Financial Advice: Broker versus Bank The Benefits of a Reverse Mortgage Broker
Financial Advice: Broker versus Bank The Benefits of a Reverse Mortgage Broker |
- Financial Advice: Broker versus Bank The Benefits of a Reverse Mortgage Broker
- Early Morning Buddhist Spirituality Inspiration - 6/10/2013
- The Worry That You’re Doing the Wrong Thing Right Now
- Seeing the substance of thought
- Aversion: the far enemy of joyful appreciation
- Aversion: the far enemy of joyful appreciation
- Vipassana meditation retreats: enjoy the silence
| Financial Advice: Broker versus Bank The Benefits of a Reverse Mortgage Broker Posted: 10 Jun 2013 10:00 AM PDT  Yes, the big bank may have a big sign, dozens of loan experts at your service and a national advertising presence. But when it comes to securing the best rate for your reverse mortgage loan, and ease of working through the loan process, you'll actually have many more options by going through a mortgage broker. Plus, your loan is likely to end up being serviced by the same company in the end, anyway. Read more »  Read More @ Source |
| Early Morning Buddhist Spirituality Inspiration - 6/10/2013 Posted: 10 Jun 2013 09:00 AM PDT  "Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill." ~The Buddha      Read More @ Source |
| The Worry That You’re Doing the Wrong Thing Right Now Posted: 10 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT By Leo BabautaIt's first thing in your workday, and you open up your email. There's a host of messages, old and new, asking for your attention. You also open up other inboxes in social media and the like. You quickly go through them and get a picture of what you need to get done right now. But where do you start? You begin one task from an email, but then quickly have the urge to see if there's something else more important you should be doing. And this problem repeats itself — every time you sit down with one thing, the dozens of others on your mind (and the many potential urgent items that might be coming in as you sit there) are grasping for your attention. Is there ever any certainty that you're doing the right thing right now? Does the worry that you're doing the wrong thing ever go away? This is something I've grappled with myself for years — I sit down to write (this post, for example), and the nagging feeling from the back of my mind pesters me, asks me to check email or my financial accounts or the calendar or various social media. Quieting this feeling isn't always easy. But still I get the important things done (usually). This comes from a small set of steps I take that help keep the forces of worry at bay. I'll lay out those steps in a moment — for now, let's talk about where this worry comes from. The Source of the WorryWhy does this worry come about in the first place? Why can't we just be confident that this is the exact thing we need to be doing right now? That would be nice. When we were kids, most of us had someone to tell us what to do. A parent or a teacher, who would give us a chore or assignment, and we knew this was what we should be doing. Of course, it wasn't always what we wanted to be doing, so there was that. But there wasn't doubt about what we should be doing, because it was laid out by an authority. Then came adulthood, where things became not-so-clear. We became the boss of ourselves — even if theoretically we have a boss, in reality we have the ability to choose between a bunch of tasks and projects and communication tools, not to mention having to do personal stuff like laundry and cooking the healthy meals that we're all obviously cooking for ourselves and picking up the kids. We are making choices all day long, with no one to tell us that these choices are correct. We see other people pounding out the productivity, and imagine them to be rock solid in their choices, always sure they are doing the right task. I'm here to tell you that this is an illusion. No one is sure, no one is free from the worry. The worry comes because we want to be doing the perfect thing, and we also want not to mess up. This would be nice: no messing up a project, or our jobs, or that pesky little thing called life. So we have the desire: not-to-mess-up or do-the-perfect-thing, and we have the fear (worry) that it won't happen. This dynamic is present in every moment, in everything we do, unsaid and unnoticed most of the time, present only as background noise but also by nagging worry and urges to run to something else. We can beat it by shining the light of our awareness on it, and digging in our heels against it, and being OK with it being there in the first place. Steps to Deal with the WorryOK, Leo, you say to your computer as you read this (I imagine you staring at the screen of a Macintosh Performa 5200) … just tell me what to do to defeat the forces of worry! Right on:
And if you do these steps, you'll get your task done, and then breathe. And smile. Because you came a long way, and you might have a long way to go, but you're here. You've arrived. And it's a lovely place to be. Read More @ Source |
| Seeing the substance of thought Posted: 09 Jun 2013 11:00 PM PDT Composing thoughts about the nature or substance of our thoughts only serves to hide the very nature or substance of thought. To achieve direct contact with the very nature or substance of thoughts, or if you like, mental concepts, requires a different methodology, a methodology the West doesn't possess. Backing up a little, Buddhism wants us to see this substance—not through various thought-forms, but directly. Outside of this, all else amounts to a subtle diversion, a way of putting off what we need to accomplish. In this consideration, the world we live in conceals this spiritual nature or substance as do our thoughts including their various forms. Were we to acquaint ourselves fully and directly with this substance, mysteriously, everything would appear to be a configuration of this substance, even our dreams and yes, our thoughts. Obviously, modern Buddhists are not here. They're a long way off from even valuing such a methodology that can approach the the substance of our thoughts. As far as the current and popular methodology it is mainly concerned with seated meditation or just sitting. There are physiological benefits to this as well as a placebo effect but not much else. There is no penetration through the tenuous veil of our thoughts which are ever-changing. Impenetrably, they stand hiding the substance from which they are fashioned. What meditation is supposed to do can be illustrated by a firebrand being used in the dark to make a circle. If we spin the firebrand fast enough the circle illusion appears. If we stop, we only see the lighted end of the firebrand. No more illusion, in other words. Likewise, when a thoughts stop spinning, so to speak, we see the pure substance. This is samadhi. This, incidentally, takes us into the territory of the Lankavatara Sutra which is saying that our world is only the configuration of Mind or the Alaya. This is another blog. The two greatest problems with such a methodology is how do we stop being entranced by the spinning firebrand (our thought-forms), and how do we see this pristine substance? Unfortunately, a teacher cannot help us at this point. We have to become self-reliant. We have always been the gatekeepers of our ignorance and awakening. This is the time when some monks go into extended retreat—maybe for the rest of their lives. |
| Aversion: the far enemy of joyful appreciation Posted: 09 Jun 2013 10:01 PM PDT
The Path of Liberation, which may be Buddhism's most ancient meditation manual, says that the manifestation of joyful appreciation is "destruction of dislike." A later commentarial text, the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) says something similar with regard to joyful appreciation, namely "Aversion … is its far enemy." The "far enemy" is a term meaning "the quality that is the direct opposite of the quality being considered." Aversion is an enemy in that it destroys joyful appreciation. Aversion and dislike are the same thing, called arati in Pāli. Arati is a Pāli word with a gramatically negative construction: it combines the negative prefix a- (not, or un-) with the word "rati" which means love, attachment, pleasure, liking for, fondness, or even delight. (The Pāli expression "ratiṃ karoti" means "to make love"!) So we're talking about the lack of all those qualities. The far enemy of joyful appreciation isn't as strong an emotion as ill will or hatred, which is the far enemy of lovingkindness. Arati is milder. It's more like discontent, or even just a lack of engagement. It's an inability to take pleasure in something wholesome, a lack of interest in it, or a turning away from it. This becomes clear in a comment that the Path of Purification makes about arati:
What the Path of Purification is getting at here is that we can't have joyful appreciation if we can't enjoy simple things ("remote abodes") and if we don't value and appreciate the good ("things connected with the higher profitableness"). I'm sure you can think of days when you've been driven crazy by someone else's good mood. They're happy, and smiling, and bopping around with a spring in their step, and you're inwardly grumbling; "What's he so happy about!" Sometimes we're resentful of others' good fortune. I remember to my shame being with some friends when I was in my twenties, when they won the main prize in a raffle — a flight to Paris for the weekend, with accommodation in a hotel. Susie, who was one of the people who won the prize, came dancing up to me with her eyes sparkling and a huge smile on her face. "I won a weekend in Paris!" she said, almost exploding with joy. I was so jealous and resentful I couldn't even smile back. And there's the old saying, "No good deed goes unpunished." It seems there's always someone willing to criticize when you volunteer to do something that benefits others. But arati can be more subtle than this. It can be any kind of resistance or aversion to beneficial things. When you can't be bothered meditating, even though you know it's good for you and makes your life better, that's arati. When we're in a state of arati beneficial things are perceived as dull, or as an annoyance, or as a source of painful boredom. The Path of Purification talks of an inability to enjoy "remote abodes"; our modern-day equivalent might be a day retreat at our local Dharma center, which seems like a great idea when you reserve your place in advance, but as the day approaches your heart sinks. Going on retreat now seems like a dull chore. And yet, if you overcome your resistance and go to the event, you find that a day hanging out with cool, interesting, emotionally positive people is a delight. You find that practicing and talking about the Dharma is engaging and inspiring. One thing you can do to overcome aversion is simply experience the resistance with mindfulness, letting go of and choosing not to believe all the stories you generate about why you're tired, and it's going to be boring, and you really need to catch up on your laundry, and you just do the good thing you know is best for you; feel the aversion and do it anyway! Or you can reconnect with gratitude and appreciation in order to counteract your disengagment. You can consciously call to mind the positive. I've talked of various ways we can do this. We can name the positive qualities of other people and wish that those qualities, and the happiness that comes from them, grow and develop. We can count our blessings, saying an inward "Thank you" for all the things we normally take for granted, ignore, or even grumble about. We can bear in mind people with positive qualities and allow ourselves to be inspired by their example. Even just wishing ourselves well, reminding ourselves that we want to be happy and want to avoid suffering can help. This is all work that we need to do to overcome the mind's negativity bias. But it's noble work. And it's necessary if we're to live joyfully. Read More @ Source |
| Aversion: the far enemy of joyful appreciation Posted: 09 Jun 2013 10:00 PM PDT
The Path of Liberation, which may be Buddhism's most ancient meditation manual, says that the manifestation of joyful appreciation is "destruction of dislike." A later commentarial text, the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga) says something similar with regard to joyful appreciation, namely "Aversion … is its far enemy." The "far enemy" is a term meaning "the quality that is the direct opposite of the quality being considered." Aversion is an enemy in that it destroys joyful appreciation. Aversion and dislike are the same thing, called arati in Pāli. Arati is a Pāli word with a gramatically negative construction: it combines the negative prefix a- (not, or un-) with the word "rati" which means love, attachment, pleasure, liking for, fondness, or even delight. (The Pāli expression "ratiṃ karoti" means "to make love"!) So we're talking about the lack of all those qualities. The far enemy of joyful appreciation isn't as strong an emotion as ill will or hatred, which is the far enemy of lovingkindness. Arati is milder. It's more like discontent, or even just a lack of engagement. It's an inability to take pleasure in something wholesome, a lack of interest in it, or a turning away from it. This becomes clear in a comment that the Path of Purification makes about arati:
What the Path of Purification is getting at here is that we can't have joyful appreciation if we can't enjoy simple things ("remote abodes") and if we don't value and appreciate the good ("things connected with the higher profitableness"). I'm sure you can think of days when you've been driven crazy by someone else's good mood. They're happy, and smiling, and bopping around with a spring in their step, and you're inwardly grumbling; "What's he so happy about!" Sometimes we're resentful of others' good fortune. I remember to my shame being with some friends when I was in my twenties, when they won the main prize in a raffle — a flight to Paris for the weekend, with accommodation in a hotel. Susie, who was one of the people who won the prize, came dancing up to me with her eyes sparkling and a huge smile on her face. "I won a weekend in Paris!" she said, almost exploding with joy. I was so jealous and resentful I couldn't even smile back. And there's the old saying, "No good deed goes unpunished." It seems there's always someone willing to criticize when you volunteer to do something that benefits others. But arati can be more subtle than this. It can be any kind of resistance or aversion to beneficial things. When you can't be bothered meditating, even though you know it's good for you and makes your life better, that's arati. When we're in a state of arati beneficial things are perceived as dull, or as an annoyance, or as a source of painful boredom. The Path of Purification talks of an inability to enjoy "remote abodes"; our modern-day equivalent might be a day retreat at our local Dharma center, which seems like a great idea when you reserve your place in advance, but as the day approaches your heart sinks. Going on retreat now seems like a dull chore. And yet, if you overcome your resistance and go to the event, you find that a day hanging out with cool, interesting, emotionally positive people is a delight. You find that practicing and talking about the Dharma is engaging and inspiring. One thing you can do to overcome aversion is simply experience the resistance with mindfulness, letting go of and choosing not to believe all the stories you generate about why you're tired, and it's going to be boring, and you really need to catch up on your laundry, and you just do the good thing you know is best for you; feel the aversion and do it anyway! Or you can reconnect with gratitude and appreciation in order to counteract your disengagment. You can consciously call to mind the positive. I've talked of various ways we can do this. We can name the positive qualities of other people and wish that those qualities, and the happiness that comes from them, grow and develop. We can count our blessings, saying an inward "Thank you" for all the things we normally take for granted, ignore, or even grumble about. We can bear in mind people with positive qualities and allow ourselves to be inspired by their example. Even just wishing ourselves well, reminding ourselves that we want to be happy and want to avoid suffering can help. This is all work that we need to do to overcome the mind's negativity bias. But it's noble work. And it's necessary if we're to live joyfully. Read More @ Source |
| Vipassana meditation retreats: enjoy the silence Posted: 09 Jun 2013 07:00 PM PDT
These centres are scattered around India and all over the world. I have been making this trip for more than 10 years, varying my location each time. Wherever you go the retreat has an identical structure… Read the original article » Read More @ Source |
I've been referring to from time to time to a first century meditation manual called the Path of Liberation (the Vimuttimagga) as we explore lovingkindness (metta), compassion (karuna), and joyful appreciation (mudita) — the first three of the so-called "immeasurables" or "divine abodes" (the fourth being equanimity, which we haven't reached yet). 
Lavanya Sankaran, The Guardian: There's this thing I do, every now and then. I will step away from the comforts of my life: my spouse and child, my home and dog. I pack a small bag with two pairs of old linen trousers, three T-shirts, a thin cotton wrap and flip-flops. Then I make the trek to a Vipassana meditation centre and begin a monastic life for 10 days.| You are subscribed to email updates from BuddhaRocks ☸ To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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