Milan backs away from granting honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama
Milan backs away from granting honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama |
- Milan backs away from granting honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama
- From the Under 35 Project: The social action of letting go
- “Prayers and preparations at Shambhala Mountain Center as High Park Fire comes within five miles”
- Buddhism along the Silk Road: 5th-8th Century at The Met
- Embrace Change at the Omega Institute, August 3–5
- Letting Go – A Tale of Modern Times; or It’s Just Buddhism All Over Again
- Review: The Five Keys to Mindful Communication
| Milan backs away from granting honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama Posted: 22 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT
Pietro Tatarella, the city council member who first championed the idea, said, "Today, I am ashamed to be a representative of the Council and a city that are scared." Kalsang Dolker, President of the Tibetan community in Italy, said that the move in acquiescence to China will "cover Milan with shame." You can read the full coverage from the Los Angeles Times here. (Photo: www.buddhismus.at via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.) Read More @ SourceMind and Life Institute Overview 
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| From the Under 35 Project: The social action of letting go Posted: 22 Jun 2012 06:00 AM PDT
When I first moved to Washington, DC in November of 2009, I didn't know what to expect. I had only visited briefly as a tourist with my parents a few months prior for the mandatory photos in front of monuments and landmarks. But a burning desire for a change of scenery inspired me to quit my jobs in family law and yoga teaching in Florida, pack all my belongings in two suitcases and buy a one-way ticket to live our Nation's capital. It seemed like a cool city with a good vibe, plus my friend had an empty office nook I could crash in for a while. Adjusting to DC was challenging. I felt out of place in an environment where everyone was so accomplished and successful. In social situations, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was the girl that went to a university no one had ever heard of, I didn't graduate with honors, I spoke only two languages and my limited knowledge of politics was pretty embarrassing. While most of my new friends were off helping refugees, or drafting progressive legislation or finishing up their fourth advanced degree, I was a sitting in front of a computer reviewing documents as a temp with a forgettable law degree. DC was way out of my league. Not that I felt like a complete loser, but a general sense of being underqualified, inadequate and different. Adding to my shortcomings was rarely meeting anyone who wasn't fighting for a particular movement or taking a stand for a noteworthy cause in their spare time. How did these people manage to do it all? In a city where everyone had a platform and a proud flag to wave, I found myself isolated and without much of a voice. I did what anyone struggling to fit in would do. I conformed. My new DC wardrobe consisted of black, gray and navy. I attended boring lectures for the sake of networking and looking smart. I suppressed my sense of humor in order to be serious and appear interested. I pretended to know what people were talking about and resisted the urge to ask questions. I spent countless hours at night Googling and reading articles just to keep up an informed façade. It was exhausting. I didn't bother looking for opportunities to teach yoga because there was no way I could allow it to comingle with this new person I had to be. Anyway, I certainly wasn't good enough to teach in DC. Even the yoga teachers in this town found the time to be activists and run their own non-profit organizations. I also wasn't sure what the repercussions would be if I exposed myself as a yoga teacher in the professional world. I mentioned it in an interview once when responding to a question about how I handle stress and the interviewer gave me puzzled look that said, "Seriously?" It was an honest answer, but the wrong one. As a matter of survival I decided it was best to take a break from teaching. Thankfully, our true nature doesn't stay closeted for long. At the same time I was running around in itchy dark suits and unpolished fingernails, I discovered a wonderful vipassana community near my home. I couldn't fully disconnect myself from a practice that felt so right to me. The ability to sit, breathe and be still helped me realize just how ridiculous it all was. I was tired of not being me. I accepted the truth, which was that I didn't give a damn. I had no interest in belonging to anyone's movement or being associated with any cause. I didn't want to fit in or do as the Romans just because I was in the center of it all. Gradually, I was able to let go of the expectations I had set for myself. What was liberating about it was that no one else gave a damn either. This is what meditation teaches us—it's all in our minds. I could do whatever I wanted and people would like me just the same. Somewhere along the way I forgot that the most important reform begins within. My right to inner peace should be the ultimate cause I decide to take a stand for. If I don't, no one else will. After nearly a year of not teaching yoga, I reached out to a local studio that welcomed me with open arms. It was scary at first, but it felt right, like I finally belonged again. I may not get to wake up in the mornings to save the environment or mobilize voters, but at the end of every week for 75 minutes, I am blessed to stand before a class of 20-40 yogis and participate in a mini-revolution. I can express gratitude to all the advocates in DC who fight daily for equality and progress. They are what make it such a great place. When all is said and done, what I care about has nothing to do with saving the world, but whether I've treated people kindly, and lived genuinely from a place of love, fearlessness and understanding. It's a work in progress and I'm not always successful, but I commit to it every day. I still go to boring lectures in itchy suits, but now my sense of humor and blue nail polish come with me.
To see the rest of our Under 35 Project posts, click here. And to learn how you can get involved, visit the project's website. Read More @ Source
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| “Prayers and preparations at Shambhala Mountain Center as High Park Fire comes within five miles” Posted: 21 Jun 2012 05:00 PM PDT From Shambhala International president Richard Reoch comes an update entitled "Prayers and preparations at Shambhala Mountain Center as High Park Fire comes within five miles": "Six short videos of the visit, showing the situation on the land, the preparations being made by the staff, and practices inside the Stupa, are now posted on Shambhala Mountain Center's YouTube page." Read More @ Sourceช็อคโกแลต Chocolate - Building Ledge End Fight Scene 7 
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| Buddhism along the Silk Road: 5th-8th Century at The Met Posted: 21 Jun 2012 02:00 PM PDT  Photo via metmuseum.org New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently exhibiting "Buddhism along the Silk Road: 5th-8th Century" until February 10, 2013 at Gallery 251. The exhibit, which opened on June 2, features paintings, sculptures and gold objects from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central Asia, including a head of the Buddha from Afghanistan. Comprised exclusively of holdings of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the installation "examines a network of interacting Buddhist communities from North India, Kashmir, and Northwest Pakistan (Gandhara and the Swat Valley)." Photos and descriptions of the items in the exhibit are available here. Read More @ SourceHis Holiness - The XIV Dalai Lama 
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| Embrace Change at the Omega Institute, August 3–5 Posted: 21 Jun 2012 01:00 PM PDT
Change is an integral part of life, yet so often we fear it. When we resist change—sometimes even necessary and beneficial change—we undermine our confidence in ourselves and our world. That's why the Shambhala Sun and the Omega Institute are collaborating to present Embracing Change in Your Life: What the Buddhists Teach, a weekend course about practical Buddhist tools for dealing with all sorts of change. Led by Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Joan Sutherland, and Narayan Liebenson Grady—great teachers from the Tibetan, Zen and Theravada traditions—the workshop uses presentations, meditation and discussion to help participants open themselves to change, and develop new ways of working with painful changes. The workshop runs from August 3 – 5 at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, and is open to both longtime practitioners and those new to Buddhism. Tuition is $ 395; more information and online registration are available here. Read More @ SourceROAD FROM MANDALAY Mandalay To Pagan By Boat 
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| Letting Go – A Tale of Modern Times; or It’s Just Buddhism All Over Again Posted: 21 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT  I'm pretty sure that accepting life's impermanence is one of the hardest lessons any one of us will ever have to learn. Some of us may never learn it. The good thing is we have daily opportunities to practice until we finally come to peace with impermanence.
Buddha Thus Have I Heard - 36 โปรดพกาพรหม 
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| Review: The Five Keys to Mindful Communication Posted: 21 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT  Susan Gillis Chapman is a therapist with a MA in Buddhist and Western Psychology. Her Buddhist teachers have included Chogyam Trungpa and Pema Chodron. She has worked for ten years with abused women and their children in the field of domestic violence, and is the founder of Greenlight Communications. The Five Keys to Mindful Communication is a book about how to develop better listening skills, inspired by both Buddhist and Western forms of psychology. Chapman sees communication as the essence of human relationships, and this book is therefore as much about relationships as it is about communication skills. She sees an increased ability in listening as the key to better communities and societies, where through really listening to each other, people can learn to appreciate each other's needs as well as their own. At the heart of this process is mindfulness: "Mindful-communication training isn't directed at intimate relationships alone. It is a personal journey that uses the sensitive emotional ups and downs of everyday conversations as a path of self-discovery. The awakens of our natural communication system is a thread that runs through every moment of our lives. Practicing mindfulness helps us notice this truth. We can observe ourselves opening and closing in small ways throughout the day." (The Five Keys to Mindful Communication, p! .13) The basic premise of this book is that if a person lives from a "we-first" perspective rather than a "me-first" viewpoint, both that person and those that he or she come into contact with will benefit. In the "me-first" scenario, it's all about the first person, the personality that most of us take ourselves to be. In contrast, the "we-first" way of living is not to mindlessly live from an egocentric perspective, but to live from an open mindfulness. This selfless knowing reduces the sense of self that separates me & you, thereby encouraging a more we-centered attitude. The starting point for this revolution in our lifestyles, Chapman writes, is meditation & reflection. For, when we are able to observe our mental processes and habitual responses, we are in apposition to change the negative ones for more positive, "we-first" ones. According to Chapman, the way to mindful communication is what she calls the 'five key elements,' which are silence, mirroring, encouraging, discerning, and responding. These skills enable us to listen more deeply, both to ourselves and to others. This two-way mindfulness is crucial, for as Chapman notes, to be truly open to ourselves is to be more receptive to others as well, for in real openness the barriers of sell and not-self break down, replaced with a genuine heart-to-heart communication. Writing of an experience that was paramount in her own mindful development, Chapman writes: "First, I realized how I distort my view of other people when I'm reacting defensively. I! also sa w that when i can open up and see another person in a fresh way, my own self-image transforms. On the surface, these two insights might not seem to be that a big deal. Not as exciting as a dog and a hungry bear rolling in play. But learning how to switch out of defensiveness into a more humorous, receptive state of mind is a big deal - it is the key to happy, harmonious relationships and communities." (Ibid. p.3) Useful techniques that the author suggests to help in this process of opening up involve labeling listening as either green-light, red-light or yellow-light patterns. This form of mindfulness involves being aware of the mind and not merely blindly responding to other people with habitual tendencies. The author describes green-light listening as when we are able to hear what the other person is saying clearly, without our own reactions interfering with our understanding. Red-light is when we don't want to listen, or when we are distracted to the point that we cannot hear them. Yellow-light listening is when there is confusion as to whether real listening is taking place or not. One example of this is when we feel we are not being listened to, and then a sense of being rejected can set in. These listening patterns develop over years and help shape our relationships with other people. In the following extracts, firstly Chapman advises us how to use these different kinds of 'lights,' and in the second extract gives an example of the contrast between red-light and green-light listening: "Here's a quick summary of these three steps: 1. Go with the green light: R! eflectin g like a mirror, to validate what you hearing by repeating the words back 2. Stop at the red light: Keep a we-first approach by refraining from harming someone's reputation. 3.When the yellow light is flashing, be encouraging: Replay the hidden gold in the story you heard by rewording it with unconditional positive regard." (Ibid. p.56) "Red-light Pattern: Body: When I see you holding the baby, Interpretation: I think you don't love me anymore. Red-light emotion: I get angry and want revenge. Justification: I tell myself that I have the right to equal time Green-light pattern: Awake-body: When I see you holding the body, Tender heart: I feel longing and sadness. Open mind: I'm curious about the changes in our relationship and afraid of where they may lead." (Ibid. p.99) This is a useful ! book. It has many strategies & techniques to transform negative ways of listening and responding to others into very positive ones. As an experienced marriage and family therapist, Chapman cites many examples of how people have been victims of their own negative listening habits. She illustrates how this causes misunderstanding & conflict between people in the closest of relationships. And, crucially, she suggests practical ways to move out of these destructive patterns of behavior into more creative and truly communicative relationships. It seems doubtful to this reviewer that the Five Keys to Mindful Communication will lead to enlightenment and the deep wisdom of the Buddha, but then this does not appear to be the objective of the book. Rather, it takes certain aspects of traditional Buddhist practice, such as meditation & mindfulness, and presents them in ways that modern, often non-Buddhist people, can use to great fact in their lives. In this sense, this book is more valuable than a work of Buddhist philosophy in the hands of someone that doesn't ply it to their lives. Susan Chapman has, therefore, written a book that we can use in our lives, creating happier relationships not based on me-first, but on we-first. Title & Author : The Five Keys to Mindful Communication, by Susan Gillis Chapman Publishers : Shambhala Publications Page Count : 224 Price : $ 15.95 ISBN : 9781590309414 Web Link : Shambhala Publications  
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