Thought for the Day

“Friendliness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. These are not static traits, but skills we can develop. So are antagonism, cruelty, jealousy, and volatility. Which are we choosing to practice, moment by moment?” — TSB

http://secularbuddhistassociation.com/resources/quotes/

I like this quote a lot.  I just happen to like the Buddhist way of thinking.  It is practical.   I don't believe in reincarnation and such but I do believe that we can teach ourselves, learn from others, how to be better people.  For our own sake and for the sake of others.

Garbage in, garbage out.  Good stuff into our brains, good stuff out of our brains.

Thought for the Day

Happy the man, and happy he alone, he who can call today his own:  he who, secure within, can say, tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived for today.   John Dryden


To say that I have lived for today is to say a lot.  The past is in the past, the future yet to come.  Today, I have loved, gotten my chores done, reached out with a kind word.  I have lived for today.  I am content, at least in this moment.

How much time have I spent reliving the past?  Fair enough but I am glad it is behind me now.  How much time have I spent worrying about a future that hasn't come to pass?  Fortunately, one cannot predict the future, for if I had been able to do so innumerable calamities would have befallen me by now.

The house would be burnt to the ground several times over.  I'd be a widow several hundreds of times.  My dog would be snake bit and lost forever in the desert and eaten by a coyote and run over by a car and ...  you get the picture. I and my loved ones have died a hundred deaths in my imagination.

Thank goodness, we humans really don't have the gift of prophesy.  Sad that I would waste a moment of now on an uncertain later or an unhappy past..

The Obligatory Christmas Article

The Obligatory Christmas Article

The approach of Christmas brings harrassment and dread to many excellent people. They have to buy a cart-load of presents, and they never know what to buy to hit the various tastes; they put in three weeks of hard and anxious work, and when Christmas morning comes they are so dissatisfied with the result, and so disappointed that they want to sit down and cry. Then they give thanks that Christmas comes but once a year. - Following the Equator Mark Twain

Mark Twain doesn't have a whole lot to say about Christmas so I was doing a little research. Okay, very little research. I went to Wikipedia  [I owe you guys a donation] for the Obligatory Christmas Article I am about to write. 

We are all well aware that Christmas is on Dec. 25^th.   But did you know, on that date, the Constitution of the Republic of China was signed? That's Taiwan to you and me. The Taiwanese have declared Constitution Day as a national secular holiday and it is celebrated much like Christmas. 

The Twelve Days of Christmas starts on the 25^th and runs until Jan 6^th.

I noticed that the Armenian Apostolic Christmas is January 6 and the Eastern Orthodox Christmas is on January 7^th.  Not December 25^th. I don’t know why.

Saint’s Days are very popular this time of year. All Saints Day kicks off the season on Nov. 1^st. [We call it Nevada Day and celebrate our statehood although there probably isn't a single saint in the entire state.] St Nicholas [Dec. 6]; St Stephen [Dec. 26]; St John the Evangelist [Dec 27]; St Sylvester [Dec. 31]; St Basil [Jan 1] – they all have their own individual Saint’s Days.  

These two holidays startled me - January 1^st is the Feast of Circumcision Day AND the Feast of Fool’s Day.  Probably no coincidence there.  You’d have to be a fool to volunteer for circumcision.

Numerous festivals are celebrated around the shortest day [or is that the longest night?] of the year, Dec. 21st.  Yule, Yalda, Saturnalia and a whole slew of others around the world.  New Agers and Pagans seem to like these holidays.  Australia and New Zealand have to celebrate winter solstice in June.  They’re a little backwards down there.

Humanists picked the 23^rd for their HumanLIght Day.  Americans love Christmas Eve and the Brits love Boxing Day on the day after Christmas. Pancha Ganapti isn’t well-known here but the Hindus celebrate the patron god of the arts from Dec 21^st thru the 25^th.  Kwanzaa starts on the 26^th and runs through January 1^st. Hanukkah is a confusing holiday unless, of course, if you are Jewish.  It has a different set of dates every year.

Atheists don’t seem to have any specific holidays of their own.  Since there is no creed or specific guidelines when you have a non-belief in god or gods, they tend enjoy whatever holidays are meaningful to them as individuals.

Whatever  you are celebrating this time of year, I hope we can all agree that New Year’s Day holds the promise of bright tomorrows and that New Year's resolutions, like hangovers, soon wear off.  I wish you all a Happy Holiday Season,  whatever  that may mean for you.  Me, I think I’ll start with All Saint’s Day on November 1^st and celebrate every day of mirth, merriment, singing, dancing,feasting and getting gifts that I can find well into January. 

Thought for the Day

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
Confucius

Read more:http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/confucius_2.html#ixzz1giVk7Fo2

I liked this saying because I remembered back to when I was young and didn't know how to deal with the world in a balanced fashion.  I spent a whole lot of my time putting other people down because I didn't want to ever be like them.  I didn't have good role models.

So, Bob is a drunk and Linda is a slut and Frank is a wife beater and on and on.  I knew a whole lot of dysfunctional people but I didn't know how NOT to be those dysfunctional people.  So, I just tried hard to label people and stay completely away from them.

I could have used this advice sooner, I think:)  I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.  

As it stands, I had to spend quite a few years thinking about what is being a good person.  So, maybe this little bit of advice from Confucius wouldn't have done me all that much good way back when!  After all, one cannot take the good points of some and the bad points of others when you can't figure out which is which.


Eventually, I realized that I had learned how to be a good person and I didn't have to worry so much about being like these people.  I am not like those people.  I have had the good fortune to find my way in this world despite the poor lessons learned from my family early on.  I no longer worry about not being a drunk, a druggie, a meaney.

That is not to say that I have reached perfection as a human being.  Just that I turned out good and decent. Having learned those lessons, they cannot be taken away by knowing a bad person.  I don't hang out with bad people because I don't enjoy drunks and louts, not because they can take my lessons from me.

Thought for the Day

Delusion


“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” 
― Carl Sagan


That may be quite true for me, as well.  I do think let's grasp the Universe as it really is rather than persist in believing in the myths of yesteryear.   On the other hand, life is what you make it [often times] and to persist in this world, it can be good to look at the good or brighter sides of life.  Is this delusional?

I like to say I live in my own little world and it's a happy place.  On the other hand, when I step out into the "real" world of town committees or dealing with others outside my  normal circle, I find myself realizing once again how dysfunctional many of us are.  So, I like to be a realist that looks on the bright side whenever I can find it.  At least if I am delusional, it is a delusion that is based on some semblance of reality and it is of my choosing and I am the happier for it.  

Thought for the Day

A jug fills drop by drop. Buddha


So it is with the mind but are you filling it up with garbage or the good stuff?  I hope I put some of the good stuff in there everyday.


Maybe read a good book.


Maybe tell myself something positive or uplifting.


Maybe choose to find the humor or the bright side of a situation.


Maybe acknowledge the feelings I have without being  sucked into the feelings vortex.

Thought for the Day

Adversity


Unknown Author
Determination, patience and courage are the only things needed to improve any situation.



Myla Kabat-Zinn
Each difficult moment has the potential to open my eyes and open my heart.


What many people have realized at the end of a difficult period in life is that all bad things come to an end, being deternined works and courage comes in small steps out of a dark tunnel.

I don't know who Myla is but it is true that difficult times have the potential to open your eyes to see others in a new light and to open your heart to understand what it is to be human and to understand the love that is inside that heart is waiting to shine forth once that heart is opened.

Thought for the Day

Happiness

He is happy whom circumstances suit his temper; but he Is more excellent who suits his temper to any circumstance.
David Hume

No one's really happy anyway, it's not human.
Billie Joe Armstrong


It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.
Dale Carnegie

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness.
George Orwell

Read more:http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/happy_3.html#ixzz1gLpoZTob

Well, there is a lot to be said on the subject of happiness.  Myself I lean more towards contentment.  Like a cat I enjoy a full stomach and a warm fire and not to be held to closely.

I think that happiness is something you make up your mind to have  much as Abe Lincoln says : Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

I have seen some amazing people that have had atrociously hard times in their lives still manage to be happy.  I might be one of them, although it certainly hasn't come naturally.  I have had to work very hard on having a good attitude.  So, while life may not be a manic whirl of giggles, I am happy.  The cynic in me loves this one:  No one's really happy anyway, it's not human.  Billie Joe Armstrong  We humans do tend to feel that we are not happy even when life is going pretty good.  That is a bad habit!

Does anyone want to add to my list of sayings about happiness or does anyone want to discuss how they have created more happiness in their lives.  Disqus comments await your typing efforts.