It is important to recognize the power of our emotions–and to take responsibility for them by creating a light and positive atmosphere around ourselves. This attitude of joy that we create helps alleviate states of hopelessness, loneliness, and despair. Our relationships with others thus naturally improve, and little by little the whole of society becomes more positive and balanced.
– Tarthang Tulku
May your new year bring you passion for a positive, creative adventure in your life. CAW
TAO TE CHING
fifty
Between birth and death,
Three in ten are followers of life,
Three in ten are followers of death,
And men just passing from birth to death also number three in ten.
Why is this so?
Because they live their lives on the gross level.
He who knows how to live can walk abroad
Without fear of rhinoceros or tiger.
He will not be wounded in battle.
For in him rhinoceroses can find no place to thrust their horn,
Tigers no place to use their claws,
And weapons no place to pierce.
Why is this so?
Because he has no place for death to enter.
Lao Tsu transation by gia-fu feng and jane english
Don’t Bind Me
Don’t bind me.
Don’t fight me.
Don’t lead me astray.
My heart’s bleedin’
But, you just can’t stay.
Hey, Darlin’, you know what’s right.
Why you been lyin’ to me in the night?
You’ve got a lesson, needing to be learned.
We got ties, we may need to burn.
You took it all, with a weak concern.
So, drift on, Darlin’
No need for fallin’
Don’t lead me astray.
My heart’s healin’.
But, you just can’t stay.
We’ve drifted into each others past.
We knew all along it would be strange to last.
So, are we friends that can still be?
Are we mature enough to let each other see?
I accept you, do you accept me?
Merely love me.
And hold me.
Don’t lead me astray.
My heart’s still warmin’
But, you still can’t stay.
CAWatson 12/2006
In the book “Black Elk Speaks”, there are some worthwhile things to ponder……
In connection with the loss of traditional practices, Black Elk calls attention to the loss of cultural symbols, most importantly the circle, which is central to Sioux belief because “the Power of the World always works in circles”: The world is round, the moon is round, and the seasons return to repeat themselves cyclically. In reflection of this, tepees were built around circular frames, and the structure of the community was understood as a circular image, the sacred hoop. “Our tepees were round like the nests of birds,” Black Elk says, “and these were always set in a circle, the nation’s hoop, a nest of many nests, where the Great Spirit meant for us to hatch our children.” He recalls cutting poles for tepees as a child as emblematic of an older, happier time. When the Indians had to abandon their traditional tepees for the square wooden houses of the reservation, he says, they lost their power: “When we were living in the power of the circle in the way we should, boys were men at twelve or thirteen years of age. But now it takes them very much longer to mature.” Black Elk calls the houses “square boxes” and characterizes the Indians as “prisoners of war.”
Ambition and anger will disappear when you stop concerning yourself with the fruit of your actions. – Buddha
That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history. – Aldous Huxley
Sweet Season
Come to me, sweet season of wonder
Poinsettia, greenery, and mistletoe under.
Shinny bobbles and colored lights,
Twinkling the start of magical flight.
Rapturous angles, stars up above.
It’s a time of wondrous, wondrous love
Shall we fall into it’s arms and learn to give again?
Let’s embrace this season, let’s feel it all begin.
CAWatson 2006
I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, “That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.
