Mental activity is like a deadly venomous cobra. If we interfere not with a cobra, it simply goes its own way.
Even though it may be extremely venomous, we are not affected by it. We neither go near it nor take hold of it, so it doesn't bite us. The cobra does what's natural for a cobra to do. That's the way it is.
If we are wise, we'll leave it alone. Likewise, we let be that which is not good: We let it be according to it's own nature.
We also let be that which is good. We don't grasp at and grab on to liking and disliking, just as we wouldn't interfere with a cobra.
Relax. It's okay. Nothing is under control.
One who is wise will have this kind of attitude towards the various moods that arise in the mind/heart.
When goodness arises, we let it be good. We understand its nature. In the same way, we let be the not-good. We let it be according to its nature.
We don't take hold of it because we don't want anything. We don't want evil. We don't want good. We neither want heaviness nor lightness, happiness nor suffering.
When our wanting is at an end, peace is firmly established.
First of all, don't do it. Second, if you ignore this warning, at least do it right; plan ahead, no amateurs. Third, study. What is the origin of this day?
Let us go to the font of all-knowing wisdom for an answer: April Fools' Day is celebrated every year on April 1st by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims are calledApril fools. [April is the cruellest month.]
Don't do me like that!
Remember, turnabout is fair play
"Tell me this is a joke!" Homer
People playing April Fool jokes expose their prank by shouting, "April Fool!" at the end of it.
Some newspapers, magazines, and other published media report fake stories (more than usual, you know, Onion-style satire), which are usually explained the next day or below the news section in small letters.
Although popular since the 19th century, the day is not a public holiday in any country. Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1392) contains the first recorded association between April 1st and foolishness. More
When things go wrong...keep filming
Mom, we're going to release our own sex tape? - The hell you are, Roman! Not my daughter!
Musician Moby and Soka: Vegan Meat Up Musical performance by electronica star and vegan Moby, followed by discussion on the benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet, with Moby, Farm Sanctuary Founder Gene Baur, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Allison Argo, moderated by global sustainability leader Jaime Nack.
Kid sex on Facebook leads to arrests in Chicago An arrest warrant has been issued for a second teenage boy in the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl that was streamed live on Facebook, and further arrests are expected, police said.
Buddhist words such as compassion and emptiness don't mean much until we start cultivating our innate ability simply to be there with pain with an open heart and the willingness not to instantly try to get ground under our feet.
For instance, if what we're feeling is rage, we usually assume that there are only two ways to relate to it. One is to blame others. Lay it all on somebody else; drive all blames into everyone else. The other alternative is to feel guilty about our rage and blame ourselves.
Blame is a way in which we solidify ourselves. Not only do we point the finger when something is "wrong," but we also want to make things "right."
Not being right, not being wrong, but just being with what is -- it's an amazing way to be!
In any relationship that we stick with -- be it marriage or parenthood, employment, a spiritual community, or whatever -- we may also find that we want to make it "righter" than it is, because we're a little nervous.
Maybe it isn't exactly living up to our standards, so we justify it and justify it and try to make it extremely right. We tell everybody that our husband or wife or child or teacher or support group is doing some sort of peculiar antisocial thing for good spiritual reasons.
Or we come up with some dogmatic belief and hold on to it with a vengeance, again to solidify our ground. We have some sense that we have to make things right according to our standards. If we just can't stick with a situation any longer, then it goes over the edge and we make it wrong because we think that's our only alternative. Something's right or something's wrong.
A Middle Way
"It wasn't until the teachings touched my heart."
Instead of making others right or wrong, or bottling up right and wrong in ourselves, there's a middle way, a very powerful middle way.
We could see it as sitting on the razor's edge, not falling off to the right or the left. This middle way involves not hanging on to our version so tightly. It involves keeping our hearts and minds open long enough to entertain the idea that when we make things wrong, we do it out of a desire to obtain some kind of ground or security.
Equally, when we make things right, we are still trying to obtain some kind of ground or security. Could our minds and our hearts be big enough just to hang out in that space where we're not entirely certain about who's right and who's wrong?
Could we have no agenda when we walk into a room with another person, not know what to say, not make that person wrong or right?
Could we see, hear, feel other people as they really are?
It is powerful to practice this way, because we'll find ourselves continually rushing around to try to feel secure again -- to make ourselves or them either right or wrong. But true communication can happen only in that open space.
WARNING: "Psychetruth" is a professional, ad-based production company masquer-ading as a do-it-yourself endeavor. It uses paid spokesmodels, acting and reading scripts. Enjoy without being pressured to subscribe or comment.
[On the subject of karma and talking, the Buddha said:] I declare that [physical, verbal, or mental] actions willed, per-formed, and accumulated will not become extinct as long as their results have not been experienced, be it in this life, in the next life, or in subsequent future lives. And as long as these results of actions willed, performed, and accumulated have not been experienced, there will be no making an end to suffering, I declare.
...And how is tainted failure in living fourfold in verbal acts?
There is one who is a "liar." When one is in the council in one's community or in another assembly, or among one's relatives, one's guild, in the royal court, or when one has been summoned as a witness and is asked to tell what one knows, then,
though one does not know, one will say, "I know";
though one does know, one will say, "I do not know";
though one has not seen, one will say, "I have seen"; and
though one has seen, one will say, "I have not seen."
1. One utters deliberate lies in that way, be it for one's own sake, for the sake of others, or for some material advantage.
2. One utters divisive speech: what one hears here one reports elsewhere to foment conflict there; and what one hears elsewhere one reports here to foment conflict here.
Thus one creates discord among those united, and one incites still more those who are in discord. One is fond of dissension, one delights and rejoices in it, and one utters words that cause dissension.
3. One speaks harshly, using speech that is coarse, rough, bitter, and abusive, that makes others angry and causes distraction of mind. It is such speech that one utters.
4. One indulges in frivolous chit chat: one speaks what is untimely, unreasonable, and unbeneficial, having no connection with the Doctrine or the Discipline [the Dharma or the Vinaya]. One's talk is not worth treasuring; it is inopportune, inadvisable, unrestrained, and harmful.
In this way, tainted failure in living is fourfold in verbal acts.*
*NOTE: On the threefold ripening of karma, see Text 24 and Chapter III, Note 13. The Buddha's statement -- that there is no making an end to suffering without experiencing the results of all actions performed -- must be understood with the reservation (which [the commentary] makes explicit in connection with "karma ripening in future lives") that reference is to "karma that is actually capable of yielding a karmic result" (vipakaraha-kamma).
But under certain circumstances karma can be annulled by a counteractive or destructive karma, and the arhat, by terminating the conditions for rebirth, extinguishes the potential for ripening of all one's past karma. The statement in the present text must also be understood in the light of the following sutra passage:
"If one says that in whatever way a person performs a karmic action, in that very same way one will experience the result -- in that case there will be no (possibility for) the holy life [brahmacaryaor a life leading to enlightenment], and no opportunity would appear for making a complete end to suffering.
"But if one says that a person who performs a karmic action (with a result) that is variably experienceable, will reap its result accordingly -- in that case there will be (a possibility for) the holy life, and an opportunity would appear for making a complete end to suffering" (AN III, 110).
Excerpts from "The Extinction of Karma" discourse (AN X, 206) translated by BhikkhuBodhi, from the book The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, Chapter of the Tens, Discourse 206.
ATLANTA – More babies were born in the United States in 2007 than any year in the nation's history, topping the peak during the baby boom 50 years earlier, federal researchers reported Wednesday. There is both good and bad news from the more than 4.3 million births:
U.S. population is more than replacing itself.
Teen birth rate is up for the second year in a row.
The birth rate rose slightly for women of all ages, and births to unwed mothers reached an all-time high of about 40 percent, continuing a trend begun years ago. More than three-quarters of these women were 20 or older. More>>
Pope in Uproar over Anti-condom comments
A man dances alongside a "walking condom" at an AIDS conference in Durban, South Africa. Pope Benedict XVI's denunciation of condom use to prevent the spread of HIV sparked an international outcry on Wednesday as he toured Africa, the continent hardest hit by the disease(AFP/File/Yoav Lemmer).
Pope sparks condom backlash on Africa visit Pope Benedict XVI urged Cameroon's bishops Wednesday to defend the rights of the poor and essential values of the African family, on the second day of a visit dominated by his opposition to the use of condoms (AFP via Yahoo! News).
AIDS activists blast pope's rejection of condoms Pope Benedict XVI's denunciation of condom use to prevent the spread of HIV sparked an international outcry on Wednesday as he toured Africa, the continent hardest hit by the disease (AFP via Yahoo! News).
Pope Benedict XVI gives a press conference on the flight to Cameroon on 3/17/09. France slammed the pope's claim that condoms are worsening the AIDS epidemic, saying it would harm global efforts to tackle the spread of the disease (AFP/File/Christophe Simon).
Vatican defends pope condoms stand, criticism mounts The Vatican on Wednesday defended Pope Benedict's opposition to the use of condoms to stop the spread of AIDS as scientists and politicians criticized it as unrealistic and dangerous (Reuters via Yahoo! News).
Pope Benedict XVI courts new controversy Pope Benedict XVI, fresh from an uproar over his decision to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust denier, has added AIDS activists to the growing list of groups he has angered (AFP via Yahoo! News).
France attacks pope condom comments France on Wednesday slammed Pope Benedict XVI's claim that condoms are worsening the AIDS epidemic, saying it would harm global efforts to tackle the spread of the disease (AFP via Yahoo! News).
Pope in Africa says church must help the poor Pope Benedict XVI urged Cameroon's bishops Wednesday to defend the traditional African family from the dangers of modernity and secularization and to spare the poor from the impact of globalization (AP via Yahoo! News).
Pope wrong on condoms say Catholic groups US rights advocates and a Roman Catholic group on Wednesday condemned Pope Benedict XVI for saying condom use does little to help fight AIDS as he began a trip to Africa, the continent hardest hit by the deadly viral illness (AFP via Yahoo! News).
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