Being in the present always comes to the rescue

Only in the present do things happen.

--Jorge Luis Borges

Tonight, my Monday men's meditation group is looking at "regret" from a Buddhist perspective and I imagine that we will be talking a lot about letting the past go and inviting ourselves to be more in the present moment. One of the ways I come to or stay in the present is by concentrating on the ordinary physical sensations of life (like the feeling of these computer keys against my fingertips or the sensations when drinking warm tea). More and more, I appreciate these mundane activities and use them as touchstones for greater awareness and vitality. Joe

Insight into the protests sweeping the Middle East

Yesterday, when a Libyan protester was asked by a New York Times reporter why he was rising up after 42 years under Colonel Qaddafi, he said, “When you have been pushed, pushed, pushed, and then suddenly you just explode.”

Telling. The human spirit can only endure so much.

A poem honoring freedom fighters

“A Free Man” by Rosalie Hickler, from The Atlantic in 1928:

Pressed sorely on all sides, but loath to yield,
Sometimes when it has seemed that I must die
I see your banner, sharp against the sky,
And catch the glitter of your battered shield.
Then, spite of weariness, my arm is steeled
To lift my own discouraged banner high
And gather laughter for a battle cry
To fling against the fiercely crowding field.

I know what friendless struggles you incur,
Faring so carelessly in ways apart,
Still smiling to yourself, unconquered still,
Wielding the lightning blade Excalibur,
Your fair white plume unstained, O Gallant Heart,
Armored in triple mail from every ill.

via the Daily Dish

Two gay Belgium men win the release of their son

Good news indeed. Read about it here.

Going nowhere

It is only when we realize that life is taking us nowhere that it begins to have meaning.

--P.D. Ouspensky

Via Zen Calendar

With the help of Democrats, a big week for the LGBT

This is what freedom feels like to Libyans

"The point of Buddhism"

The point of Buddhism
is just to see.
That's all.

--Steve Hagen, author of books on Buddhism



via Zen Calendar

Libyans continue to protest despite the violence

Libyans rise up against their dictator