Happiness and Unhappiness: Mind Games

Laugh at the Sky ~ by Megan @ DeviantArt

The mind is the source of happiness and unhappiness. ~ The Buddha Mmmmm…. Buddha. Buddha quotes and their subtleties. Some might believe from this quote that being a happy person is a matter of thinking happy thoughts, of believing in being happy. However, Buddha also said happiness of the mind […]

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The second book of The Way ~ Stephen Mitchell illuminates the Tao again.

The Second Book of the Tao ~ Stephen Mitchell

Mmmmm… a day of cloudy wet so a retreat into a tub of hot water with salsa & tortilla chips and a good book about one of my favourite subjects, Stephen Mitchell’s The Second Book of the Tao (Dao, Tao, same thing, same pronunciation: Dao). Hmmmm… the liner notes of […]

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The Fool’s day in April

The Fool Tarot Card

April is my month of the extraordinary. In April 1991, I took the first job I was offered after having been unceremoniously fired by my previous employer. A year later, I’d had enough of the computing industry and was poised to quit that job…when Microsoft bought the company I was […]

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Courage is…: Joannie Rochette & Petra Majdič

olympics 2010 joannie rochette

The greatest achievement of this 2010 Winter Olympic games wasn’t Canada’s first Gold medal, or its last, or any other Gold or Silver medal awarded in the Olympics. The two most courageous performances in the Olympics netted Bronze. One was a battle as much with emotional trauma as with any […]

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Butterflies: Hope for the caterpillars

Book cover for Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus

While we’re still fresh with images of butterflies… ‘How does one become a butterfly?’ she asked pensively. ‘You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.’ ~ Trina Paulus Hope for the Flowers

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Winnie the Pooh and the Vinegar Tasters

The Vinegar Tasters

The Vinegar tasters is among my favourite allegories and provides an excellent introduction to the three philosophies that dominated China through thousands of years: Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. For me, the most important of these is Taoism, a gentle, soulful and luminous philosophy. I’m going to be lazy and let […]

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Fugitive Peace

Fugitive Pieces ~ Anne Michaels

I watched the film adaptation of Anne Michaels’ novel, Fugitive Pieces today. One of the most achingly beautiful love scenes I’ve ever seen is followed, closely, by Michaela picking up Jakob’s journal, holding it, looking at it, quizzically, curiously. she seems to be asking of it, “what else might you […]

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Contact: When science learns faith…

Contact by Carl Sagan , audiobook, unabridged, mp3, free, download, audio, book

Following is some dialog from the film Contact, a film adaptation of Carl Sagan’s sci-fi novel of the same name. I had… an experience. I can’t prove it. I can’t even explain it. All I can tell you is that everything I know as a human being, everything I am […]

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