INTERESTING TIMES

Spirit of Life, come unto me.
Sing in my heart all the stirrings of compassion.
Blow in the wind, rise in the sea;
Move in the hand, giving life the shape of justice.
Roots hold me close; wings set me free;
Spirit of Life, come to me, come to me.

Spirit of Love, come unto me.
Deep in my soul all the mystery of creation.
Teach me to care, peace let there be;
Lead me to truth, showing forth the paths of wisdom.
Roots hold me close, wings set me free,
Spirit of Love, come to me, come to me.

( This is the song that they sing weekly in the Unitarian Universalist services; hear Kevin sing the melody behind the cut. )

Here's a wonderful paragraph from this entry by typing_sound, describing what I interpret as a moment of pure awareness, a moment of what can be called enlightenment. I think that some of us have lots of them, and some have a few, and some haven't had one yet. I suppose, I imagine, that to be enlightened would be ease in staying in such a state of consciousness longterm. But anyway, here's what Robert wrote:

I think I dreamt that because I helped this drunk guy, earlier on that evening, and I guess I felt like an angel in a way. My mind was silent and had some kindness in it. You ever helped someone, or really listened to someone, and your own mind has gone silent? It's like you disappear and they become the centre of the universe instead. That's where peace is, when you really receive the universe, or whatever's happening in the present moment, you really receive it, let it in, really agreeing to this moment, feeling yes, okay, come on in, you can enter and share whatever I have, you can have my time and my attention, the door of my heart is open to you, come on in, this is fine, this is okay, I don't need to change this, this moment is the only moment, this is reality right now, I am actually alive right now, I am here, I exist in this very moment. You get the idea. ;D

I heard it in nutrition class. Then again on the Buddhist group. Apparently the Buddha ate meat too. I looked up the Dalai Lama's meat habit and discovered that it's old news. He has been eating meat on and off for a very long time. Tibetan Buddhists apparently would rather not talk about it. It seems there is some embarrassment that their holy leader doesn't follow the entire doctrine. To some of them it is wrong to eat meat, that it is contradictory with the teaching of compassion for all living beings.
( thoughts )

Here's an example of a person who reacted with kindness instead of hostility when someone tried to do him wrong. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89164759

"Through mantra, we no longer cling to the reality of the speech and sound encountered in life, but experience it as essentially empty. Then confusion of the speech aspect of our being is transformed into enlightened awareness." -Kalu Rinpoche
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As you may guess from teh title and the sloppyt typing, my pointer finger is heavily bandaged. I had leftover leg of lamb from the 4th of July and carved off the rest of the meat. Thenn I simmered the bone, and pulled off the last few slivers of meat. The bone went to C's wolf dog. The slivers were simmered down to just meat and fat, then I added coconut oil, onions, garlic, and celery. After those had turned soft and translucent, I added potatoes and carrots, and also the spices. I started with salt and black pepper, and added some cinnamon and cumin. That's not a combination I have ever used before, but I found it in a recipe online. The recipe also called for ginger, but I didn't have any ginger. The dish smelled too strongly of cinnamon, which is not my favorite spice alone, even though Mercola says it helps modulate blood sugar levels. I started digging through the spice bin for something that would balance that cinnamon candy-ness.

I added some berebere chili powder from Ethiopia, and also some turmeric, which contains curcumin, the stuff that makes your food yellow and your cancer shrink. After the spices were heated in oil, I added some hot water and a lid, to cook the potatoes. I also threw in some raisins, a can of tomato sauce and the juice of a lemon. It started to smell good. I chopped some red pepper to throw in later. I chopped up some more lamb to add to the stew, and had chopped about half of the remainder when I missed the meat with my knife.
( The rest of the recipe and curried ruminations. )

A+ FANTASTICO! This is my new favorite movie, written by Guillermo Arriaga. It's a 2005 film, but we just got it in Flagstaff.
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