Every
day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to have woken up, I am
alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it, I am
going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out
to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings, I am
going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry
or think badly about others, I am going to benefit others as much as I
can.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Throughout this week, while everyone's mind was on the upcoming holiday and the four day weekend, I found myself slightly distracted, trying to figure how to address the next of the Six Paramitas and how it applies to the workplace.
The fifth of the Six Paramitas (in the Mahayana tradition) is dhyana, which Thich Nhat Hanh calls "the perfection of meditation." I've also seen it described as concentration, mindfulness, and mental stability. I was feeling a little stuck on the topic, not really clear on how exactly it applies to what we've been talking about. How does dhyana help me in my business?
I sat down at my computer to do a little reading on this topic and realized I first needed to check the most recent comments on Jerry Kolber's Sarah Palin Post. So I looked over those for a few minutes, worrying about whether the comments I'd previously posted were okay, or did they reveal me to be an awful human being. I reexamined my comments for a few seconds and then it hit me that I hadn't looked at Facebook in a little while.
As talk turns to turkey, pilgrims, stuffing, and Black Friday, I offer you the best and most accurate children's Thanksgiving
presentation I've ever seen, in the spirit of a favorite book of mine Lies My Teacher Told Me.
I've learned a lot more about actual American history in the past ten
years than I did in my entire thirteen years in the public school
system. It's not always pretty, but it's good to know where our
assumptions come from
This year, my Thanksgiving theme is "enough". I'm nearly done reading Lynne Twist's terrific book The Soul of Money, and she makes a great point throughout about moving from a you-or-me world to a you-and-me world. It's all about questioning your own assumptions about what abundance and wealth means.
Engagement with others too often becomes over-simplified into what is usually labelled the liberal attitude of "I feel guilty for having what you don't have so let me give you some" vs. the attitude frequently labelled conservative which goes "I worked my butt off for what I've got so you better earn yours too."
I've always been fascinated by multiple personality disorder (or dissociative identity disorder, as it is now properly called). My fascination increased a couple of years ago when I read a rather lurid book called The Myth of Sanity: Divided Consciousness and the Promise of Awareness: Tales of Multiple Personality. It's a good read (in part because it's quite sensationalized: "... he did not survive it as only one child; he became several children, and these children divvied up the horror, and made it survivable . . ."). But of even greater interest, in terms of relevance to dharma, was an article I revisited recently, entitled "First Person Plural," published in the Atlantic last year.
Although it does not explicitly mention Buddhism, the piece works through one of the major concerns treated in Buddhism--the exploration of the self and the complications involved therein. It seems that disassociatve identify disorder has forced psychologists and philosophers to grapple with many of the same considerations that we Buddhists have for thousands of years. The author, Paul Bloom, a professor of psychology at Yale University, observes (emphasis mine):
Thanksgiving, a particularly American holiday, is coming up on Thursday.
What are we giving thanks for? What am I grateful for? What are you grateful for? These kinds of questions get asked a lot around this time of year. I try to compose a gratitude list almost every day, but I won't do that here--I figure it is a pretty common practice among beliefnet readers and is/will be/has been much discussed in many other beliefnet blogs.
Since One City is a buddhist blog, I'd like to look at gratitude from the viewpoint of a couple of buddhist teachings. Since Thanksgiving is an American holiday, I'd like to look at how American and buddhist intersect around the holiday for me this year.
1) Gratitude reflection #1: From the Tibetan tradition, I'm familiar with an interesting list of 10 (or 18) conditions necessary for practicing the dharma.
by Ethan Nichtern(for more information on the Interdependence Project, visit http://theidproject.org)I'll admit it, I've been listening to Lady Gaga this last week. Her new album The Fame Monster is out today. Call it a Bad Romance, and call me a...
by Lodro RinzlerBefore Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment at age 35 he was a confused twenty and thirty-something looking to learn how to live a spiritual life. He had an overbearing dad, expectations for what he was supposed to do with his life, drinks...
By Stillman BrownI had a fight with a close friend last week, one of those wrenching, existential blowouts where you argue each other in to a kind of hysteria of extreme positions and begin asking yourself, "who is this person?...
by Davee Evans When I saw this clock created by artist Bertrand Planes, I thought every Buddhist household needs one. I'd put mine right by the door, so I couldn't miss it as I left for work each morning....
How amazing is Stevie Wonder? Check out this performance from 1973. I like to imagine myself watching this at age 3, but chances are I was watching Sesame Street. So what in the heck does this have to do with...
by Jerry Kolber, www.ThreeDollarDinner.com. For more about the IDP check out The Interdependence Project.Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue has just come out and she's using the release as another opportunity to prove why she is just anther in a long...
by Paul GriffinThe tantric teachings on the subtle or energetic body were an aspect of the dharma to which I responded very strongly when I first discovered Buddhism. Why? Two reasons. First, I found that I basically lived my entire...
by Jon RubinsteinI've been writing elsewhere about the Charter for Compassion which launched on November 12. The Charter is the fulfillment of Karen Armstrong's 2008 Ted prize and comes from Armstrong's observation that every religion, without exception, shares a central...
by Rafi Santo, Director of the Interdependence Project's Integral Activism ProgramIn an unprecedented historical act, Ajahn Brahm (full name: Ajahn Brahmavamso), a senior monk in the Thai Forest Tradition of Theravadin Buddhism, conducted a full ordination at his Australian monastery...
By Evelyn Cash Over the past few weeks I've been taking a step back and revisiting some of the very basic teachings of the Buddha. I think it can be helpful from time to time to go back and...
by Lodro RinzlerBefore Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment at age 35 he was a confused twenty and thirty-something looking to learn how to live a spiritual life. He had an overbearing dad, expectations for what he was supposed to do with his life, drinks...
Volunteer (and One City blogger) Paul Griffin with the streets to himself at dawnBy Stillman BrownFor 24 hours last Friday and Saturday volunteers from the ID Project sat in the large display windows at ABC Carpet & Home at the...
by Patrick GronemanLast weekend I continued my search for a spiritual practice by taking part in the Zen Mountain Monastery's "Intro to Zen Training" Retreat, a weekend toe dipping into the Mountain and Rivers Order manifestation of Soto and Rinzai...
In a shocking twist, I'm not going to post the Guns 'n Roses video here. The lyrics just don't have that much to do with what we're talking about. We've been discussing the Six Paramitas, as they're called in the...
Handmade crafts marketplace Etsy's blog The Storque highlights one of their vendors, Zeke, who recycles glass bottles and makes them into glasses, carafes, and planters. Zeke seems like a great example of living Right Livelihood. To Zeke, Right Livelihood is...
by Jerry Kolber, special to the Herald, author: Three Dollar DinnerOver the past few weeks I have been incredibly aware of co-incidents. The power of coincidence seems to be playing a large role in my life and I am wondering...
by Ethan NichternI thought this was a good patriotic quote for Veterans Day:For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: Hatred ceases by love alone, this is an eternal law.-The DhammapadaSayings of the BuddhaMy Thought of the Day:...
by Greg ZwahlenI don't mean to take anything away from U.S. war veterans, but I think this quote from Kurt Vonnegut (in Breakfast of Champions) is apt this morning:When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations...
by Greg Zwahlen People study meditation and Buddhism for all sorts of reasons, with varying levels of interest. That said, it seems safe to say that the vast majority have modest aspirations for it, modest levels of interest in it, and...
I sat the graveyard shift at the meditation marathon. The 3 am drunkards definitely served as mara-demon quality distractions. Reminded me of Milarepa meditating in his cave:...
by Ellen ScordatoSO much to say about the Interdependence Project 24-hour meditation marathon in the windows of ABC Carpet & Home, a high-end home furnishings store in Manhattan, this weekend.My angle here: Was this anything more than a stunt, from...
By Stillman BrownIf you live in New York, take a stroll by ABC Home and Carpet at Broadway and 19th St. before tomorrow at 7PM to lend your support (or just say hi) to the ID Project's Sit Down Rise...
by Lodro RinzlerBefore Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment at age 35 he was a confused twenty and thirty-something looking to learn how to live a spiritual life. He had an overbearing dad, expectations for what he was supposed to do with...
Robert Chender has been a practitioner and teacher in the Shambhala tradition for many years, and is also a student and practitioner of certain shamanic traditions, including the Munay-ki initiations of the Inca shamanic tradition. In this talk he explores...
from Davee Evans The recent shift in medical marijuana policy reminded me of the infrequent and yet ongoing conversation about Buddhism and drugs. I recently read a paper published at Erowid, titled Psychoactive Plants in Tantric Buddhism, specifically discussing...
Often in business, we are confronted with shortcuts, with opportunities to bend our integrity just a little bit, in order to enrich ourselves. This might mean financially, or taking credit where it isn't due, or avoiding a difficult situation we...
by Ethan Nichtern This is the last installment of "Why We Meditate" before the 24 Hour Meditation Marathon.On Friday and Saturday, the Buddhist-inspired Interdependence Project (which creates this blog for your education and/or amusement) will be hosting our largest...
by Jerry Kolber Jerry is a writer and producer of film and TV based in NYC. His site about how to cook cheap delicious organic meals is at www.ThreeDollarDinner.com.It's hard to believe in Judaism and also believe in Christianity, but...
by Ethan NichternThis Friday 7pm, Until Saturday 7pm, The Interdependence Project is putting on what promises to be a very cool event. We are meditating, as a group, for 24 hours straight, in the storefront windows of this place,...
Closely following on Greg Zwahlen's excellent post, "Why I am not a Tibetan Buddhist " with its thoughtful look at the panorama of Buddhist traditions available to practitioners in the USA today comes Meditate NYC, an opportunity to sample...
By Kirsten FirmingerOne of my favorite magazines, GOOD, put up this great video looking at the intersection of green job creation, what happened to some of the federal stimulus money, helping the environment through reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and saving...
by Greg ZwahlenIf you've received meditation instruction at a Shambhala center, or at an Insight Meditation Center, a zendo, or the ID project, the very first thing you probably learned was that it is possible to look directly into your...
by Paul GriffinAs music director of the Milarepa Children's Chorus, I thought it was about time I shared a poem, a doha, by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche that my kids sing in the chorus. What is the Milarepa Children's Chorus? ...
by Rosemary McGinn I've always wanted to eavesdrop on a conversation between Siddhartha Gautama and Bill Wilson (the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous). I think they'd get along great: Both of these men found paths out of suffering in their own...
by Evelyn CashFor those of us who can't get enough articles detailing the science behind mindfulness and how it affects the brain, here is a recent article from Psychology Today: The Neuroscience of Mindfulness. I know I personally love to...
Welcome to One City. You've lived here your whole life, whether you know it or not. One City blog is an outgrowth of The Interdependence Project, a Buddhist-inspired nonprofit organization led by Ethan Nichtern, dedicated to teaching the insights of Buddhism, meditation, mindfulness, and interconnectedness in the 21st century world.
If you're interested in how your mind works, are interested in meditation (but don't want to pretend you live in ancient Asia), care about the world, are into media, love contemporary culture, and above all, really dig the truth of interdependence-that nothing happens in a vacuum--then this blog is for you.
Ethan Nichtern
Author, founding director of the Interdependence Project, and the host of the I.D. Project’s popular weekly podcast » Posts by Ethan Nichtern
posted by Ethan Nichtern
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