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Found Exhortation (Less Clearly Seen Than Would Be Most Optimal)
I cannot tell from looking at the image on my Blackberry whether the words “faith” and “hope” that appear on this statue can be discerned in the photo, but they are there when standing and seeing the statue in person.
This morning, when I was reading through the news, I came across a curious headline that averred that the killing of Osama Bin Laden had brought us a “rare moment of unity.” This saddened me, as did the reportage of spontaneous celebrations.
I am calling on my reserves of practice so that my sense of faith and hope for humanity, for peace, and for social priorities is not as faint as the way the words appear in the photograph.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
Spam of the Week
“I am final, I am sorry, but it does not approach me. I will search further.”
9-11 (and personal choice)
Secretary Hilda Solis sent workers at the Department of Labor an email invitation yesterday to do some volunteer activity today to honor those who lost their lives in the tragedy of 9-11. She did not remind us of terror or enmity or need for war.
It resonated with what my teacher John Friend, who often discusses the need to serve as part of our practice, counsels in times of distress. He admits that it is not, as the t-shirt would have it, “all good.” We can choose, though, how to respond to violence, to suffering, to meanness, to evil. We can, he urges, seek to respond from “the highest.” We personally have the choice to try to bring light when we encounter darkness.
I do not always succeed, particularly with the small things, but I continue to try, and I deeply appreciate all the teachings and reminders I get.
- Art and Culture | Community and Family | Food for the Body | Food for the Mind (Yoga Philosophy, etc) | Meditation | Photos
Outside the Verizon Center
I walked over to the Verizon Center to see how the kalachakra was spreading into the space around it. Towards the end of my foray, the traffic light at a corner outside the Verizon Center changed in my direction, and I headed into the crosswalk. A cyclist going north in the southbound lane started cursing and screaming at me for blocking his way. The loudspeakers were blaring their usual commercial fare, the neon were glaringly lit even by day, the big video screens showing ads and offerings of upcoming sports events, and the tourists were jostling down the sidewalk, carrying their plastic containers full of stuff from McDonalds and Starbucks. On the other side of the Portrait Gallery was a special “market place” with silk shawls, t-shirts, silver and turquoise jewelry, thangkas, prayer wheels, and Himalayan food served in styrofoam containers with plastic forks.
I am as certain as it is possible to be that the space inside the Verizon Center is being transformed by the practice of the kalachakra for world peace empowerment inside. We cannot make others receive such an offering if they are closed and uninterested. We can, though, seek to open our own receptivity and our own hearts. As I observed my reaction to the plastics and the noise and having been cursed out when I had the “right of way,” I thought that the axiom “peace starts from within” is counsel that though we may not be able to change others, we can and are responsible for ourselves.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.




