Category: Thoughts

The bad news is…

The bad news is you’re falling through the air, nothing to hang on to, no parachute. The good news is there’s no ground.

I am constantly inspired by Buddhist masters– Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche to be specific. His words continuously help me through out the day.

Mountains of love to that man, always.

“Life is glorio…

“Life is glorious, but life is also wretched. It is both. Appreciating the gloriousness inspires us, encourages us, cheers us up, gives us a bigger perspective, energizes us. We feel connected. But if that’s all that’s happening, we get arrogant and start to look down on others, and there is a sense of making ourselves a big deal and being really serious about it, wanting it to be like that forever. The gloriousness becomes tinged by craving and addiction. On the other hand, wretchedness–life’s painful aspect–softens us up considerably. Knowing pain is a very important ingredient of being there for another person. When you are feeling a lot of grief, you can look right into somebody’s eyes because you feel you haven’t got anything to lose–you’re just there. The wretchedness humbles us and softens us, but if we were only wretched, we would all just go down the tubes. We’d be so depressed, discouraged, and hopeless that we wouldn’t have enough energy to eat an apple. Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us. They go together.”

This is a tiny excerpt (with great meaning) from Pema Chodron’s book, Start Where You Are.

Last night, one of my very best friends found herself in a bit of a low. I knew I would be able to find an appropriate quote by Pema… and I did. So I decided to share it on my blog as well.

Much love kids.

If you are invo…

If you are involved with the intensity of crescendo situations, with the intensity of tragedy, you might begin to see the humor of these situations as well. As in music, when we hear the crescendo building, suddenly if the music stops, we begin to hear the silence as part of the music.

I am on a HUGE Chogyam Trungpa kick. I know he is seen as quite the controversial figure… I am not here to start any debates as to his legitimacy. His writing blows my mind on a regular basis and that is enough for me. Adoration and love to Trungpa. GET IT.

(This quote is from Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism– its a must read. Get that too.)

Renunciation mi…

Renunciation mind is very simple in a way: we have renunciation mind when we realise that all this is not a big deal. Somebody steps on your toe – what’s the big deal? The more we get used to this notion, the more we have renunciation mind. Renunciation somehow has this connotation of giving something up. But it is like the example of the mirage. You can’t give up the water because there is none; it is only a mirage. Moreover, you don’t have to give up a mirage, because what is the point of giving up a mirage? One need simply know that it is a mirage. Such understanding is a big renunciation. The moment you know that it is a mirage, most likely you will not even go there because you know it is fake. Or even if you do go, there is no disappointment because you already know what is there. At the very least you will only have a little disappointment.

Keeping it real with Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Please, do yourself a favor and look him up if you are not familiar with him. Life changing. Big ups and tons of love.

GETTING MORE NEWS FROM JON STEWART.

Its really very interesting. Everyday, I try to get my dose of news via the internet while I enjoy my coffee and find a way to procrastinate a bit. Lately I have noticed that after about 4-5 article skimmings, I decide to catch up on some Jon Stewart (I LOVE this man… I don’t understand people that don’t). Today, I watched all the clips good ol’ http://www.thedailyshow.com had to offer on Obamacare– honestly, I find the whole Obamacare thing daunting. It gives me a headache which leads to nausea. I watched four clips and suddenly, I realized that I had learned more in those 12 minutes than I have learned throughout all that article reading. Oh… and I laughed. I had a teacher that once said that when it comes to politics, comedians are the only ones that can be trusted. Well, damn it Jon Stewart… thank you for continuously educating me while bringing a smile to my face.

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I feel that it is our responsibility as conscious people to watch the news, to know what is going on in the world and how that is affecting our brothers and sisters– but, at the same time I think its important to listen to some comedy. We might just find a bit of truth in there.

(P.S. Piers Morgan… just keep your mouth shut)

If we could not…

If we could not be bought by praise or defeated by criticism, we would have incredible strength. We would be extraordinarily free, there would be no more unnecessary hopes and fears, sweat and blood and emotional reactions. We would finally be able to practice “I don’t give a damn.” Free from chasing after, and avoiding other people’s acceptance and rejection, we would be able to appreciate what we have in the present moment.

I’m SHOCKED that it has taken me this long to post a quote by Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche. He is 100% REAL TALK. I owe every fiber of my being to this man.

The highest (and lowest and most infinite) mountains of gratitude and love to him.

POTTY AND (insert object here).

I was sitting here on the toilet, thinking about what to post. My mind grew tired so here I am, writing about writing on the toilet. I think it’s funny how often I bring my phone, reading material, etc into the good ol’ bathroom. But ever since I have been at home, I have noticed that my 14-year-old sister does the same. Are we really that incapable of just sitting on the toilet without any further distraction? I suppose bringing my mac into the bathroom is the same as my grandfather bringing the paper– but now it’s 2013… and my macbook (sadly) rules a big portion of my life.

Thoughts? I would like to know that my sister and I are not alone here.

LET’S SEND CONGRESS TO SYRIA!

ImageI was doing my normal morning routine which consists of Trader Joe’s Ginger Snaps, coffee, and news. Honestly, I didn’t feel like reading CNN… and I wasn’t in the mood for the BBC, so I typed in Syria news. The Google Gods came up with a plethora of links… and without actually looking at any of them, I clicked the third one down. It ended up being an article from The Onion. I read the article and thought, “Shit. This is a great idea. I wish we could do something like this.” The Onion’s article goes on about how in recent polls, Americans (along with many other world citizens) opt for sending Congress and House Reps to Syria. Why not? If they are willing to send other people there, why can’t they go check things out for themselves? Excuse my ignorance, but can’t they just do a nice little helicopter tour? Furthermore, why can’t The Onion articles be true?!

On a continuing note… I am very interested in learning Tibetan right now… and that interest has lead me to doing a lot of Bob Thurman reading. If you haven’t read anything by Bob, you really should. That man should be president (REALLY). We, in America, are warmongers. We are raised to be warmongers- it is what is in our media, our video games, our films, our history, our bloodlines, oh and the list goes on. I always end up sounding like an idealist hippie, but for once… can we please try a nonviolence approach?! If history has taught us anything, it is that war does not work. In fact, it simply perpetuates this sick, death-inducing, ego tripping cycle. And for those who are not aware of the nonviolence approach– it has absolutely nothing to do with being a pacifist. The nonviolence approach is about opposition in an educated, morally sound, CIVILIZED manner. This is why we admire Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Aung San Suu Kyi, etc. I’m starting to sound like a broken record saying things that are being said on a daily basis, but one other question/statement: If we (I say “we” because it is “we” so this attack will have an effect on every single American) are moving forward with this Syria business, why not go into all the other countries that are struggling with tyrants? Why not help out Aung San Suu Kyi a bit in Burma? Or why not find a time machine that the CIA is hiding in a basement and fix the problems in Tibet?

Check out The Onion article here:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/poll-majority-of-americans-approve-of-sending-cong,33752/?ref=auto

DAMN IT AI WEIWEI, I LOVE YOU.

http://aiweiwei.com/projects

DAMN IT AI WEIWEI, I REALLY LOVE YOU.

THIS IS EMBARRASSING, but the other day I definitely threw a bit of a tantrum. How this relates to Mr. Weiwei, I will get to in a minute. I woke up the other morning feeling incredibly blah. Around noon I noticed that the “blah” feeling made its inevitable transition into a quasi-freak out bordering on funk, “what the hell am I doing with my life” type moment. This is interesting though because my life isn’t bad (at all). I know this for a fact because I just spent half the year roaming India– you might have guessed that India has a beautiful way of humbling people. She makes you grateful for all that you have and that makes you want to be a better human being somehow (if I ever adopt like I plan to, I will send all my children to India once they graduate high school, at which point they will spend time in a Tibetan monastery and learn a bit about life and what it means to struggle peacefully). RIGHT. So my life is actually not horrible– I have a place to live, I currently have more money than I’m used to having, HELLOOOO… I am sitting here munching on goji berries (I need to RELAX)… the only question is what is this next step during this really kind of selfish, quarter-of-life crisis, in reality completely meaningless phase of my life. Well, that’s the point… I don’t want it to be meaningless. I find myself wanting to do huge pieces with great meaning. I want to spread a huge banner across Times Square that says, “STOP KILLING EACH OTHER. REALLY, WHAT THE FUCK?” I would like to help educate those who cannot find the means to educate themselves. Or maybe just make a huge telephone that rings occasionally… when answered the voice shouts, “This is your wake up call.”

This brings me to the amazingness that is Ai Weiwei. I suppose I could have just posted, “I want to be like Ai Weiwei. I want to work with that man. I believe that I can take a stab at it by going to continuing education courses (I mean Woody Allen seemed to think that was a great idea a la Annie Hall- well in the beginning half anyway) and expanding myself as a human and an artist, right?”

Whenever I visit Ai Weiwei’s site, I feel that someone is making art for art’s sake; for the people’s sake. I find that inspiring. So this is my thank you note to Ai Weiwei for never ceasing to inspire me and always pulling me out of my funk.

(I think that is going to be my one and only rant on this blog. It feels bit icky to put all that out there.)