After Steve Jobs died, a film of his speech at Stanford University’s commencement in 2005 became wide-spreading on the internet. This speech was about Jobs’ life experience and filled with much of his life’s wisdom. I believe that this speech will become a classic and change many people’s lives.
As natural and man-made financial calamities persist, many people’s minds are unsettled. This is because a common human failing is to hope that good things can last forever and that bad things will never happen. But, just like Buddha tells us, “No one can escape death and unhappiness. If people expect only happiness in life, they will be disappointed.”
Just like Buddha, Steve Jobs’ speech encourages and enlightens many people. I hope though sharing the quotes from Buddha I can also help people have peace of mind in this impermanent world.
Quotes from Buddha:
*Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world.
*An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
*However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
*It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
*Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
*Real peace comes from within. Seek not from outside.
*Fools wait for a lucky day but every day is a lucky day for an industrious man.
*Nothing ever exists entirely alone; everything is in relation to everything else.
*Within this moment, the only moment that exists, the past, present and future are contained.
*Little by little a person becomes evil, as a water pot is filled by drops of water…Little by little a person becomes good, as a water pot is filled by drops of water.
*The fickle, unsteady mind, so hard to guard, so hard to control, the wise man straightens, as the fletcher straightens the arrow.
*The mind is very hard to perceive, extremely subtle and wanders at will. Let the wise person guard it; a guarded mind is conducive to happiness.
*The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.
*Oneself, indeed, is one’s saviour, for what other saviour would there be? With oneself well controlled one obtains a saviour difficult to find.
*From attachment springs grief, from attachment springs fear; for him who is wholly free from attachment there is no grief, whence fear?
*Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
November 24th,2011
Philosophy |
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Last month two peoples death attracted everyone’s judgment. One was Steve Jobs, the other, Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi. People’s feelings reached opposing extremes upon the hearing the news of each man’s death. The news of Jobs’ death is filled with sadness and warm praise. The news of Gaddafi’s death is filled with delight and worthiness of his punishment.
Two of the easiest ways for people to get lost in this world are through money and authority. Jobs and Muammar Gaddafi both began as successful young people.
That they could be so successful at a young age meant they were both smart and had good timing. Intelligence is a gift of fate and upbringing. But in the path of life, making the right decisions from the enormous variety of choices may be more important. If people are conceited about their intelligence when they face the allure of money and authority, they are more likely to make the wrong choices.
When Jobs faced the allure money invoked he had the wisdom to be aware that money can’t bring true happiness but it can ruin someone’s life. Walter Isaacson, the author of “Steve Jobs” said this of Jobs: “Despite being worth billions of dollars, he lived in a modest house in Palo Alto and was determined not to let money change him. “ In a taped interview for his autobiographical book, Jobs told Isaacson a lot of people had changed at Apple after becoming wealthy.
“A few people went out and bought Rolls-Royces and they bought homes, and their wives got plastic surgery,” Jobs said.
“I saw these people who were really nice, simple people turn into these bizarro people,” he said. “And I made a promise to myself. I said: ‘I’m not going to let this money ruin my life.’”
Jobs also told us this; “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.” That’s why Steve Jobs had a splendid life.
A review of Gaddafi’s life demonstrates that, when he faced the allure of authority, he didn’t have the wisdom to make the right decisions. He used cruel methods to dominate the people under his authority. Although he was able to dominate Libya for 41 years the final outcome for him and his family is the kind of notoriety no one wants.
If somebody had told me last year that Gaddafi’s regime will be overthrow and he will be killed this year, I think I wouldn’t have believed it. No one knows how many days they have to live. Very few people are willing to ask themselves, “If I won’t have tomorrow, how should I face my life?” Many people conceal their upcoming death from their mind. They avoid thinking about death by pretending they will live forever. They use all their energy to struggle for fame and fortune, believing that their lives may be happier. But at the end of their life many people find out that the fame and fortune they fought for are mere worldly possessions.
How can we have true happiness and a peaceful life? Buddha tells us about this:
“To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.”
November 12th,2011
Philosophy |
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For many years, I have encouraged friends who are determined to pursue better health to attempt sitting meditation for training body and mind. But when talking about meditation, many people seem to think that this is a religious activity. In fact, both from a scientific or medical perspective, and when subjected to analysis and verification, meditation really can create a big change in physical and mental health.
The medical perspective proves that meditation resembles animal hibernation. The process creates very similar physiology changes in humans as hibernation does in animals. Meditation increases the effects of the parasympathetic nervous system. The body’s metabolic rate is reduced, including the heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. A person’s muscles become deeply relaxed. However, unlike hibernation, his/her mind stays alert and vigilant.
Meditation also eases the body’s response to stress. Endocrine related research about immunity has discovered that people who do meditation cope better when faced with stress. When we are in a state of stress our body will produce a lot of stress hormones (cortisol) and increase our use of energy. With too much stress the body eventually runs out of resources and ill health results. Meditation sets the basic rate of energy use lower. Promoting the parasympathetic system also allows the immune system to function more effectively. Moreover, during meditation it’s also possible to reduce blood levels of lactic acid, the end product of muscle metabolism i.e. reduce the accumulation of waste. This means that people doing meditation have a higher tolerance to stress when it comes. Their body is at metabolic rest, rather than perpetually ready and over-reactive, constantly making greater and greater adjustments to environmental stress.
While meditation can reduce the body’s oxygen demand, at the same time it can effectively improve blood oxygen concentration i.e. your relaxed muscles don’t need as much oxygen, so more remains in the blood to circulate to where the need is greater e.g. the brain. Meditation helps you think! It also helps your sleep be more restorative. A person usually needs to sleep 5 to 6 hours before they can significantly reduce their oxygen demand. But if you do some meditation before retiring for the night, your body will already have reduced its demand.
Many modern people are anxious, over stimulated, and under pressure for a long time. They gradually lose their mental and physical balance, resulting in an endless variety of mental and physical fatigue symptoms. Many can’t find a complete cure for their malaise. If you feel this way, try to learn some simple meditation as soon as possible. It can be as simple as sitting quietly, praying or being mindful for 30 minutes every day. You will see a great reduction of these fatigue symptoms.
If you have a few more minutes I would like to share with you my own personal experience. Meditation helped me reduce some symptoms of anxiety that have been plaguing me for several months. I had a dry cough every morning, but no cold or flu symptoms and would feel short of breath. No cough medicine helped me. Sometimes that cough was so deep it hurt. It also drove my wife crazy. I wasn’t sleeping well. I would have trouble falling asleep and then wake up halfway through the night.
I have been practicing meditation for over 20 years. Lately I’d been practicing just 1 or 2x a week. Apparently that wasn’t enough.
So, two weeks ago, I decided to sit for 45min-1 hour every morning. I listened to musical mantras and observed my thoughts and natural breathing pattern (mindfulness meditation). After 1 week, I felt my anxiety levels had already reduced. I wouldn’t wake up feeling stressed and have to cough. I was sleeping better too (except for after T’ai chi class when I drank green tea too late at night). This morning I didn’t cough once. My wife was amazed.
Meditation can not only promote your physical health. It can also decrease your sadness, anger or unhappiness with life. For anyone looking to maintain or improve their health, meditation is one of the best ways. You just need to find the time to do it. You don’t need space, you don’t need any special equipment. You just need will power, perseverance and to make the time.
October 31st,2011
Meditation |
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In this Woman’s Day article that I picked up via Yahoo, Alyssa Shaffer talks about simple ways to extend your life. Of course exercise is in there, walking, weight training, that sort of thing. She talks about eating and sleeping well. She talks about stress. And she talks about even flossing your teeth and texting. What I especially like about the article is she also talks about the different impact genetics have vs. life choices, and she quantifies the amount of time each lifestyle choice could give you.
This is, in my mind, another example of Western science beginning to catch up to some basic ideas that some Chinese knew many, many years ago.
If you are practicing Tai Chi everyday, then you have many of the items in this list in the bag. If you’re not, maybe this will get you away from the computer and into a healthier lifestyle.
I wish you peaceful minds and comfortable bodies.
David
http://health.yahoo.net/articles/aging/photos/easy-ways-add-20-years-your-life#0
The many benefits of drinking Chinese tea are well known, but one thing to understand is that not everyone can drink tea whenever they want. There is one Chinese saying that goes like this: “Water can float a boat, as well as capsize it.” The same applies for drinking tea. If you sip an ill-timed cup of tea, at an unreasonable hour, not only is it useless to the body and mind, but it may possibly injure you. So everyone should know the taboos for drinking tea.
1 Don’t drink tea when you have the empty stomach.
When you drink tea with an empty stomach it will sometimes cause the body discomfort. This is because the stomach’s gastric juices will be diluted by the tea. The speed and efficiency of your digestion decreases, but absorption increases i.e. a higher than usual proportion of partially digested food crosses into your bloodstream. This causes many bad ingredients in the tea (usually decreased by digestion) to enter unmodified into your bloodstream, causing headaches, dizziness and other symptoms.
2. Don’t drink tea immediately after a meal.
Many people like to drink tea immediately after meals, thinking that it has the ability to clear the intestines of grease. In reality, it probably has the opposite effect. The tea dilutes gastric juices, affecting food digestion and absorption. The tannins in tea will make the protein in the food not easy to digest. Protein and tannic acid combine to create many large molecules, causing the waves of motion in the entire digestive system to slow down. Waste stays in the intestine longer, easily giving rise to constipation. Retained waste allows the manufacture of many toxic and carcinogenic substances, as well as causing other problems.
It is suggested to wait at least one hour after a meal before drinking tea.
3. Do not drink tea when intoxicated.
Many people try to sober up by drinking tea or coffee. This is not the right way! The caffeine will make you feel more alert, but doesn’t speed up your reflexes or improve your decision making skills. Instead of feeling too tired and drunk to do something, you may think are competent enough to engage in a potentially harmful situation.
Though alcohol slows down your nervous system and relaxes your muscles, it speeds up your heart rate. Tea will speed it up even more. The strain on your heart may be significant enough to give you a heart attack, especially if you have an underlying heart problem.
Caffeine alone doesn’t cause dehydration, especially for people whose body is used to having tea every day. But alcohol is a diuretic, causing the kidneys to produce more urine, depleting the body of water. Combining caffeine with alcohol depletes the body of essential electrolytes such as sodium, potassium and calcium. Electrolytes are important for maintaining hydration, nerve and heart function. This diuretic effect of caffeine and alcohol also promotes hangovers, fatigue and lethargy due to dehydration.
Ideally, one should have their last drink about 90 minutes before the night is over. That means there is no “quick fix” for sobriety as it takes about one hour to oxidize one ounce. Alcohol makes its way through the body, through the liver and then is excreted through urine and sweat.
4. Women should not drink tea during menstruation.
Tea contains large amounts of caffeine. After you drink it, your body’s nervous and cardiovascular system will be stimulated, resulting in dysmenorrhea, excessive bleeding and menstruation problems. If you can, try to avoid smoking, drinking, chewing betel nut, or eating spicy food, during your period, as this increases the body’s burden.
5 Do not drink tea when you have the flu or a fever.
During a fever your body temperature will rise. The tannin in tea can interfere with the body’s heat regulating function, causing your body temperature to rise further while decreasing your ability to sweat, the primary way your body rids itself of extra heat. It will take you longer to recover from the flu.
6 It is forbidden to take medicine with tea 
The synergy between medication and tea is not good. It will make an illness more difficult to rehabilitation. This is because the tannins and theophylline in the tea will react with the medication causing it to lose its original properties. This decreases its treatment function. Therefore, it’s suggested to not drink tea until at least two hours after taking medication or until after the effects of the medicine have passed.
But there are exceptions. You can drink tea and take vitamins. Tea polyphenols can actually promote the absorption of vitamins.
Tea itself has many medicinal effects, mostly positive, but some negative as well e.g. it increases blood flow in the kidneys, lowers blood pressure, has antibacterial properties, but also promotes the formation of kidney stones. Please go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_health_effects_of_tea#Tannin for a longer list.
7 Do not drink green tea and other strong tea at night time
Green tea is only slightly oxidized/fermented, so the polyphenols content is high. Its natural energizing effect is also high. There are large amounts of caffeine in strong tea, stimulating the nervous and cardiovascular system. This is not good when you are trying to slow down and relax the body before going to bed. Black tea is fermented tea. Its polyphenols composition is low, so it has a smaller energizing effect. Its ability to warm the stomach actually may help bring sleep. So if you really want to drink tea before bed, it’s suggested to drink just a small cup with not too much volume.
8 Do not drink the first soak of tea.
Tea processing plant will use a lot of chemicals in the production of loose leaf green tea. The goal of the first soak is to wash away these toxic substances, while simultaneously refreshing the leaves. Pour hot water over the leaves in your tea pot, tilt the pot a couple of times to make sure all the leaves have been bathed and then pour the water away. Sometimes this first soak is used to warm up the tea cups, but remember to not drink it!
Now that you know the taboos of drinking tea, I hope you will enjoy your next cup of Chinese tea more!
Dharmazen online store has high quality organic tea, available at a reasonable price. Feel free to compare our prices to those offered by other online stores. http://www.damazen.com/cargo/index.html
October 15th,2011
Store,
Tea |
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