16 Excuses that Prevent You from Going After Your Dreams

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• 16 Excuses that Prevent You from Going After Your Dreams
• Tom Tomorrow: no reason to thank the Lord for tornado devastation
• Appearance/Emptiness, by Sukhi Barber
• Tibetans in Switzerland protest visit of Chinese premier
• Living with a heart of tenderness
• For Lexington author’s life Buddhism connects many points

16 Excuses that Prevent You from Going After Your Dreams Posted: 27 May 2013 12:00 PM PDT "I shouldn't write this."  "Nobody's going to read it anyway. So much has been written about this topic already." "What if people hate my stuff? What if they get bored to tears?" "What business do I have teaching them something? Heck, am I even qualified to talk about this?" These are only some of the thoughts that usually race through my head as I am writing a piece for a client. I am trying to write a blog post, and I have written many in the past but I can't seem to start on this time. I am drowning in the sea of self doubt and my mind insists on bringing every single negative thought to the surface. Negative thoughts = Excuses in disguise. And there are plenty of them out there – plenty that will arise whenever you are doing something important, something worthwhile. Apply for a new job. Start your own business. Change careers. Publish content. Reach out to other people. Develop a product. Write a book. These are only some of the areas in which the lizard brain will try to get you out of whatever you want to achieve. And this lizard brain raises its ugly head in many shapes and forms. How many are you dealing with? Read more » Read More @ Source

Tom Tomorrow: no reason to thank the Lord for tornado devastation Posted: 27 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT Like I did in a post, this Tom Tomorrow comic points out the absurdity of prayer and thanking God for death/destruction. (click to enlargencize) Nice bit of CNN ridicule, also. (Wolf Blitzer did indeed ask a survivor if she thanked the Lord; turns out she was an atheist). Read More @ Source

Appearance/Emptiness, by Sukhi Barber Posted: 27 May 2013 08:00 AM PDT Sukhi Barber was born in Hertfordshire, England. From an early age she was drawn to the classical and ancient traditions of art and philosophy, which led her to undertake a traditional sculptural training at The City and Guilds of London Art School. There she gained a firm grasp of figurative clay modeling and life drawing, graduating in 1995 with the prize for sculpture, and a scholarship from Madame Tussauds. After graduation Sukhi traveled to India, captivated by the timeless quality of peace and balance that she found in Asian art. Settling in Kathmandu, Nepal, she spent the next twelve years studying Mindfulness philosophy and producing sculptures based on the traditional techniques of stone carving and lost-wax bronze casting. Sukhi's sculptures are intended to bridge the cultures of East and West. Embodying the peace and compositional balance of ancient devotional art, they represent complex philosophical ideas with a simplicity and clarity that renders them accessible on an intuitive level. Exploring themes of hidden potentials, and the transcendence of our limiting view of a solid reality, her work often represents the negative space as being as important as the material itself, implying the dance of form and spirit, a constant state of transformation. Read More @ Source

Tibetans in Switzerland protest visit of Chinese premier Posted: 27 May 2013 05:00 AM PDT Harold Mandel, The Examiner.com: During his recent visit to Switzerland Chinese Premier Li Keqiang found out the hard way that he can not seem to escape from protests by Tibetans worldwide. The Tibet Sun reported on May 25, 2013, Switzerland's Tibetans protest amid China premier's visit. Tibetan exiles have urged Swiss authorities to raise China's human rights record during a landmark visit by Premier Li Keqiang to discuss a trade deal. Hundreds of Tibetan demonstrators rallied in the Swiss capital of Berne, waving Tibetan flags and chanting slogans such as "free the prisoners", "stop the killing" and "long live the Dalai Lama."… Read the original article » Read More @ Source

Living with a heart of tenderness Posted: 26 May 2013 10:00 PM PDT Yesterday I wrote about how the Buddha, when he was in agony after having been injured, kept the suffering of self-doubt at bay by lying down "with sympathy for all beings." The word for sympathy here is "anukampā," which literally means "to tremble with" or "to vibrate with." Taking the meaning of "to vibrate with" we could even understand anukampā as being "resonating" with others, or having empathy for them. Anukampā is closely related to karunā, or compassion, although karunā is from a root meaning "to act," and so it's a more active and dynamic term, while anukampā is more receptive. When we have anukampā we're receptive to the feelings of others. We're open to resonating with them. We are moved by them.We are touched by them. A synonym of aunukampā is muducittatā, or tender-heartedness. So anukampā, or sympathy, has this very receptive quality to it. It's that in us which is touched by the joys and sorrows of others. If you like my articles, and want to support my work, please click here to purchase my books, guided meditation CDs, and MP3s. And it's this ability to resonate with others that lead to our actively wishing beings well, and to our acting to relieve their sufferings, where it's possible for us to do that. So the Buddha told his first five followers, all of whom he had recently guided to Awakening, to go forth out of anukampā for the world, and when he said that he taught out of compassion, anukampā was the word he used. Many Buddhists, perhaps even most of them, have never heard the word anukampā, and yet it was the entire basis of the Buddha's life and his mission to teach and help beings liberate themselves from suffering. Anukampā is a natural feeling of sympathy. It's a sense of solidarity with others, recognizing that we all suffer. In fact the receptive nature of anukampā leads to us sharing the suffering of others. Paradoxically, this does not increase our suffering, but reduces it. It's a lack of sympathy that leads to us causing suffering to others and thus causes strife and conflict in our lives, and it's a lack of sympathy with others that leads us to think that our own suffering is unique and that we're worse off than others (a most painful state to be in). Anukampā, in modern terms, would result from our "mirror neurons," which allow us to create internal models of the thoughts and feelings of others, so that we can have empathy for them. The Buddha expressed this quite simply as the basis for ethics: 'A person with evil wishes and dominated by evil wishes is displeasing and disagreeable to me. If I were to have evil wishes and be dominated by evil wishes, I would be displeasing to others.' A bhikkhu who knows this should arouse his mind thus: 'I shall not have evil wishes and be dominated by evil wishes.' So I'm going to suggest a very simple practice: for the next few days, be aware of anukampā, "trembling with" or "sympathy for" others. Let go of your utilitarian thoughts and judgements about people — "she's attractive," "he's unpleasant" — and just notice the fact that you feel when you are aware of another person. The feelings may be subtle or they may be obvious. See if you can stay in touch with your tender-heartedness, and allow yourself to notice how the heart resonates with others. Notice what mental attitudes suppress your natural sympathy, and which allow it to be noticed. And notice how your sympathy for others leads to the desire to help them be free from suffering. Read More @ Source

For Lexington author’s life Buddhism connects many points Posted: 26 May 2013 07:00 PM PDT Marc Fillipino, Wicked Local Lexington: When Meikle Paschal began writing down the experiences of his life, he did not know there would be a transcendental common theme connecting the events. After a closer examination, he realized his life had been threaded together through Buddhism. In Paschal's new book, "Black Buddhist," he examines how his transformation from Catholicism to Buddhism shaped his life. On Thursday, May 30, the Lexington resident will discuss hismost recent book at Cary Memorial Library, 1874 Massachusetts Ave. at 7 p.m. Paschal spoke to The Minuteman about his experiences as an author and as a Buddhist. How did you find that you… Read the original article » Read More @ Source

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