I’ve mentioned before that one of my determinations for 2008 was raising the bar and turning everything up a notch and my health is no exception.
It’s not a secret that I stand to shed a few dozen pounds, and an important step is to be motivated. LiveHealthyAmerica.commakes it easy to build a team of like minded partners that can help motivate, share tips and offer encouragement.
I really can’t wait to get started and look forward to the friendly competition. I’ll keep you all posted on my progress. (Don’t worry, if you choose to participate only percentages of your teams progress are reported, nobody has to know your personal progress.. by you know me.. I choose to share everything online!!!)
It’s not yet Thanksgiving and we already had plowable snow!!! This is great!!! The changes in seasons is one of the reasons I would have a hard time ever leaving this region. As it changes it reminds me of one of my favorite pieces of encouragement.
“No matter what the circumstances, you should never concede defeat. Never conclude that you’ve reached a dead end, that everything is finished. You possess a glorious future. And precisely because of that, you must persevere and study. Life is eternal. We need to focus on the two existences of the present and the future and not get caught up in the past. We must always have the spirit to begin anew ‘from this moment,’ to initiate a new struggle each day.” - Diasaku Ikeda
With such a cute name George Curious, how could I resest hunting this cache down!
Well, after watching this video you’ll agree that maybe I should have done this one on a different day. I actually picked this cache because it had pretty much guaranteed me a nice 3 mile hike and excercise is certainly something I can use!
It started off very well on our Rail to Trails network and was only about a thenth of a mile off the main trail, it should have been reasonably easy.
Not even half way up though I realized I didn’t have my cell phone with me anymore. I know I left a twitter message when I started but couldn’t remember if that was from the car or en route. The more I walked the more I belived it fell out of my pocket and that pretty much occupied my mind.
When I got to the location it was very uncomfortable. The nice spring I was looking for had apparantly turned into a tick infested pool of stagnent water. I looked but honestly between being bummed about my phone and being eaten alive by who knows what, my heart just wasn’t into it. So I wrapped up and headed back to the car hoping to find my phone along the way.. which I didn’t
When I got home my house phone was ringing.. caller ID said it was me!!! “Hello? You found my phone!!!!?” Turns out a homeless man was on the trail with his bicycle travelling back to the homeless shelter when he found my phone. I was saavy enough to look at the address book and call the entry labeled “home” and ta da!!!! So I drove to the shelter to retrieve my phone and give him a nice little reward which I think he really appreciated.
Looks like a little buddhism at work here, turning the poison of an uncomfortable treck through the woods into medicine by exchange goodwill with someone less fortunate. NMRK
The World Tribune, a weekly newspaper put out by the lay Buddhist organization the Sokka Gakkai recently published an exerpt from “A Youthful Diary” – The diary of young Daisaku Ikeda, the SGI’s 3rd president, my mentor.
On Saturyda May 13, 1950 part of his entry reads… “Am I tired from all our struggles? My physical condition is extremely bad. Shall a disciple of Nichiren Daishonin be defeated? Never! Burn with great conviction! Faith, arise!..
Points to remember from today on: 1) Study Buddhism, 2) Cut down on expenses and 3) Live productively.”
Though these are points I do and have been practicing, after a while our convictions need to be renewed. Reading that exerpt has inspired me to add these points to my 43things.com and renew my efforts.
On September 8th, 1957 the second president of the Soka Gakkai Josei Toda made a declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons (Full Text).
As this month marks the 50th anniversary since it’s writing, it has been the focus of many SGI discussion meetings and individual study.
On the surface, this proposal to me seems very feel-good and benign. But the more I read it, the less inclined I am to be a supporter of this document as written.
Josei Toda writes, “I wish to declare that anyone who ventures to use nuclear weapons, irrespective of their nationality or whether their country is victorious or defeated, should be sentenced to death without exception.”
To me, death without exception goes against one of the basic precepts of all schools of Buddhism, to not kill. It has always been my understanding that fundamentally Buddhist practitioners were against all forms of capital punishment and that ALL LIFE was precious.
Further more, this was written by a man who has in recent history, seen his country devastated by a nuclear attack, and there seems to be a degree of anger in his verbiage. Anger is one of the three poisons so often discussed in this practice and to me further distracts me from the celebration and support of this document as written.
In the spirit of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, I most likely will not bring up these key points in my local discussion meetings, but would love to hear any comments here in this venue.
I’ve mentioned before that one of my determinations for 2008 was raising the bar and turning everything up a notch and my health is no exception. 
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