[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
On March 20 at 11:44 a.m. (GMT), the sun was directly over the equator on its annual journey northward.
Here's a question. This equinox is properly:
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
[Unfortunately, whatever it was was embedded in a Flash video, which can no longer be played. So I can't even figure out what it was! Tantalizing...]
I don't think anyone realized just how impressed the Disney people were by Lila when we visited the Anaheim park in January of this year...
Comment(s):
megan:
too cute!
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
My dear Twitterers,
If you are looking to:
then by all means follow me.
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
When you're an expat in China, you find that the "New Year season" is exceptionally long.
Anywhere from three to seven weeks after the "real" New Year's Day on Jan. 1 comes Chinese New Year. This year it was on Jan. 26, so from late December until well into February, I was saying "Happy New Year!" In fact, even this week, having just returned to school after a six-week break, I was wishing HNY to people that I hadn't seen since "last year" (Jan. 9).
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Over on eduFire a member asked: "If you were giving your last lecture, what would you say?"
Here's the answer I posted:
Yes, I know: I said they were ALL the key to everything, but only because...THEY ARE!
Comment(s):
Lisa:
Very well put, and yes, all three are THE KEY to everything,
Peace and smiles to you :)
Lisa
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
It's OSCARS time. It seems this year's nominees are heavy on "meaning." Best Picture nominees are:
Lila and I will do a moviethon this weekend and try to catch up on most of the nominees. We've seen The Reader, and she couldn't find Milk when she went to the DVD town this week. But we'll try to slog through the other three.
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
[Portions of this same material were used in July 2006.]
At long last, I'm posting the third and last part of my series on "A Virtue List: Honesty, Veracity, and--now--Equanimity."
There is a famous story in the Upanishads (Svetasvatara Upanishad 4:6-7 and Mundaka Upanishad 3:1-2 tell the identical story):
"Two birds, inseparable friends, cling to the same tree. One of them eats the sweet fruit, the other looks on without eating."
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Veracity.
If you check your dictionary, you may find yourself thinking, "Veracity and Honesty mean the same thing." But I'm using a special definition for this one.
On January 25, 1997, it was my great pleasure to see Dr. Huston Smith give a lecture at The Learning Annex in Los Angeles. Dr. Smith is one of the great teachers of the Perennial Philosophy, a term that describes what I have adopted as my personal "religion." In that lecture, Dr. Smith used "Veracity" to mean, "Seeing things as they are," which is one of the great virtues of Buddhism.
According to Dr. Smith, a Zen monk once explained it thus:
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
All my life I have been fascinated by what I call "Virtue Lists."
These are lists that transcend the "dos and don'ts" of things like the Ten Commandments, or Buddhism's Five Precepts; instead of talking about what we should do, a Virtue List outlines what we should be.
So Christianity has The (Eight) Beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12, where we are encouraged to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure of heart, to be peacemakers, and to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
Buddhism has a much shorter list: To be compassionate and wise. (There are longer lists too, of course, which we may visit later.)
[This essay was originally posted on this blog in August, 2006--much closer to the time it happened. It was cross-posted to the blog on Weebly, so I won't post it again here.]
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
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| The traditional Halloween beer-sucking game. |
What does the average American know about the deep-culture origins of Halloween? Most see it as sort of a watered-down "fun time" for kids, and an excuse for adults to par-tay.
Of course some of us know that it was the traditional first day of Winter, the season of the dead; and that the Church co-opted this Pagan (in the high sense of the word) tradition and turned it into a remembrance first (November 1) of all the Christians who have passed on, and second (November 2) of all the souls who have died.
And so in some countries people go to the cemeteries to "par-tay" with the dead. My wife Lila says that in the Philippines, families play cards and mahjong there!
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
I've just finished reading Three Cups of Tea, the fascinating story of American mountain-climber Greg Mortenson, who, after losing his way near the Himalayan peak known as K2, promised a poor village that he would build them a school.
Years later, he is the head of the Central Asia Institute, and is responsible not only for building schools, but also for teachers' salaries, medical facilities and supplies, clean water projects, and a host of other humanitarian projects. Mortenson truly is, as the subtitle says, "Promot[ing] Peace...One School at a Time."
[NB: The book later came under suspicion of having been at least partially fabricated, and the funds it raised misused.]
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
My wife Lila and I decided to make a quick get-away this weekend, so we stayed in Dameisha, a beach resort just outside of Shenzhen, the city where we live.
Our ultimate goal, though, was a Ming-period naval fortress out on Dapeng peninsula, beyond where we stayed.
Near the fort is a rather interesting little temple. I suspect that it was built as a folk temple, housing many of the more popular figures in what some call "superstitious" Daoism (Taoism). These little folk temples often have great images on wall tiles, as well as charming (if sometimes garish) statuary.
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
I don't know if things have changed much, but when I was a kid, playground taunts were a most common form of communication. "Stupid head," "ugly face," and other scathingly witty insults were much more common than kind words and pet names.
So naturally, we had to come up with equally witty defenses against such attacks. And, in good playground-ritual fashion, some of these rhymed.
I'm rubber, you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you!
OK, it doesn't scan so well, but hey, we were eight.
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Sometimes when I sign up for a website (Beliefnet, for example) I find myself faced with the "Religion" question.
"Religion," the category says, and then they give a bunch of choices, none of which fits. If I say, "The Path," the formulation I've come up with, no one will understand.
The Path, in brief, is a way of seeing that leads to personal peace. It's the Perennial Philosophy that underlies all religions, with four steps:
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
I'm sitting in the train when, through the crowd of standing passengers, I see a lovely face. Not young-young, but younger than me. Maybe 35, classic, almond-eyed, pug-nosed, pouty-lipped, well-taken-care-of. She's holding hands with someone, but I can't see who.
(Not that it matters. I'm happily married. But that doesn't stop me from appreciating a pretty face when I see one. I once knew a Thai Buddhist abbot who would occasionally mention that a girl was "pretty." Whenever I scolded him, he'd say in his sing-song English, "When I see beauty, I say beauty." I loved that guy.)
Anyway, the ride continues, and at one station most of the crowd empties out like air rushing from a balloon, and I can see who she's holding hands with.
It's her mother.
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
As a young man, I had quite a temper. But after becoming a vegetarian in 1994, despite some curveballs that life threw me, I definitely calmed down. There was a time when total strangers commented on how calm I was, how peaceful.
Not anymore.
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
Take a look at the faceplate of my water heater:
The first thing I thought when I saw it is, "Why are some letters in italics, and some not?"
[This essay was originally posted to a blog on Weebly. In transferring it I have updated and made corrections where necessary.]
I began teaching in September of 1981. Since then, I've taught mostly English. But I've also taught biology, history, photography, Junior Great Books, religion (Christianity), religion ("Buddhism in English") and cross-cultural studies.
I've taught dozens of business and technical English classes. I've tutored English, history, biology, math, Spanish, and study skills; and I've led salons and discussions outside of class.
