Whew

I'm back. Well, sort of. At least I'm trying to be. Lots to do, between work, home and little people. Anyway - I'm out here. Listening. ^_- Hopefully soon to be posting more.

Blunt honesty time: It can be intimidating for me, sometimes, trying to decide if what I have to say is interesting in the slightest, ya know? Sometimes I get hung up in a lack of self confidence. Lots of Buddhist thinking, musings, and questions cross my mind, but there's this crabby, cowed-acting corner of my mind that tells me that it's egotistical to think that anyone would be interested in my blogged contemplations. This has been a huge block to me lately, when it comes to writing.

Loyalty?

Just a quick post - have a lot of thoughts bumping around in my head right now, but no cohesive order to them yet. However, I found an interesting link on lotusinthemud I thought was worth pointing out. Apparently, a Quaker teacher was fired for changing her loyalty oath to reflect her nonviolent spiritual views.

A New Day...

...well, after a fashion, at least. Time for another, more concerted effort, on a lot of fronts, including everyday life.

For the moment - I found something interesting on lotusinthemud today:

facing our own boredom, impatience, and fears

Having an initial good look round is a good idea but pick'n'mix isn't Buddhist training:

If we do a little of one kind of practice and a little of another, the work we have done in one often doesn't continue to build as we change to the next. It is as if we were to dig many shallow wells instead of one deep one. In continually moving from one approach to another, we are never forced to face our own boredom, impatience, and fears. We are never brought face to face with ourselves. So we need to choose a way of practice that is deep and ancient and connected with our hearts, and then make a commitment to follow it as long as it takes to transform ourselves.

~ Jack Kornfield in A Path with Heart

So, interesting food for thought, and an interesting counterpoint/addition to The Buddhist Blog's latest post.

Onions and No-Self

I've always thought of personal and spiritual growth as peeling back layers of an onion. The more you peel away, the closer you get to the heart of the onion. When I think about ideas of non-self, I extend this into a little joke - for if you peel away all the layers of an onion, there's nothing left.

Not very original, I'm sure, but it's something I've been thinking of.

Onion image courtesy of cobalt123.

The Quote I'm Chewing On, Currently:

When starting to practice, be eager like a deer
trapped in a pen seeking to get out.
In the middle be like a farmer during harvest
not waiting for anything.
In the end be like a shepherd who has
brought the flock home.
-- Paltrul Rinpoche's Sacred Word

I wish I understood precisely what he was saying. I guess having the context of the entire work would be nice, but I found it isolated in a dharma book I'm reading right now. So I guess I'll have to just think about it.

A Brief Thought...

Not really/specifically a Buddhist one, but here's something interesting I found today:

People are often drawn to the beliefs that provide the most comfort, rather than those that best correspond to reality. -- Sherry F. Colb