I saw this video today and wanted to share it. Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of expeditions28 & 29 on board the International Space Station from August to October,2011, who to my knowledge shot these pictures at an altitude of around 250 miles.
What stands out are the auroras and the actual 'thinness' of the atmosphere. In relation to the size of the planet our atmosphere is rather thin, also the auroras are an expression of the earths magnetic field interacting with cosmic rays that would kill life on this planet. We truly live in a fragile ocean of life, it is quite humbling to be able to see such a magnificent view of our world.
I am so small I can barely be seen. How can this great love be inside me? Look at your eyes, they are small but they see enormous things.
This is well produced video on transplanting Zen in rural America. Zen Furnace examines a group of Zen Buddhists in rural Eastern Kentucky. Hidden away inside the mountains is the Furnace Mountain Zen Retreat Center. Led by Zen Master Dae Gak. The retreat center and the Zen Buddhists have lived peacefully in the Appalachian mountains for 25 years now. After 25 years locals of the region still have many doubts and thoughts of what occurs on the mountain.
Thom Kwanjok Pastor, JDPSN (on saxophone) has been my best friend and Dharma Brother for about 22 years and he posted this video of the band he has been working with playing together recently in Las Vegas. Thom is the Guiding Teacher and founder of the Zen Center of Las Vegas, which was founded by him back in early 1993.
Thom said on his recent Facebook post; "I invite all my friends to listen to the
jazz group I've been playing with for awhile now: B3 Conspiracy, we're having a blast. Hand held camera, so the sound is not recording quality, but fun nonetheless."
Jack Ferguson shared this on Facebook and I thought more people ought to see it. Among Master Kusan's written works are his 1975 book, Seven Perfections, aimed at bringing Buddhism back into daily life, and his 1976 book, Nine Mountains, an English version of his dharma talks, written for the benefit of his foreign disciples. After receiving much attention from scholars of Buddhism and eastern philosophy around the world, Nine Mountains was revised and published in Korean as Seok Saja (Stone Lion). After Master Kusan's passing, his foreign disciples published Seon! My Choice, a compilation of their impressions and experiences regarding Korean Buddhism and their Seon training at the Bulil International Seon Center. In 1985, Master Kusan's disciples Stephen Batchelor and Martine Fages edited an English compilation of his dharma teachings, The Way of Korean Zen. The Society of Kusan Followers also published Kusan Seonmun (Seon Teachings of Kusan) in 1994, a volume of the Master's Seon sermons, and Kusan Seonpung (Seon Tradition of Kusan)in 1997, a collection of his dharma sermons delivered in the early 1980s while touring the United States, Taiwan, Europe and elsewhere
Chán Master Pawhui talks with a beginner about meditation, religion and practicing. He also discusses the issues facing many who are new to meditation practices in general.
KATE OLSON, correspondent: On a recent Saturday morning at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, California, church members and neighbors gathered to hear Brother David talk about living “a spirited life.”
Church group singing: Viva, viva la musica…
OLSON: For Brother David, it is grateful living that makes everything come alive.
BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST, OSB: The practice of gratefulness that I’m concerned with is grateful living. That means every moment of your life you practice gratefulness. You practice awareness that everything is gift, everything is gratuitous, and if it’s all given, gratuitously given, then the only appropriate response is gratefulness What we really want is joy. We don’t want things. We don’t want to accumulate things. We forget that, and so gratefulness can help us see that, can help us realize that.
OLSON: Though Brother David acknowledges there are many things for which we cannot be grateful, he encourages people to be open to the opportunity being given in every situation.
BROTHER DAVID: We cannot be grateful for war. That’s an unmitigated evil. We cannot be grateful for exploitation, for untimely death. But we can be grateful in every situation. The key word is “opportunity.” If you catch onto that, then if we are in practice, when something comes along for which we cannot be grateful, spontaneously we will—our mind will say, “Well, what’s this the opportunity for now?” And there’s always an opportunity for something positive, usually the opportunity to learn something new, even in the worst situations, or for the opportunity to do something. If we learn of an injustice we have the opportunity to stand up and to speak up and to do something.
OLSON: During the day, people reflected on moments of ‘epiphany’ in their lives – what brother David calls mystic or peak experiences, which often include an experience of profound gratitude.
BROTHER DAVID: The mystic is not a special kind of human being, but every human being is a special kind of mystic. We all have mystic experiences, and in these peak moments, in these peak experiences, all of us have this experience of being one with all. Those are the moments in which we feel most alive, most truly ourselves.
OLSON: Grateful living is something you can practice moment by moment in your daily life, he says, and like other spiritual practices, such as Zen meditation, its goal is to live in the present moment, to see everything as “word of God.”
BROTHER DAVID: “Word” is not just vocabulary, but “word” is everything that speaks to us, and in this sense a flower can be a word that speaks to me. A poem as a whole can be a word that speaks to me, a piece of art, everything. It speaks to me. It tells me something, it tells me something about ultimate reality. That’s a mystic insight that every human being can appreciate, I think, and experience, if we only allow ourselves.
OLSON: Cultivating this aliveness in life is central to Brother David’s vocation as a monk and to his message. Born in Austria, he immigrated to the US in 1952 and joined Mount Savior Monastery in Elmira, New York.
Brother David singing: Alleluia …
OLSON: For decades he has lived part of his life as a hermit, in prayer and contemplation and writing books. The other half he travels the globe lecturing and leading retreats, helping people discover this “aliveness” in their own lives. Finding the deeply shared personal experience is at the heart of Brother David’s work in interreligious dialogue.
Brother David speaking at retreat: “…always checking it back with your own experience, always checking it back against your basic faith…”
OLSON: A pioneer in the Christian-Buddhist dialogue, he returns frequently to Tassajara, a Zen monastery in California where he lived for several years. As part of the dialogue with Buddhism, Brother David trained in Zen meditation and joined in Buddhist rituals. He says the task of interreligious dialogue today is to understand the meaning beneath the words of particular creeds or beliefs, to discover the faith that underlies these words that we all share.
BROTHER DAVID: Deep down there is only one faith that all human beings have, and that is that deep trust in life. Even our body expresses that trust in life by always taking another breath. We can’t even stop it. We can’t stop breathing. So that deep trust in life—that is what all humans share, and that expresses itself, then, in a Buddhist way, in a Christian way, and even in ways that we don’t recognize as explicitly religious. Many atheists have a deep faith. They all have that deep faith, but they express it very differently.
OLSON: Beliefs are not faith, he says. Faith is deep trust. And the opposite of faith is not doubt, but fear.
BROTHER DAVID: The one most frequently repeated command in the Bible is not “love your neighbor,” but “fear not.” And if there is one thing that we need in our world, if there’s one thing that we should write on our mirror and see every morning when we look into the mirror, it’s “fear not.” If we went into the day with that command deeply tattooed on our heart, “fear not,” we’d be completely different people and create a completely different world—a world of faith.
OLSON: This deep trust in life is at the heart of what he sees as “the round dance of grateful living.”
BROTHER DAVID: So we participate in this tremendous dance in which the gift comes forth from the source and through thanksgiving returns to the source, where the word comes out of the silence and through understanding returns to the silence. Gratefulness is not just saying “thank you.” It’s acting. It is being your self. A mother is grateful, shows gratefulness by mothering, a scientist by doing science. That is what the Bible calls “in God we live and move and have our being.”
Church group singing: “Viva, viva la musica…”
For Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, this is Kate Olson reporting from San Francisco.
(CBS/AP) House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers told Stephen Colbert how happy he was that the comedian's appearance filled the seats for a hearing on illegal farm workers. Then he tried to kick him out.
Before the Comedy Central comedian launched into his joke-filled testimony, Conyers said he couldn't remember when a hearing drew such a crowd. California Democrat Zoe Lofgren guessed it might have been for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
But then Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, asked Colbert to leave the room, saying: "You run your show, we run the committee."
Colbert, who recently spent a day picking vegetables on a farm in New York, said he was there at the invitation of subcommittee chairman Lofgren. Lofgren signaled that he should stay.
Conyers later withdrew his request.
In his opening statement, which Conyers noted afterward differed from the written remarks submitted to the committee, Colbert maintained the tongue-in-cheek conservative persona that marks his late-night comedy show "The Colbert Report."
"I don't want a tomato picked by a Mexican," he said. "I want it picked by an American. And sliced by a Guatemalan and served by a Venezuelan, in a spa, where a Chilean gives me a Brazilian."
Colbert said he was happy to "use my celebrity to draw attention to this important, complicated issue. I certainly hope that my star power can bump this hearing all the way up to C-Span 1"
He also offered mock solutions to the problem of overdependence on immigrant farm labor, suggesting the "obvious answer is for all of us to stop eating fruits and vegetables."
"And if you look at the recent obesity statistics, you'll see that many Americans have already started," he added.
Back in 1964 Bob Dylan wrote this song, its meanings and imagery apply as much today as they did 46 years ago. This song should be sung in every corner of the US today.
Chimes Of Freedom
Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
In the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden while the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsaked
Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the mad mystic hammering of the wild ripping hail
The sky cracked its poems in naked wonder
That the clinging of the church bells blew far into the breeze
Leaving only bells of lightning and its thunder
Striking for the gentle, striking for the kind
Striking for the guardians and protectors of the mind
An’ the unpawned painter behind beyond his rightful time
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an’ cheated by pursuit
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Considering the recent bevy of posts regarding Spiritual Teachers and impropriety I came across an interesting bit of info that up until now I was not aware of. "Sexy Sadie" is the name of a song by The Beatles, written by John Lennon in India and credited to Lennon/McCartney. Lennon originally wanted to title the song "Maharishi", but the Beatles changed the title to "Sexy Sadie" at George Harrison's request. Lennon was disillusioned after Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had allegedly made a sexual advance at one of the female members attending the course Maharishi was teaching at his ashram. Harrison, Paul McCartney, and Cynthia Lennon later said that they thought the story, which had come from Alexis Mardas, had been fabricated. Lennon once said of the song: "That was inspired by Maharishi. I wrote it when we had our bags packed and were leaving. It was the last piece I wrote before I left India. I just called him, 'Sexy Sadie,' instead of 'Maharishi what have you done, you made a fool...' I was just using the situation to write a song, rather calculatingly but also to express what I felt. I was leaving the Maharishi with a bad taste. You know, it seems that my partings are always not as nice as I'd like them to be."
After returning from India, Lennon scratched the lyrics into a piece of wood, with the original title "Maharishi". The recorded version changed only after Harrison insisted that if the song was used he wanted the name changed and persuaded Lennon to change the title to "Sexy Sadie". Harrison recounts the event in the directors cut of the anthology film. Derek Taylor remembered Lennon fiddling about scratching the wood in the Apple offices. The wood ended up in the possession of Maureen Starkey and was ultimately sold to a Beatles collector.
Sexy Sadie what have you done
You made a fool of everyone
You made a fool of everyone
Sexy Sadie ooh what have you done.
Sexy Sadie you broke the rules
You layed it down for all to see
You layed it down for all to see
Sexy Sadie oooh you broke the rules.
One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover
She came along to turn on everyone
Sexy Sadie the greatest of them all.
Sexy Sadie how did you know
The world was waiting just for you
The world was waiting just for you
Sexy Sadie oooh how did you know.
Sexy Sadie you'll get yours yet
However big you think you are
However big you think you are
Sexy Sadie oooh you'll get yours yet.
We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table
Just a smile would lighten everything
Sexy Sadie she's the latest and the greatest of them all.
I highly recommend this video, although while watching it you will see a few of the sub-titles will flash so fast you can't read them, this doesn't take away from the experience of it nor from the insight we gain from such a wonderful documentary. Be forewarned that the video is almost 1.5 hours in length, so watch it when you have time to enjoy the ride.
American director Edward A. Burger takes us on his unforgettable journey into the hidden lives of China’s forgotten Zen Buddhisthermit tradition.
Amongst White Clouds is a look at the lives of zealot students, gaunt ascetics and wise masters living in isolated hermitages dotting the peaks and valleys of China’s Zhongnan Mountain range. The Zhongnan Mountains have been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some five thousand years ago.
Many of China’s most realized Buddhist masters attained enlightenment in this very range! And now? It is widely thought that this tradition was all but wiped out by the twists and turns of history. Amongst White Clouds shows us this is not the case.
One of only a few foreigners to have lived and studied with these hidden sages, Burger reveals to us their tradition, their wisdom, and the hardship and joy of their everyday lives.
With both humor and compassion, these inspiring and warm-hearted characters challenge us to join them in an exploration of our own suffering and enlightenment in this modern world. (Excerpt from amongstclouds.com)
'The Practice of the Wild' is a film profile of the poet and Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder. Snyder has been a creative force in all the major cultural changes that have created the modern world. Along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, he was a central figure of the Beat generation. He helped bring Zen Buddhism into the America scene, was an active participant in the anti-war movement and an inspiration for the quest for human potential. All along he was a founding intellect, essayist and leader of the new environmental awareness that supports legislation and preservation without losing sight of direct wild experience -- local people, animals, plants, watersheds and food sources.
This film, borrowing its name from one of Snyder's most eloquent non-fiction books, revolves around a life-long conversation between Snyder and his fellow poet and novelist Jim Harrison. These two old friends and venerated men of American letters converse while taking a wilderness trek along the central California coast in an area that has been untouched for centuries. They debate the pros and cons of everything from Google to Zen koans. The discussions are punctuated by archival materials and commentaries from Snyder friends, observers, and intimates who take us through the 'Beat' years, the years of Zen study in Japan up to the present -- where Snyder continues to be a powerful spokesperson for ecological sanity and bio-regionalism.
A central element of Korean Buddhist culture, Yeongsanjae is a re-enactment of Buddha’s delivery of the Lotus Sutra on the Vulture Peak in India, through which philosophical and spiritual messages of Buddhism are expressed and people in attendance develop self-discipline. Yeongsanjae begins with a ritual reception for all the saints and spirits of heaven and earth and concludes with a farewell ritual representing manners of the otherworldly realm of Buddha, with singing, ceremonial adornment and varied ritual dances such as the cymbal dance, drum dance and ceremonial robe dance. The other components include a ritual cleansing, a tea ceremony, the dedication of a rice meal to the Buddha and Bodhisattvas, a sermon inviting the audience to the door of truth and a ritual meal for the dead to congratulate them on their entry into heaven. Preserved chiefly by the Taego Order of Korean Buddhism based in Seoul, the Yeongsanjae is held in temples throughout the Republic of Korea to help all beings enter the world of truth by worshipping and admiring the Buddha and his laws and monks. The ceremony serves as an important space for transmission of values and art forms and for meditation, training and enlightenment.
Thanks to Greg LeBlanc, SDPS for this link, I have seen her on Charlie Rose but I thought I'd share this with everyone.
Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.
About Jill Bolte Taylor
Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened -- and has become a powerful voice for brain recovery.
I gave myself a treat last night after finishing my year end Book Keeping and the Corporate Taxes for my Business and all of our partners and watched the movie "Zen" which is about the life of the great Soto Master Dogen. Takahashi’s Zen (2009) not only gives you an opportunity to learn about a clear-cut history of Zen Buddhism in Japan in just over two hours, but also captivates you with unsullied spiritual insights.
I must say that I am always up for any movie about Buddhism and especially Zen Buddhism, yet I seem to be always disappointed. I must say that I enjoyed the movie at times, but as is the case with many of these endeavors, it seems that the producers seem to attach to romantic engagements rather than accurate representations of history. When Dogen visited China in search of his authentic Zen Teacher I found it strange that all of the Chinese Monks, including his future teacher, all wore Japanese Robes. Also, the temples he visits in China all have a Japanese flair and look nothing like any of the Chinese Temples I have visited all over China over the last 15 years.
It isn't a huge shortcoming, not as much as the CGI shorts which were meant to represent Dogen's Awakening experiences. They were more like shorts from an LSD trip or even an early 1960's representation of transcendence, anyway I could have lived without the visual references which will just serve to make people think that enlightenment has something to do with flying across the universe on a giant Lotus Flower.
There is also a weird reference to a story that is originally attributed to Sakyamuni Buddha about a young woman who's son is dying. He tells her to visit all the houses and find some mustard seeds collected from homes where they have not experienced death. It is common for Zen Teachers to use these old analogies to teach student, but I have never read that Dogen used this specific teaching. There is enough history on this seminal figure that the writers could have discovered something more of a personal insight that Dogen gave us.
There is too much use of the "E" word (enlightenment) in the movie as if it really exists. Teachers don't address this directly, and even if it does exist the experience isn't contained in the word.
The scene where Dogen passes into Nirvana (he dies in the Dharma Room) and everyone continues sitting in meditation after knowing their master has died is just too much for me to handle. If meditation means that we lose our original job then I am not interested in that type of practice.
The movie is worth watching, and I recommend it. Just see it for what it is, a romanticized view of a very seminal figure in the advancement of the Dharma. Some of the Cinematography is wonderful and some of the Dharma talks are inspiring. Anyway, you must find your own opinion on the movie.
If you haven't yet seen this movie, you should put it on your list.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (UK: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring) is a 2003 South Koreanfilm about a Buddhistmonastery which floats on a lake in a pristine forest. The story is about the life of a Buddhist monk as he passes through the seasons of his life, from childhood to old age.
The movie was directed by Kim Ki-duk, and stars Su Oh-yeong, Kim Young-min, Seo Jae-kyung, and Kim Jong-ho. The director himself appears as the man in the last stage of life. The quiet, contemplative film marked a significant change from his previous works, which were often criticized for excessive violence and misogyny.
The film is divided into five segments (the five seasons of the title), each segment depicting a different stage in the life of a Buddhist monk (each segment is roughly ten to twenty years apart, and is physically in the middle of its titular season).
Richard Branson and Peter Gabriel share their thoughts on the founding of The Elders. The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela.
Richard and his close friend, Peter Gabriel, had an idea about the need for a new leadership model for our ‘global village’. Inspired by the role that elders play in traditional societies, as a source of advice, wisdom and experience, they took the idea to Nelson Mandela and were thrilled when he agreed to help bring a group of ‘global elders’ together. Founded in 2007 with the support of Virgin Unite and a great group of partners, The Elders comprises ten visionary leaders including Graça Machel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan and President Carter. They work both publicly and behind the scenes, collectively and individually, in areas of conflict such as; Kenya, Cyprus, Darfur and Zimbabwe and also work on a number of global issues, such as health and gender equality.
In 2009, Richard brought together a group of the world’s top entrepreneurs to initiate the Carbon War Room. The vision is to mobilise capital, innovation, expertise and international collaboration to increase the effectiveness of climate change efforts already underway and to focus on filling any gaps. These keen entrepreneurial minds will work together to help speed and scale solutions that will deliver a low carbon economy.
In case you have never seen this BBC Documentary on the life of the Buddha you may find it interesting. The video is almost fifty minutes long and is in HD so it is an enjoyable documentary to watch in this medium. Just thought I'd share it with all in case you missed it.
I don't normally recommend Television Shows but I have been watching it on the Travel Channel and there are some very interesting insights that come from these natives from the South Pacific.
They are traditional hunters and farmers, wearing grass skirts and penis sheaths. They have no electricity or TV, and a very limited idea of the world beyond their tiny island until now.
It's time to MEET THE NATIVES: USA. Insightful, entertaining and unforgettable, the extraordinary journey of 5 men from the remote Pacific island of Tanna across the USA will force us to look at ourselves through brand-new eyes.
Why are we so obsessed with money and possessions? Why do we treat our pets better than some of our fellow citizens? What does "family" mean to us? What do we do with our elderly? How come we make all our important decisions in bars? And what's the point of ironing a shirt?
While watching an Orange County, California couple receive Botox injections the tribesmen discuss that they may look younger on the outside but it does nothing for their insides. The tribal chief states that the sun rises and sets, and you can't stop the sun from setting. If it's 3 pm you can't make it 9 am even if you want it to be. You can fix the skin outside, but the blood knows what time it is. There is a simple honesty in their observations that may wake up some of us from our dream.
The Tanna tribe dances their way into America's hearts as they crisscross the country from high society Manhattan to the big sky of Montana. Whether it's mud baths and roller coasters in Orange County, CA, sharing a Thanksgiving feast in America's heartland, or touching snow for the first time, these tribesman spread their wisdom and kindness on their mission to meet the natives of the USA.
