Mindfulness

Good Morning,

On many occasion I am often asked what is the big deal about all this "mindfulness"? Most people feel they are very awake and very aware of their lives. Though this may be true for them, the majority of us mistake our ever roaming mind and it's thoughts for "awareness". Of greater consequences is thinking that these thoughts are us and our lives when really they are no more than electrical impulses generated by our brain. Care to put this to the test?

What did you think about on your ride in to work today? What did you think about during breakfast? Can't remember it all? For many of us our days are simply filled with the mind jumping from one thought to the next. . . what am i going to do at work today, what is for lunch?, I can't wait till after work, etc. These are thoughts and they consume our time to the point that we are not living our lives but "planning" our lives and there is a great difference. Think about how much of your life is spent thinking and NOT living. . . what did you miss on your ride to work today? what do you miss when you are busy letting your mind jump around during dinner or when with friends?

Thinking is not living and this brings me to a simple but powerful thought for the day:

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.

Mindfulness allows us to regain control of an untrained mind, to focus our energies on being present in the moment and living our lives to their fullest and that is a noble goal when it is so much easier to keep our heads in the sand (or buried in thoughts).

Have a great day and try not to think your way through it, but instead live each moment fully aware and in the present, you might be surprised at the real life that awaits you!

Peace and Love, Jim

Play

Good Morning,

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! With all the cookouts, family gatherings and social activities to kick off the summer it is no wonder people relish the time off. As we grow and get busy in our lives we often forget about the value of play and how we should try to achieve some form of it into our everyday lives. Sure we can work harder and plan more, but often in the end we still have no time to enjoy the rewards of such efforts. This brings me to our thought for today:

The real joy of life is in its play. Play is anything we do for the joy and love of doing it, apart from any profit or compulsion. The secret of play is not in doing what one likes to do, but in liking what one has to do, this is the real joy of living.

Have a wonderful day and remember the secret of happiness is curiosity!

Peace and Love, Jim

Love

Good Morning,

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend! I will keep todays thought short and simple. Love is a complex topic and often when we speak of love, do we know what we are thinking about? I encourage everyone to fully investigate their concept of love, you might find some surprises!

We say we love flowers, yet we pluck them. We say we love trees, yet we cut them down. And people still wonder why some are afraid when told they are loved.

Enjoy the rest of a beautiful day and try and love those that have none for you, the tides will turn.

Peace and Love, Jim

The 4 Wives

Good Morning,

Today's post is a little long, but I felt it an interesting little tale that metaphorically encapsulates our 4 "love affairs" and the truth behind them. Everyone have a safe and peaceful holiday weekend!

Peace and Love, Jim

There was a rich merchant who had 4 wives. He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and showered her with gifts. He also loved the 3rd wife very much. He was very proud of her and always wanted to show off her to his friends. However, the merchant was always afraid that she might run away with another man. He also loved his 2nd wife. She is a very considerate person and always patient. Whenever the merchant faced some problems, he always turned to his 2nd wife and she would always help him out and tide him through difficult times.

Now, the merchant's 1st wife was a very loyal partner and made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and business as well as taking care of the household. However, the merchant did not love the first wife and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her.

One day, the merchant fell ill. Before long, he knew that he was going to die soon. He thought of his luxurious life and told himself, "Now I have 4 wives with me. But when I die, I'll be alone. How lonely I'll be!"

Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I loved you most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No way!" replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another word.

The answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchant's heart. The sad merchant then asked the 3rd wife, "I have loved you so much for all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No!" replied the 3rd wife. "Life is so good over here! I'm going to remarry when you die!" The merchant's heart sank and turned cold.

He then asked the 2nd wife, "I always turned to you for help and you've always helped me out. Now I need your help again. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd wife. "At the very most, I can only send you to your grave." The answer came like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated.

Then a voice called out : "I'll leave with you. I'll follow you no matter where you go." The merchant looked up and there was his first wife. She was so skinny, almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the merchant said, "I should have taken much better care of you while I could have !"

Actually, we all have 4 wives in our lives

a. The 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it'll leave us when we die.

b. Our 3rd wife ? Our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, they all go to others.

c. The 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how close they had been there for us when we're alive, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.

d. The 1st wife is in fact our soul, often neglected in our pursuit of material, wealth and sensual pleasure.

Peace and Love, Jim

Daily Devotion

Good Morning,

This morning I simply want to share my daily devotion in earnest with each you. Every morning, my first thought is a wish to devote the day to the good of all living beings. In that effort I share with you the Metta Mantra I incite each morning:

May all beings be peaceful May all beings be happy May all beings be safe May all beings awaken to the light of their own true nature May all beings be free

Have a wonderful day and may each of you find your path in some small way, a true life awaits you.

Peace and Love, Jim

Teamwork

Good Morning,

This morning I would like to give thanks to teams and teamwork. In my work I am privileged to be a part of one of the greatest teams I know of. I have watched each of us grow and take on more challenges, each with success and vigor. I have seen our little team struggle and yet each rises to the occasion. In my personal life I have a wonderful team member, my wife and she to has grown and rose to many a challenge. Without teams we would never be able to overcome the diverse obstacles we all face on a daily basis, so todays thought is for the teams in our lives:

Teamwork is the ability to achieve a vision. The ability to place individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.

Have a beautiful day, we are all part of one big team so give your fellow players a warm pat on the back!

Peace and Love, Jim

Cultivation

Good Morning,

So many of us often tend to believe that love automatically guarantees success in a relationship. Love is the foundation of any relationship, but love alone can not sustain a relationship. Sustainability takes much more, it requires respect, courage, honesty and imagination. So many people fall for love (as they should) but fail to recognize that love is more like a garden than just another emotion. It is something you must tend to on a daily basis, which brings me to todays thought.

Your family, friendships and your love must be cultivated like a garden. Time, effort, and imagination must be planted constantly to keep any relationship flourishing and growing in order to produce the flowers and fruits of your love.

So put on your gardening gloves and grab your tools, the world is a garden in need of your attention, have a great day!

Peace and Love, Jim

Gratitude

Good Morning,

I hope everyone had a glorious and wonderful weekend! The weather was beautiful and the world seems ripe and ready to go through another season. It is so hard for us a people sometimes to sense the beauty of change in our world, to see friends grow and loved ones learn. This is because in the grand scheme of things time moves slowly and the illusion that things are more solid and stable than they are gives us a sense of permanence.

We all know deep in our hearts that this is not true, we move and change wether we want to or not. It has been said that we live too long, long enough to worry, to plan, to ponder things and situations that may or may not ever occur, some of us even build plans around the future and fret when they do not come to fruition! The truth is there are no guarantees, there is no tomorrow and yesterday has already passed, all we have is right now. . . how many of us live as though "right now" is all we have? What are we waiting for? How different would it be to live every moment as if it is all their is? This brings me to todays thought:

What we we must collectively give ourselves is a little more gratitude for the moments that make our lives – and a lot less greed for the things we think will make them better.

Have a fun day, laughter puts a smile on the heart!

Peace and Love, Jim

Apples and Ideas

Good Morning,

The power of ideas grows exponentially, a fact we often overlook in our quest to individuals. Ideas are one of the few things that when shared have the power to grow and shape entire societies and generations of people. Today's thought is a simple example of this:

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

Have a beautiful weekend and share your thoughts with others, together we shape the day!

Peace and Love, Jim

Attitude

Good Morning,

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a friendship...a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with each of us... we are in charge of our attitudes.

So have a great attitude to day, if not for yourself than for those around you!

Peace and Love, Jim

The Greatest

Good Morning,

Many times we go through our lives thinking what's next? or where do I go from here? Unfortunately these are the kinds of questions that will lead us around in circles. It has been say that if you want love, attention and devotion then you must GIVE love, attention and devotion. More often than not though we get caught up in the endless illusion of trying to make ourselves happy, make ourselves feel better, or just get through our days never really achieving any sustainable level of happiness. Why is this?

The world is full of people trying to make themselves happy, in fact we raise generation after generation to think highly of themselves, and to make themselves happy first. . . has anyone seen this work? If it does work then why do we not have a world full of content people? I think the real meaning lies in todays thought:

The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.

Have a fantastic day and remember, it's not the path you take but the trail you leave for others!

Peace and Love, Jim

The Brick

Good Morning,

In our daily lives we become so accustom to the speed and scattered nature of our minds that we often end up living at the same pace, chasing the fleeting moments as quickly as we invent them. I have seen so many people "blur" their life away that I wanted to throw a brick of my own.

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going way too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and drove back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting, "What was that all about and who are you?

That's a new car and that brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"

The young boy was frightened and apologetic. "Please mister ... please, I'm sorry... I didn't know what else to do," he pleaded.

"I threw the brick because no one else would stop..." With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car.

"It's my brother," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into the wheelchair, then took out his fancy handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.

"Thank you," the grateful child told the stranger.

Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the little boy push his wheelchair-bound brother down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message: Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!

Have a wonderful day and give someone a smile today, it may be the only one they see.

Peace and Love, Jim

The Greatest

Good Morning,

Today I wanted to share a list of the greatest things. Nothing here costs a thing and yet they are some of the greatest things we as people can possess or desire. Funny how the most valuable things in our world cost so little. Have a great day and try to give or acquire one thing off this list today!

Peace and Love, Jim

The greatest joy ... Giving

The most satisfying work ... Helping Others

The most endangered species ... Dedicated Leaders

The greatest natural resource ... Our Youth

The greatest shot in the arm ... Encouragement

The greatest problem to overcome ... Fear

The most effective sleeping pill ... Peace of Mind

The most crippling failure disease ... Excuses

The most powerful force in life ... Love

The worlds most incredible computer ... The Brain

The most powerful relationship tool ... The Tongue

The two most power-filled words ... "I Can"

The most worthless emotion ... Self-pity

The most beautiful attire ... SMILE

Buddhist Humor

Good Morning,

The Buddha was known to have a great sense of humor. Today I simply wanted to share a few quotes and insights that have put a smile on my face. Take care and have a wonderful weekend!

Blessed is he who finds happiness in his own foolishness. For he will always be happy.

Hell was OK, until some wise guy went to heaven and came back

Living your life is a task so difficult, it has never been attempted before.

Disciple: Oh wise and all knowing one, show me the place of perfect peace. Master: If I show it to you, it will know longer be peaceful.

Paradise is exactly like where you are right now ... only much, much better.

The Zen philosopher Basho once wrote: A flute with no holes is not a flute, and a doughnut with no hole is a Danish.'

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

Your personality is an often insurmountable speed-bump on the path to Nirvana.

Nothing leads me further from attachment than a week with the in-laws

This morning, I received one of those rude mails. The person wrote me this one-line mail: buddha is dead you moron move on with your life" And I replied: You are alive, friend, move on with Buddha's death.

The Buddha was not really a god. In fact, he thought it quite odd That we go all around Worshipping mounds more mindless than peas in a pod!

Birds it would seem are so intent on being birds that they have no time to speculate on their not being birds.

Some people think that Buddhist practice and meditation are about stopping thoughts. As the saying goes, if that were true, a coconut would be enlightened..... Let's remember that upon attaining enlightenment the Buddha smiled. This is very important. He didn't have to smile. He could have grimaced or remained neutral, but he smiled.

Its amazing that the Buddha had such a grasp on the reality of suffering without ever having to go to the DMV.

I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find their way around town.

When I first started reading about Buddhism, I said this emptiness is really heavy!

A Zen master once said to me, Do the opposite of whatever I tell you. So I didn't

Peace and Love, Jim

Sore Eye

Good Morning, There is a story about a princess who had a small eye problem. This princess was rather spoiled and kept crying all the time when things did not please her. The kings doctors wanted to apply medicine, but she would refuse and kept touching the sore spot on her eye. Slowly it became worse and worse, until finally the king offered a large reward for whoever could cure his daughter.

After some time, a man arrived who claimed to be a famous physician, but actually was not even a doctor. After he had examined her, he exclaimed, "Oh, I'm so sorry!" "What is it?" the princess inquired. The doctor said, "There is nothing much wrong with your eye, but there is something else that is really serious." When the king arrived, the doctor finally said, "Well, the eye will get better within a few days - that is no problem. The big problem is that the princess will grow a tail. It may start growing very soon. If she can detect the first moment it appears, we may be able to prevent it from growing." At this news the princess stayed in bed, day and night, directing all her attention to detecting when the tail might appear. Within days her eye got better.

We often focus on our little problem and it becomes the center around which everything else revolves. We think, "My wishes, my interests, my likes and dislikes come first!" As long as we function on this basis, we will remain unchanged. Driven by impulses of desire and rejection, we will travel the roads of life without finding our true way. As long as attachment and aversion are our sources of living and drive us onward, we can never rest.

So do not focus on the problems only the solutions, do not see the obstacles, but the goals. Be driven to find peace and not create chaos. have a wonderful day and treat yourself to doing five minutes of nothing, you will be rewarded with much more than you started with!

Peace and Love, Jim

The Taste of Boredom

Good Morning,

As part of my practice I meditate roughly an hour a day. When the subject comes up many people are shocked as to how simple (on the surface) the practice is. In fact the fear of boredom prevents many from ever wanting to sit on the cushion. I find it interesting how we often fear boredom. The thought of sitting and doing nothing sends thoughts of "bored to death" racing through ones mind.

The question then is this: What are we bored with? Nothing? How can we be bored with nothing? I think quite possibly we are bored with our repetitive thought patterns. These patterns have become predictable and transparent over time, but they arise none-the-less and we become hooked into them.

However, if we embrace our boredom, taste it fully, we can begin to see the tricks we play on ourselves to keep from being bored. Again this is just understanding how our mind works and when we understand that, we dissolve yet another illusion (boredom) we create.

Have a beautiful day and remember we create the world one thought at a time.

Peace and Love, Jim

The Other Side

Good Morning,

A dear friend of mine noted last week that everyone seems to live in their own reality and become caught up in a world of their own creation. This can be very true since we all tend to base our realities are on our perceptions. We do not realize it, but this can have a deep effect on how we live our daily lives. The simple story below illustrates just such a point. One day a young Buddhist on his journey home, came to the banks of a wide river. Staring hopelessly at the great obstacle in front of him, he pondered for hours on just how to cross such a wide barrier. Just as he was about to give up his pursuit to continue his journey he saw a great teacher on the other side of the river. The young Buddhist yells over to the teacher, "Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of this river"?

The teacher ponders for a moment looks up and down the river and yells back, "My son, you are on the other side".

Have a wonderful day and remember, someone wants to be where you are right now.

Peace and Love, Jim

Teacups

Good Morning,

I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. I myself have had an incredible workload with some very difficult deadlines. I have found that the only way to meet such deadlines is to surrender completely to the task at hand, to work diligently, and be ready to adapt to whatever the project may throw at me. This brings me todays thought:

A student once asked a master why the Japanese make their teacups so thin and delicate that they break easily. "It's not that they're too delicate," answered the master, "but that you don't know how to handle them. You must adjust yourself to the environment, and not vice versa."

Have a great day and pay attention to the lessons life will offer you today!

Peace and Love, Jim

Happy Cinco De Mayo! 

It has been a very hectic week for me, blurred with deadlines, photo shoots and mountains of work. Everyone has be laughing because I have not know what day of the week it has been for most of the week. It's times like these that I truly come to appreciate the simple things in life such as, quite moments with my wife, simple meditations, and leisurely afternoon runs. These simple experiences and the frameworks they create in my mind bring me to the thought for today:

If you want to feel rich, just count all of the things you have that money can't buy.

Have a great CInco! Liberation and independence begin in the mind.

Peace and Love, Jim

All My Days

Good Morning,

As we move through our lives it is so easy to always think about the future or romanticize the past. The difficult thing for most of us is to live in the present, yet the benefits of learning to do so can be great:

Don't let life slip through your fingers by living in the past or in the future. By living one day at a time you live all days of your life.

Relish the moments of your day and live it to the fullest!

Peace and Love, Jim

Letting Go

Good Morning,

Many times in conversations the question of being "selfless" or attempting to dissolve the illusion of self comes up. Many ask how can you be motivated without "self"? or how can you let go when that's all any of us have? There is no singular answer and it's the type of thing or path you have to discover for one's own knowledge. I can put it this way:

We are like children building a sand castle. We embellish it with beautiful shells, bits of driftwood, and pieces of colored glass. The castle is ours, off-limits to others. We’re willing to attack it if others threaten to hurt it. Yet despite all our attachment, we know that the tide will inevitably come in, and sweep the sand castle away. The trick is to enjoy it fully, but without clinging, and when the time comes, let it dissolve back into the sea. This letting go and non-attachment has kindness and intimacy. It feels good to let go and takes courage to know that this is all there is to it.

Have a great day and even if you don't, you still had the day!

Peace and Love, Jim

12 Steps To Prosperity

Good Morning,

A dear friend of mine has taken up the incredible journey of becoming more positive and seeing things as they truly are. I commend her on her efforts and hope she finds the inner strength to see her goal realized. This trend seems to be gaining in momentum as friends and loved ones all around me seem to be deciding to take up the same journey. We can all rest assured that each of us in some small way are attempting to make not only our lives better, but the lives of those around us as well. This brings me to some simple yet beautiful guidelines that were passed along to me:

1. First realize contentment is not a bank account.

2. Work with, not against, life's changing rhythms.

3. Look behind the obstacles you face in life, to the opportunities they represent.

4. See failure as a corrective, not as a misfortune.

5. Do not to fritter energy away with trivial desires. A leaking tap, drop by drop, wastes much water.

6. Find pleasure in simplicity.

7. Recognize that people can be your best investment. Be a true friend to all.

8. Find strength in yourself. Don't wait for passing waves to propel you forward.

9. Live in the present - not in past attainment, nor in future victories.

10. Learn the patience to adjust action to reality. In every setback, try to understand what life is trying to teach you.

11. Envy no-one. View others' successes and failures empathetically, as your own.

12. Inventiveness; success in any field demands the creative outlook of an artist. Feed it daily with fresh, new ideas - lest, like a still pond, it stagnates.

Have a beautiful day and may each of you get one step closer to the goals you seek!

Peace and Love, Jim

Guidelines for being human

Good Morning,

Here before you are the guidelines for being human. After much deliberation and debate it was decided that someone should write them down for the rest of mankind (lesson learned). :) 1. You Will Receive A Body You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. You Will Learn Lessons You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons - you may like the lesson or think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons There is a process of trial and error; experimentation. The 'failed' experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately 'works'.

4. A Lesson Is Repeated Until It Is Learned A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning Lessons Does Not End. There is no part of Life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. 'There' Is No Better Than 'here'. When your 'there' has become a 'here', you will simply obtain another 'there' that will again look better than 'here'.

7. Others Are Merely Mirrors Of You. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What You Make Of Your Life Is Up To You. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.

9. Your Answers Lie Inside You. The answers to Life's questions lie inside you. All you need do is look, listen and trust.

10. You Will Forget All This.

11. You Can Remember It Whenever You Want, learning after all is simply remembering.

Peace and Love, Jim