Nanci Griffith - Boots of Spanish Leather

Few people would have the patience for this wonderful song It details the correspondence between two lovers, and their changed relationship.

It is a great Bob Dylan song, tenderly rendered by Nanci Griffith. Enjoy.

What do you hope for in this life?

I recently wrote to a friend that I hoped the Buddha was right about rebirth.

I wished for rebirth so that I would have more lives to do the things which I am not able to do in just one life. For example, I would like to write a great book, and play guitar masterfully, and take award winning photographs. Each of these things I do now, but at such a low level of quality. In other words, I wished for future lives so that I could accomplish the great things that I know I will never do in this one.

However, the last item on my list of things to accomplish was to devote the entirety of my days to the study and experience of Buddhism. Of course, I realized that if this goal had been the first on my list, I would not have wished for anything else -- much less to have wished for rebirth.

It is through living the life of Awakening that leads to Nibbana.

The Dhammapada says that Nibbana is "the highest happiness". This happiness is an enduring, transcendental happiness integral to the calmness attained through Awakening, rather than the happiness derived from impermanent things.

Therefore, my efforts should move me into a direction of permanence (Nibbana), and away from the craving for things which will perish.

The Prayer of the Prophet

"The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran has inspired me through all of my adult life.

In wonderful language, Gibran presents a calm joy of living. It touches on themes of marriage, children, work, religion and death (among many others). Each topic is presented in an easy style and a poetic cadence which reminds me of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Each time I read one of its chapters (or re-read the entire book), it tugs at my heart like no other work I have ever read. It inspires me to joy and wonder; openness and generosity; reverence and respect.

It is not a book about religion, but a book on how to approach life in a truly spiritual way.

(There are online versions of this book, but buy your own copy and keep it close to you, so that you can have a tangible connection to its beauty.)

As an example, here is a short excerpt from Chapter 23, Prayer:

Our God, who art our winged self, it is thy will in us that willeth.
It is thy desire in us that desireth.
It is thy urge in us that would turn our nights, which are thine, into days which are thine also.
We cannot ask thee for aught, for thou knowest our needs before they are born in us:
Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all.

Everlast- Friend

As a body of work, Everlast doesn't suit my nature. However, a simple song and two guitars are always a good thing.

The Karma of Choice

This is about abortion.

While the Buddha did not give a discourse specifically about this topic, I think the views expressed here are consistent with the Buddha's Five Precepts.

The First Precept is, "to abstain from taking life."

What life? All life.

Is abortion a violation of this Precept? I believe that it is; and as such it carries a Karmic consequence. However, I also believe that allowing executions (for which Texas is infamous), and murders with hand guns (16,000 annually) and deaths due to lack of health insurance (20,000 annually) and death due to an illegal occupation (in Iraq, hundreds of thousands) all carry Karmic consequence.

So people perform (or allow) unskillful and unbeneficial acts all of the time. Even those who rail about the "sanctity" of life, while ignoring many forms of "sanctified" killing.

So why is abortion the taking of life? From what I can gather, Buddhists believe that life begins at conception. (We also take a longer view that life began around 4 billion years ago, and that it has been manifested in many ways.)

However, Buddhists would not impose the First Precept exclusively on the female who is faced with this choice. The First Precept applies to us all, including the killing that we do nothing to prevent (by allowing an unjustified war for example).

All killing has a consequence. When someone we care about dies, we attend a funeral service. Perhaps all deaths should be viewed with this same solemnity.

The Fruit of our Character

Nature magically suits the man to his fortune by making these the fruit of his character. -- Ralph W. Emerson

We might experience some difficulty in finding out what we're really like by trying to look inward. But we have only to look about us - at our fortunes - for they are the fruit of our character. You would judge someone the same way you would judge an apple tree: by his fruit, by what he produces.

Any person who has had the chance to live as an adult for any appreciable length of time begins to collect about him what we call his fortunes. They represent a merciless mirror of him as a person. They reflect his nature.

We surround ourselves in an environment and circumstances which reflect us, and which include our true beliefs. No matter how loudly we talk about what we believe in, our circumstances reflect our true beliefs. They show to others what is important to us; they reflect our degree of maturity at any stage of our lives.

As we get older, our environment and circumstances should change to reflect the changing person. If they do not change, it is an indication that we are not changing. If they are not growing in quality, it is an indication that we are not growing and maturing as persons.

A person will grow in proportion to two main conditions: The first is his degree of receptivity to new ideas. The second is the source or sources of ideas; if our sources fortify the ideas that we already live by then there is no growth.

So who are your teachers and how open are you to the learning you must undertake in order to grow? How is that learning bearing the fruit of your life?

Iron and Wine - Naked As We Came

For Daniel . . .

Pirates of the Caribbean [Main Theme] on guitar

Other options for Texans as Antarctica meets Texas!

The Mountains Rolling Upon Us

Then King Pasenadi approached the Blessed One in the middle of the day and, on arrival, having bowed down, sat to one side.

"What do you think, great king? Suppose a man, trustworthy and reliable, were to come to you from the East and on arrival would say: 'If it please your majesty, you should know that I come from the East. There I saw a great mountain, as high as the clouds, coming this way, crushing all living beings in its path. Do whatever you think should be done.'

"Then a second man were to come to you from the West... Then a third man were to come from the North... Then a fourth man were to come to you from the South and on arrival would say: 'If it please your majesty, you should know that I come from the South. There I saw a great mountain, as high as the clouds, coming this way, crushing all living beings in its path. Do whatever you think should be done.'

"If, your majesty, such a great peril should arise, such terrible destruction of human life, what should be done?"

The king replied, "What else should be done but Dhamma-conduct, right conduct, skillful deeds, meritorious deeds?"

The Buddha said, "I inform you, great king, I announce to you, great king: aging and death are rolling in on you. When aging and death are rolling in on you, what should be done?"

"As aging and death are rolling in on me, Lord, what else should be done but Dhamma-conduct, right conduct, skillful deeds, meritorious deeds?"

The Buddha said, "One who practices the Dhamma in thought, word and deed, receives praise here on earth and after death rejoices in heaven."

Antarctica Meets Texas

Texas has a lot of shoreline along the Gulf of Mexico, not much of which is very attractive. For those who have not seen it, imagine a brownish sandpit filled with jellyfish.

As you get a few miles out into the Gulf, and away from the shallow basin of much of our coastline, perhaps it gets a little cleaner and clearer.

But it's that shallow basin and the cities along its shore that has my interest for this post.

The question is what low-lying Texas coastal cities will be affected by the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melting?

Here are the ones which will be totally submerged: All of the sandbar islands, including Galveston and Padre; Port Aransas; many cities in Matagora Bay; Freeport; much of Galveston Bay, including Texas City; and Port Arthur.

Here are the cities impacted: Orange, Beaumont, Houston, Rockport, and Corpus Christi, Brownsville. On the upside, if you don't already own shoreline properties, you will without having to move. So fellow Texans, enjoy your new view!

For more information, see this link and this one (look for the dropdown, where you can select different cities in many of the coastal states).