Bodhipaksa's Blog, page 20

Cool.?

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Published on December 04, 2013 15:30

Leaked documents reveal that the US government conspired with garment manufacturers like Levi's and Hanes to block a minimum wage law in Haiti that would have alleviated the poverty of many thousands of people and lifted the entire Haitian economy. At the same time, the US insists it's trying to help Haiti develop economically.

The higher minimum wage would surely have added pennies to the cost of a pair of jeans.

This report is from more than two years ago. I missed it first time around.

Reshared post from +Dave Finnerty

This is sick. Slavery did not end, they just changed the name and the rules.
#livingwage ?

WikiLeaks Haiti: Let Them Live on $3 a Day | The Nation

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Published on December 04, 2013 14:40

Join us for a Year of Going Deeper

A year of going deeper Join us for a series of free meditation events throughout 2014. We’re calling this our Year of Going Deeper.

The Year of Going Deeper includes events suitable for you whatever your level of practice, whether you’re a beginner interested in learning basic techniques or a more experienced meditator interested in cultivating deep meditative states and insight. You’re free to pick and choose which events you participate in.

Registration for these events is free, although donations are encouraged.
When you register for an event, you’re signing up for a daily practice reminder that will be delivered by email.
The newsletter will contain practice suggestions and links to guided meditations.
There will also be some “live” events that you can watch on video, or watch recordings of later.
For each event there will be an online community where you can share your experience and receive support and encouragement.

Click on the title of any event in order to learn more or to register.

Dates
Event
Details

Jan 1 – 28
Sit : Breathe : Love
(#1)*
A 28 Day Meditation Challenge

Jan 31 – May 10
100 Days of Lovingkindness*
An exploration of the four “immeasurable” states of kindness, compassion, appreciation, and “loving with insight”

May 13 – Jun 9
Sit : Breathe : Love
(#2)*
A 28 Day Meditation Challenge

Jun 6 – Aug 10
60 Days to Jhana
Exploring how to bring about deeper states of calmness, energy, joy, and concentration that characterize the “flow” state known as jhana or dhyana

Aug 13 – Sep 9
Sit : Breathe : Love
(#3)*
A 28 Day Meditation Challenge

Sep 12 – Oct 23
42 Days: 6 Elements
An exploration of the Six Element Practice, which is an insight practice on impermanence, interconnectedness, and non-self

Oct 27 – Nov 23
Sit : Breathe : Love
(#4)*
A 28 Day Meditation Challenge

Nov 28 – Dec 25
4 Weeks of Insight
Dissolving the false sense of having a separate and permanent self, so that we can embrace change and let go of suffering

* Suitable for complete beginners. Other events require prior meditation experience. Click on event titles for further details or to register.

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Published on December 04, 2013 12:47

Overcoming resistance to meditation

Stacked of zen stones with orange ranunculus flower No matter how much experience we have of meditation being beneficial in our lives, and of not meditating making life harder for us, we can still end up experiencing resistance. And resistance to meditation can be very painful, especially when we get caught between that feeling that we “should” meditation and the feeling that we don’t want to.

Sometimes there’s a hidden agenda at work. We might on some level think that meditation is selfish. Or we might be worried about “not getting things done.” Or we might be afraid of change. If you can become aware of the underlying reason for your resistance you might be able to work at rediscovering your sense of motivation, but in some ways it doesn’t matter what the content of the resistance is.

One thing I’ve found very successful when I’ve experienced resistance is to become mindful of the feeling of resistance. Where is it situated in the body? How large is it? What “texture” does it have? What kinds of thoughts does it give rise to? Notice those things, and just be with the resistance. Turn the resistance into an object of mindfulness. At that point you’re already meditating, so you might as well get on the cushion. Or you could just stay where you are, let your eyes close, and notice the breathing at that same time as you observe the resistance, or notice the resistance and send it your lovingkindness. In this kind of approach the specific content of your resistance isn’t important, because you’re not meeting your rationalizations on their own level. You’re not arguing with them; you’re outsmarting them by surrounding them with mindful awareness.

If truly want to meditate daily, but find that the resistance goes on day after day, then set yourself a low bar for what constitutes a day in which you meditate: five minutes works fine. That may not sound like much, but regularity is ultimately more important than the number of minutes you do each day. Do feel free to do more, but don’t try to impress yourself with how much meditation you can do. It’ll just lead to more resistance.

You want to get, as quickly as possible, to the point where you don’t even have to decide to meditate every day. It shouldn’t be a decision. It should just be what you do. So I have a mantra: “I meditate every day; it’s just what I do; it’s part of who I am.” If you want to meditate absolutely every day, then keep reciting that mantra (and meditate for at least five minutes each day, although preferably more) until you start to believe the mantra on a deep level. If you miss days at first, that’s OK. Just keep repeating the mantra: “I meditate every day; it’s just what I do; it’s part of who I am.”

It works.

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Published on December 04, 2013 12:28

Paying the Dharma forward

The Buddha really emphasized giving. In fact in you think about it we wouldn’t have any Buddhism today. The Buddha’s life, after his Awakening, was a life of giving. His time and his talent in communication was spent in giving people the tools they needed to become awakened. His energy was spent traveling around India, teaching.

The entire community of monks and nuns likewise gave their time and energy — their lives, really — in order to help others.

And if it wasn’t for 2,500 years of householders donating to the sangha, none of that teaching would have been passed onto us. It wasn’t just a question of lay Buddhists putting some scraps of food in the bowls of begging monks and nuns. It was a question of them donating robes, giving land to the sangha, having dwellings and monasteries built, paying for monuments to be erected, etc.

2,500 years of giving. And we’re the beneficiaries. I benefit. You benefit.

We’re asking for donations to our Free Bodhi project. The aim is to provide seed funding for a business manager for Wildmind so that I don’t have to do so much admin and can concentrate on teaching and writing. Lots of people tell me that the teaching and writing I do has made a positive difference to their lives, and I hope you’ll consider supporting us on this.

So we’re asking you to continue 2,500 year tradition, and to pay it forward. We’ve written, and continue to write, hundreds of articles on meditation. We’ve made structured guides to various meditation practices available. We run free guided meditation videoconferences and post the recordings on Youtube.

And next year we’ll be running an unprecedented year-long series of meditation events that we’re calling a Year of Going Deeper. We chose that title because the eight events we’re running will give you a complete guide to meditation practices that can take you all the way to Awakening.

Our Year of Going Deeper is going to be free. That’s our gift. What we’re asking is that you help support us — just as generations of practitioners before you have helped support other teachers — so that we can help enlighten the world.

Please donate to the Free Bodhi project on Indiegogo, and help support our work.

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Published on December 03, 2013 09:30

10 Things About Link-Baiting That Will Blow Your Mind

I've been bothered by some link-bait titles. I don't mind the "10 ways to…" style of headline, but when it's something like "This woman died — you won't believe whose fault it was" then I find it just annoyingly manipulative. Just tell me in the headline who did what! And don't make assumptions about what I will and won't believe. Bitch.

Anyway, I discovered a "link-bait title generator" yesterday. Plug in your key words and it'll create compulsive titles. The amazing thing is that the people who run the site will then write a post to go with the headline and sell it to you!

So I plugged the term "link bait" into the link bait title generator to see if I could rip a hole in the fabric of the space-time continuum. Here's The Top Ten Most Manipulative Link Bait Titles:

• 10 ways marketers are making you addicted to link bait
• the ten best-kept link bait secrets
• why you should forget everything you learned about link bait
• the connection between link bait and sex
• the 7 worst things you could do to your link bait
• 11 things the media isn't telling you about link bait
• 7 things lady gaga has in common with link bait
• why link bait sucks
• the rise of link bait and how to make it stop
• 4 jaw dropping link bait videos

Some of these — "why link bait sucks" and "the rise of link bait and how to make it stop" are wonderfully meta!?

Embedded Link

Link Bait Title Generator | Content Row

Use this title generator to brainstorm shareable linkbait ideas for your next piece of web content.

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Published on December 03, 2013 08:33

Even better than Amazon drone delivery

It's a bit wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.

Reshared post from +Rosa Golijan

Now that Amazon has announced it's working on delivery-by-drone — also known as Prime Air — Yesterday Shipping is clearly right around the corner…
(Video link via +Sharon Strandskov)?

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Published on December 01, 2013 20:15

Watch this

Really. Just stop what you're doing and watch it.?

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Published on December 01, 2013 18:24

Hacked!

The written shopping list is a venerable and generally trusted technology, but it appears to be prone to hacking.

Some mysterious items appeared at the bottom of my shopping list:

CKante (candy)
Cholklt (chocolate)

Along with the command: "You haf to bi it."

I suspect this is the work of a "kiddy scripter."

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Published on November 28, 2013 16:35

How fast can a picture spread on the internet?

I think we already know it's pretty darn fast, but this teacher has set up an experiment to show her junior high students the wisdom of being careful with media.

Reshared post from +Alan Williamson