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Archive for March 13, 2012

Kindness Daily: Proof That What Goes Around Comes Around

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Proof That What Goes Around Comes Around March 13, 2012 – Posted by Namaste
I was in a health food store when I heard a woman say her foot was hurting and she was going to call a cab.

I paid for my purchase and left to pick up some dry cleaning from the eco-friendly cleaners next door. I was walking back home when I saw the woman outside the health food store, presumably waiting for the cab.

I knew I wanted to make a trip to a craft store later that day and that I’d be driving. I asked her where she was going. She told me a place which was actually on the way to the craft store. So I said, "I’ve got a crazy idea. How about you cancel the cab and I’ll give you a ride? It will save you some money and besides, I only live a few minutes away." To my amazement she said okay without any hesitation or questions. (I don’t know if I would have been so trusting if a stranger made me the same offer!)

So I walked home, hung up my dry cleaning, got in my car and picked her up. Where she was going was so right on the way that I would have taken almost the same route to get where I was going. She thanked me, then I gave her a Smile card saying maybe she could do something kind for someone else. She said she would.

It was such a beautiful interaction.

But there’s more! So, I get to the craft store, pick up what I went for and then, as I’m waiting at the checkout, the woman behind me says that she has a coupon for 50% off any item in the store. She gave it to me because she had an extra one!

I was floored – and struck by the perfect timing of it all! I thanked her, let her go ahead of me in line, and gave her a Smile card. She said she would check out the website when she got home.

They say "what goes around comes around" and "as you sow, so shall you reap," but sometimes it is hard to see how that works as often there is a "manifestation delay." Each action creates a ripple that eventually comes back to us, but sometimes it is a lot later so we forget the connection.

It was just really fun for me to experience today how God (or "the universe" if one is uncomfortable with God) orchestrates the causes and effects in a discernable, linkable, manner where it was clear to me how in giving I’m also opening myself to receiving gifts, now or in the future. And I can learn so much from others as to how open they are to receiving in a way I might not have been if offered the same gift. So cool!

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3 Little Monks and a Moment of Truth

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess. — Rainer Maria Rilke

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Inspiration of the Day:
“This is Ankur,” our host Sachi had said, with the catching enthusiasm she’s known and loved for, “He’s an amazing photographer and has recently gone totally ‘gift economy’.” Meaning that he offers his photography unconditionally as a gift, inviting recipients to ‘pay it forward.’ I look over at the young man seated in front of me. An unguarded face lit now by a smile both shy and warm. “What’s your experience been like so far?” I ask him. “Beautiful,” he says, “I love gifting people my work and having them let their heart decide how much to give.” “But what made you decide to work in this way?” I ask him. “Three eight-year-old monks stood on a cliff edge and saved my life,” responds Ankur, his voice bland and friendly, as if the occurrence he speaks of was the most natural thing in the world.
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InnerNet Weekly: Nothing Left to Fight Against

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InnerNet Weekly: Inspirations from CharityFocus.org
Nothing Left to Fight Against
by Zenkei Blanche Hartman

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During the Vietnam War, I was a political activist. I fought for peace. There was some contradiction. There wasn’t any peace in me. I hated the people who disagreed with me. That was a kind of war within myself. In 1968, I was just beginning to look at the way in which I was vigorously clinging to my opinions about things and denigrating others who had different opinions, when there was a strike at San Francisco State University.

The police came with their masks and clubs, started poking people. And without thinking, I ducked under the hands of people to get between the police and students. I met this riot squad policemen face-to-face with his mask on and everything. He was close enough to touch. I met this policeman’s eyes straight on, and I had this overwhelming experience of identification, of shared identity. "This was the most transformative moment of my life — having this experience of shared identity with the riot squad policeman. It was a gift. Nothing had prepared me for it. I didn’t have any conceptual basis for understanding it. The total experience was real and incontrovertible.

My life as a political activist ended with that encounter, because there was no longer anything to fight against. The way I described it to my friends was the policeman was trying to protect what he thought was right and good from all of the other people who were trying to destroy it — and I was doing the same thing. "Since I had no basis for understanding the experience of shared identity with someone whom I had considered complete "other" (i.e., the riot squad policeman), and because the experience had been so real and so powerful, I began to search for someone who would understand it. How could a riot squad policemen and I be identical? In my search I met Suzuki Roshi. The way he looked at me, I knew he understood. That’s how I got here [as an ordained monastic.]

–Zenkei Blanche Hartman, former abbess of the San Francisco Zen Center

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Nothing Left to Fight Against
Conrad P Pritscher wrote: Zenkei’s story is very touching. Thanks for sending it. My fights with my self are still ongoing. As I age and become wiser, the fights are less frequent and less fierce. I…
MomentofLearning wrote: I used to have arguments with peopl when I felt they were not following what is correct and value-oriented. This was a common ground for my being angry and expressing it too on few people. This was co…
David Doane wrote: It’s crucially important to have the experience/awareness/realization of shared identity, however it happens, whatever precipitates it. It’s important to get to the point of lookin…
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Year of Dancing with Life – Week 23

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Dharma Wisdom: An integral approach to practicing the Buddha's teachings in daily life.
Week 23:
Abandoning Attachment to Desire

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