Tuesday, November 22, 2005
blessed be
People Are Often Unreasonable
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it's all between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
~ Mother Teresa
People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it's all between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
~ Mother Teresa
Wisdom + Commentary.
Eight Verses for Training the Mind
With the heartfelt desire and determination to attain enlightenment
For the welfare of all living beings, who are more precious than a
Wish-fulfilling jewel for accomplishing the supreme goal,
May I always cherish them and hold them dear.
Whenever I am with others
May I think of myself as the lowest of all
And from the very depths of my heart
May I respectfully hold others as supreme.
In all actions, may I closely examine my state of mind,
And the mment a disturbing emotion or negative attiude arises,
Since this may cause harm to myself and others,
May I firmly face and avert it.
Whenever I meet people of unpleasant character,
Or those overwhelmed by negativity, pain or suffering,
May I cherish and care for them as if I had found
A rare and precious treasure difficult to find.
Whenever others, because of their jealousy, treat me badly
With abuse, insult, slander, or in other unjust ways,
May I accept this defeat myself
And offer the victory to others.
When someone whom I have benefited
Or in whom I have placed great trust and hope,
Harms me or treats me in hurtful ways without reason,
May I see that person as my precious teacher.
In brief, may I offer both directly and indirectly all help,
Happiness and benefit to all beings, my mothers,
And may I secretly take upon myself
All of their harmful actions, pain and suffering.
May I keep all of these practices undefiled by stains of the eight worldly
Concerns (gain-loss, pleasure-pain, praise-blame, fame-dishonor),
And by recognizing the emptiness and illusory nature of all existing things,
May I be liberated frm the bondage of attachment and mistaken views of reality.
-Geshe Langri Tangpa (1054-1123)
________________________________________________________________________
Yes. some of these (particularly two, five and seven) were really hard to swallow. my ego violently screamed "wahhhh!!!! i don't want to have to humble myself down for no one! i don't want to accept no body else's defeat in order to give them victory!! what about me?!!"
yes. yes. i am working myself out of my attachment to seperation from other folks. on different layers i know that we're all one, that we're all reflected manifestations of the same divinity and at the same time i want my damn individuality!! yes. this is my ego clawing at its own sense of importance and existance. i will transcend. but when i see myself as different and seperate from others, my little/big ego plumps up on ideas of its own granduer.
and so i learn that the trickery of my ego is just that. i am no more important than anyone else. thinking of myself as the lowest of them all is still a difficult rock to swallow. i am not gung ho about it but i know that i'm just digging in my heels in attempt to maintain my own sense of identity. the self that i created as seperate from the self that i really am.
oh me. oh my!
it's coming. it is. i am learning to surrender.
always love,
me
With the heartfelt desire and determination to attain enlightenment
For the welfare of all living beings, who are more precious than a
Wish-fulfilling jewel for accomplishing the supreme goal,
May I always cherish them and hold them dear.
Whenever I am with others
May I think of myself as the lowest of all
And from the very depths of my heart
May I respectfully hold others as supreme.
In all actions, may I closely examine my state of mind,
And the mment a disturbing emotion or negative attiude arises,
Since this may cause harm to myself and others,
May I firmly face and avert it.
Whenever I meet people of unpleasant character,
Or those overwhelmed by negativity, pain or suffering,
May I cherish and care for them as if I had found
A rare and precious treasure difficult to find.
Whenever others, because of their jealousy, treat me badly
With abuse, insult, slander, or in other unjust ways,
May I accept this defeat myself
And offer the victory to others.
When someone whom I have benefited
Or in whom I have placed great trust and hope,
Harms me or treats me in hurtful ways without reason,
May I see that person as my precious teacher.
In brief, may I offer both directly and indirectly all help,
Happiness and benefit to all beings, my mothers,
And may I secretly take upon myself
All of their harmful actions, pain and suffering.
May I keep all of these practices undefiled by stains of the eight worldly
Concerns (gain-loss, pleasure-pain, praise-blame, fame-dishonor),
And by recognizing the emptiness and illusory nature of all existing things,
May I be liberated frm the bondage of attachment and mistaken views of reality.
-Geshe Langri Tangpa (1054-1123)
________________________________________________________________________
Yes. some of these (particularly two, five and seven) were really hard to swallow. my ego violently screamed "wahhhh!!!! i don't want to have to humble myself down for no one! i don't want to accept no body else's defeat in order to give them victory!! what about me?!!"
yes. yes. i am working myself out of my attachment to seperation from other folks. on different layers i know that we're all one, that we're all reflected manifestations of the same divinity and at the same time i want my damn individuality!! yes. this is my ego clawing at its own sense of importance and existance. i will transcend. but when i see myself as different and seperate from others, my little/big ego plumps up on ideas of its own granduer.
and so i learn that the trickery of my ego is just that. i am no more important than anyone else. thinking of myself as the lowest of them all is still a difficult rock to swallow. i am not gung ho about it but i know that i'm just digging in my heels in attempt to maintain my own sense of identity. the self that i created as seperate from the self that i really am.
oh me. oh my!
it's coming. it is. i am learning to surrender.
always love,
me
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Swing
She came to and her
Whole life was how she remembered it
She had a mouth full of fur
And she was laughing
She parked her hearse across
Three spaces posted for motorcycles only
And jumped out shouting
What the cus could make a nice girl like us
Feel so lonely?
Are you weary as water
In a faucet left dripping
With an incessant sadness
Like a sad record skipping
And an ugly and ornery
And shadowy dread
Lurking like a troll under the bridge
Between your heart and your head
Please dumb blind kind sir
Lend little miss listless a bit of Christmas
She's been a real good girl
But now she's stuck here
The world is so little and still
Mysterious and ominious as ever before
Like an unmarked bottle full of pills
On the shelf right next to the ting
You were reaching for
Swing the groove 'round here
Where I can reach it
When I get my ass back on track
I'm gonna need it
Swing shift til I get the money
To buy me and my baby a moon full of honey
Then I'm gonna turn the nagging voices
Inside my head
That follow me to bed and say
You suck.. blah blah blah
--Ani DiFranco
Whole life was how she remembered it
She had a mouth full of fur
And she was laughing
She parked her hearse across
Three spaces posted for motorcycles only
And jumped out shouting
What the cus could make a nice girl like us
Feel so lonely?
Are you weary as water
In a faucet left dripping
With an incessant sadness
Like a sad record skipping
And an ugly and ornery
And shadowy dread
Lurking like a troll under the bridge
Between your heart and your head
Please dumb blind kind sir
Lend little miss listless a bit of Christmas
She's been a real good girl
But now she's stuck here
The world is so little and still
Mysterious and ominious as ever before
Like an unmarked bottle full of pills
On the shelf right next to the ting
You were reaching for
Swing the groove 'round here
Where I can reach it
When I get my ass back on track
I'm gonna need it
Swing shift til I get the money
To buy me and my baby a moon full of honey
Then I'm gonna turn the nagging voices
Inside my head
That follow me to bed and say
You suck.. blah blah blah
--Ani DiFranco
