Patience Is A Virtue

20 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

The UniverseWaiting for important news can be a stressful time, whether that news is potentially good or bad.

My whole family is waiting for the outcome of my daughter’s biopsy, and at times it feels like time has come to a standstill. So what is the secret for dealing with such situations?

Well my way of coping is to be patient, to refuse to worry about possible outcomes, concentrating on what is real, in the here and now and offering support on that basis. Of course, being calm, collected and rational in such an emotional situation could be seen as lacking in compassion or feeling.

However you look at things, I am not an oncology specialist, so I can’t help in any medical way. How I can help, is by being rational and supporting my daughter and the rest of the family.

I must say that I have obviously thought about the various scenarios that might play out. But rather than waste my life-energy worrying about what might happen, I am saving it for when we know the path that must be taken.

I am also looking for the positives that are coming out of the situation. The whole family is coming together as a unit, to support Charlotte en mass. The silly little squabbles, that occur in all families, are being resolved or forgotten. So although the reason for this unity is something for which we would never wish, even if adversity, there are good things coming out of it.

As you might expect, I am chanting my heart out, to keep my life-energy and life-state as high as possible. I’m praying for us all come out of this in a positive way as well as telling my daughters how much I love them, at every opportunity.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo

Problems Or Challenges?

19 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags:

Nam Myoho Renge KyoLife is punctuated by a series of  problems and challenges, but what is the real difference between them?

Generally speaking we call situations we can deal with, challenges, and those we fear we cannot deal with, problems. But actually, the difference is in our own heads and depends more on our life-state at the time the situation arises.

If we are in a higher life-state, we look upon the situation as a challenge. We concentrate our energies to resolving the situation and pride ourselves that we rose to the challenge.

If, on the other hand, we are depressed and in a lower life-state, we tend to get further depressed by the situation, our life-energies are reduced and the problem, as we now call it, becomes insurmountable.

So the question is, how do we keep our life-energy, and hence our life-state, as high as possible in order to enable us to confront situations with confidence.

That’s where chanting comes in. When I chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, I can feel my life-energy increasing. The more I chant, the louder I chant, the higher my life-state rises, so when situations arise, as they always will, I am in a better position to deal with them.

It works for me, and it works for millions of people across the world, so why not give it a go and see whether it will work for you, I’m sure it will.

Cooking On Gas

10 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

HRH The Dalai LamaSo here we are, all live and looking lovely.

Following a 36 hour stint, the new website is online and really looking the part.

The whole team were Trojans, never giving an inch to any of the problems that crossed their paths.

After getting some well earned rest, we are all looking forward to the next project, safe in the knowledge that we have a whole bag of solutions to the issues we may encounter.

I know that several people missed the posts over that past few days. Many thanks to those who sent their best wishes for a speedy resolution. Maybe you’d like to look at the fruits of our labour? Simply click on the image of the Dalai Lama and have a mooch around. A word of warning though, I’d leave your credit cards well out of reach, just in case.

I would love to own this photo, but it flies in the face of Buddhism somehow. Desirous attachment and all that you know.

Namaste, Anupadin

A Painful Heart

07 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

Tears Of SadnessAfter a full day in the office, including a chat about Nichiren Buddhist to a colleague, I got home a little later than usual.

I barely had time to take my coat off before the phone rang and a rather tearful close friend began unburdening her woes.

I find it very difficult, when I’m in a situation where I can’t be of practical help. Somehow mere words don’t seem to be enough, and so it proved tonight.

My sympathy and compassion didn’t appear to be having the desired effect, so I have been left with a rather empty feeling of inadequacy.

Having thought long and hard about the situation, I’m hoping I will be better prepared if the chance to make amends arises.

The opportunity to put my Wisdom, Courage and Compassion to good use doesn’t present itself very often. But tonight just served to illustrate that, no matter how far I have come in this journey, there are still many lessons still to be learned.

The No-Win Situation

05 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

Fork In The RoadThere are times in one’s life when a situation presents you with a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ decision.

Such a conundrum has arisen in the past few days, where no matter which way the outcome goes, somebody is going to be unhappy.

At such times it is easy to be lead by your heart, hoping that the happiness you gain will offset the unhappiness of others. On the other hand, the unhappiness of others could easily put a dark cloud over your own feelings, not just for the immediate future, but for eternity.

In my situation, the final decision may not even be in my own hands, making it doubly difficult. I have got used to having my destiny under my control, so relinquishing it to someone else sits a little awkwardly.

My gut feeling, and my Buddhist teaching tell me that I should sacrifice my feelings so that others do not have to, but time will tell how it is resolved.

Mulling it over and over in my mind, knowing that whichever way it turns out, I will never know whether it was for the best, reminded me of the poem by Robert Frost.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost (1874-1963)

A Day Of Pain

01 Feb 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags:

Ouch !!!You may remember a couple of weeks ago, I was suffering from a nasty bout of back pain, well today it came back with a vengeance.

The alarm went off at 6:30 as usual, but when I tried to get out of bed it felt like someone was stabbing me in the back with a red hot poker. I literally crawled to the bathroom and simply couldn’t stand up straight.

To be honest, my back had been giving me jip since Sunday, but this was another level completely.

I emailed work to say that I wasn’t going to be coming in, not good in the final phase of a project launch, but I couldn’t see any way I would be able to make it.

I got myself back into bed and tried to stretch out and straighten my spine. I had rubbed on some modern horse liniment, and with the warmth of the bed it started to ease a little.

So by 8:30 I had creaked my way through the shower, got myself dressed and went straight to the doctors. ‘We can see you on Thursday afternoon’ they said, fat lot of good that was going to be, but I was up and so decided to get myself in to the office.

The day was pretty rough, lots of work still to be done, coupled with the sniggers each time I tried to get up out of my chair.

Anyway, suffice to say I’m still in the land of the living and with more liniment, a hot bath and lying flat most of the evening, my back feels a bit better. We shall see, come morning.

Still got my chanting done though, despite it all … Nam Myoho Renge Kyo.

Money Well Spent?

31 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

Fernando TorresAs a Chelsea fan since 1964, I have to say that, in my heart, I am delighted that we have signed Fernando Torres, the Spanish international striker.

He is a very good player, but is it money well spent?

In all, the Premiership clubs have spent over £215 million on new players, in this time of financial cutbacks, an obscene amount of money.

Just imagine what that money could  have done. Thousands of people are losing their jobs, potentially plunging their families into financial crisis. The public sector is facing unprecedented cuts, reducing services that are relied upon by the most vulnerable members of our society. Surely this is madness, even given that football no longer has anything to do with real life.

In my head, I cannot help wondering whether the spending of this huge amount of money on, what is after all a game, does show a lack of Wisdom and Compassion, if not Courage.

A Worry Resolved

30 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

Moriconium TwilightFor the best part of a year I have been putting off seeing my ex-wife because I feared it would bring back all the heartache and pain of the separation and divorce. So knowing that she was coming to see me today had been a worry for a few days.

I need not have been so negative about it. On a beautifully sunny winters day, we took our little Bischon Frise, Chelsea, for a nice long walk along the coast and as we walked, we talked.

I think it would be fair to say that we had both harboured preconceived ideas about how things might turn out, there was a lot of hurt on both sides, but in the event, things went very well.

The talking cleared the air, I think we were both open and honest about what we felt and how the split had affected us. But agreeing that nobody can change the past, as indeed, nobody could have predicted our future at the time of the break-up, left a calmness in the relationship that maybe neither of us could have foreseen.

Coupled with a light pub lunch, in the dog-friendly local, it made for an enjoyable afternoon, so when she set off home, I was left wondering why I had build it up, in my own mind, to be such a problem in the first place.

Feeling much relieved, I came back into the apartment to find the magnificent sunset you see in the photograph above. It seemed quite a fitting conclusion.

Moral of the story … don’t prejudge situations, talking solves a lot of issues and is the only way to move forward. Turning Poison (the worry) into Medicine has yet again been the way through the situation, chalk up another win for Buddhism, further proof that my Practice is working.

Being Constant

29 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

Dark PassengerI don’t know about you, but when I say I’m going to do something, I mean it. When I decide on a course of action, I try my best to carry it out.

The problem is that sometimes we don’t stick to our goals, and there are many, many reasons for that. Sometimes it turns out that we decide that the goal isn’t quite what we first thought. Sometimes the Dark Passenger has a little say, introducing doubts or reasons why we should give up. Ignore him and get yourself back on track

There is very little to compare with the feeling of satisfaction when we achieve our goals. In the same way, there is very little to compare with the feeling of disappointment when we let ourselves down and fail.

We all want to be happy, so be constant. You will be more successful, more content and people will know where they stand too. A win-win situation.

Proof Of The Pudding

26 Jan 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: ,

Do You Really Care?Caring for someone is very different to caring about them.

Caring for someone entails making every effort to giving them the love and support they need, when they need it, not just when they need it most.

Caring about them means very little when it’s not backed up by actions, Saying you are thinking about someone, without showing them in the things you actually do, is of very little use to anyone.

So next time you tell someone you care, take a moment to think about what sort of care it really is.

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