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"Let yourself be open and life will be easier." ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Read More @ Source

The consciousness of my self, which I take to be this mind-body or psychophysical body ( nâmar a pa, pañca-skandha ), is something that begins with conception.  Consciousness, the transmigrant, which is imbued with the habitual tendencies ( samskâra ) of its former existence, and is not enlightened ( avidya ), descends into the embryo ( garbha ) which then starts the development of the psychophysical body.  The embryo, it needs to be added, encloses the whole of the existence  that consciousness will face, from leaving its mother's birth canal to its inevitable death.   Incidentally, we learn from the canon ( D. ii. 63 ) that if consciousness were not to descend (P. okkamissatha ) into the mother's womb/embryo, the development of the embryo would not be successful. In the course of many years, as a result of this descent, I come to believe, more and more, that this psychophysical body is mine; that I am this body; that it is my self or âtman . This is almost a vicious ...

What do you do when you feel like taking action, but don't know what you should do, how you should do it, or where you should start? If you're like most people, you might just give up in frustration, while cursing some unknown entity. That's a normal response to have when you're frustrated, but it isn't helpful if you want to create a life that fulfills you. That's why, in this article, we'll take a look at how you can take action. Even when you don't know what to do. The process is quite simple. But it requires some internal inspection. 1. Your Destination The first question you have to ask yourself is: What do you want to accomplish? Where do you want to go? What is your ultimate goal? It's easy to lose track of where you're going when you've been working on something for a long time. For example, as I'm building my online business, it's still easy for me to lose track of the fact that what I truly enjoy doing is helping people dr...

Yesterday Jesse left a comment on this post which asked me: May I ask if you ever had a subjective experience in meditation that you found to be meaningful or that revealed something of value to you, personally? Not necessarily a RS [Radha Soami Satsang Beas] meditation or any specific lights or sounds but just something that left you in a state of deeper self reverence or lasting tranquility. Good question. Not an easy question to answer. It's a question that got me thinking more about the question than a possible answer.  Meaning, after pondering for a bit how I might respond to Jesse, I realized that it wasn't as simple as that, because what he asked threw me into a frame of mind outside of straightforward  question-response . I felt like his comment was a mobius strip which led somewhere -- yet also nowhere. Thus all I can do is offer up some observations which are similar: ideas that strike me as lying on the mobius strip that is Jesse's question, but...

CREDIT: Dreamstime Older adults taking psychiatric medications, such as Valium or Xanax, may be at increased risk of dementia, a new French study suggests. In the reports, adults older than 65 who took drugs known as benzodiazepines were 50 percent more likely to develop dementia over a 15-year period, compared with those who did not take the drugs. Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed medications, used to treat symptoms of anxiety and sleep disorders. The study findings held true even when taking into account other factors that may affect people's dementia risk, such as age, gender, diabetes and early signs of dementia. The researchers also accounted for some factors that lead people to start taking benzodiazepines in the first place. Researchers caution that the study only found an association between the drugs and dementia, and not a direct cause-and-effect link. However, the findings agree with those of several earlier studies looking at the link ...

"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...not going all the way, and not starting."   ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Read More @ Source

An astonishing series of photographs of a Tibetan "sky burial," where a corpse is cut up and fed to vultures, with the remains being pounded into dust, has been viewed almost three quarters of a million times in 24 hours. The images (view here) are very graphic, but as Justin Whitaker says, "As a poignant reminder of the impermanence of this body, they're worth viewing." According to Wikipedia, in Tibet the practice is known as jhator, which means "giving alms to the birds." Sky burial is traditional in Tibet, where the ground is too rock for interment to be practical, and where a lack of wood similarly makes cremation unfeasible for people. This kind of burial is a kind of meditation in itself. There's long been a tradition in Buddhism of using corpses in order to reflect on impermanence and to reduce attachment to the human form. For example, in order to develop mindfulness the monk is encouraged to see his own body in the following w...

Have you ever written a to-do list, only to find that, at the end of the day, you hadn't even managed one item on it? When you fail to make headway with your to-do list, you might end up blaming yourself – but it's probably not your fault. To-do lists are great tools, but to be truly effective, you need to know a few tricks for making them work well. #1: Write Action Items Does your to-do list look like this? Taxes New desk? Bob and Jane While you might know exactly what these mean in the context of your day, there's also a good chance you've not really pinned down each task. After all, you're unlikely to sit down and get all your taxes completely done in one session – and when you see "taxes" on the list, your first response is probably to jump straight to the next item. A really effective to-do list uses action items. That means starting each task with a verb, and being specific about what you're going to do: Check tax deadline, and sort all recei...

"Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Ah, not really. Often it's words – and the tone that comes with them – that actually do the most damage. Just think back on some of the things that have been said to you over the years – especially those said with criticism, derision, shaming, anger, rejection, or scorn – and the impacts they've had on your feelings, hopes and ambitions, and sense of yourself. Words can hurt since the emotional pain networks in your brain overlap with physical pain networks. (The effects of this intertwining go both ways. For example, studies have shown that receiving social support reduces the perceived intensity of physical pain, and – remarkably – that giving people Tylenol reduced the unpleasantness of social rejection.) Besides their momentary effects, these hurts can linger – even for a lifetime. The residues of hurtful words sift down into emotional memory to cast long shadows over the inner landsca...

"A man should first direct himself in the way he should go. Only then should he instruct others."   ~The Buddha Technorati Tags: Buddha Buddhist Buddhism Meditation Dharma Read More @ Source

CREDIT: Dreamstime A new drug has received fast-track approval to treat advanced colon cancer, the Food and Drug Administration announced today (Sept. 27). The drug, Stivarga, has been approved to treat patients with colorectal cancer that has progressed after treatment and spread to other parts of the body, the FDA said. The drug, manufactured by Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals, works by blocking several enzymes that promote cancer growth. The FDA said it received a fast-track review designated for drugs that offer major advances in treatment or that provide treatment when no adequate therapy exists. In a study, patients taking the drug lived about six weeks longer than patients taking a placebo. "Stivarga is the latest colorectal cancer treatment to demonstrate an ability to extend patients' lives and is the second drug approved for patients with colorectal cancer in the past two months," said Dr. Richard Pazdur, director of the Office of He...

CREDIT: Effe45 | Dreamstime Would you donate a kidney for cash? In a new survey from Canada, 45 percent of people said that money is an acceptable incentive for organ donations from living donors, while 70 percent of survey respondents said that cash is an acceptable enticement for people to donate their organs after death. "We do need to consider a system where we compensate people for their giving," said study researcher Dr. Braden Manns, professor of nephrology at the University of Calgary in Canada. The idea of paying organ donors is not new. "We have more patients on dialysis, but we don't have more donors; so we're looking at other ways to motivate people to donate," Manns said. However, while the survey found that many people's think cash incentives are acceptable, people's answers may be different than their opinions when faced with the grueling realities of donations. "Surveys are quick measures of people...