Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Five Mindfulness Trainings, True Love, Loving Speech and Deep Listening Again, this echoes Stoic thought. Anger, often from mistaken thoughts and  unknown details, causes us pain. I deliberately work on choosing my words to lessen potential misunderstanding and emotional short circuiting. And I look for ways to change the circumstances, especially by redirecting us both toward the problem rather than at each other. It's nice to find one I've already done some work on.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Five Mindfulness Trainings, True Love I will remain faithful to my wife. I will protect kids. I will protect vulnerable adults. May my judgment be keen that I might do my duties well.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Five Mindfulness Trainings, True Happiness We are one: in our need to relieve suffering and find happiness; in our desire to be understood and accepted; in our mistaken belief that the ten thousand things should be attended and pursued. I need to do more to help. More time, more money, more effort. I have so much compared to many of my friends and to the community in general. And while the desire for wealth, fame, and power are blessedly absent from my soul, I do wish for a bit more money and for pleasurable experiences. But I can accept those that come, without pursuit and without rancor should they remain absent.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Five Mindfulness Trainings I do not support killing. I do support self defense. I do not support the death penalty. I do support restorative justice.  I believe most of the world's problems would be lessened if we would all be kind first .

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Peace Wotk  This is the most basic kind of peace work. Bringing the smallest bit of joy into the world. Sharing it with others. Seeing it spread, an ember growing, glowing in the community. You are welcome should always be appropriate, if I act properly.

Today's Meditation(s): "Some people think the future means the end of history." The Undiscovered Country  Change is inevitable, but not usually the end of things. Rather, it's a realignment, a reorganization because what we have now no longer serves Our Purposes . Whether that Our includes me or we or you or they remains to be seen, but continuity is the rule far more often than disjointedness — Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. —  institutions clad in both similar form and function, even if Under New Management. My role is to accept the world as it is and find Nature among its vaugeries.

Today's Meditation(s): Meditations, VIII.22, Marcus Aurelius (trans. by Hicks and Hicks) “Choose to be good today, rather than to become good tomorrow.” I deserve the bad that happens when I forgo the good I must do.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Peace Wotk I do this: fill my time with the ten thousand things so I don't have to be quiet. But there are also times when I deliberately become quiet and observe what is happening in my thoughts and in my body and in my world. I need to increase how often I focus on the latter.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Art Music nourishes me. It's the art form that most moves my soul. I appreciate visual arts. And I truly enjoy, and can be inspired by, the written word. Dance can also show me beauty in the world. But music is the thing that can turn my soul around, lift it up, make me think 'this is perfect. this is how things should be.'  But, like all perfect moments, they end and part of their beauty is their very transience. Their Impermanence, their existing now only in my memory, makes them precious and important.  Because I was Here. Now. with the music so it's all right.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Children of the Earth  Nature has more to teach me than I've cared to pay attention to. A pity for me. The better I connect to Nature, the more I can learn, the more I can experience, the more I can understand, the more I can love.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Reconciliation Again, not a lot of wiggle room here. Love everyone.  The whole of reality. As a mother her chdren. Who's left out? Who gets half measures? Who is left unprotected? This enlightenment stuff is hard. Must be why it takes so long (if ever). Yes to satori, but I can only hope for sudden insight, not seek it. Then again, perhaps all enlightenment is satori, even if it takes a while to get there.

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Inclusiveness Imagine loving everyone. What a utopian idea! What a foolish dream! Pshaw and psonething. And we forget that's just what is ordered, right?  Love your neighbour as yourself . No wiggle room there. Nothing about how riled up I am by the news and my echo chamber on social media.  Notgibg about how mad I am because a different person cut me off in traffic 5 minutes ago so I get a pass to drive like an asshole to you now. Nothibg about how yeah but well this time it's different .  Nothing about how it ok because the guy doing the stuff on the news is from Our Side™. Nothing about how it not ok because the guy doing the stuff on the news is from The Other Side™. Nothing about how I get an exception. Nothing about how this time  gets an exception. Nothing about how  this issue  gets an exception. Nothing about how  these people  are an exception....

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Labels Really getting the humanity of others is so dammed hard. Yes, I can 'respect everyone's humanity' in surface ways: being polite, avoiding bumping into them on the street, bearing a genial manner in interactions (Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.), etc. This is all easy stuff — important stuff, necessary stuff, stuff we shouldn’t skip — but easy stuff nonetheless. Harder is to have a moment with a stranger where I truly acknowledge our shared roots and current circumstances. Maybe it's the person in the car who cuts me off. Is this a woman hurrying to the school for some emergency? I've done that. Is this an inexperienced teen who doesn't know better? I was once him. How much do I have in common with this person? Where do I find communion? What narrative can I tell myself that bonds us instead of separates us? How can I see us as brothers and sisters and bring us cl...

Today's Meditation: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Peaceful Revolution I learn compassion by being compassionate, understanding, and loving. I center myself within what I can control and look to my neighbor, can I help?

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Thousand Arms of the Bodhisattva Understanding. Wisdom. Prajña. > Love. Kindness. Compassion. Getting what is true leads me to virtue? Yes! Following Nature is easier when I'm dealing with here, now. And so much easier still when I have some insight.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Heroism Our goal is to be a citizen of Earth: cooperating with the other 'parts of the body' politic; subverting the impulse to fight in ourselves and others; and resisting injustice where we find it.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Engaged Buddhism  If I cannot bring peace to myself, I cannot bring it to others. Fix myself. Then help all who hear.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Seeds of Violence Change myself first. That's how I change the world. Start with what's up to me. I was living in the future just now and walked into a spider web. Had I been present, I'd have noticed it. Alas, I was dreamcatching and my feet got ahead of my eyes, temporarily making me the world's foremost kung fu artist. A second sunrise here at the lake. Though yesterday's friend is not here to share it, I decided to listen to another podcast in the  sermon series by Fr. Mike Schmitz  he recommends. This one touched on recasting our reaction to negative events in positive terms. He referenced  Jocko Wilnick and his ' good ' reaction story . Say yes. Say good. Say I will. Say I am. See it as the opportunity it is and react appropriately.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Seeds of Violence As I sat on the dock, watching the sunrise this morning, a friend was sitting beside me, reading his daily devotionals. He asked if I would like to listen to the sermon he had in the queue and I agreed. In the sermon, Father Mike Schmitz talked about The Battle of Prayer . His main points: "Prayer is a gift of grace and a determined response on our part. It always presupposes effort." "Prayer is a battle . . . against myself." "And the battle against the Tempter." "Why do we complain about not being heard?" We say prayers of petition with fervor and prayers of thanks, if we say them at all, with little or no intent behind it. It's a throw-away line that is easily overlooked. "But I demand to see the results of my petition." Is God an instrument or a source of inspiration and good? Sometimes the answer to a prayer is no. Why? ...

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Spiritual Dimension of Politics Be better and make the world better. Improve myself to improve my family to improve my neighbourhood my city my state my nation.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Walking with Your Parents And this is the root of the answer. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Community. Not until I can surpass the easy part — walking with my loved ones, who love me, who are inclined to cooperate and live in harmony — can I make progress to being a better being, be it Buddha or Boddhisatva.  If I want to be better, I must 'love my enemies as myself.'

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh , (ed. By Melvin McLeod), Healing the Past  It depends on the person though, doesn't it? Most people want peace and would take the chance to repair a past error when presented. Some people are bitter or cruel or scared or so set in their ways that you know, you just know , that if you saw them again and tried to patch things up, they would make it worse. Attacking and making it worse. So what do I do when faced with trying to repeal the past with such a person? Accept it. Their emotions and attitudes were never up to me. Certainly not now that they are gone. If I could not change their attitude in life, it won't happen now. If I let go of the judgment that I am hurt, I let go of the hurt. So . . . accept it and let go. Commit to being better. It's still not easy. But at least I know that there is a path to peace. That brings me on.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Healing the Past So sayeth the statesman, the slave, and the Emperor. So sayeth the Sage. I love it when Stoicism and Buddhism parallel like this. It makes me happy. Change my mind, get rid of the judgment, throw out the feeling, and the world shifts just for me. Think of it as exploring a different timeline, one where the feeling was never so overwhelming or seductive. One where I was wise enough to have seen through the lies before assenting to them. I'd have automatically, or preemptively, used my Stoic ideals and exercises to find Nature's path the first time and not had to backtrack and reassess before finally doing the right thing. Prohareisis. Prokoptôn.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Healing the Past And I have to mean it. And I have to take active steps to ensure that I can follow through on my promise. Without those, nothing is healed because I'd be lying to myself.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Inferiority Sounds easy. Isn't. But with gentle sincerity and cooperative guidance, progress can be made. Slow, halting, retrogressing, but progress nonetheless. I try hard to help my children feel a deserved sense of self worth. I help them recognize what they do well, what their good qualities are, and to identify and correct faults and shortcomings in their character. I teach them that a job is not who they are. To place their self-evaluation on the person they are rather than such a malleable, impermanent, and unimportant aspect of life as what they do to afford the life they want. I teach them to value people over experiences over things. If they can have all three, that's great, but if they must choose, that's where value lies. I teach them to value kindness and cooperation. Valuing connection in addition to success. These things, I hope, will help give them a solid foundation t...