Quotes from the talk on Right Intention

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Here are some of the poems and quotes I read last night:

Choose Your Choices Wisely

Life doesn’t come ready-made;
You create it
With every choice you make.
Choose your choices wisely.
Wise ones are your sunshine,
Foolish ones are your shadow.
Don’t make any choices
You can’t live with.
Some choices aren’t easy.
Make the best one you can,
Hope for the best,
Let it go.
Trust whatever happens
Is for the best
Because you did your best.
Sometimes you make the
Wrong choice.
Don’t worry about it;
Often, it leads to the right one.
Happiness isn’t in the past
But in the choices of today.
It’s not in never making a mistake,
But in never letting a mistake
Keep you from happiness.
Choices give you the freedom
To choose whatever makes you happiest.
Make the most of this freedom
To make the most of your life.
Life is a gift
But happiness is a choice.
Choose it today,
Choose it everyday,
And no day
Will be without sunshine…….

– Nancye Sims

“When we pay attention to the intention to bring more happiness into our lives, we are more likely to notice the actions, opportunities, people and things that can bring that about for us.  It’s sort of like recognizing which piece of a jigsaw puzzle will fit in the picture.” — James Baraz and Shoshana Alexander

Promise Yourself

Promise yourself to be so strong
that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity
to every person you meet.
To make all your friends
feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best
and expect only the best.
To be enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to
greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticise others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger,
too strong for fear and too happy
to permit the presence of trouble.

– Christian D. Larson

Dependent Origination: How Identity is Related to Suffering

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At the request of a few people last night, here is a recording of the talk I gave last night on dependent origination:

or download here.

Here are some of the articles I quoted or referenced:

Self as Verb – Andrew Olendzki

Self, Suffering, Clinging and the Five Aggregates – Harold Hedelman

Dependent Origination from Insight Journal – Christina Feldman

And a few quotes:

“The truth is, life is rarely exactly the way we want it to be, and other people often don’t act as we would like them to. Moment to moment, there are aspects of life that we like and others that we don’t. There are always going to be people who disagree with you, people who do things differently, and things that don’t work out. If you fight against the principle of life, you’ll spend most of your life fighting battles.” ~ Richard Carlson

“A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” ~Albert Einstein~

Daylong on Aug. 20th with Eve Decker on Supporting and Deepening Dharma Through Music

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Insight Meditation Modesto will be offering a daylong with Eve Decker on Saturday, August 20, 2011, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at Doctors Medical Center, 1441 Florida Ave., Conference Center, room 1, Modesto, CA (the Conference Center is the building between the parking structure and the emergency department) on:

Supporting and Deepening Dharma Through Music

Music has been a part of most spiritual traditions throughout the centuries, including chanting in the Buddhist tradition. Music can touch the heart, inspire us, supply a renewed sense of energy, and help us awaken deeper motivations. Please join us for a day of meditation and music.

This day of silence and song will include:

· sitting meditation

· walking meditation

· Eve’s dharma songs

· dharma discussion

· poetry

· participatory singing and chanting

Instruction included. Appropriate for beginning as well as more experienced practitioners.

Eve Decker is a long time student of the dharma and nationally known performing artist of spiritually inspired original acoustic music. She co-founded and toured with the band Rebecca Riots, called by the San Francisco Bay Guardian “the best band with a conscience”.  Eve completed a two year training on socially engaged Buddhist practice at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and is currently in their Community Dharma Leader training program. For more on Eve visit www.evedecker.com

This daylong is offered freely.  Donations are gratefully accepted for Eve or for Insight Meditation Modesto.  Please bring a vegetarian dish to share for a pot-luck lunch.  Dress in loose and comfortable clothing.  For the sake of those who may have sensitivities or allergies, please do not wear scented or perfumed products.  If you have a meditation cushion, please bring it.  Chairs will be available.  Suitable for beginning and all-levels of practitioners.

Daylong on October 22nd with Donald Rothberg on Working with Judgments

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Insight Meditation Modesto will be offering a daylong with Donald Rothberg on Saturday, October 22, 2011, 9:30 am to 5:00 pm at Doctors Medical Center, 1441 Florida Ave., Conference Center, room 1, Modesto, CA (the Conference Center is the building between the parking structure and the emergency department) on:

Working with Judgments

Judgments of a reactive and compulsive nature are very strong in most of our lives, and in the dominant culture. They can distort our perceptions, make relationships with others difficult and undermine our work in the world. In this daylong, we will examine what judgments are and how to work with them, using mindfulness and lovingkindness practices (and a number of periods of silent practice), inquiry, dyad work, and role play. These will help us to transform the energy of judgments–preserving the intelligence and discernment often found in judgments, while working through the destructive and compulsive aspects of judgments.

Donald Rothberg, Ph.D., a member of the Spirit Rock Teachers Council in the San Francisco Bay area, writes and teaches classes, groups, and retreats on meditation, daily life practice, spirituality and psychology, and socially engaged Buddhism. He has practiced mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation since 1976, and also has a background in Tibetan practice and the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy. He has guided training programs (six months to two years in length) in socially engaged spirituality through Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Saybrook Graduate School (an interfaith program), and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He is the co-editor (with Sean Kelly) of Ken Wilber in Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers, and the author of The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World.

This daylong is offered freely.  Donations are gratefully accepted for Donald or for Insight Meditation Modesto.  Please bring a vegetarian dish to share for a pot-luck lunch.  Dress in loose and comfortable clothing.  For the sake of those who may have sensitivities or allergies, please do not wear scented or perfumed products.  If you have a meditation cushion, please bring it.  Chairs will be available.  Suitable for beginning and all-levels of practitioners.

New website for social activities with Modesto Dharma friends

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A website has been created for Modesto area Dharma friends and practitioners to connect and meet-up for social activities.  This is not necessarily exclusive to the Insight Meditation community, but is open to those who are following the Buddhist path in whatever tradition they practice.

Check out the website here: http://modestodharmafriends.wordpress.com/

The first planned social activity is this Thursday, June 30th at Queen Bean in Modesto.  See the website for details.

Special visit by Jacques Verduin on Tuesday, June 28th

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Jacques Verduin will be visiting us on Tuesday, June 28th to talk about his work with the Insight Prison Project. Please let anyone who might be interested in hearing about this project know.  Here’s a link to The Dhamma Brothers website to learn more about the project in Alabama prisons which is based on a program by S.N. Goenka – which is different than what Jacques has been doing, but Jacques is interested in doing something similar (but not necessarily in Goenka’s format) in California.