LVbianSynic recently posted a video for Mr. Anonymous and called for any responses that might offer up some words of understanding, I believe. This blog is about hearing of my father's death and grieving   more...for it differently than others. I also talk about a classmate in high school who died in a car accident and how I attempted to physically grieve for her after hearing that news.

"The Day Dad Died"

I'm in a good mood:
plans to make sushi are underway.
Illustrated cookbook open
demonstrating how to prepare
California roll, Avocado roll,
and Smoked Salmon roll.
I measure Koshihikari rice,
tinkling like seed beads into
the metal cup, rinse thoroughly,
then pour one and a fourth
cups of tap water into a pan,
set it on the stove's eye.
I've not yet turned on the heat.

I hold the cup of rice in my hand
when the phone rings. I answer.
Mom speaks. "Okay," I say.
She hangs up. I sit still.

On the stove four days later
sits the saucepan of water,
on the counter the cup
of measured sticky rice,
waiting to be slow-cooked
and formed into sushi rolls.
I pour the water down the drain,
water tapping the metal pan,
echoing Taps, and return
the rice to its container,
and leave the kitchen.

I have not made sushi since  less

just a video i like most regarding emptiness...

I feel
I feel anguish
No control
the dark growing inside of me
I feel
no goal, no direction, no use
I don't feel
I feel nothing
EMPTY

You've accomplished a lot, achieved success in your career, acquired many of your most desired possessions, scratched a number of your itches, and fulfilled most of your earlier dreams. You're well on   more...your way to where you have been trying to be for so long, and now your question is: "Why do I continue to feel that something is missing...?"  less

Learn more about this philosophy here.....

This short video is from the 1970's TV series "Kung Fu". It tells the adventures of a fictional Shaolin priest who wanders the American Wild West. The   more...teachings of the Shaolin were meticulously researched for this series, making it one of the most authentic interpretations of the Taoist philosophy in popular culture.

This is another clip from "The Hoots" episode. Here we see Caine (David Carradine) recalling Master Po's (Keye Luke) rendition of chapter 11 of the Tao Te Ching. This sacred Taoist text reminds us that a cup would have no purpose if it did not have space within itself in which liquid could be contained. A wheel would be useless without the emptiness at its centre in which an axel can be inserted. A room would be unusable without the space created in the walls for a doorway and window. All these features can be thought of as emptiness; yet it is this very space or nothingness that makes the material aspects of these objects useful.

Emptiness is one of the most intriguing concepts in Taoist philosophy and it parallels many of the discoveries made by modern physics. Most of us wouldn't ordinarily give emptiness a second thought, dismissing it as irrelevant and serving no purpose. We generally believe only material things have value. We see space, nothing, silence, non-material, inaction and subtleness as useless. Therefore we live in a world where everything is pushed to capacity, filled beyond what is required and forced until destroyed.

Chapter 11 concludes by telling us to be useful by becoming empty. In common vernacular this simply means not being "full of yourself". It is only when we are free of self-interest that we are truly able to offer an impartial and sympathetic ear. All too often what is past off as benevolence is merely an ego imposing its own arbitrary standards onto others. Genuine compassion can only be achieved by a self empty of ego.

On another level, emptiness is the fundamental ground state of all physical things. We usually assume everything is made of smaller things of ever decreasing size. Our bodies are constructed of cells; the cells are constructed from DNA; the DNA is constructed from molecules; and molecules are constructed from atoms. Atoms are usually thought of as solid spheres; but this is not the case. Atoms are essentially an empty vacuum containing a massive amount of pulsating energy.

Consequently for the most part we are emptiness, as are all material things. This is only difficult to imagine because we are so convincingly deceived by our sensory awareness. If we were able to experience this underlying reality first hand, we would know emptiness unites us all. Naturally this is the purpose of meditation; to see through the illusion of one's sensory awareness and have a firsthand account of emptiness.

Nevertheless we are all able to look out into the night sky on a cloudless evening and see the vast emptiness of space. From this it seems evident that emptiness is the Universe's most dominant feature; yet the significance of this escapes us.

To learn more about emptiness, meditation, the Tao Te Ching or the Taoist philosophy, please visit my website: www.yinyangnature.com
or my Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/yinyangnature  less

Special perceptions, masters and clear-light, Essential Nous or Optic Neuritis?

allowing pornography on the internet is to no one's advantage or betterment, everyone loses with it and the dignity of men and women becomes a derision. I am sorry for those who believe in such filth

Lama Marut here advises us to work at least as hard for our spiritual goals as we do for our professional advancement, money, or relationships. He reviews the three obstacles that stand in our way:   more...laziness, attraction to bad things, and low self-esteem.

This videocast is taken from a teaching given in Los Angeles in November of 2007.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less

Learning how to meditate and developing wisdom about how the world is really working are, according to the Buddhist texts, altruistic and compassionate activities. If you want to change the world you   more...have to understand that the only way to do it is to change yourself into a more selfless person.

This videocast is taken from a teaching given at the Mahasukha Center in Los Angeles in December of 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less

Real renunciation means giving up suffering and its causes. We can start by not continually putting our eggs in the wrong baskets and, realizing there is no certainty in secular things, relaxing about   more...change itself.

This videocast is taken from a teaching given at The Waldorf School, Los Angeles, in December of 2007.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less

Lama Marut here urges us to stop being diverted (through watching television, for example, over four hours a day on average) and remember our real purpose and mission.

This videocast is taken from a teaching   more...given at the annual Windhover retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, in August of 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less

Why do things happen the way they do to us? Lama Marut here goes through specific correlations between karmic cause and effect and the general principles behind them, and then urges us to learn to take   more...responsibility for everything that occurs in our lives.

This videocast is taken from a teaching given The Waldorf School, Los Angeles, in December of 2007.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less

Lama Marut reviews the cause and effect “chain of pain.” It starts with the ignorant seeds we carry into this life from previous lives which then ripen and forces us to think of things ignorantly and   more...react to them ignorantly – which causes us to create the causes for more suffering. We break the cycle through cultivating wisdom about where likeable and dislikeable things in our lives really come from.

This videocast is taken from a teaching given at the Mahasukha Center in Los Angeles in December 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less

Lama Marut here discusses several of the qualities of a spiritual warrior – learning to live an ethical life so as to change your conception of the kind of person you are, and developing patience in the   more...face of provocation.

This videocast is taken from a teaching given at the Mahasukha Center in Los Angeles in December of 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less

Lama Marut here advises us to “relax into the insecurity” of life. Everything is changing and impermanent, and a little bit of wisdom about this goes a long way in aid of a happier life.

This videocast   more...is taken from a teaching given at the annual Windhover retreat in Rockport, Massachusetts, in August of 2007.

For Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to:
http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

For other teachings, please go to:
http://www.aci-la.org and
http://www.lamamarut.org  less

Lama Marut here explains why the proper, human response to people who hurt you is not anger or the desire for vengeance but rather compassion.

This videocast is taken from a teaching given in June 2009   more...at the Three Jewels in Tucson, Arizona.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less

A very important spiritual practice is to simply re-identify ourselves – as a kind, compassionate, happy person instead of a suffering schmuck. Additionally, when we encounter others we have a choice   more...between two unconfirmable assumptions.  less

What are the components of a good daily practice? Lama Marut reviews the basics, including meditation every morning, checking your morality all day long, doing something for others, and daily study of   more...a sacred text.  less

A religious practitioner must have a high degree of tolerance for cognitive dissonance, for the truth often seems to us (ignorant ones) as paradoxical. This videocast is taken from a teaching given in   more...Los Angeles, November of 2007.  less

Lama Marut here reviews the various kinds of karmic consequences of our actions, providing specific correlations between causes and effects. This videocast is taken from a teaching given at The Waldorf   more...School, Los Angeles, in December of 2007.  less

Tran thi Kim Phuong Vang sanh (Mrs. Kim Phuong thi Tran was born in the Western Pure Land)
Dear English reader, you can visit this website to know more about Buddhism, especially Pureland Buddhism: www.TrueHappiness.ws

Cu Ho thi Lan Vang sanh 2 (Mrs. Lan thi Ho was born in Western Pure Land, part 2)
Dear English reader, you can visit this website to know more about Buddhism, especially Pureland Buddhism: www.TrueHappiness.ws
  more...  less

Chuyen Vang sanh cua cu Ho thi Lan (Mrs. Lan thi Ho was born in Western Pure Land)
Dear English reader, you can visit this website to know more about Buddhism, especially Pureland Buddhism: www.TrueHappiness.ws

The purpose of a spiritual path is to lead the practitioner to happiness. The authentic and time-tested traditions work – they deliver the goods. But the false religion of consumer capitalism cannot   more...bring the happiness we seek in it, and we are living proof of that. We got everything the ideology promised and were not made happy as a result.

This videocast is taken from a public talk at the Bodhi Tree Bookstore in Los Angeles in December of 2007.

For Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to:

http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html


For other teachings, please go to:

http://www.aci-la.org

and

http://www.lamamarut.org  less

Can we prove that our spiritual teacher or guru is an Enlightened Being? Do we really know for sure, somehow, that our teacher is not a Buddha? Our preconceptions about what an Enlightened Being should   more...look like prevent us from seeing our teacher for who he or she really is. The process of “guru yoga” is learning to be the teacher. If you see the teacher as perfect, you will become that.

This videocast is taken from a Diamond Mountain University course on the Bhagavad Gita taught in Tucson, Arizona, in the winter of 2008.

Write to us at: podcast@aci-la.org

To subscribe to Lama Marut’s audio podcasts please go to: : http://aci-la.org/mg-podcasts.html

Visit Lama Marut's Blog at: http://www.lamamarut.org

For complete audio teachings, please go to: http://www.aci-la.org  less