Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Consumption --- --- Find, accept embrace, encompass. Let it pass through... Until only I remain.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. By Melvin McLeod), Taking Care of Your Anger The analogy of the air conditioner slowly changing a room's air works for me. I really see what Thich Nhat Hanh is getting at here. And sorely needed was the admonition to be patient with long-standing, deep-seated angers, those with whom acceptance is glacial. Ive been trying in my reflections and meditations each day lately to lean away from the battle oriented mindset I call usual, to the change through acceptance mindset present by Thich Nhat Hanh. I like it because, much like my principle of putting things positively if possible, it recast the whole process into one of cooperation and working together. If I can learn to do this with myself, it will make it easier to do the same with others.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Weathering Strong Emotions  Premeditatio malorum. Buddhists do it, too. If I practice for trouble, I prepare myself, gathering and examining a plan of action. When the time comes, maybe I still panic. But, if I am going to weather the storm, knowing a good path to take, a next step already decided, will make it much easier.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Weathering Strong Emotions We tend to identify with our emotions. I am sad. I am angry. I am frustrated. Not 'I feel ' this way or that, even though we can obviously express it. In the moment, it's easy to forget that this passion does not actually consume me. I am not the avatar of anger. I am still the whole me, with dreams and regrets, plans and memories, work and play, and a deep and abiding need not to drive into an 18-wheeler because I am temporarily thwarted. Reminding myself of this gives me another opportunity to improve my skills at navigating life. And another way to help my family improve theirs.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Weathering Strong Emotions I try to exemplify Stoic teachings for my kids, though I'm not nearly as successful as I wish I were. Beyond showing, when I try to  talk  with them about Stoicism, they sometimes offer the same pushback many others do when initially evaluating Stoic methods: they fear that not giving in to their emotions means never having any joy or happiness. Why (how) can a Stoic love someone without emotions? Is it really love if, when they hurt me, I don't wail and weep and rend my sackcloth?  How can I be happy without emotions? Happy is an emotion, right? Gotcha! How can life without emotions have value? Only transcendent joy can motivate me! It seems that people are afraid that life would become an endless, boring grey slog, empty of everything other than some weird, never-ending  meh . While not painful  per se , it turns out to be worthless because giving up...

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Blocks and Knots Accept the feeling. Let it enter. Get to know it. Get to know its roots. Things I don't understand can scare me, so if I grok the issue and do nothing else , I've already negated some its power over me. I've already assuaged some of the pain or guilt or anger or  anxiety or  embarrassment or envy or attachment. Let me know them that I may bring them in where they no longer oppose me.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Roots An examined life. Awareness, gifted from mindfulness, can stop a cycle or a chain of events. I can find and scrutinize my habits. I can delve into them and see their seeds for what they are: a thoughtless life. Thoughtfulness needs be my guiding light. Awareness, my principle. Mindfulness, my Tao. With these, following Nature and doing the next right thing will move closer to reality.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Second Arrow Who, by worrying, can add an hour to their life? (Is that quote right? It's certainly close.) My mom always quoted her grandmother, "Don't borrow trouble." While sometimes about not getting involved in other people's matters, it often means the same as that other Bible quote, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." There's stuff going on right here, right now, that I could be present at if I stop worrying about X and Y and Z. There's a chance for me to be mindful — and thus a part of my own life rather than another night on autopilot — if I but take it.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed by Melvin McLeod), Appropriate Attention Indeed. I can be mindful now. I can be present now. I can change the situation. I can change my judgement of it, and change my world.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed by Melvin McLeod), The Wounded Child Inside Mindfulness recognizes the wounded child inside. Accepts them. Embraces them. Holding them until we find the roots of pain . . . and find relief. Mindfulness brings with it concentration, the ability to focus on one thing. This brings with it the opportunity for insight, a deeper understanding of the issue. I have done mindfulness well at times. I'm still waiting for the concentration. It will come. And the insight. It will come.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Right Path Happiness is only possible when I stop running.  Happiness is only possible when I cherish the moment. Happiness is only possible when I cherish who I am. I don't need to be someone else. I am already a wonder of life.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Right Path Happiness means I am on the right path every moment. Happiness means I am on the right path every moment. Happiness means....  What a good way to look at it. I'm happiest when I do right. When I am kind and helpful and generous and loyal or comforting and patient and empathetic and kind. When I do good I feel good.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Smile of the Bodhisattva ----- I wish I'd known this when my dad died. Not that I could have achieved it, but at least I would have had something to aim for while I stayed by his side, trying to help him. I know he was afraid. The best man Ive ever known and he was afraid.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Businessless Person The ancient scriptures are outlines, guideposts. They are not a roadmap, not a diagram of steps to proceed from enlightenment to enlightenment. Biddha lived in the moment, in the real here and now, not in the thoughts of others.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Businessless Person It's about living, not study. Study is to help , not to supplant. It can guide and point, but nothing happens because of it. It only happens when I am living in the now.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Businessless Person Being in the moment robs future worries of their anxiety. But shouldn't we work toward goals? Not be emotionally invested in their success, to be sure, but toward some set of ideas not yet achieved, certainly. So how do I reconcile being an enlightened person with being a good husband, father, son, brother, or friend who doesn't flake out on stuff?

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Three Doors of Liberation I don't know if suffering is necessary for enlightenment, but it certainly is a given in our world. Given that suffering  is present in the world, and that life cannot be lived without it short of becoming a bodhisattva or a Buddha, it's certainly at least coincident with enlightenment.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Three Doors of Liberation I have inside me the fullness of Buddhahood, if I can be still enough, present enough. If I truly believed. If I truly practiced what I study.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Three Doors of Liberation See more, understand more. See all, understand all. Don't assume I know someone because I know some surface information about them. Look deeper and see more connections, more influences, more galaxies of interests and meanings. Know more. Interbe more.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Z4n Master Any act no matter how simple, can be sacred, can teach me and enlighten me. If I am present.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), No Fear It is, at most a transformation. A new  way of being perhaps.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Hide and Seek Stoic(-adjacent), if different in origin.  Why not grieve lost loved ones? I've lost a son and a father. One thing the Stoics teach me is that my loved one is only loaned to me for a short time. None of us are eternal. All subject to accident. I knew this going in. And this helps me remember that I need to love as best as I can now . Thich Nhat Hanh reminds me that what is important about my loved ones is their ultimate form, their other, nonhistorical being, that truly matters and which may come again if I am perceptive enough to see it. I'm still not sure about the soul aspects of the dynamic here. Lemme think on it.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Two Dimensions I have the Buddha nature in me? If I just see it? That sounds either profoundly true or delightfully optimistic.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Two Dimensions Thich Nhat Hanh goes on to explain these statements. I don't understand. At least, not in any meaningful way. He describes the historical aspects of a wave: beginning, end, frequency, amplitude, etc. He then describes the ultimate aspect of the wave: it is water. There's more to it, but that's it in its simplest for. And I sorta get it for the wave. But trying to expand that vision beyond the given example leaves me empty-handed. I just can't seem (so far) to find another thing that I can see this way.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Pure Land The link between compassion and suffering . . . . That we cannot know a part of experience except in contrast to its antithesis. That we must experience for ourselves to empathize with others. That we naturally shift to the benevolent after experiencing the vicious. That we must suffer before we find peace.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Pure Land Pure Land. A state of being: mindful, present, here, now. A name for that state of being. Hells, I am doing well if I manage to string together 30-seconds of mindfulness. Guess I have quite a goal to strive for, then.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Beyond Birth and Death I need to think about this one.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Nothing to Attain I chase things all the time, despite trying to limit my desires. Though right I'd settle for XYZ. Another case of 'if I just had that,  I'd be at ease.'  This, of course, deals a blow to my self-image of a man who doesn't want too much snd is generally happy with what life brings him (or, at least, makes the best of it I can). But I have everything I need right now. Already inside me. I just need to find it.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Deep Seeing Another Stoic-tangent thought, this time on  tranquility via premeditatio malorum .  Though the esteemed teacher comes about it differently. Tranquility through living so perfect a life that nothing is left to regret if someone is taken from me.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Deep Seeing Amor fati . Or, in this case, be so in tune with life that what happens is right and as it should be. And as we learn of and love our fate, we turn to helping others.