Kernals of Wisdom

The great equalizers of life are faith and death. I was privledged to be born in a country that gave me inherint rights and a blue passport. Others are born into slavery and famine in the countries of Africa. But we can all find a common richness and comfort in our faith and inevitably we will all die. The issue with faith is whom will be more likely to have a deeper, more intimate understanding of their faith given their lot in life?

100 years from now, no one is going to care how comfortable my life was or how much money I had.

There is a saying in Tibetan scriptures: "Knowledge must be burned, hammered and beaten like pure gold. Then one can wear it as an ornament." So when you receive spiritual instruction from the hands of another, you do not take it uncritically, but you burn it, you hammer it, you beat it, until the bright, dignified color of gold appears. Then you craft it into an ornament, whatever design you like, and you put it on.

People are afriad of the emptiness of space, or the absence of company. It could be a terrifying experience to have no one to relate to, nothing to relate with. The idea of it can be extremely frightening, though not the real experience. It is generally a fear of space, a fear that we will not be able to anchor ourselves to any solid groud, that we will lose our identity as a fixed and solid and definite thing.

Sometimes imodium is not the solution.

"Surrender" means acknowledging the raw, rugged, blumsy and shocking qualities of one´s ego, and giving them up; opening up one´s self completely, trying to get beyond fascination and expectation.
_______________________________
In other news, I drank a $.55 liter of milk today. What was the manliest thing YOU did in the past 24 hours?