Cool Mind Warm Heart

How Do You Want People to Feel?

My friend, the artist Bob Conge (who drew this handsome fiddler), is a member of the steering committee of the Fiddler’s Fair in Springwater, New York.  Recently he sent me an email saying he wanted to help the committee “define our guiding principles and what we want our fair to be.”  To that end, he asked if I would forward to him “some of those daunting questions you present to your clients in search of who they are?” 

Because these are considerations that shape many a noble ambition, here’s the nut of my reply.

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Made by Belief

Man is made by his belief.  As he believes, so he is.
~ The Bhagavad Gita

When Our Real Parents Die

He said, “I used to meditate for two things.  But today my parents died and I am in sorrow, so I’m not meditating.”  His language was entirely mystical.

I said, “Your parents died?  You’re a swami.  You have nothing to do with parents.”

“No, no,” he said.  “You also have parents.  When they die you will understand.”  He continued: “Attachment was my mother, and anger was my father.  They both died, so I have nothing to do....”

~ Swami Rama

SINGING MEANINGFUL SONGS

Although I would prefer that a two-ton potato not fall on my head, I’m grateful to be reasonably unattached to whether I’m alive or not.  It makes it easier to decline to participate in our nation’s wacky and profoundly harmful approach to health care. 

It is my intention never to agree to pay out-of-pocket for any essential medical service.   If that means I’m refused care, so be it.  Maybe I’ll change my mind if I’m in excruciating pain, and if I do, I’ll learn something about myself.  But it won’t alter my commitment to resist a way of thinking about so-called human health that is at odds with human dignity.  I’m speaking of the view that medical treatment is not a right but a privilege, and that it’s okay for someone to become financially devastated because of his or her health.  As George Carlin said about America, we’re a great country but a strange culture.

Welcome Twenty Ten

 

There is no such thing as talent, only awareness.

~ Chogyam Trungpa