Dalai Lama

I am not a fan of organized religion, as I've said before. It's too narrow; too constricting. But I have read a great deal of Buddhism and of the Dalai Lama, and I think it makes such perfect sense. It's about letting go, it seems. It's not holding onto 'things'; It's not harboring anger and hatred and jealousy. It's about being calm, being peaceful, opening up to the world and the wonders of the world and the people. One of my favorite ideas from Buddhism, is 'Want the things you have, don't have the things you want.' It's about being happy where you are, how you are; not putting happiness into 'things.' These are some favorite passages from The Art Of Happiness: Yet that afternoon, as I listened…something happened. As ‘our dependence on others’ was not my favorite topic my mind began to wander…I removed a loose thread from my shirt…I listened as he mentioned the many people who are involved in making all our material possessions…the farmer who grew the cotton…the salesperson who sold the farmer the tractor to plow the field…the hundreds or even thousands of people involved in manufacturing that tractor…people who mined the ore to make the metal for each part of the tractor…the people who processed the cotton…wove the cloth…cargo workers and truck drivers who delivered the shirt to the store…the salesperson who sold the shirt to me….My precious self-reliance was a complete illusion. As this realization dawned on me…I felt a softening. It made me want to cry. 

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 ‘Hatred, jealousy and anger…are harmful…negative states of mind…[that] …destroy our mental happiness. Once you harbor feelings of hatred or ill feeling toward someone, once you yourself are filled by hatred or negative emotions, then other people appear to you as hostile…there is more fear, greater inhibition and hesitation in the midst of a world perceived as hostile…. If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate much more easily with other people.’

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 Detachment: Buddhists say ‘Don’t cling to things or people; if you do, when they are gone, you will be lost. Everything is impermanent.’ Detachment doesn’t mean you don’t let your feelings penetrate you; experience them, then leave them behind. Come to know love and pain and…. you are no longer afraid.