This post shares some highlights of a daily, self-assigned, homework exercise to explore the role of imagination in my day-to-day life. This blog is a direct continuation of the previous post, The Tyranny of Imagination; if you haven’t already done so, please head back and read it before proceeding. I was planning a little weekend getaway with Eric. I thought to myself, this is what I think my retirement/perfect future with…
The Tyranny of Imagination
After the Kathina ceremony, while I was helping clean-up at the Wat, I started talking with LP Nut about managing my anxiety. Something he said really hit me: Everything I worry about — my cancer-de-jour, financial ruin, heart attacks, house fires, a life without Eric — it all comes from my imagination. My dis-ease arises in myself (thanks #4). Not quite buying the premise, I retorted that there are events in life…
Can the Real Object Please Step Forward?
One of my coworkers has a dog, named Pizza, whose frequent trips to the office are a delight for everyone — he is so cute and loving, always ready to play and help take the edge off a stressful workday. Pizza is my doggie ideal; a fluffy little Schnauzer mix, that is more fur than dog. Until, one day, when he wasn’t… One morning, I heard the jingle of Pizza’s…
Redux: Goodbye Goyard Part 2
Dear Reader – this blog is a direct continuation of the preceding blog, Goodbye Goyard Part 1. If you have not yet read that post then please go back and read it before you start on this next entry. I am looking around myself at all these items I have laid out to consign, each one telling me a truth about myself and about this world. A part of me so desperately wants to hang on to many of these items, a purse I may…
Redux: Goodbye Goyard Part 1
Dear Reader, I am republishing putting this blog, which originally ‘aired’ back in Nov 2018, to put it into chronological sequence. I hope the redux, in its original context, provides additional insight. I was thinking about the upcoming Kathina ceremony, an important holiday in the Buddhist tradition, and decided I really wanted to make an offering to the temple – to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha – that means something special to me. It’s hard to explain, but I felt like money alone simply wouldn’t do. Sometimes, when I give…
Redux: A SLAVE TO MY STUFF
Dear Reader, the next few blogs are reduxes — blogs which originally ‘aired’ back in fall 2018 which I am put it into chronological sequence. I hope these reduxes, in their original context, provide additional insight. I was recently in Boston and took a guided tour of the Black Heritage Trail, a path that links more than 15 pre-Civil War sites important in African-American history; the stories of American abolitionists (folks who…
Things Will be Different When I Learn to Breathe Fire
My friend was antsy to travel, but after asking everyone in our social circle, she couldn’t find anyone who would agree to be her travel partner. Finally, she asked me. She expressed her longing to see the world, and her disappointment that since her divorce, she had no one to join her. She told me of her deep desire to spend time with me, to feel connected. She was so…
You Should Have Know Better
A note on timing: The next few blogs are from contemplations that took place during the 2018 Vassa Period. In other words, they are interspersed in time with the ‘fact finding’ activities posted in the previous blog section. In a few, you can clearly see the influence of my ongoing activities exploring impermanence, control and my sense of specialness. Yesterday a friend told me that a mutual acquaintance of ours,…
Daily Evidence Exercises: Impermanence, Control and Special — October Part 3
This blog is the part of a series where I will share a selection of the daily dhamma data collection/ exercises, which I committed to for the 2018 Vassa period. Today’s selection will all be highlights from the month of October, 2018. For more details on the exercise and commitment, please see the this blog. Impermanence Today I saw two twin looking trees in a field. The same type of tree…
Daily Evidence Exercises: Impermanence, Control and Special — September Part 2
This blog is part of a series where I will share a selection of the daily dhamma data collection/ exercises, which I committed to for the 2018 Vassa period. Today’s selection will all be highlights from the month of September, 2018. For more details on the exercise and commitment, please see this blog. Impermanence I had a particularly difficult client for my business and I decided I was going to ask…