Tuesday, May 29, 2018

A Buddhist Blessing

may we be filled with loving-kindness and compassion.
may we be well.
may we be peaceful and at ease.
may we be happy.

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Along the Eightfold Path

may i have the complete view, intention, speech, action, and livelihood.  may i make the complete effort.  may i have the complete mindfulness and concentration.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

A Prayer on Love

may i be constant.  may i be kind.  may i not be envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude.  may i not insist on my own way.  may i not be irritable or resentful, keeping a count of wrongs.  may i rejoice when right is done, and may i be forgiving when wrong is done.  may i endure in love, may i trust in love, may i hope in love, may i persist in love, remembering that love is unending.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

A Prayer Upon Awakening

today i am fortunate to have awakened.  i am alive, i have a precious human life.  may i not waste it.  may i expend all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to seek enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.  may i think kindly of others.  may i not become angry or think badly of others.  may i develop loving-kindness, compassion, joyful appreciation, and even-minded calm.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

And Crown Thy Good with Brotherhood

our home has been filled with guests the past several days as my wife and i prepare for our trip to scandinavia.  finally today, there is time for me to sit and write, and so i begin.  as we travel it will be difficult for me to post on my blog, so i will prepare several posts that will appear during the time we are gone.  these posts will consist of the series of prayers and meditations that i repeat each morning as i begin my day.

today i am filled with a mixture of joy, excitement, and sadness:  joy and excitement because we are about to embark on an adventure in celebration of our fiftieth wedding annivesary, sadness because of the course our country seems to be taking during the presidency of donald trump.   i have written about this before and will probably write about it again.  it weighs heavily on me.  i am disturbed that, on the whole, the leaders of mr. trump's party do not condemn his words and actions, though i know that many of them must be troubled by what is happening.  a few who place  the welfare of the country ahead of partisanship have spoken out, people like comey, mccain, and corker, but most have stayed silent, giving implicit consent to mr. trump and his regime.

let me list some of the things that sadden me and make me fearful for our country:
* freedom of the press is under attack, as those journalists who bring to light facts that are inconvenient to the president and his policies are condemned as purveyors of "fake news," when it is the repeated demonstrable lies of the president that is truly fake news.
* those who dare to speak out against the president face a barrage of the most insulting, vile vitriol.  they are attacked in the most vicious ways in an attempt to silence and discredit them, and in so doing, the dignity and prestige of the institution of the presidency is diminished.
* while he courts the support of the evangelical community, mr. trump flouts the basic moral code of that community by engaging in affairs with women while married to one of his wives, lying without shame, and spreading hate and racism in a manner never before seen from an occupant of the white house.
* the hardworking immigrant population has been made scapegoats for the economic inequality in the country, even as mr. trump and his party pursue policies that exacerbate that inequality.  according to mr. trump's philosophy, those of us whose ancestors immigrated here first have the right and duty to push out those who came later, no matter how much they are contributing to our society.
* muslims have been condemned in the most prejudiced manner, painted as monstrous terrorists because of the actions of a few radicals who have perverted the teachings of islam.  xenophobia is the norm of the current administration and undermines our long-standing practice of being a society that is devoted to freedom to practice any religion or none at all and to keeping our civic institutions free of religious endorsements of any kind.
* while promising to bring "the best" people to serve in his administration, mr. trump has appointed some who lack a basic understanding of the function of the departments they head, others who are using their high office to buy expensive furnishings for their offices and take expensive trips, and others who are running their departments on the advice of the leaders of the very businesses their departments are supposed to regulate.  he even appointed one cabinet member to head a department that the appointee had proposed dismantling.

our nation is in grave danger, and one can only hope that, as more and more people see what is happening with this presidency, legal remedies for bringing it to an end will be embraced.  we can only speculate where the investigation of special counsel will lead, but there is hope that the investigation will shine light on the corruption that is rampant in this administration and the revulsion that mr. trump holds for the rule of law.

may we who are able continue to speak out against mr. trump and his policies.  may this blight on our country soon come to an end.  may those who are endangered by mr. trump and his policies be rescued before it is too late for them.  may our country be one in which "thy liberty in law" is more than a line in a song but is instead a motto that reminds us that the principles which define us as a nation are enshrined in our constitution and the laws that have flowed from it so that no one, even the president, is above the law.  shalom.