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Browse every published article connected to E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond Rock, with exact attribution and full-archive search.
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Browse every published article connected to E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond Rock, or search within this exact expert archive.
We all remember the Jim Jones tragedy, which resulted from a deadly combination - a charismatic leader who knew how to influence and control people, and weak willed followers who couldn't discriminate between fact and fiction. In the cramped confines of a cult, rationality goes out the ...
As the man slowly walked away, I faced my own future as well, and I entered the subdued and inviting cave; I had a lot of work to do. I was already adept at the Four Material Calms of - applied and sustained concentration, rapture, equanimity and bliss, and equanimity and mindfulness – but I ...
The next morning I discovered a dull ax behind the cottage that I sharpened to a razor's edge. I thought that cutting a few days' supply of firewood and stacking it neatly along the fence to repay the maiden for her thoughtfulness would be a good idea. I must admit; I was quite taken with the ...
You know the feeling; a forlo ness, a crushing despondency filled with despair and hopelessness; a desperate reaching out for anyone who might hear your apprehensive, silent cries of anguish. You will do most anything to relieve the terrible feelings of dejection, and begin looking for someone ...
The most tenacious fighter wins. This is true in war, politics, religion, and all aspects of human relationship. The times when we don't have to fight, the times when we can live without fighting, we call peace. However, there are those who say that peace is not sustainable because peace creates ...
We walked from village to village for two years, and eventually reached a thriving village at the foot of a high, snow-capped mountain. According to my water-stained map, this village was only a few kilometers from the mysterious cave. I located the village elder and told him of my intentions ...
A mounting problem exists both in our schools and in our culture. Teens gone wild, reckless spending and irresponsibility by adults, it's all coming to fruition in an economy and culture teetering on the edge of a serious downturn. Gas prices are skyrocketing, as everyone waits, idling, in ...
Life on this planet is but a few moments long, considering the endless eons this earth has twirled around its sun. Long after life has found this planet too unfriendly, and after all of our accomplishments are burned up in that incredible supe ova that our sun will evolve into just before it ...
Q. Does God exist? A. If there is a god, he, she, or it, or neither he, she, nor it, would not exist. A god could never be caught within the fabric of existence as we are. A god is Reality, unborn, uncreated, undying, and therefore could not exist, and therefore since we exist, we cannot be ...
In order to get good "court sense," a beginning racquetball player must put up with the difficulties of learning how the ball bounces; only then will they understand the ball's nature and become relaxed and proficient. The player must face the problems through practice, however.
For five long years, I did fine by myself in the forest, but when I came upo Maradin and her cottage, everything came apart. It was my first real challenge and I wasn't up to it; I could still be easily duped and victimized by the grand illusions of the world. I was so disheartened that I sat ...
How can you tell if you are on the right path? There are telltale signs, but before they can be acknowledged, a determination must be made regarding your purpose for treading a path in the first place. Most people don't tread a path through the woods. Instead, they prefer to wander about at ...
"What now, my ‘king,'" he greeted me sarcastically, his face expressing his obvious exasperation. "I have been experiencing unusual wisdom, and wondered what I should do?" "The wisdom you have experienced and are now telling me about is dead and gone. Do you see that? The truth can only ...
"Trying to change this ‘I thought' requires trying to change something very ingrained," cautioned Weepasa. "It involves the destruction of ‘ourselves' because this ‘I', this ‘Me' is mixed up with our every thought and emotion. We can never put aside this ‘I' thought ...
We look in the mirror and notice a new wrinkle. Oh my God! I'm getting old! But I'm only forty-four! Let's see, Americans live to an average age of seventy seven. That gives me thirty-four more years! Wait a minute, Japanese live to be eighty one! I do eat a lot of fish. Maybe I have thirty seven years left. Wait another minute - I quit smoking! That has to add a few. Of course mom and dad died in their fifties (probably because of me), hmm, but I guess that doesn't help my longevity too much. Of course, I've always been lucky.
What exactly are we supposed to do? We hear about change all the time, but instead of motivating us to do something, our politicians only know how to complain - with few real solutions. I'm afraid that it is up to us to make the moves, not our politicians. But make what moves? This is where we ...
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, what a waste of valuable time, right? You could be on the computer or cell phone talking with friends, or doing something really productive or fun. Why sit quietly? In life, two things separate successful people from ordinary people: creativity and energy. People with no college degrees or credentials whatsoever have made it to the highest ranks of corporate America, and if you look carefully at their attributes, you will find energy and creativity standing out head and shoulders above anything that they have learned in the past.
A positive attitude is a great benefit. With a positive outlook, we can psychologically reap the advantages of happiness without relying on necessarily positive results. Even if things fall apart, our positive outlook regarding how good things will be in the future keeps us satisfied. For ...
Well. Why doesn't he, or she? I guess that's the first problem, one of gender. The Bible is gender blind, I mea Adam has all of his ribs but somehow his wife was created out of one of them instead of out of the earth from which Adam was created. And another question, If Adam and Eve had three sons (no daughters), hmmm, who had sex with whom to keep things going, so to speak? But that doesn't mean that God might be female, or male, or Gay. Yikes! A gay God! That would be interesting.
“Growing Old is Not for Sissies!” I remember this great bumper sticker making the rounds a few years ago. Unless life ends tragically, suddenly, we will all experience old age and the result of old age, which is death. If we live long enough, on the way to death via old age, we begin losing things. Perhaps our mobility, our health, our energy, our memory, our parents, our friends and spouses, our brothers and sisters, and maybe even some of our children who die before we do.
If a ladder represents our life, the rungs of our ladder represent our breakthroughs. Have you had one lately? Sometimes we think that we have arrived at the top rung of our ladder. Nothing else needs to be done. All we have to do is hold on and hope no sudden wind blows us off. And sometimes we become scared of the heights and want so much to climb down! But when we look below, all our old rungs have disappeared. Oh no.
Let's say that one person loves the president, Bush or Obama, and another hates him. Then, anything that one would write positively about the president would be hated and disbelieved by the other, regardless of whether it was true or not.
The swelling was getting worse. I said to a John as he dressed my wound, "I would like to understand kamma more completely, just in case I don't make it." "Your mind will never comprehend kamma fully, for it is very complicated - its tentacles reach in all directions. Only your heart can ...
We all seek power. We try to push ourselves up and in the process, many times attempt to push others down. It might begin with a feeling that we have been wronged, which means that our ego has been hurt, and in order to right things we might begin a verbal confrontation with the offending party. ...
What can we expect to gain from meditation? Nothing, in the beginning, except for a somewhat annoying practice that always seems to get in the way of our doing something more important! If we are half-way serious about our practice, however, we will persevere, and eventually get to a point where ...
The Buddha introduced a number of things that are unique to all religions and spirituality. Two of these are The Four Noble Truths and Interdependent Origination. The Buddha claimed that one could not attain enlightenment without understanding both of these intuitively, or with the heart, and ...
A John was tireless, and continued with his story, "These forest dwellers made another tremendous breakthrough. They discovered ‘kamma,' the part of us that continues after death. What continues after death is rather complicated so I will go slowly. Whenever you act, this act is remembered by ...
An excerpt from Wikipedia.org (Religious Left): “The Christian Left holds that social justice, renunciation of power, humility, forgiveness, and private observation of prayer (as opposed to publicly mandated prayer) are clearly mandated by the Gospel text . . . Bible scholars observe that early ...
There are two faces of religion; that which we profess, and that which we project. Our professed religion follows our scriptures and our beliefs and are what we declare to be our truths, our ideals. It's the talk we talk. Our projection of our religion is how we act, what we say, how we say it, and what and how we think. It's the walk we walk. For example, we might profess love, but project (openly or surreptitiously) hatefulness if someone disagrees with our religion.
It seems to me that too many people are taking a big cut out of the health care pie for themselves. Instead of a middleman, we have numerous middlemen that come between the sick person and his or her care. And it has gotten too top heavy, way out of control. The medical schools reap huge profits from their business, and it is a business. The doctors run up huge loans to go to medical school, and then self-justifiably become specialists (because that's where the money is), and charge huge amounts for their services, because their services are a business.
Janet and I decided play a little tennis recently to get a cardio workout. The last time we played was almost 30 years ago when we first met, so we knew the fundamentals but were, to say the least, a bit rusty! At 56 and 66 respectively, Janet and I aren't exactly Serena Williams and Roger ...
I walked back to where a John was waiting and told him about the skeleton. He said he was well aware of the tragic situation and then told me the rest of the story. "Soon after the woman died, her body was placed in a sealed box and stored beneath one of the huts to cure, for it would take ...
One good way to find God is to lose yourself! Which is easier said than done, because in order to lose yourself, you must first discover what your "self" is! Once that discovery is made, then you can decide which is more important; yourself... or God? Assuming that you decide God is far more ...
We in America are just beginning to understand what the phrase "Letting the cat out of the bag" is all about. This idiom means that a secret has been somehow accidentally disclosed, and in America's case, the secret has dire ramifications. The phrase has been traced back to around the middle ages where dishonest farmers would sell piglets packaged in opaque, black bags that you couldnt see through. But there were no piglets in the bags . . . there were cats! Which were much less expensive than piglets.
This sounds like a Yogi Berra truism, but the fact is; nothing really matters at all. Everything we do, our dreams, our aspirations - they all mean absolutely nothing. The expanse of the universe, the inconceivable endlessness of ete ity, the indifference of a myriad of generations to come, all ...
This is a profound question, "What should we be?" Should we be aggressive and ambitious, or compassionate and passive? Should we be a little of both? Or maybe something completely different from aggression, ambition, compassion, and passivity? Can we ever be what we should be, even if that ...
The auspicious night finally arrived, accompanied by a brilliant moon playing in a deep, black sky that was busily spewing out its myriad diamonds. A silvery-white glow suffused the entire forest as we made our way to the meadow under this immense canopy of stars, and only the bubbling of a ...
When a Buddhist monk or nun ordains, they give away everything. They give away their relationships, their families, their business career or job, house, car, clothes – everything. They trade it all for three simple robes and a begging bowl, and perhaps a chance to see the "Dhamma" -- a catalyst ...
It's obvious that only after young adults leave home do they find their own potential and blossom in their own way. The bittersweet acknowledgement of this reflects a mature relationship with parent and child. This is a cutting of the umbilical chord with our children, offering them a chance of individual development, and freedom to explore their new world on their terms. Freedom: Are there other umbilical chords that can be cut that offer freedom for ourselves?
I know; it's your day off, so you drag yourself out of bed and throw on the same clothes you wore yesterday. What the heck, you'll be working around the house all day anyway, why even take a shower, you can take a shower and change clothes later. You grab some coffee, stumble into the media ...
It's obvious that other people, when they disagree with us, are just plain wrong. And when we confront these kinds of people, our only alte ative is to let them know in no uncertain terms that they are not only wrong, but apparently stupid for disagreeing with us about something so obviously apparent. It's unbelievable that people can be so messed up. Of course, the other person feels the exact same way about us! It's not that they somehow realize that they are stupid and forge ahead anyway.
One of the first things a new Buddhist monk is told by older, more experienced monks is to stop "measuring." No matter how much the new monk thinks that he knows, it will not help him now. It will only prove a hindrance to his meditation and spiritual development. The new monk can either accept ...
Walk into any busy Zen center and you will more than likely find Christians practicing meditation. Many famous Christians, including Thomas Merton; Trappist monk, poet, writer and social activist, recommended meditation as a means of directly communicating with God. Whatever we can do to calm ...
Some people get a glimpse of where they are headed just before they die. My sister-in-law did. Terminal with lung cancer, we thought that she had passed away early one morning when she abruptly stopped breathing, but after a few minutes, she woke up! She told us that she had just been in a ...
Conqueror and I remained at our vantage point in the foothills until the weather exhausted itself. With the floods beginning to melt into the countryside, and with no signs of my enemies from the north, our journey to the far country and the cave resumed as we headed for lower ground. Each ...
I threw myself into my practice of investigation, and did exactly as Weeja instructed, alte ating between the Calms and Investigation for the next two months, but I was having problems. I investigated my body and mind tirelessly by observing the various contacts with my senses, then I watched ...
To clear the mind of past programming requires practice. It can't be done by wishing it to happen. The fastest and most trusted way is meditation, and the type of meditation that gets results quickly and surely is breath meditation. As one concentrates on his or her breath for some time, the mind becomes calm and absorbs into the breath. While concentration is like hitting the outside of the breath, absorption is like becoming one with the breath. Absorption is entering, what is called in Buddhism, the Bhavanga, or pure, unrestricted mind.
No friendly moon was there to light this unfamiliar path; only a pitch-black night, so dark and foreboding that I could not see my hand in front of my face. Even Conqueror's sharp eyes soon lost the trail, forcing me to dismount and wrestle through heavy, wet vines, and walk on tangled roots and ...
Self: Your consciousness of your own identity. Esteem: The condition of being honored. Self-esteem: Honoring oneself. As we can see, self-esteem is a rather “self” ish condition that we necessarily feel obligated to create artificially when we are insecure. The fact that we must go out of our ...
The important thing is to never lose a religious argument, and this article will tell you exactly how to do that - beginning with the first rule: Don't make the usual mistakes! The usual mistakes include circling arguments. You will be challenged on circling arguments every time because they are ...