Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Darkness Becomes Light Another repeated passage.... Understanding, not opposition. Integration, not destruction. It's hard to switch, though. Growing up in a competitive world, it seems so natural to approach these states as an enemy to be overcome rather than a prodigal son to bring back into the fold. Time to unlearn this.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Habit Energy  I'm always somewhere else, unless and until I deliberately focus on the here, now. I never seem to just naturally slip into being present: it's always on purpose. But at least it's happening more often. At least I've seen a little into what it means to be present. Maybe I'm on the right path?

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Ruling the Five Skandhas I posted this passage back in May, too (250520). As I'm working my way through these selections again, I've been trying to focus on parts different from those  I considered the first time.  This gem, however, just so fully captures me and sings so loudly within me that I feel joy and must think about it again. The idea of Buddha being human, fully human, sharing a reality and a nature with me . . . boggles me, amazes me, shocks me. Buddha, like Christ or Krishna, has always been above and beyond mere humanity in my mind. Yeah, the idea  that he was a human who found enlightenment was there, but it wasn't real . In my mind, attainment permanently changed him such that it subsumed his prior origin and he became permanently (and retroactively) divine. But this changes everything: Buddha bring like me; me being like Buddha. Now there's a chance. Now there...

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Ruling the Five Skandhas Here. Now. Keeps the future at bay and the past muzzled. Lets me focus. Lets me examine and question and understand and rest. And work and become and be.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Walk Like a Buddha  Mindfulness can come naturally if I let it. My body moving through the world moves naturally. Let it. Be it. Just it. Nothing more. Just be. 

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Mindfulness of Breath I try hard to demonstrate the characteristics I hope my children will have as they go through life. Kindness. Calm. Focused on what's up to me. Loyal and friendly. Concerned about others outside our circle. Peaceful. Happy when it makes sense, but also easily made so.  I don't know how well I do —.I fear any evaluation I make would be either too pessimistic or too subject to confirmation bias to be trustworthy — but I try. 

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Loving Presence  Being here now is more important than I think. It can affect more than just me and I want to give my loved ones all the love I can give them. (Why would I not?)  So there's another reason to practice Mindfulness: to make my family and friends happy, too.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting Here. Now. Here now.  One and the same because they are inseparable. ' Be here now ' is a tautology because to really be is to be fully present. And vice versa .

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting Every moment? How nice that would be.... Just getting a moment or two of true presence in a day is enough to make me feel good for a while. Imagine the peace of constant Here and Now. So what's holding me back? Why can't I focus and participate so much more fully in life?

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Resting  Natural meditation is simple, practicable, effortless. It is a state achieved if my mind is calm and present, ready for whatever comes, anticipating nothing, accepting all. And I need more practice because I find this hard. Sometimes, it clicks and I flow and it's all good. Others times, many times, it is thwarted by my past and my future impinging upon my present.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Concentration Here. Now. How much more life is when I am present. Why do I ever let myself slip away from this? Why don't I cling to this as if to save my life?

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), Your True Home  I've spent far too much time recently letting my future sully my present. Back to the beginning. Back to Here. Now .

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (ed. by Melvin McLeod), A Life of Miracles  I started the Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh four months ago — 250418 — and found it the simplest, most easily understood exposition of meditation I've seen. And then it got hard. Working through this fantastic little book, I learned about Presence and Mindfulness in a way that spoke to me in a deeper way. I learned about commitment to my community and dedication to the principles of Buddhism. And it's the last part that was hard. Thich Nhat Hanh challenged me to be better. To give up my vices and dedicate myself to the right path. To make more effort to help others and heal divisions. To really live the life of peace and beneficence, valuing other's lives above my own. I don't know if I'm ready for that. It's scary. It's more than I am willing to give. How can I find the courage to do this next right thing?

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Five Mindfulness Trainings, Nourishment and Healing The Four Kibds of Nutriments. I need to exolore this that I might look deeply into it.

Today's Meditation(s): The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh  (ed. by Melvin McLeod), The Five Mindfulness Trainings, 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?