Thursday, July 22, 2010

Quotes

“Whatever joy there is in this world all comes from desiring others to be happy, and whatever suffering there is in this world, all comes from desiring myself to be happy.
But what need is there to say much more?
The childish work for their own benefit, The Buddhas work for the benefit of others. Just look at the difference between them!”

- Shantideva

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Quotes

"It is not the appearance that binds you,
it is the attachment to the appearance that binds you."

-Tilopa

Friday, July 9, 2010

Quotes

"According to the wisdom of the Buddha, we can actually use our lives to prepare for death. We do not have to wait for the painful death of someone close to us or the shock of terminal illness to force us into looking at our lives."

-Sogyal Rinpoche,
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Workshop highlights

Death and illness within our own family inspired me to create this new workshop, based on concepts and techniques from one of my favorite books, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. I found the western approach to death- grief and devastation- to be utterly useless and tiring. This workshop is very different, because the entire approach is different. Drawing from Buddhist thought, though appropriate for people from any religious tradition, we'll learn practical ways for becoming comfortable with uncertainty, stress, impermanence and death.
The reality of impermanence means that everything in our lives is unique and special, and the more we understand impermanence and make it a part of our experience, the more meaning we will have in our lives.

None of us can know how much time we have, so now is the time to get OK with that. Becoming OK with it takes more than the knowledge of impermanence, we have to "soak it in" and make it a part of our whole experience, a part of all our perceptions. Then our lives begin to change. We have to loosen our grip on all our attachments.

This is a workshop on how impermanence and death enrich life, and how to work with it in a different way. It takes courage. We can always choose to bury our heads in the sand, ignore or stay distracted from this truth, and get wrecked when impermanence hits us personally. If you are ready to abandon that approach, this recurring workshop is right for you.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Quotes

"Planning for the future is like going fishing in a dry gulch;
Nothing ever works out as you wanted, so give up all your schemes and ambitions.

If you have got to think about something-
Make it the uncertainty of the hour of your death..."

-Gyalse Rinpoche