Daily Zen

*Spend time each day in meditation so you can stay in touch with who you are inside.

*Remember that you can control only your own actions and your own words, not anyone else's.

*Recognize, acknowledge, and release each of your assumptions and exceptions.

*Speak and act in accordance with your character. A successful relationship is based on truth.

*Don't say or do things based on what you think someone is thinking. You have no way of knowing what anyone else is thinking.

*Remember that nobody else can fix your life or make you whole. You are already whole.

*Recognize your impulse to cling to or attach to someone else. What are you trying to accomplish? You can't own anyone else. Let go.

*You can make plans, but don't attach to those plans. You never know what life will throw at you, and it doesn't do anybody any good to suffer and rage at foiled exceptions.

*Always listen with an open mind and respond with a generous heart. Wait to speak, and avoid interrupting.

*Be genuine, truthful, kind, compassionate, and respectful of your fellow sentient beings, whether you fancy them or not.

Be Aqua My Friend

A man that I look continually at for inspiration, Bruce Lee. What does it mean to be like water. To be like water means to "flow." Not to be confused with to go with the flow. Water does not go with the flow, a raft goes with the flow, a dead fish goes with the flow, drift wood goes with the flow. Water...Water is the flow. Be like water, be the flow. Running water never grows stale.

"If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves."-Bruce Lee

My Choice of Lifestyle

I have been learning much about the Buddhist religion. I find that everything that I have read so far has seem to have been written just for me to see. The main teachings are the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold path. I will break these down not as they are written but as I have come to view them.

                                                                     4 Noble Truths

1. Life means to suffer. We are all in the process of getting older, we will all get sick, and we will all die. But we also suffer because of attachment and desires.

2. The origin of suffering is caused by our placement of attachment and desires.

3. The cessation of suffering can be attained.

4. The path to this cessation of suffering is the 8 fold path. 

8 Fold Path

1. Right understanding. Recognizing life is impermanent, suffering is linked to desire, and desire is linked to the false notion that we are lacking something. 

2. Right Thought. What I think is what I am or will become. Think kindly and refuse to engage in cruel, mean or nasty thoughts. 

3. Right Speech. Speech should be wise, kind, and minimal. Refuse to lie, gossip, talk meanly, or purposefully irritate people.

4. Right Action. Abstaining from purposefully harming others. Abstaining from stealing, which includes stealing attention away from others. Abstaining from sexual misconduct. (you determine what "misconduct" means) and abstaining from intoxicants to the extent that it impairs judgement (again you decide what "impairment" of judgement means to you).

5. Right Livelihood. Choose a job that enriches your soul. Right livelihood is not telling other people they are doing it wrong, it is looking at ourselves. 

6. Right Effort. Cultivate positive qualities, thoughts, actions and tendencies while eliminating negative thoughts, qualities, and tendencies. Self-dicipline. 

7. Right Mindfulness or Attentiveness. Waking up and living rather than going through the motions as if asleep. 

8. Right Concentration or Meditation. Learn to contemplate with the deep mind. Meditation. Living in the moment. Zen. 

Tao Of Remi

Have you every heard that people tend to look like there dogs?  We should also consider acting as they do.  A Dogs life in unfairly short, yet they seem content. Is it because they do not know of death, or is it because they are focused on living?

Here are a few lessons I have picked up from this pup. Her name is Remi, and this is what she has taught me.

Find something you love to do, and do it over and over.

Just as Remi can play fetch all day, find something you love and start doing it. Set fire to your passion, it will trigger a sense of euphoria, and you will get better the more you practice.  

Breathe deeply

Remi breathes deeply mainly to regulate body temperature. Breathing may not make us feel any cooler, but it will lower our stress level by regulating our emotional temperature.  Breathe in, pause, breathe out. 

Shake it off

Showers are not Remi's friend, but as soon as she gets out she shakes that shit off and moves on. Wether your "shower" is emotional, physical, or simply something you didn't want to do, when it's done, shake it off. Life is to short to soak in your sorrows. 

When you see someone you love, greet them as if were the last time you will see them.

If you love someone, show them daily.  Make them aware of it, even if it is already obvious. 

When you are happy "wag your tail" 

You don't have to be a good dancer to dance. All you need is a smile in your heart. Dance at least once a day, even if its just a short little jig. 

When someone is having a bad day, sit close, be silent, and nuzzle them gently. 

Sometimes its the doing, not the saying that people need. 

Protect the purity, of your heart's heart.

Cut down your craving

Continue your days modestly

Drive out and chase

Away your evil

Return home

Follow, your true nature

Live for the moment, if only for a moment

Pain is inevitable, yet how you handle those painful moments is what causes suffering, not the moment in and of itself. The only control one has, is of their own behavior.

Your life is a gift to yourself. Accept it graciously.  Everyday dance at least once, everyday laugh at least once.

Untitled

Whether what I want comes to be,
Whether what comes to be isn't wanted
How can we ever lose interest in life?
With a waterfall of opportunites right before my eyes...