Simply Kind on Tuesdays - Transforming Ourselves

"Life is mostly froth and bubble,
Two things stand like stone,
Kindness in another's trouble,
Courage in your own."
Adam Lindsay Gordon
 

As 2008 draws to a close, I find myself thinking about how I choose to use my mind and energies in 2009 and I've been listening to audiotapes ... watching videoclips ... reading & writing ... meditating as I walk, garden, visit blogs, etc.  This clip is about 20 minutes long but adds the weight of science to the idea that our attention can be shifted and minds altered through meditation, and encourages personal experimentation. 

I believe that 'change' is the one 'constant' to be counted upon, and taking charge of that change begins with ourselves.  Rather than focusing on 'fixing' others, by 'removing the log from our own eye' as we're told to do in the Bible we 'become the change we want to see in the world' as Gandhi suggested.  Therefore, I commend this video (or others at TED that seem more relevant to your circumstances) to you when time permits.

Habits of Happiness or Well-Being

Information from TED.com about ...  
Matthieu Ricard: Monk, author, photographer

Sometimes called the "happiest man in the world," Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, author and photographer.

Why you should listen to him:

After training in biochemistry at the Institute Pasteur, Matthieu Ricard left science behind to move to the Himalayas and become a Buddhist monk -- and to pursue happiness, both at a basic human level and as a subject of inquiry. Achieving happiness, he has come to believe, requires the same kind of effort and mind training that any other serious pursuit involves.

His deep and scientifically tinged reflections on happiness and Buddhism have turned into several books, including The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet. At the same time, he also makes sensitive and jaw-droppingly gorgeous photographs of his beloved Tibet and the spiritual hermitage where he lives and works on humanitarian projects.

His latest book on happiness is Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill; his latest book of photographs is Tibet: An Inner Journey.

"Matthieu Ricard, French translator and right-hand man for the Dalai Lama, has been the subject of intensive clinical tests at the University of Wisconsin, as a result of which he is frequently described as the happiest man in the world."

Robert Chalmers, The Independent



Thought for Today
" You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."   John Wooden