Loose Shoes

These guys and gal were good. Old folky steel guitar sounding group. Toe tapping fun.

podcast

I added my podcast to the sidebar over there. Click play to check it out.

Daily Meditation:

In meditation keep your eyes open, not closed.
Instead of shutting out life, remain open and at peace with everything.
You leave all your senses - hearing, seeing, feeling - just open, aturally, as they are,
without grasping after their perceptions. - Sogyal Rinpoche

In meditation it seems most will close the eyes. blocking out the sensory perception and allow the hearing and touch to take over fully. When we leave the eyes open things continue to come in. We are processing and cataloguing what it is we see. In meditation when the eyes are closed it allows another part of the brain to open up. Closing out the senses we are free to allow non sensory objects into our process.

With the eyes open. We are living in the real world. Learning to meditate and to seek while open and living and active may be a key aspect. the Mediation of the quite secluded monk has reached a time of the past. Meditation today is as active and dynamic as life. So the meditation is an extension of our lives. The quite reflective is necessary too. The active dynamic also. Living both when possible may be better able to balance us in this world.

Daily Meditation:

There seem to two kinds of searchers: those who seek to make their ego something other than it is, i.e. holy, happy, unselfish (as though you could make a fish unfish), and those who understand that all such attempts are just gesticulation and play-acting, that there is only one thing that can be done, which is to disidentify themselves with the ego, by realizing its unreality, and by becoming aware of their eternal identity with pure being. - Fingers Pointing Toward the Moon by Wei Wu Wei

Once again it comes back to the ego. Trying to be something other then what we are. Yes, we can change. It is possible but sometimes improbable. So really we have to give up who we perceive ourselves to be totally. We can remake ourselves the way we want to be. We can rise to a higher place. Becoming something greater. All our experiences, all of that which makes us comes together. We then become something that is greater then the sum of our parts.

Templates -Microsoft Office Online

Templates Homepage - Microsoft Office Online
If you have not taken a look lately at the Microsoft templates I suggest a look see. This place is packed with templates and easy to use helpful files.

Daily Mediation:

The triple world with its irritating vexations is like a house afire; who could bear to stay there long, willingly suffering perpetual torment? If you want to avoid going round and round in circles, nothing compares to seeking Buddhahood. If you want to seek Buddhahood, Buddha is mind. Need mind be sought afar?- Master Chinul (1158-1210)

I was interested in this triple world and found this: (http://www.digitalzendo.com/main/library.cfm?library&step=27)

There is a saying: "The triple world is but one Mind." Outside the Mind there is no reality; Mind, Buddha, all sentient creatures-there three are not different. The "triple world" here means the material world, the world of sensuous desire and the formless, immaterial, spiritual world. Whatever the case, from the Zen point of view, there is noting but Mind. Blue mountain is Mind, floating white cloud is also Mind. Only one Mind.

Excerpt from ’Zen Word Zen Calligraphy,’ by
Eido Shimano Roshi and Kogetsu Tani Roshi
Reprinted with Very Kind Permission

I had not heard the term triple world before. It is an interesting concept. I have the feeling that in seeking the things of the material world we continually put ourselves into a path that causes us pain and suffering. Sure there is also not pain and not suffering but in seeking the one mind. A higher state of being a place with no attachment, with no desire then we transcend the pain brought about by the ego and the self. All things we see, all things we do, all things we are; these are really all one in the same and have simply to be accepted and grown upon. Let each of these be what they are and incorporate them or not into our lives and living.

Daily Meditation:

We cannot change life!
We can only change the way we live life.
Any moment is the best moment
and any place is the best place. -Tishan

Right now. This very moment. It is what we create. It is what it is. This moment contains everything. Life is what it is. The events of the day. The past, the future. Life simply is. How we live our lives we can control. Our actions and reactions we dictate. Yes, we do make mistakes. Errors in judgement. Movement based not on higher rational thought but the base. We choose and act and then try to make it right. We call forth the past and try to change. That daily inventory is part of it. Where have we wronged? Where have we righted.
More to come...

www.myspace.com/yoursauced

www.myspace.com/yoursauced
Did you all hear that Ed is giving away free pizza at midnight on Monday's with a drink order. Check out the Sauced MySpace page for more information.

Daily Meditation:

"Namu Amida Butsu" is recited eight times in one breath without voicing "tsu," a breath is taken and the full "Namu Amida Butsu" is recited once making nine times. The final (tenth) Nembutsu is chanted with the "tsu" almost silent again, as if one has swallowed the word.

I am not really sure how to say this. I tried to find it spoken online but could not. I assume it is sounds already there. I am not really sure what the words mean either. From searching it appears to be a sound grouping that is referred to as the natural sound or the first sound and is a way to manifest the beginning.

This gets back to the vibration of the universe. There is a vibration or several vibrations or groupings of vibrations that occur. These vibrations are in tune with everything and everyone. When that vibration occurs it can be felt. It may bring forth emotions and feelings and stir us. The drum, bagpipes, OM, Vocables, chanting, those monks, Sheila Chandra (http://www.sheilachandra.com/ does something with her voice that way. Vibrations. Energy and sound and light. Coming together to produce within us something. Taking us to another plane of existence. Expanding us and the universe. Attuning ourselves to the vibrations of the universe.

The first time I heard Sheila Chandra was on NPR. She was doing this chant. I believe she is from India. I got one of her CD's. I put it in the player as I was driving. I had to pull over the truck. The sound hit me at the base of my head on the back of my neck. It was tingling and moving. It was an unbelievable feeling from this sound. Beautiful. I think that is when I first became aware of those vibrations as something that can effect our bodies, minds, emotions, feelings and being.

Google Notebook

Tools for the TEKS: Integrating Technology in the Classroom
Here is an article on Google Notebook and the benefits of using it in the classroom.

Blue Moon Sunday

This is Open Jam at the Blue Moon on Sunday evenings. Amanda Joy is on stage.