tao1776

W hat is the measure of a man's success? Is it money, friends or health? Is it to be found in the level of respect you recieve? Is success worthy of measurement? Is success a subjective or an objective term; worthy of neither or both? And what would be success's worth when we all live only to die. All of this brings me to something that was said by a friend. Someone that I have had several opportunities to meet and have failed to do so because I am so often lacking in honesty. He has written a book that I encourage you to buy, as I have often learned from his life experiences. This is what he said; The most important thing in Zen practice is honesty. I think there may be many people who are dishonest in their lives, pretending they are bigger or better or smarter or littler or worse or dumber than they actually are. Such pretense is painful because it blocks the understanding of what is true. In Zen practice, your personal truth is important. You begin with who you are and end ...

Big Town meeting - throwing my hat into local politics; It's either that or I'm going to ask for a re-enactment of the French Revolution. There is a huge furnace that roars, "Feed me." Money, money, and more money feeds this incessant machine until any knowledge of that filthy word called "financial constraint" is unintelligible to the listener.We all like to do better, to achieve greater career and financial goals, but the system is starting to crack. Look at the big three auto makers. Those working the line year after year made wages so high that the ability to compete was being lost. However, as is always the way, the average worker was being asked to tighten his belt and accept a wage reduction while the CEO's were able to maintain the status quo. The TM, (Town Manager) who also is unaffected by a heavy tax and fee burden will be okay no matter what happens. (The board of selectman passed a waiver stating that he did NOT have to live in town) Good d...

I had one credit card. Good credit. Lost job. Consolidated old car loan into credit card and owed $12,000. Placed on hardship plan at $170 a month. Could not manage an exact day per month to pay the $170 and was dropped for beiing late too often. Chase Bank willing to settle for $7000. Did not have it. Fees and interest compiled and they sold to a collection agency. Debt reported at $18,000 now. Collection agency has called as representatives of agency lawyers. I have not returned one call or responded to letters sent to me. I live in Massachusetts. Does anyone know what my consumer rights may be, if any? What can the collection agency do to me? What can I expect? Do I have any recourse? I have only my home with equity left over. However, I cannot possibly pay more per month on a mortgage. I am at 4.6% now and the % rate would only be greater. I have an old car and truck. No toys. I am rather frugal and broke! Can anyone help?

This sounds like another bum you out story but it is what it is. Real life should only bum you out in and as far as the First Noble Truth states, that Life is Suffering and the End of Suffering. (if you follow the eightfold path) The word "suffering" (Dukka) would be bettered translated as having square wheels on a oxen cart. aka a rough ride)....But I digress. My Great grandmother (Father's side) died giving birth to twin boys, one of which was my Grandfather (duh!) The family, being unable to raise two boys without a mother in mid-state Vermont, gave them away to separate families, one in VT and one in Massachusetts. Hence the reason that the name that my family carries is not the name of blood but of the adoptive family. (Being given to another family to be raised in those days required no formal paperwork or adoption contracts. A handshake did fine) My Grandmother married the Vermont twin who was by this time living in the Southbridge area of Massachusetts and h...

A special transmission outside the scriptures; No dependence upon words and letters; Direct pointing to the soul of man: Seeing into one's own nature and attainment of Buddhahood Bodhidharma, First Patriarch of Zen (4-6 Cent. AD) I have a rather eclectic bunch of blogs that I read and not all of them are located on my blog roll. I like reading intimate thoughts, insightful presentations and hearing about the struggles of what it is to be This Being Human.... I have known Preachers and Teachers, Doctors and Musicians, Drunks and Druggies, Witches and Sages, Buddhists and Taoists, Philosophers and those that hold to no thought on anything at all. I have been wooed, amazed, in awe and sickened by people aligning themselves within each category. I have found love and hate, deceit and honor within the ranks. It is the most amazing thing about This Being Human... Beliefs, creeds, labels, applied by ourselves or by others, does not alter the fact that we're a strange bunch. I know th...

I am a very good manager. I have had very measurable success working within the field of Vocational Rehab as a Job Coach and as a Case Manager with people who suffer with having Schizophrenic disorders. I have the ability (especially when meditating regularly) to balance group dynamics into a balance whole so that those that I am responsible for feel valued, challenged and bigger than the mundane task of working for a living. I have counseled well. If only I could listen (and hear) myself. When I lost my job as a Branch Manager of a plant that manufactured water-based printing inks, I was confident of finding another high paying position. I had the plant running like a fine oiled machine. Sales were down and downsizing was corporates answer. I disagreed. You are not supposed to see the salesmen as often as you see your own wife. That was the issue. But they were out of the reach of my authority. So, here we all were. The only ones left holding their jobs were the ones responsible for o...

Years of meditative thought allows you to watch thoughts arise and then pass through, only to make room for a new thought that approaches from the horizon of the human and very conditioned mind. Conditioned by both nature and nurture, it can create a potpourri of thoughts; some colorful, some fun, some downright mean! Buddhist training would have you be aware; judging not the thought that arises. Accepting what you would perceive as good or bad as equal - or as being neither good or bad. Observing with compassion creates, over time, an abiding stillness. That calm that I have often spoken about, much like Tai Chi - you can advance, retreat or stand still with grace within your mind. But this can change. The problem with being human, I guess. Through early morning fog I see visions of the things to be The pains that are withheld for me I realize and I can see . . . That suicide is painless it brings on many changes And I can take or leave it if I please. I try to find a way to make a...