The Light of Self Expression
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October 18, 2010

Rumi-nate

"Soul receives from soul that knowledge, therefore not by book, nor from tongue...

If knowledge of mysteries come after emptiness of mind, that is illumination of heart."

-Rumi

Illumination Above Anonymity

The Ever Evolving Evolution of Self

Be Your "Self"

The self is not a fixed, permanent thing, but an ongoing narrative process. It’s dynamic, it’s interactive, it’s engaged in moral choices, it has goals, it has aspirations, and it is also what allows us to function as a society, as a plurality of stories, selves that interact and share experiences, learning from and teaching one another. “Selfing” is simply the evolutionary strategy that human beings, probably for biological and adaptive reasons, have been landed with. There’s nothing deluded or neurotic about being a self in that way. It’s actually a very liberating perspective on the nature of the individual.

Stephen Batchelor, "At the Crossroads"
http://www.tricycle.com/feature/crossroads

October 14, 2010

Shhhh... The Secret's Out

Love Live Love

Recognizing Love

[The] capacity for love is within each of us and has been active all around us, pervading our world from the moment we were born.

The claim that love pervades this world may not sound real to you but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Most of us just haven’t learned to pay much attention to the countless moments of love, kindness, and care that surround us each day: a child at the store reaching for her mother’s hand, an elderly stranger at the park who smiles upon a young family, a grocery clerk who beams at you as she hands you your change.

- John Makransky, "Love is All Around"

http://www.tricycle.com/dharma-talk/love-all-around

Bright Heights

Singin in the Wind

Man/Sky Immensity




Silvers



Venice 2010

October 9, 2010

Endless Discovery of the Power of Language

New Language Identified in Remote Corner of India; One of Thousands of Endangered Tongues Around World

The language, known as Koro, belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family, a group of some 400 languages that includes Tibetan and Burmese, the linguists said. Although some 150 Tibeto-Burman languages are spoken in India alone, the expedition team has been unable to identify any language closely related to Koro, so distinct is it from the others in the family.

The expedition was part of National Geographic's Enduring Voices project, led by National Geographic Fellows Gregory Anderson and K. David Harrison. Before the expedition, the team had targeted the remote Arunachal Pradesh state in northeastern India as one of its "Language Hotspots" -- a place on the world map that hosts a rich diversity of languages, many unwritten, that are little studied or documented...

Languages are dying around the world; one blinks out about every two weeks. Linguists consider about half of the world's nearly 7,000 tongues are endangered, the victims of cultural changes, ethnic shame, government repression and other factors.
National Geographic's Enduring Voices project works to identify language hotspots, document vanishing languages and cultures, and assist with language revitalization. Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, and Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, work with National Geographic Fellow and photographer Chris Rainier on the effort.

What is the value to the speakers of identifying the world's "hidden" languages? "Part of the uniqueness of very small languages is that their speakers may feel a sense of ownership over them," Harrison writes in "The Last Speakers." "In the case of Koro, even though they seem to be gradually giving up their language, it remains the most powerful trait that identifies them as a distinct people. Without it, they are merely part of a larger group within India's population of a billion-plus."

The Hierarchy of Needs

October 9, 2010
Tricycle Daily Dharma

What's so great about restraint?

An important part of our practice is that we exercise restraint. As the Buddha says, restraint over the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body is good, as is restraint in terms of our actions, our speech, and our thoughts.

What’s good about it? Well, for one thing, if we don’t have any restraint, we don’t have any control over where our lives are going. Anything that comes our way immediately pulls us into its wake. We don’t have any strong sense of priorities, of what’s really worthwhile, of what’s not worthwhile, of the pleasures we’d gain by saying no to other pleasures. How do we rank the pleasures in our lives, the happiness, the sense of well-being that we get in various ways? Actually, there’s a sense of well-being that comes from being totally independent, from not needing other things. If that state of well-being doesn’t have a chance to develop, if we’re constantly giving in to our impulse to do this or take that, we’ll never know what that well-being is.

- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "The Dignity of Restraint"

http://www.tricycle.com/weekly-teaching/the-dignity-restraint

Acknowledge Your Angels

Sometimes I Still Need You

Red Lights and Red Nights