Mind activities of a Stone boy

(extract from http://www.wwdrums.com/how-to-play-djembe-a-12.html) There are two positions for playing the Djembe, standing and sitting. We find the best way to begin to play the Djembe is in the sitting position. This is the most common method with Drum Circles as well. You can also play the Djembe in a standing position with the use of a strap. For this article, we will discuss the sitting position. To play the djembe, sit up straight on the edge of a chair. Cross your ankles and tuck them slightly under you. Hold the djembe between your knees or thighs so that the bottom of the drum rests behind your heels. There are three basic tones for the Djembe. You can experiment and find variations on these tones. However, it's important to begin with first mastering the basics of these tones. A good practice method is to first work on your tones for 10 - 15 minutes each practice session then work on various rhythms using the tones. Here are the tones: Bass: Noted as B, Gun or Dun. Use a ...

"Make new friends but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold." --Girl Scout song

A Thirsty Fish I don't get tired of you. Don't grow weary of being compassionate toward me! All this thirst equipment must surely be tired of me, the waterjar, the water carrier. I have a thirsty fish in me that can never find enough of what it's thirsty for! Show me the way to the ocean! Break these half-measures, these small containers. All this fantasy and grief. Let my house be drowned in the wave that rose last night in the courtyard hidden in the center of my chest. Joseph fell like the moon into my well. The harvest I expected was washed away. But no matter. A fire has risen above my tombstone hat. I don't want learning, or dignity, or respectability. I want this music and this dawn and the warmth of your cheek against mine. The grief-armies assemble, but I'm not going with them. This is how it always is when I finish a poem. A great silence comes over me, and I wonder why I ever thought to use language. "Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi translated by Coleman Bar...

Blue skies Smiling at me Nothing but blue skies Do I see Bluebirds Singing a song Nothing but bluebirds All day long Never saw the sun shining so bright Never saw things going so right Noticing the days hurrying by When you're in love, my how they fly Blue days All of them gone Nothing but blue skies From now on by "Irving Berlin"

THEN a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow. And he answered: Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the self same well from which your laughter rises was often times filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives? When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater." But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asle...

How to free ourselves of negative emotions? 1. The use of antidotes: One fundamental point emphasized by Buddhism is that two diametrically opposed mental processes cannot form simultaneously. We may fluctuate rapidly between love and hatred, but we cannot feel in the same instance of consciousness the desire to hurt someone and to do him good. “One movement precludes the other; when you extend a friendly hand, you cannot make a fist.” a. It is equally impossible for greed or desire to coexist with inner freedom. Desire can fully develop only when it is allowed to run rampant to the point where it monopolizes the mind. … In the worst cases, desire can drive us continuously to seek satisfaction at any cost; the more satisfaction seems to elude us, the more it obsesses us. On the other hand, when we contemplate its disturbing aspects and turn our minds toward developing inner calm, the obsession of desire can begin to melt like snow in the sun. Make no mistake --- there’s no question her...

This morning I served food (eggs exactly) to the homeless people at the kitchen. There were about 180 people passing my spot with scrambled eggs on their trays. I cracked 300 of eggs before that. When I looked at them in the eyes, most of them were neutral, some of them were disengaging, some of them were just gazing, but a few of them had sparkling in their eyes. I was especially impressed by one man. He wore a very positive demeanor and had lots of shen in his eyes. I was even energized by his bright eye sight for a brief moment in that windowless basement kitchen. That bright eyesight immediately reminded me of my friend John B. who is currently working in Africa right now. I always felt a sense of wonder and his expansive warm presence whenever I was around him. It made me wonder what made that man stand out from my radar screen. I am guessing that a person doesn't have to be sad when he or she is in a difficult situation. There must be an innate joy and innocence in everybody....

* All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there. * Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, idolator, worshipper of fire, come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times, Come, and come yet again. Ours is not a caravan of despair. o Variant: Come, come again, whoever you are, come! Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come! Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times, Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are. * Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form. * Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still. * Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart. * Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon h...

How quick we are to form an opinion of a person, to come to a conclusion about them. It is satisfying to the egoic mind to label another human being, to give them a conceptual identity, to pronounce righteous judgment upon them. Every human being has been conditioned to think and behave in certain ways -- conditioned genetically as well as by their childhood experiences and their cultural environment. This is not who they are, but that is who they appear to be. When you pronounce judgment upon someone, you confuse those conditioned mind patterns with who they are. To do that is in itself a deeply conditioned and unconscious pattern. You give them a conceptual identity, and that false identity becomes a prison not only for the other person but also for yourself. To let go of judgment does not mean that you don't see what they do. It means that you recognize their behavior as a form of conditioning, and you see it and accept it as that. You don't construct an identity out of it f...

I. Arrive & Preparing for practice - Track #1 Spirit of life * Arrive and connect with body, breath and surroundings * Notice your mental, physical and emotional state; note any particular needs or desires and create a personal intention * Reflect on the season of Autumn, the Solstice; movement, and meditation in your life II. Intention & Three Intentful Corrections - #17 Total Praise Breath, Posture/Movement, and Consciousness (mind, body, heart and spirit) III. Review with Relaxing exercises - #8 Hush 1. Open the feet by stepping to the left; toes pointing forward, feet in parallel 2. Shoulder, elbow and wrist circles (remember soft knees and legs, relaxed mind, easy breath) 3. Shift weight turning the head, neck and arms 4. Wave hands as willows or seaweed, wave hands as clouds IVa. Letting Go Consciously - * Shaking out stagnant Qi * Feel apart, tall spine, relaxed belly, chest and back; full circular breath; head tall, eyes slightly down; arms in front, tip of the tongue b...

The supreme Lord said: "You are grieving for that which is not to be grieved for. Yet you are speaking like a great scholar. A true scholar would not worry about life that has ended or not ended." [Chapter 2 Verse 11] "There was never a time when I did not exist, nor you, nor all these kings. Nor will we ever cease to exist in future." [Chapter 2 Verse 12] "Just as the embodied soul passes from childhood to youth to old age, it also passes from one body to another. The undaunted person therefore is not deluded." [Chapter 2 Verse 13] "Heat and cold, pleasure and pain arise merely because of the contact of the senses with the sense objects. They are fleeting. Therefore O Arjuna, try to tolerate them." [Chapter 2 Verse 14]

Buddhaghosa, author of The Path of Purification , tells us that when our meditation begins to bear fruit, we will recognize in ourselves these signs of a loving mind: (1) our sleep is more relaxed, (2) we do not have nightmares, (3) our waking state is more at ease, (4) we are not anxious or depressed, and (5) we are loved and protected by everyone and everything around us. In the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha mentions eleven advantages of practicing love meditation. The Buddha speaks in these terms --- of what is advantageous and what is disadvantageous --- because doing so encourages people to practice. 1. The practitioner sleeps well. 2. Upon waking, she feels well and light in her heart. 3. He does not have unpleasant dreams. 4. She is well-liked by many people. She feels at ease with everyone. Others, especially children, like to be near her. 5. He is dear to the nonhuman species: birds, fish, elephants, squirrels. Species that are visible and invisible like to be near him. 6. She ...

It's the old rule that drunks have to argue and get into fights. The lover is just as bad. He falls into a hole. But down in that hole he finds something shining, worth more than any amount of money or power. Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street. I took it as a sign to start singing, falling up into the bowl of sky. The bowl breaks. Everywhere is falling everywhere. Nothing else to do. Here's the new rule: break the wineglass, and fall toward the glassblower's breath & This that is tormented and very tired, tortured with restraints like a madman, this heart. Still you keep breaking the shell to get the taste of its kernel! -- Rumi

Look at this article... http://www.westegg.com/unmaintained/carnegie/win-friends.html One can assume that it lies in the premise that the more genuine connections that we have in our life, the happier life we have. Now, it is very easy to see what my daily effort should be spent toward.

Chapter 7 Deep listening and Loving speech * We have so many means of communication, TV, radio, telephone, fax, email, WWW, yet we remain islands with very little communication between family members, individuals in society or nations. * When we cannot communicate, we get sick, and we suffer, we spill our suffering onto other people. We pay psychotherapists to listen to us, but psychotherapists are just human beings who also have problems, too. * One person looking at the root of your suffering is good. Two persons looking at it is better. Two people looking at it together is best. * Don't discuss the problems when you are hurt. Make an appointment to discuss it with the person. Also, wait to see if your hurt has transformed by then. If not, when you speak, you tell the deepest kind of truth, using loving speech, the kind of speech that the other person can understand and accept. When you listen, listen with all your attention and emphasize others. * When someone says "I love ...

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will f...

But I have all the liberty to decide what state of my mind that I would like to put in. The vision is a powerful sense to affect how my mind would feel. Just image if I constantly put myself in a blue sky scenery, would I feel bad? just image if I constantly watch trashy TV programs and mindless commercials, what would I feel? If I watch unwholesome pictures all the time, what kind of impact it will have on my mind? So is the hearing a great sense of affecting mind. What if I only speak mindfully and speak according to NVC principle, what kind of positive impact it will have on my mind? Mind is the forerunner of everything and ultimately has the total control of what I would feel.

I do believe Einstein fused with the cosmos when he flashed upon e=mc 2 … for years I contemplated his brilliant equation -- and didn't get it, until, at the lotus feet of guru, I stumbled upon the spiritual bridge between the worlds. and here it is -- Buddha's spiritual theory of evolution -- that all things are inherently Imperfect, and Impermanent that we Own No-Thing not even those dusty shoes we left outside that ancient temple door. there are No Accidents -- our sitting together and sharing essence was preordained. forget Fixed Judgments -- they keep you stuck in sludge. Transform! Two cooks with the same ingredients produce different meals -- and it all derives from how we think, speak, and act -- a simple way of defining Karma. And that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all Einstein and much more – e=mc 2 to infinity. I think Einstein was in touch with the universe when he flashed open E=MC 2 . For years I contemplated his brilliant equation -- and didn't get it, u...

David Swensen's Advice for the Individual Investor Swensen shares more investing advice in his book Unconventional Success. NPR.org , October 5, 2006 · Beware of the Mutual Fund Myth: Many Americans seem to like the idea of pooling their money in an actively managed mutual fund -- where, presumably, a professional money manager can invest it better than they could themselves. But Swensen says that doesn't work. He says for-profit mutual funds have an inherent conflict of interest. They make money by charging fees that suck profits away from investors in the funds. In fact, over time -- when you factor in the fees, taxes and other costs -- he says your odds of beating the market in an actively managed fund are less than one in 100. Most mutual funds get far too big and own far too many stocks, Swensen says. In Unconventional Success , he writes that, when a fund is holding 30 to 50 stocks or more, the odds become very likely that the fund will start to t...

Tonight I went to Mark's talk @ IMCW. It has been a long time since he paid a visit to DC. I was thrilled to go see him with some of my innate reservation. The talk was nice and it seems to be part of his book tour. To be with the nature is a good way to bring the awareness into the mind. His talk and his manner remind me how open and spacious Buddhism practice could be! How wonderful! Here is his website: Awake In the Wild At the end of the meditation, I ran into an old girlfriend and I had no ill will at all when I saw her. What an amazing accomplishment that this practice has helped me. The true love and compassion shines through any corner of darkness