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Wishing time

December 21st, 2008
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My dearest Volker, sometimes in life it is so good to sit quietly and observe our own mind and aspirations.

I believe there are too many things happening to you right now, becoming DAD, job, tasks, duties, family, world economy crisis and all the incertainabilities that might worry you about you life, your family life and your future kid.

Do not worry about commitments over this blog. It is to bring us some peace and help, because as I said before, when I am writting to you overhere, I allow myself to see and realize a huge amount of feeeling that are duelling my mind.

Yes, Brazil is a biggest catholic country in the world, so people celebrates it very much indeed. Unfortunatelly few of them are celebrating the real meaning of this date. But it is still worth because is the time families gather together and dedicate few days for themselves, to share between them some kind of Love and Kindness. So, I believe it is a nice and special time. I only wish that all Human Beings around the world could have less sufferings, less disease, sickness and poverty, also they could have more Love, Compassion, Kindness and Respect.

Have a great time with yourself and your family.

L&K

Marcelo

love and happiness, love and kindness

Love and Happiness

November 22nd, 2008
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Marcelo,

Is that not what I am speaking about – the distraction of every day life to fulfil the purpose you want to fulfil.

Hmm, not sure if that sentence makes sense. Let me try again.

You are so distracted with things that are going on in your life that you are not writing this blog. I am very distracted with things that are going on in my life too, see my other blog for the latest, happiest news!

Yes, I am going to become a daddy next year, and I cannot tell you how happy that make me!!! You are a parent yourself, so you know what it means and how full of joy I am!

But coming back to the blog and life. Are we too distracted to focus? Are we using excused to not do things?

This is general, not related to you or me not posting. But are we getting caught up in the excuses for not posting, not meditating, not pursuing our spiritual development because there are so many other things we put first.

I admit: I DO. I don’t think you do as you are so much more advanced and ahead of the game than I am. You are still finding the inner peace and the happiness from withing. I am happy too, don’t get me wrong.

However, looking at the world I am thinking that we put work, career, money and all of our possessions in a much higher priority than any of our other objectives like spiritual and personal development. We do not put the emphasis on this as much as we should do and let other things like TV, pubs, socialising take over life.

I am not saying we should not be able to relax, watch TV and socialise. But we should not forget – and I admit, I am forgetting sometimes that there is more to life, there is something beyond, there is love and happiness within us. And, I know and I see and feel it.

And, I will develop it. Because I do and because I can.

Have a lovely weekend, Marcelo. As always, good to hear from you.

Love

Volker

PS: I found this lovely picture on this site, thanks for that. Buddha is my god though.

love and happiness, love and kindness, personal development, spiritual development

Laughing Buddha

November 16th, 2008
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Marcelo,

I know you have been extremely busy, so have I. But, I don’t want to forget about you, Buddha or our blog. So, my weekly post and reminder.

Have I been practising? Patience I have been practising and I am also stressed. Should have taken advise to meditate to de-stress but did not. My apologies. So will keep it in mind for next week to meditate at least 3 times.

I had a conversation with my wife yesterday about the laughing Buddha. She asked, why is he laughing? I said because he is happy :-)

This morning I did some reasearch and found some facts.

The laughing Buddha is a Chinese Buddha known as the friendly and loving one, part of the Shinto culture. He has become a deity of contentment and abundance. The sack he is carrying is full of rice plants (indicating wealth), candy for children, food, or the woes of the world. He is patron of the weak, poor and children. According to legend, if one rubs the Laughing Buddha’s great belly, it brings forth wealth, good luck, and prosperity.

What a nice story behind it, isn’t it?

And, here is a video to it too – have a blessed Sunday.



Buddha, Buddhism, Shinto, inspiration, laughing Buddha, love and kindness

Sunday thoughts

October 19th, 2008
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Marcelo,

First of all thank you for posting so much input. It is inspiring to see your energy and thoughts, help and advise on the Buddhism and Life. Thank you so much for it.
However, I hate to admit it, it comes at a time where it is almost too much for me to digest. I would love to put time on hold now and sit down, re-read all your entries, a couple of books and get into a routine of meditating before I continue with time. A time hole I need, if that makes sense.
I know that is not possible. What we need to do is take one step at a time. I need to revisit every entry, every book, every comment and meditate every day. 5 or 10 minutes, 7 or 12, but I need to do it.
Isn’t that the same with anything in life. If we take baby steps, it will continue to grow into a routine and we will eventually reach our goal. I have written about that a couple of times in my coaching section of my other blog. The worst thing I find is that if you know an answer but you either do not have the time to proceed or you don’t have the stamina to proceed. Or is it both?
I assume it comes back to Karma. Really liked your entry about it. Because, we can only harvest what we sow! Ergo sum. There is not, “we achieve half of what we sow” or “we achieve double of what we sow”. It is as it is. Amen. Your meditation entry is wonderful too, giving guidance. Reason me linking to them is to structure my thoughts of what you wrote.
Marcelo, you are right, we need to structure this blog a bit more. Maybe we need to move some of the entries, e.g. about meditation or about Karma as a summary on our website? Also some section about Buddhist text and teaching? We could write essays about it and publish them on publications, similar to what I do on my website?
I now need to set myself some goals. Finding time and persistence as well as stamina and routine for meditation. Secondly, I need to find a spiritual teacher.
I keep you posted on my progress.
Tust you are well, have a great Sunday.
Love and Kindness from London,
Volker

Buddhism, buddhism meditation method, happiness, inspiration, karma, love and kindness, meditation, self development

How can we understand emptiness?

August 20th, 2008
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Marcelo,

Food for thought that is! Wow!!!

Emptiness is the subtle way of understanding and living? Does that mean inner peace and relaxation? Does that mean the answer to all our questions?

So is meditation the way to move forward and experience emptiness – btw, I started meditating. Not as regular as I want but I got started.

If you say you perceive the wake state with a dream mind, does that mean we run around like zombies? Apologies, do not want to sound silly but are we less caring and less participating in that state? Have you had this state of emptiness?

I will look into the books, here are the links to the respective Amazon sites if anyone is interested:

Heart of Wisdom: An Explanation of the Heart Sutra

Clear Light of Bliss: Tantric Meditation Manual

Ocean of Nectar: Commentary to Chandrakirti’s “Guide to the Middle Way”

I will have to practise a bit more and then come back to more books. There are still a few you recommended. It is heavy stuff, hard to understand but good. It helps me!

You also wrote:
We are here together, you from Germany I am from Brazil, we have met in 2006 in London, Why? How could it be possible? I am very declined to say: Our Karma, we have lived and developed some common karma before. Otherwise why can I not have with other the same experience as I am having with you right now?

Isn’t that interesting. We are far apart but so close. I remember first meeting you (sounds like a love story) and I thought “this man is interesting, there is something about him”. Maybe I should confess now, watching you coming into the session at Covent Garden and when you sat down, you prepared for meditation. There is something about the way you prepare that was different to other Buddhist Monks. I cannot put my finger on it.
As if we had met before, in another life?

Maybe you have to teach me things and I have to teach you things so that in the next life we are getting closer to where we should be? Or, there is more to come and we might be able to achieve something for some people in this life.

I often wonder how many people read this blog – I mean I can count the visitors to this blog but I cannot see how many people actually read it.

You out there – do you enjoy what you read?
Marpa left a message the other day, his blog is here. Maybe more people could let us know.

I believe, Marcelo, that we will be up for something good soon – and soon can mean anything before I turn 40 :-)
Why 40. Because I have a (master) plan of things I want to achieve before I am 40. And part of it will have to do with Buddhism, Charity and the greater goods in life. But we discuss that some other time.

Love and Kindness from the Big Smoke,
Volker

Buddhism, chakra, emptiness, karma, love and kindness, meditation