Enlightened Self Interest
Enlightened Self Interest |
- Enlightened Self Interest
- Honors for Aung San Suu Kyi
- Smiles all around: Pema Chödrön meets President Barack Obama (Photo)
- Sister Giant: A conference on women and politics
| Posted: 20 Sep 2012 09:00 AM PDT  The Dodd at 2014 feet, a mountain for all that. Not every day one gets to walk out of ones front door and climb a mountain! So said my walking companion as we paused at what was probably not the summit of the Dodd pictured above. That was Tuesday and a grand four hours walk it was too. Seven miles? Possibly nudging into eight miles? Possibly. Anyway it was good to get out for an extended walk even though I came down with something, a cold perhaps, hours after getting back to the monastery. Thus my absence from these pages. Sorry. At one point, on our decent of the mountain, I pondered aloud on the question of the motivation behind actions. We talk sometimes about enlightened self interest which I'd take to mean that there is a recognition of an action as having an element of self interest in it. Something gained for oneself. A recognition that the act is 'good' and not primarily motivated by, or driven by, the part that's greedy for itself. Oneself. Now, I don't want to get into grading acts as more or less selfish. Or what is, or could be, a selfless act. This would be silly. Especially since the common everyday understanding of self is a physiological one. Errm, and the Buddhist understanding is that there is no separate self. My question voiced into the air as we descended to the West Allen River was, What marks out the difference between enlightened self interest and un enlightened self interest? A question that went absolutely no where! Even when the intention is otherwise how drawn we are to grade, pin down and find measures to evaluate and judge. Both ourselves and others. There is a hairs breadth between judgmentalism and wise discernment. I have found when veering off track that, when ones basic living intention is clearly and strongly pointing towards the good, there is that within our make up which prompts us, sometimes on a visceral level, to stop and take stock. And redirect. Not so easy to turn around when there is the inertia of time and personal investment involved. Yet possible. We see it in the story told by Giles Duley about himself. See my post and the links within it titled Photographer - a self portrait. Bows to you Giles. Read More @ Source
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| Posted: 19 Sep 2012 07:00 PM PDT Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's tireless democracy leader, was in Washington today — and so was able to personally receive the Congressional Medal she'd been awarded in 2008. Politico has the story, by way of the AP. And via Politico/Reuters: President Obama met with Aung San Suu Kyi as well. Read More @ Source
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| Smiles all around: Pema Chödrön meets President Barack Obama (Photo) Posted: 19 Sep 2012 03:00 PM PDT
On September 13th, Buddhist nun, teacher, and author Pema Chödrön had the opportunity to meet President Barack Obama. There were, as you can see, smiles all around. Below, Glenna Olmsted, Executive Assistant to Pema, tells us about the meeting and how it came to be. It all seemed so surreal to get the call that Ani Pema might get an audience with Barack Obama. Our colleague Pamela Krasney had been trying to make it happen for months — Pema had told Pamela that she had wished for a while now to meet the president. So for the second time in recent weeks, we set it all up to get her to Denver, not knowing if it would really happen this time. But Pema was ready and willing no matter what. On the morning of the meeting, we headed to Golden, Colorado, being guided by "the girl in the box" — as I like to call my GPS. She was relentless in getting us there, interrupting Tsoknyi Rinpoche's teaching on the nature of mind (which came on from my playlist at random as we started our journey). Auspicious, and we got a great chuckle over it all to boot! Finally we met up with our host, Bob Morehouse, at a nearby restaurant so that we could get a place to park, close enough to walk to Pema's checkpoint. All went without a glitch as we checked her in and made our plans to meet up after the rally. We waited until they whisked her away to a security area where she would wait for the President with thirty other lucky folks. The line to get in to the rally was about five blocks long. Unbeknownst to me, mine was a "VIP" ticket, so I was herded in through the maze and ended up right in front of the President's podium. After his speech, I got to shake his hand! Wow! Before he came out to speak, Ani Pema was anxiously awaiting his arrival. When he showed up, he was introduced to each person one by one. When it was Pema's turn and she told him that she was a Buddhist nun, he asked her how long she had been a Buddhist. The thing that most impressed Pema was that he was so present with each person, genuinely asking and kindly listening, and playfully interacting with the children who were there. Pema was so charmed with him that she couldn't remember the rest of their conversation. He gave her a hug and they had their picture taken together. Then she and her newfound friends there were ushered to another VIP section to watch his speech. Needless to say, it was something we will never forget! Read More @ Source 
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| Sister Giant: A conference on women and politics Posted: 19 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT
"People on a spiritual path – personal growth, spiritual practice, recovery, yoga and so forth – are the last people who should be sitting out the great social and political questions of our day," Williamson explains. "And there's an important reason for this: people on such journeys are adepts at change." Click through for more information about the conference, and to watch a video endorsement of the event from yoga teacher Seane Corn, founder of Off the Mat and Into the World. The conference will address the emotional and psychological reasons that keep many women from getting involved in politics, as well as political issues including the United States' high rates of incarceration and child poverty, and the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, which allows anonymous political campaign donations from corporations. That evening, a panel of speakers from five political parties — Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green and Justice — will explain why they think women considering a run for office should do so for their party. Sunday will be an all-day training program about leading a political life from the Women's Campaign School at Yale University. Tickets for the conference are $ 50, with discounts available for students. For more information, visit sistergiant.com. Read More @ Source
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