Be Responsible For Your Own Beliefs

 

 The poster says:

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.  Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.  Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

—Buddha

Lately, I have heard people say things about politics, religion, war, violence, and families that I think that they cannot possibly believe.  As you listen closer, you realize that they are parroting what they heard someone else say.  The person has not been investigating and thinking for themselves.  

As the poster says, do not believe in anything simply because….. 

Blessings,

Judy

Things Simply Happen

 

Things simply happen—we do our rituals, we travel about, we bear children, live among them, and die. We can’t change these facts, but if we cultivate awareness that everyone, everywhere has similar experiences of life and death, it can take the urgency out of our responses, opening a space for equanimity to arise.  - Manjusura, “The View From Above”

I read this passage and felt the “rightness” of it.  We all have our own belief systems, and our beliefs carry us through the dark times.  Everyone has dark times and it seems that we often forget that others have similar experiences.  It is the magic of life that allows us to have similar paths.  From this, we learn new ideas and beliefs.  We grow.  Our mind expands.  We live life more easily.

Blessings,

Judy

Fox In The Shadows

              

Fox sits quietly by the edge of the clearing, in the shadows, and waits for me to be aware of her.  She has been a regular visitor for some time.  Today, she comes to speak to me about working in the background – the shadow place as it is often called – because in the shadows, you can disguise who you are and why you need to do things a certain way.

Fox has had experience at misdirecting and at shape shifting.  When you have young, it is the one way that she can easily protect them.  She urges us to spend less time on the internet, and in sharing our private lives.  She asks us to be outside more.  

She sends us blessings.

See more of Fox’s thoughts at:

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2025/01/fox-in-forest.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2024/12/fox-haven.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2023/11/fox-play.html

https://www.lightstationwisdom.com/2024/04/foxy-times-spirit-animal.html

Blessings,

Judy

About Failure

                      

The writing on the picture says, “Success is the ability to go from one failure to another, with no loss of enthusiasm.” - Winston Churchill

These days, we do not seem to be able to recognize the difference between success and failure.  What I mean is, some successes are actually failures because they harm people, the environment, animals, and damage or pollute water.  An example is building a state of the art wind turbine farm on the prairies that provides excess electricity (success) but causes hearing impairment to those that live beside the turbines and kills migrating birds because it is on a migration path (failure). The turbines are big and eyesores (failure).

France is creating modified trees with small fans as leaves that will turn in the slightest breeze and create electricity while being easy to look at and which do not harm birds.

May your day be full of new ideas and fun things!

 

Blessings,

Judy

Meditation and Meditation Practice is Fascinating!

I see the act of meditation and the practice of meditation as two distinct tasks.  I enjoy reading about meditation too, so maybe the study of meditation is also a task.  I find it all so warm, and funny, and educational, and inspiring.  

Although most of us see meditation as a practice connected to Yoga – at least that is my impression of the Western belief – meditation has been here for ages – with the earliest written record going back to Hindu scripts from 5000 years ago.  I feel that meditation is much older than that date.  When the first people gazed at the stars and wondered about life and the stars, they were meditating. 

Below is a paragraph from an article on Meditation, from soulcurrymagazine.com.  If you feel guided to read the whole article, it was originally located at http://soulcurrymagazine.com/sc/tips-inspire-creativity.html. Note that Soul Curry Magazine is no longer in business, which is a sad thing.

What tweaked my interest here is the whole idea of meditation inspiring creativity.  I find that when I meditate daily, at the same time, even for just 10 minutes, that I am more creative in my thinking than when I meditate daily at different times and for different lengths of time – or perhaps I simply don’t recognize my creative periods that are stimulated by those meditations.  Regardless, if meditation inspires creativity, then I believe that it is a worthy practice and one that should be pursued. 

MEDITATION INSPIRES CREATIVITY

Meditation Creativity
Every meditator is definitely a creator because he or she is creating the higher levels of consciousness within, and with this higher level of consciousness, all beautiful things will happen.

There is a profound relationship between meditation and creativity. A non-meditative person cannot be really a creative person. Now sometimes people are allergic to the word “Meditation”. What they don’t understand is that the real objective of meditation is to be in the right state of mind where concentration, contemplation and awareness manifest in the being.

Blessings

Judy

Snail’s Pace

 

Snail’s Pace

-Judy Hirst

On the edge of my awareness sits a Snail,

  Quiet, and peaceful and serene.

She says she can tell me quite a tale,

  About trees miles high, and rivers so clean

That the bottom is clear for all to see.

 

She said there are riches for all of the beasts.

  In the land where she long has dwelt.

She says wars and conflict have ceased.

  Indeed, all the beings act as one.

And everything one needs is free.

 

“It sounds like heaven”, I said with a smile.

   “It’s not heaven, but the pace suits me fine,” said she.

“Why don’t you visit and stop for awhile

     for its tranquility transforms like a key

Fitting into a padlock releasing tension…”

  And the Snail disappeared without finishing her sentence.

 

Blessings,

Judy

Karma Takes Too Long

The poster says: “Karma takes too long.  I’d rather just beat the crap out of you now.”

I saw this poster, and thought,

“That is the problem we have today, everyone would rather fight than try to work things out.  I think that it is a product of impatience, and ego, and training.  We have learned through history that the one with the bigger stick seems to win.  So, that is what we focus on – winning.  Winning is really a form of losing when the solution only solves the problem for one person or group.  If you win, you have failed, as a leader, because not everyone is happy.  While I agree that there are some folks that you will probably never satisfy, the majority are happy and look for solutions to what keeps them from doing their job, or from living their life in peace and with ease.”

Perhaps I am wrong in my thoughts. Perhaps this poster has it right.  Perhaps we should defend ourselves, and do what is in our power to prevail over others with our own thoughts and values.  

What are your thoughts?

Blessings,

Judy