I always find articles on the “spiritual” practices of the rich and famous fascinating. Does reading this article make you more or less interested in your own practice or does it not make any difference to you at all? Contemplation on which is your answer (might be a combination) is sure to give insight to your relationship both to society and to your practice.
The red maple takes all my front garden and stretches over my neighbor’s; the glorious yellow is down the street. Such wild abundance before the bare months.
Whether or not one believes in an uber-creator, such belief is no excuse to abdicate one’s own need to be conscious of how individuals are part of the whole fabric of being and our duty (dharma) to act in recognition of that interrelationship. Taking responsibility for our own lives and relationship to others and our place in the ecosystem is an essential part of aligning with the ideal of the divine.
It is reasonable and perfectly appropriate to practice to enhance our own peace, joy, and well-being. Equally important is that the practices lead us to live with more mindfulness and compassion.
Doing the practices without ever refining how we are in the world is not, as some claim, enough to serve as a grand contribution to making the world a better place, though if we are happier and healthier we are likely to be more pleasant to be around.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
and she could count the waves…
It is too far from my current world and beyond my temporal limits at the moment, but if you are interested, please contact my friend Robin through the website link below, who writes:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Take care and thanks so much, Robin
This morning, after I stretched and then sat for meditation, I went out in the garden. I watered and weeded. I picked greens and herbs and cherry tomatoes to bring to work as part of my lunch.
I usually work from home on Friday, but had to go in for an intense series of meetings.
I picked these glorious turnips for our office administrative assistant. She is now the only support person in our office, and she is thus unsupported herself. She enjoys when I share edibles from the garden.
My top word for the week is “dank,” which evokes so much in so little space.
I was attending a conference for much of the early part of the week and simultaneously needed to meet a combination of expected and unexpected deadlines.
I had the delight and nourishment, though, of my daily practice and teaching.
Through making art — however we do it — we find the beauty that is there. Even in the circa 1974, tied for the second ugliest building on the National Mall, Frances Perkins Department of Labor Building before 8am on another dank morning.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
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Major insight so far is into my own apparent willingness to see these people as “other”.
It still seems superficial and cloying, almost. It’s tough for me to see anyone’s basic motivation as the least bit profound. If it works, then I have no objections, but I’ve always seen the world of the celebrity as the world of the eternal dilettante.