy enough to be prudent
When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
Is luring your soul away;
But it's only a negative virtue
Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honour on earth
Is the one that resists desire.
By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
Who had no strength for the strife,
The world's highway is cumbered to-day -
They make up the sum of life;
But the virtue that conquers passion,
And the sorrow that hides in a smile -
It is these that are worth the homage on earth,
For we find them but once in a while.
Shoshin1
Re: The Other Elephant In The Room
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeland_for_the_Jewish_people
meanwhile ... what have Buddhists been up to?
In Tibet the improvements in health care, transport, education and opportunities for the former serfs of Lamas are largely ignored by (Guess who?)
In Sri Lanka the Buddhist supported government has tried to 'reeducate', kill, undermine its considerable Hindu population.
You know about these and maybe other politicised Buddhist actions?
... or maybe we should just "blah blah blah", as Greta Thunberg might say ...
Where else are the elephants taking up room?
https://www.lionsroar.com/eight-views-on-the-practice-of-politics/
lobster