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Can you imagine? Wars arise from a failure to understand one another's humanness. Instead of summit meetings, why not have families meet for a picnic and get to know each other while the children play together? His Holiness the Dalai Lama I would love to see George Bush in a park with Kim Jong Il , Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , Pervez Musharraf , Hu Jintao , Nancy Pelosi , etc, etc at some picnic.

So. After we had him a couple of days I recognized two things: why people say a pet is a good prep for a kid why parents are tired all the time. We got Johnders and I found myself constantly worrying about "raising" him right, keeping him healthy, happy and safe. I want my dog that is a good citizen and happy. That's the prep part. The tired is related to that. I was worrying so much that I found myself exhausted. It took me a couple more days to make the connection but I did. The emotional roller coaster is tiring.

I struggle but I know some people who really suffer and these are words they would do well to work to understand. My suffering is usually manidested in procrastination but sometimes depression. I sometimes feel that there are too many important decisions to be made and I can't to it. Other times I feel like there are too many important decisions to be made and I shouldn't be the one to make them. I have some coworkers and family members who have far more severe issues and they blame everybody else for the problems they have. If my mother had done this, if my father had been this, if my boss didn't do this. I so wish some of these people would get the clue that they have something to do with it. Especially when they find themselves in similar situations time and time again. Happiness and suffering come from your own mind, not from outside. Your own mind is the cause of happiness; your own mind is the cause of suffering. To obtain happiness and pacify suffering, you have to ...

I have always envisioned myself as a dog owner but I wanted to do it on my terms. I wanted the dog I wanted when I wanted it and he would be easy to train and well-behaved and so on and so forth. Tara thought if we got a pet it would be a cat. She's not a fan of the dog neediness(is that a word?). We'd talked about getting one and people would tell us getting one is good prep for having a baby, which we are trying to do, but we'd never done anything to really move toward getting a pet. It remained on that "Yeah, one day, probably." list. In August we went to a BBQ at a friend's house and we were greeted by this black & white splotched puppy. It was a very cute, happy, friendly puppy but I didn't think much about him. Then, from across the room, my very unimpulsive , cat-loving wife said "can we keep him?". I was stunned. One, because I would we hadn't planned for it. Two, Tara doesn't say things like that. Three, Tara didn't want ...

I've been kinda busy and haven't posted anything recently. What a great one to restart with. It's sort the same as the Serenity Prayer...work to control the things you can, not worry about the things you can't and learn the difference between the two. We can't control anybody but ourselves and sometimes that seems impossible. Better to conquer yourself than others. When you've trained yourself, living in constant self-control, neither a deva nor gandhabba, nor a Mara banded with Brahmas, could turn that triumph back into defeat. Dhammapada, 8, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

I was walking through the computer room and I saw a mullet wearing, redheaded white guy filling out a profile on blacksingles.com or something like that. Not the kind of guy you'd expect on that site.

I was fortunate enough to see Lucky Dube many years ago at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Fest. It was a magical afternoon. He was a wonderful gift to the music world. Jah Live! Shock at SA reggae star shooting Technorati Tags: music , reggae , murder , south africa , lucky dube Powered by ScribeFire .

If you haven't noticed, downtown Nashville has added some swanky new bottle/can recycle bins. I don't have a photo but they are quite elegant for a recycle bin. Go Nashville! Recycle Nashville Blog Action Day

I recently posted about the cute, attractive women who come to my desk. Well, what about the other ones? The ones who don't have their stuff together. The teachers who have Diana Gabaldon books in one arm and are asking to check out more than the limit because they "are a teacher". Yeah, there are plenty of those too.

Yeah, sometimes I feel like a dirty old man. There are many very attractive, sometimes flirty, young women who interact with me throughout my work day. I'm not talking disgusting, Lolita-type young, I'm talking way too young for me, which is college-aged & mid-20s. Some are sweet, some are cute, some are sexy and some are a combo of several. Now, there are plenty of women my age and older who fit this desciption but I guess b/c I just dealt with a young one I am thinking about it. She was very sweet and she walked away but turned around and smiled at me (unsolicited, or at least I think so). Anyway, thank God for women. If I had only been more knowledgable in the ways of women when I was younger. Who knows if that would have changed anything. I love my wife more deeply and fully than anyone I've known, other than my mother. I think she is all the things I listed above and more but sometimes I wonder how things would've been different if I had pursued the women I...

Sounds a lot like "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", don't you think? Whatever attitudes we habitually use toward ourselves, we will use on others, and whatever attitudes we habitually use toward others, we will use on ourselves. The situation is comparable to our serving food to ourselves and to other people from the same bowl. Everyone ends up eating the same thing--we must examine carefully what we are dishing out. Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, " Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness "

Take that you close-minded frakin' fraks! OK, that's not the nicest thing to say but everybody knows what I mean. This applies to most of us in some way but it really goes to the heart of the matter of the people who are anti Harry Potter b/c it contains magic. Some people live closely guarded lives, fearful of encountering someone or something that might shatter their insecure spiritual foundation. This attitude, however, is not the fault of religion but of their own limited understanding. True Dharma leads in exactly the opposite direction. It enables one to integrate all the many diverse experiences of life into a meaningful and coherent whole, thereby banishing fear and insecurity completely. Lama Thubten Yeshe, " Wisdom Energy "

The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell I first saw Joseph Campbell on PBS replay of “The Power of Myth”. I was amazed and enthralled by what he said. I felt someone was finally explaining the way I looked at religion and spirituality. Reading this is my first foray into his writing. It’s pretty academic and very heavily annotated, some footnotes are longer than the text on the page. He explores “the hero”; what is the process individuals go through to become a hero? He uses examples from all over the globe. All religions, all traditional societies and cultures and continents are explored to present a wonderfully comprehensive picture of the hero. Joseph Campbell shows us that we are all more alike than not, our heros share the same qualities, our religions are used to teach us and guide us to the same ends. It’s quite heartening. See more about The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Again with the high road stuff. We should not seek revenge on those who have committed crimes against us, or reply to their crimes with other crimes. We should reflect that by the law of karma, they are in danger of lowly and miserable lives to come, and that our duty to them, as to every being, is to help them to rise towards Nirvana, rather than let them sink to lower levels of rebirth. His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Compassion is the best healer. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ultimate Healing This is my new mantra. Although I have work to do on my ability for compassion I know others who really have some real issues with it. If I could just convince them that it isn't the "high road", it is the only road; and it is as much about showing compassion for yourself than others. On the way to work this morning I was reading more of Joseph Campbell's Hero with A Thousand Faces and it dawned on me that Virgos, at least as far as I see myself as a virgo, are naturally inclined towards this mentality. We are supposed to be objective and sympathetic which is the way I see things. People have misinterpreted my objectivity as negativity; that I am taking the other side but that's not it. I have to distance myself from the arguement to sort things out in my head and then I can look at both sides in a relatively even manner. I guess its hard for people to believe that you can be objective. That was...

Preach on brother. And better than a hundred years lived apathetic & unenergetic, is one day lived energetic & firm. -Dhammapada, 8, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

Words to live by. These are the posts I post for specific people and I know those specific people will never see the posts. Focus, not on the rudenesses of others, not on what they've done or left undone, but on what you have & haven't done yourself. Dhammapada, 4, translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

Its not easy but I try this everyday. “Live in joy, In love, Even among those who hate. Live in joy, In health, Even among the afflicted. Live in joy, In peace, Even among the troubled. Look within. Be still. Free from fear and attachment, Know the sweet joy of the way.” from the Dhammapada

I started this post last summer. I forgot about it but now I have it back. Paste created lots of controversy with this list of 100 living songwriters but I figured it was a good excuse to list some of mine. These are all I can think of off the top of my head. This list is songwriters in the sense of writing words with music. Some of them are more consistent than others but its art who can truely create the same level of consistency all the time? In no particular order: Bruce Hornsby Bruce Cockburn Alejandro Escovedo Neil Young Bob Dylan Talib Kweli Paul Thorn Steve Earle Kim Richey Stevie Wonder William Bell Smokey Robinson Isaac Hayes David Porter Ben Harper David Olney Lucinda Williams Booker T Jones Steve Cropper Warren Haynes Common

Man, do I know some folks who need to memorize this, 'specially that part about seeing danger where there is none. We all anticipate how things sometimes. How things are gonna be and many times we, relying on our own hangups, we create environments and situations that don't need to be the way they are. Ashamed of what's not shameful, not ashamed of what is, beings adopting wrong views go to a bad destination. Seeing danger where there is none, and no danger where there is, beings adopting wrong views, go to a bad destination. Dhammapada, 22, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu