Lessons in Balance

Learning to be Grateful

"I have learnt silence from the talkative,

 

 
toleration from the intolerant,

and kindness from the unkind;

yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers." - Kahlil Gibran

 

Related posts: Reverb 10 - Appreciate, I'd like to get even with this man.

Photos: Layman Blog, Birth Sense, and CoolFwdClip

At the Threshhold - Celebrating Ordinary Joy

 

This is the scene that I pass every time I walk out my front door and it is the first thing I see when I walk back in. The constant posture of the Buddha figurine always whispers "Goodbye, I'll be here when you get back," and "Hello, I'm so glad you're home." From now on, I'm going to celebrate this simple, ordinary joy by recognizing it as my Home altar.

Do you have a special, power spot in your home? If so, how do you keep it's energy alive?

 

Each day, awakening, are we asked to paint the sky blue? Need we coax the sun to rise or flowers to bloom? Need we teach birds to sing, or children to laugh, or lovers to kiss? No, though we think the world imperfect, it surrounds us each day with its perfections. We are asked only to appreciate them, and to show appreciation by living in peaceful harmony amidst them. The Creator does not ask that we create a perfect world; He asks that we celebrate it.  ~Robert Brault

 

Related post:Reverb 10 - Ordinary Joy

Closing the Complaint Department

On December 11, in response to a Reverb 10 prompt, I listed "complaints" as one of eleven things I did not want to take with me into 2011. On December 25, I received the following message by e-mail:

Most people do not realize that as they continue to find things to complain about, they disallow their own physical well-being. Many do not realize that before they were complaining about an aching body or a chronic disease, they were complaining about many other things first. It does not matter if the object of your complaint is about someone you are angry with, behavior in others that you believe is wrong, or something wrong with your own physical body. Complaining is complaining, and it disallows improvement.-Abraham

 Hah. What would I speak of in place of my complaints? Solutions? Let me rest my case, I'm in need of serious reflection here.

 

Related post: Reverb 10 - Eleven Things

Related sites:

• Real Mind Control: The 21-Day No-Complaint Experiement.

• A Complaint Free World.

 

Image: Advice Now

True Wisdom Requires Bravery

Barry Schwartz studies the links between psychology and economics and in this TED Talk, he explains the difference between following the rules and choosing wisely. Of following the rules and simply doing as you're told, the Buddha says this:

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.  Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.  Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.  But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

 

I think I get it. True wisdom requires bravery. You have to hand carry your decision and in the end, point to yourself as the responsible party. When you follow the rules, you throw up your hands in non-culpability and shuffle the decision along with your foot. At the end, good or bad, it wasn't your idea, you were just following the rules.

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.-James Boswell

 

Related post: Reverb 10 - Wisdom

For beautiful eyes...

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.  -Audrey Hepburn

Photo: "Abi Gul, 7, Rumbur Valley, Pakistan", by Phil Borges via The Bowers Museum

Related post: Reverb 10 - Beautifully Different