One day I went shopping at Costco and brought my son along. I knew he liked the pizza there so I asked him if I bought him a pizza would he eat it all week until it was finished. Of course he had a big smile and said yes. So I bought him one. Later in the day he started to misbehave so I said to him, “I guess you…
When I started to date my wife, I spent time in Thailand and learned about Buddhism. I remember one of the questions I had was about karma. Even before I was practicing Buddhism, I “believed” in that. Even as a Born-again Christian, I believed that “you will reap what you sow.” I remember a conversation I had with a friend about her friend taking advantage of her. I told her…
Last December, I bought a special coffee tumbler from Starbucks. It allowed me to get coffee from Starbucks for the month of January. The cup cost $40 and being an accountant, I figured if I got one cup of coffee a day for January, that would be 31 free cups times $2.50/cup for a total value of $77.50, so I would save $37.50 if I bought the cup, so I…
In a previous blog spoke about perceptions and how it affected my life and prevented me from experiencing life or fairly assessing situations. Last December I received a call from a company I do contracting work for. They asked me if I would like to travel to Milwaukee the following week. In a flash I envisioned myself getting into an accident because I would be driving in heavy snow. It…
So on the night before Valentine’s Day, I ask my son if he got anything for mom. He said no. He wasn’t planning anything. As usual, I asked him why and as usual he said “I don’t know.” I then proceeded to lecture him about how we sacrifice for him and take care of him and he was not appreciative of what we do for him. I noticed that he…
In Buddhism class, LP Anan told us a story. A man and his friend decided to ordain with the Buddha because they were fascinated with his teachings. After they were ordained they talked about how to practice. One man wanted to be a scholar and his friend wanted to go into the forest to practice on his own. The first man became a scholar of Buddhism. He was one of…
When I was in New York, last October, I had black out shades in my room. The first night I didn’t use them because I didn’t know about them. My sister told me that’s why they woke up so late (that combined with jetlag). On the second night there, I used the black out shades. My alarm went off at 630am and I laid in bed listening to the news…
After arriving at my place in Bangkok last February and switching on the wi-fi in the condo, I saw that I missed a call from Meaw (my wife). I called her back. She told me that her car woouldn’t start. I asked her a bunch of question and had her start the car and let me listen. It sounded like the battery was low. I remember Toyota telling me that…
One day Jason was doing homework on the computer. He was doing online lessons on a website that the school told him to go to. When I was walking out to where he was studying, I saw that he closed a window on his computer. When I questioned him about it he said he didn’t close a window. I know what I saw and I knew that he was lying….
Once I was vacationing in Thailand and while I was walking back to my place in Bangkok, I noticed a truck in the side street that led to my place. It was carrying a large metal frame object. It was stopped and holding up traffic because it couldn’t get pass low hanging wires. I saw a person on top of the truck wrapping a wire around the tangled wires. I…