Body Language

I want to share with you a talk given by a social scientist on TED talks:

http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html

if you can watch an MP4 with your computer, it's a pretty short presentation but very moving and useful and I wonder how the information here relates to the poses we use in Awakening Stillness Qigong, I suspect there is at least a correlation.

If you cannot get the talk to download so that you can see the poses, it is basically about taking a power pose in private to increase your dominance hormone (testosterone) and lower your stress hormone (cortisol) take one of these confident postures for two minutes in private, regularly, and watch your confidence and comfort levels rise. Try it! Stand like Wonder Woman with your hands on your hips or raise your arms in a victory salute like a runner at the finish line, and smile. That's all, the body reacts like those things happened for real and you benefit, lasting changes can happen. So fake it til you become it.

Diane Eyerman

in memory of her heroic life and measureless generosity, here are some paintings I would have liked to share with her:

                                       

                                                              

from the Anguttara...

another of the Buddha's teachings:

"There are two kinds of happiness. There is that of an uncommitted life of sensual pleasures, and there is that of a committed life, one of going forth to a new consciousness. Of these, the happiness of going forth is the greater." ~ Buddha, the Tathagata

This does not mean one must ordain to be happy though 'going forth' is often used to mean ordination. Going Forth is to take the step to be alive, to live consciously, not without desire but with desire for happiness and joy for all, with clarity and the happiness of kindness. If repeatedly throughout the day one stops and reflects: "ah, this is life, life is short by nature, what is wondrous and joyful right now?" and makes this a habit, then one is gone forth.

Especially for Mike

here is a link to Root Simple, a clear and easy 5gallon Rocket Stove to cook on - outdoors, of course!

http://www.rootsimple.com/2012/03/a-rocket-stove-made-from-a-five-gallon-metal-bucket/

Palm Paintings

The title makes me think of Palm Pilots and other computer gadgets - but no, these are things the palm trees here shed and are free for picking up all over, they are so pretty, from pink to copper to mahogany, they can be cut with scissors and I just started to play with them. I would love to show you Peggy's work with them too - she uses the piece as it comes off the tree which looks a little like a thorax or breastplate, making beautiful mermaids. Here is a pic of what I have done so far -

from the Itivuttaka...

Ven. picked up "the pocket Buddha reader" edited and translated(?) by Anne Bancroft, at a used book sale. I highly recommend it, so this morning I opened at random and the first thing I had marked was:

"Nunks, (ok, I changed this) this committed life is not lived in order to deceive people, or to convert them. It is not lived for the sake of gain or honor, or reputation or financial profit. There is no idea of "let me draw people's attention to me by being a this or a that." No, nunks, this committed life is lived for the sake of seeing into things and understanding them." 

                              ~From the Itivuttaka of the Pali Canon, the collected teachings of the Buddha.

Like all the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha, this paragraph is like a seed, like an infinitely shrinking set of Russian Dolls, like a cell of our bodies holding all the information needed to create a new one. Though it seems simple at first glance, if it were all that was left it could guide one to finding and following the same principles outlined in the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. This is our job as the Great Determination Sangha, to support each others Practice that we may see into things and understand them.

Why would we do that? Because that effort alleviates suffering, being Noble friends alleviates suffering, understanding things is the alleviation of suffering. The Practice is not the intellectual exercise of learning it is doing and it is fun, it brings joy and when you are enjoying you are not suffering! To live with this joy for even a moment makes life worthwhile. Do it and spread the joy.

Turtles

Some of you have seen the article on Yahoo this morning - a plastic turtle placed in the road by a student trying to figure out how to help more of them survive road crossings, unfortunately the study showed a fair percentage are deliberately run over. Combine this with the recent study showing that kids asked to perform random acts of kindness are happier and reduce the incidence of bullying and we have the solution (which we knew already) Be Kind! and save a life. If you leave someone with a smile they are less likely to harm.