Thich Nhat Hahn talks with Oprah about the nature of happiness.

"I know that we do not know enough. We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality. When you climb a ladder and arrive on the sixth step and you think that is the highest, then you cannot come to the seventh. So the technique is to abandon the sixth in order for the seventh step to be possible. And this is our practice, to release our views. The practice of nonattachment to views is at the heart of the Buddhist practice of meditation. People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don't suffer anymore."

Follow the link for this interview in which Thay speaks simply about the nature of happinwss and the way to achieve it for yourself and increase it in others and the world.

http://www.oprah.com/spirit/Oprah-Talks-to-Thich-Nhat-Hanh/1

Scala and the Kolacny Brothers

A collection of several songs by this Belgian women's choir. They are also known for the soundtrack of the movie Social Network. In a time of flux and confusion amidst much suffering, these voices bring peace and healing.  Enjoy!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M27IMEjqEgk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOXOUIyupC4&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq5hx5F2Foc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Livx30QEU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRCb9Hqhhq4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxe2lQddrgk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFYYkNacjaw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ft7UvrqnhA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX75fUDeGqw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwbHQCWwwMo&feature=related

Amazing Nature (David Attenborough)

Listen to the most amazing imitating lyre bird of Australia. Links to other fascinating natural phenomenon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y

The music of Yann Tierson

Young pianist Dave Thomas plays Yann Tierson, best known for the Amelie soundtrack.

Follow the link

http://www.youtube.com/user/daveisthemusic#p/u/30/8A4HaR9LJzI

http://www.youtube.com/user/daveisthemusic#p/u/8/TAt7u9JeLlY

http://www.youtube.com/user/daveisthemusic#p/u/26/xKqDeIwluG8

Into Great Silence

Follow the link for a short interview (8 minutes) with the prior-general of La Grande Chartreuse monestary in which he talks of his life at the monestary and life therin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGQpN3bbOQU&feature=related

For a deeper look into life at a Carthusian Monestary follow the link for Elegy To Silence, a 23 minute documentary about life at a Portugese charter house.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMQaUZObyCw&feature=fvwrel

Who Are You?

I found this story on a blog entitled The Avaith, a blog dedicated to the Vedas. It seems to encapsulate a fundamental truth about the nature of conciousness, or the nature of the self.


Once many years ago, I had a "chance" meeting with an Indian saint. He asked, in broken English, "Been India?" Since I had been in India for a number of years, the best, most easily demonstrable answer was to wobble my head in the characteristic side to side manner known to most Indians. The moment he saw that "wobble", he got a big grin on his face, entered the room, and closed the door behind him. He asked me, "Who you?" Having lived in India and being used to this type of English and being young and polite I began to answer him, "I am John Grimes," but just as I reached the G of Grimes, he said "Bas, family name, who you?" (Bas is Hindi for "stop, enough.") Again, since I have lived in India and studied Indian thought, I very confidently and boldly began to reply, "I am the immortal Atman," but just as I reached the A of Atman, again he stopped me with another "Bas, book name, who you?" With the first "stop", he wiped out my physical body. With the second "stop", he wiped out my entire mental universe. What was left? With two small words, he had succeded in conveying to me that I was neither my physical body nor my mental knowledge. How to answer him? So I said, "I donot know." Quick as a wink, he responded, "Find out." I replied, "How?" He responded, "Not how, find out." Again I asked, "How?" He was holding a handkerchief in his hand and he opened his fingers and let the handkerchief drop to the ground and as it fell he said, "Let go." Again I asked, "How [to let go]?" He responded, "Not how, let go." And then he turned and left the room.



Almost twenty years passed before I learned that this monk supposedly did not speak English. How interesting! A person who did not speak English magnificiently managed to teach the Vedantic truth that one is neither one's body not one's thoughts, all in two words, As if that was not enough, he proceeded to teach me how to "find out who I really am" with another two words ("let go"). We all know how to let go, we do it every night when we go to sleep. We never ask out mother, "Mom, how do I go to sleep?" We just "let go" and sleep came. However, we become confused, disturbed, when someone asks us to "let go" of out preconceived notions as to who we are. Like this, we look for a technique in order to meditate or to find an answer to the question, Who am I?
 
 
From chapter "Who am I?" (page 139) from the Ganapati by Prof. Grimes:

The Suicide Tourist

A film about struggling with terminal illness and making the decision about when to end your own life. This is a powerful examination of the ethics of assisted suicide. Follow the link

http://video.pbs.org/video/1430431984/

Deepak Chopra: How to Create a New Self

Talk by Deepak on the nature of conciousness. Filmed by the Commonwealth Club in 2009. Chapters include:
1. What is Conciousness
2. Perception and Conciousness
3.You are not in the body, the body is in you
4. Continuity and discontinuity
5.Five attributes of discontinuity
6. Five breakthroughs for the body
7. Five breakthroughs for the soul

Follow the link:

http://fora.tv/2009/10/22/Deepak_Chopra_How_to_Create_a_New_Self#fullprogram

Abiding in the bodhi heart

The images of sufferig coming from Japan cause a mixture of feelings to arise; fear, compassion, helplessness, and anger being formost in my own experience. Often I feel myself drifting into a state of paralysis regarding the really apocalyptic events that seem to come with increasing regularity. It is tempting to see myself as being powerless to do anything.

It is helpful to remember that though I am unable to bend the laws of physics which implacably govern  the nature of physical reality, I do have the potentially limitless power to govern how I respond to the events that overtake me. 

For me this means using these events to remind me of how I am connected to the images that I see, and how one person's suffering on the other side of the ocean is really my own suffering. This helps me to become more compassionate, and this affects my behavior. 

The bodhi heart, or heart of compassion dwells in every human, but it is not always awake. However, when we nourish this aspect of our nature, through practicing openness to the real connections that link all reality, and especially to all sentient beings, we touch a sort of super being within ourselves, and this is the energy that has the power to change us in a very positive way, as well as to potentially change the world. 

I am reminded of the importance of seeing the world in the context of inter-being; seeing the interconnections and the inter-dependance of all life.  It is not possible to hide out on the web of life forever. Eventually, every little ripple will make it's way to our safe cave and in some way rock our boat.

Rather than prepare for this absolute eventuality with a defensive, protective posture, I feel that nourishing the bodhi heart with the water of suffering can give us the strength to remain open and hopeful.

We will all deal with these events in a myriad of ways. It is not important to calculate the degree to which varying responses will be of benefit. What is important is to respond in a way that connects you to the people who suffer around you; to actively allow your heart to be touched, however unpleasant that might become.

We are all in the same boat, and these events can help us to see that reality more clearly and guide us in how we embrace the future. We can become more loving to those around us. We can become more active in choosing courses that reduce overall suffering. As Yoko Ono said recently, we can reach down into ourselves and find that super power that will allow us to perform miracles of love.

Shambala library of Buddhist teachings

Follow the link for a library of available mp3 files and video files on various topics related to Buddhist practice

http://www.shambhala.org/teachings/

Be Here Now (Ray La Montagne)

BBC Concert series featuring Ray La Montagne. Haunting and beautiful. Follow the link for the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBSnR4ZP2MI&feature=related

Here are the lyrics

"Be Here Now"


Don't let your mind get weary and confused
Your will be still, don't try
Don't let your heart get heavy child
Inside you there's a strength that lies

Don't let your soul get lonely child
It's only time, it will go by
Don't look for love in faces, places
It's in you, that's where you'll find kindness

Be here now, here now
Be here now, here now

Don't lose your faith in me
And I will try not to lose faith in you
Don't put your trust in walls
'Cause walls will only crush you when they fall

Be here now, here now

Be here now, here now

Somewhere Over The Rainbow (official version)

Beautifully sung by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Follow the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I&feature=fvwrel

Little Dragon (Swedish Chillwave)

Check out this way cool Swedish group and their videos. I especially like the one called "Twice". Follow the link:

http://www.little-dragon.se/

Free Hugs

Follow the link below and then if inspired, reach out and touch someone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=hN8CKwdosjE

Last Night as I was Sleeping (Antonio Machado)

Last night, as I was sleeping
I dreamt -marvelous error-
That a spring was breaking
out in my heart.

I said: Along which secret aqueducts,
Oh water, are you coming to me,
Water of a new life
That I have never drunk?


Last night, as I was sleeping
I dreamt -marvelous error-
That I had a beehive
Here inside my heart.

And the golden bees
Were making white combs
And sweet honey
From my old failures.

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt;marvelous error!-
That a fiery sun was giving
Light inside my heart.

It was fiery because I felt
Warmth as from a hearth,
and sun because it gave light
And brought tears to my eyes.

Last night, as I was sleeping,
I dreamt- marvelous error!;
That it was God I had
here inside my heart.

Is soul asleep?
Have those beehives that labor
At night stopped? And the water wheel
Of thought, is it dry
The cups empty, wheeling,
carrying only shadows?

I love Jesus who said to us:
"Heaven and earth will pass away.
When heaven and earth have passed away,
my word will remain".

What was your word, Jesus?
Love? Affection? Forgiveness?
All your words were one word;
Wake up!