photo: SW Germany
(c) Bruce Behnke
Sunday, June 19, 2011
a refreshing source of vitality and happiness
"Practice loving kindness to
overcome anger. Loving kindness has the
capacity to bring happiness to others
without demanding anything in return.
Practice compassion to overcome
cruelty. Compassion has the capacity to
remove the suffering of others without
expecting anything in return.
Practice sympathetic joy to overcome
hatred. Sympathetic joy arises when one
rejoices over the happiness of others and
wishes others well-being and success.
Practice non-attachment to overcome
prejudice. Non-attachment is the way of
looking at all things openly and equally.
I call these the four immeasurables.
Practice them and you will become a
refreshing source of vitality and
happiness for others."
~Buddha's instructions to his son Rahula
Translation by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hahn
Photo: Iris
Basel, Switzerland
Basel, Switzerland
(c) Bruce Behnke 2011
Friday, June 17, 2011
this illusory life
what is real?
and what does your mind make up?
how accurate or distorted is your understanding of what you see, hear, feel?
with all of this perceptual tom-foolery, how realistic or how illusory is your life?
photo: Interlaken, Switzerland
(c) 2011 Bruce Behnke
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
uniqueness
uniqueness.
"it's just a leaf."
but it's the only one
like it in the world.
tomorrow it won't
be the same
and the day after...
Photo: O'ahu, Hawai'i
Bruce Behnke
(c) 2011
all rights reserved
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
your one wild and precious life
The Summer Day
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
~Mary Oliver
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