change therapy

every month i delve into the buddhasphere to come up with interesting tidbits in buddhist writing. this time around i was interested in the concept of right action. the poem we start out with today is the famous shin jin mei poem the perfect way knows no difficulties except that it refuses to make preferences; [...]

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the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous are sometimes summarized in these seven words: i can’t god can i better let god these pithy words come from the first three steps: 1. we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable 2. we came to believe that a power greater than [...]

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image by jwinfred

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in the last few weeks, i have had many an occasion to think about humility. here, then, is a buddhist carnival dedicated entirely to humility. this time, i will start with a poem of my own: ha’aha’a: humility. beyond this and that, above servitude, below arrogance, not higher not lower – just that: here i [...]

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do not act from ego. it is a sticky little mouse trap that begins with a wheel running us in circles. get off. (from full on arrival) today is a weird day for me, completely, it seems, driven by ego.  today is june 15, time for a buddhist carnival, like every 15th of the month.  [...]

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it’s a day late but here it is: my monthly buddhist carnival, serving up interesting little tidbits from the buddhist blogosphere. we always start with a poem. how bitter, how blue is the anger! at the bottom of the light in april’s atmospheric strata, spitting, gnashing, pacing back and forth, i am asura incarnate this [...]

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when i was in germany, i picked up a slim little book of poetry, die gebete der demut (prayers of humility) by french poet francis jammes.  he lived from 1868 to 1938.  the poetry foundation says about him that he was … best known for his poetry of the natural world, in which he praised [...]

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it’s been two years now, i think, that i’ve been starting the buddhist carnival with a poem. this one i found when i was rooting around the buddhasphere in connection with the post on mice, death and neuroticism. when i first found the poem, i didn’t really want to post it. it starts like this [...]

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god is not one, for someone with my buddhist and ecumenical leanings, was a bit of a provocative book title so i started reading it with some resistance. was this going to be some rabid right-wing pseudo intellectual trying to persuade me that all gods are bad except his? really, the title of the book [...]

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today on good friday i was going to treat you to a few of my thoughts on christianity and what remains a mystery to me, the person/idea/godhead of jesus. but, inspired by my good friend nancy, today i will leave the mystery to those who express it much better than i. watch these videos with [...]

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this is a guest post by one of my twitter friends, the barking unicorn. “the only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well,” said alfred adler, a colleague of sigmund freud. “most people live in a myth and grow violently angry if anyone dares to tell them the truth about themselves,” said [...]

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recently, i have had numerous little conversation bits on twitter about meaning and meaning making. rather than expound on my ideas here, i’d like to invite you to reflect on the questions below and/or the words of others who have thought about the topic. maybe you’ll come up with your own questions. maybe we can [...]

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it’s january 15, and time to serve up this month’s buddhist carnival, a selection of posts from the buddhasphere.  here is this month’s poem: a first kensho when things abruptly shift like part of the body misaligned by a sharp move when the house goes, or the he or she, any room at once gets [...]

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a while ago evan asked the question how do we talk about our spiritual experience? we had a little discussion about that here. what still remains to be done, however, is for me to actually tell you about my spiritual experiences. let me offer up two stories, and then perhaps you will contribute one of [...]

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these days i really seem to enjoy to quote from books.  here’s one i have talked about before: the priority of love: christian charity and social justice, by timothy p. jackson.  let me give you some quotes. jackson puts the christian virtue of charity in close context of agape.  according to the stanford dictionary of [...]

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