Cultivating compassion

Mr. Ricard: [Happiness] can encompass every mental state except those who are just opposite which is like despair, hatred, precisely the mental factors that will destroy inner peace, inner strength, inner freedom. If you are under the grip of hatred, you are not free. You are the slave of your own thoughts. So that's not freedom, therefore, this is opposite to genuine flourishing and happiness.

[music]

Ms. Tippett: So I imagine that people ask you how do I become happy? What do you say? How do you respond to that?

Mr. Ricard: Well, clearly by first saying yes, outward circumstances are important, I should do whatever I can. But I should certainly see that at the root of all that, there are inner circumstances, inner conditions. What are they? Well, just look at you. Now if I say, OK, come, we'll spend a weekend cultivating jealousy, now who is going to go for that?

We all know that even though that's part of human nature, but we are not interested in cultivating more jealousy, neither for hatred, neither for arrogance. So those will be much better off if they were not — didn't have such a grip on our mind. So there are ways to counteract those, to dissolve those.

I mean, you cannot, in the same moment of thought, wish to do something good to someone or harm that person. So those are mutually incompatible like hot and cold water. So the more you will bring benevolence in your mind, at every of those moments there's no space for hatred. It's just very simple, but we don't do that. We do exercise every morning 20 minutes to be fit. We don't sit for 20 minutes to cultivate compassion. If we want to do so, our mind will change, our brain will change. What we are will change. So those are skills. They need to be, first, identified, then cultivated. What is good to learn chess, well, you have to practice and all that. In the same way, we all have thoughts of altruistic love. Who didn't have that? But the common goal, we don't cultivate them.

From The Happiest Man in the World - http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2011/happiest-man/ the latest On Being interview with "Matthieu Ricard is a French-born, Tibetan Buddhist monk and a central figure in the Dalai Lama's dialogue with scientists." Photo today from an online exhibition about Geoffroy Tory at the Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris. http://expositions.bnf.fr/tory/index.htm

12.Aug.2011

Angles, all tied up & silver shoes included in today's pix. Disappointing news, the extra student I was hoping to meet today @ Northeastern has cancelled @ the last minute, promising to return next semester. Good news, I don't really have the energy to teach another hour today anyway - and we're counting down the last three lessons with the 1 student I have there. Payday due 14.Oct.2011 so that will be good.

Postal conveyance cutbacks?

I know the USPS has been considering drastic cutbacks, but this seems a bit extreme (look carefully for the mail carrier in the background & remember you can click on the image to see a larger version).

Other photos - neighborhood sighting of Elvis' love child & a study in greens.

Cortisone shot has really thrown me for a loop - hip much less painful but I'm irritable & having difficulty sleeping. Should have known with my reaction to prednisone back in the 90s (was it?) for my vasculitis that I should have expected something like this. If your MD ever suggests steroids to fight inflammation, tell him/her to take a flying leap.

5.Juli.2011 toddle

Andy & I took a walk down to the Ashmont area the day after Independence Day & these are some shots taken along the way including a kitty in the sky, the man in the moon & and a quite old building that isn't showing its age.

Going to have to force myself through the Prokofiev & Pictures today - I wish I found them more interesting and am having trouble dealing with the politics of the Prokofiev after having read Richard Taruskin's book on Russian music where he pointed out the lengths Prokofiev went to ingratiate himself with the Staling regime even after it was clear what genocide it was perpetrating against the Russian citizenry. Of course stitching in the mix, too.

Still muggy after almost forever it seems. Won't see much relief until mid-week at the earliest according to today's forecast. At least the temps are only due to be in the mid-60s though having to wipe down anything taken from the fridge before returning it to same in order to cut down on electricity use is getting old. Life is hard.