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Articles from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond Rock | Selfgrowth.com
- How Long Does itTake to Become Enlightened? - by Submitted on Jan 25, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockEnlightenment can take a long time, perhaps as long as it takes to wear a granite mountain down to the ground by a fine veil brushing its top once every hundred years, or perhaps as long as a lifetime, or a year, or perhaps in only a week, as the Buddha proclaims, if you can maintain perfect ...
Views: 1303(1 vote) - Death Is The Doorway To Life — Three Ways To Prepare (Part 1 of 3) - by Submitted on Mar 10, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockApproximately 100 million people die every year.That's a lot of people. Death is a common occurrence, but we hide from death's reality in many ways. In third world countries, there is no funeral director that takes care of everything and neatly makes up the body as if it is asleep. In third ...
Views: 1302 - A Day in the Life of a Buddhist Forest Monk (Afternoon) - by Submitted on Feb 08, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockIt's four p.m. I have been napping and doing walking meditation since the morning meal. My hut is deep in the forest, situated on the upper end of a massive, flat rock, with large, flat rocks on both sides and deep ravines separating them (havens for cobras). Surrounding everything is dense ...
Views: 1291(1 vote) - Overcoming Contemporary Fear - by Submitted on Jan 06, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockEverything built up will fall, and all that falls will rise again - this could be called the cycle of existence. When things are about to fall in this cycle, there are premonitions that wash through our hearts, and the premonitions have definite signs: We lose our Generosity: We become ...
Views: 1258 - The Religious Versus Seekers of Truth - by Submitted on Feb 27, 2010 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockHumanity has always looked to the transcendent, a human trait pursued in many ways. And who can really say which way is right or wrong regarding an inherent desire to transcend this earthly life when our time is up. The religious insist that they are right, and spiritual seekers say likewise. ...
Views: 1235(2 votes) - What Interests You Most? - by Submitted on Aug 08, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockThis is a very important question; what interests you most, because your answer to this question determines your destiny. So before you answer, look carefully at all the options and decide which is truly the one thing that interests you more than any other. The obvious ones - relationship, ...
Views: 1221 - The Key (A Fairytale) — Chapter 2: Ariya (Part 1) - by Submitted on Apr 12, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockNo friendly moon was there to light this unfamiliar path; only a pitch-black night, so dark and foreboding that I could not see my hand in front of my face. Even Conqueror's sharp eyes soon lost the trail, forcing me to dismount and wrestle through heavy, wet vines, and walk on tangled roots and ...
Views: 1205 - Have a Nice Sunday! - by Submitted on Jan 19, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockGood friends of mine, Catholic friends, recently confessed to me. They said that although they occasionally attend their Catholic church, they have found a community church that makes them feel better. They find themselves happy when they leave, unlike their Catholic experience where they feel ...
Views: 1182 - A Glimpse of Eternity - by Submitted on Feb 02, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockSometimes we can catch a fleeting glimpse of eternity in a wood, where the pungent odor of wet pine and a timeless stillness calms our troubled minds, for just a while. Or in a wondrous sunset, where we lose the burden of ourselves, for a precious moment. Or when something happens so suddenly ...
Views: 1177 - Eat When You Are Hungry, Sleep When You Are Tired - by Submitted on Mar 27, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockThis old Zen saying describes the way in which a trainee practices Zen; no striving, no ambition (to become enlightened), no goals . . . only sitting quietly. As a matter of fact, Zen considers goal making a disease of the mind! Quite a contrast from modern life where without goals we would be ...
Views: 1175 - The Key (A Fairytale) — Chapter 4: Nothing Left To Lose (Part 4) - by Submitted on May 08, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond Rock"So, you are ready to renounce everything," a John said. Then he smiled and added, "Words are spoken with ease, my good friend, compared to the actual experience of this discipline, although there are some key seekers who live in the forest quite comfortably. Some live without irritation; not ...
Views: 1171 - Hold Her Tight, TonightSubmitted on Dec 27, 2007 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockHold her tight, tonight. Let her dream of what her life will be, her fairytales of love and happiness. Hold her tight, tonight. Hold her tight tonight, so that monster truth can’t steal her dreams, not this night. This night, let truth not meet time, not yet . . . please not yet. Hold her ...
Views: 1163 - Conservative Versus Liberal - A Peace Offering - by Submitted on May 12, 2010 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockAre liberals and conservatives opposite? If you are a conservative, does that mean that liberal ideas are opposite of yours? And if you are liberal, are conservative ideas opposite of your way of thinking? The opposite of liberalism is not conservatism - but tyranny (a form of government in ...
Views: 1159 - Facing The Dragon Of Self - by Submitted on Nov 08, 2007 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockSuddenly, I found myself in a mist, and through the mist I dimly made out what appeared to be a cave. As I moved closer, my perfected insight revealed exactly what it was – the den of the Great Dragon of Self. Three of the dragon’s guards lie dead and decomposing at the entrance, obviously ...
Views: 1153 - The Delusion of Self-Esteem - by Submitted on Jan 23, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockSelf: Your consciousness of your own identity. Esteem: The condition of being honored. Self-esteem: Honoring oneself. As we can see, self-esteem is a rather “self” ish condition that we necessarily feel obligated to create artificially when we are insecure. The fact that we must go out of our ...
Views: 1149 - Buddhists - What Do They Believe? - by Submitted on Feb 01, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockGrowing up in the Catholic tradition, I believe that I can understand some of the feelings that Christians, Muslims, and Jews might have about people who don't believe in a creator God! And Buddhists are guilty! I wouldn't be surprised if they think that Buddhists have a one-way ticket to hell ...
Views: 1144 - Made In China - by Submitted on Feb 23, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockHere is a recipe for disaster: China and other Asian countries, being pressured at home by rising inflation, is forced to raise prices on all those goodies we buy at Wal-Mart, but not high enough to encourage us to compete again. This would be a formula for runaway inflation along with job ...
Views: 1144 - How We Intimidate Each Other - by Submitted on Jan 02, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockA Thai farmer is in a ditch planting rice in the searing, Southeast Asian heat. He is old, uneducated, ill, toothless, and his body is small and frail, weathered from years of hard labor. Is this old, useless farmer less than you? You, who are educated, beautiful, healthy, relatively young, ...
Views: 1131 - The Key (A Fairytale) — Chapter 2: Ariya (Part 3) - by Submitted on Apr 16, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockMy admiration for Ariya was growing; this diminutive being that took me under her wing. And as I listened to her strange voice that appeared in my mind, her words became even stranger. She said that some believe that when life ends, there is nothing, just an unconscious, eternal sleep. Others ...
Views: 1130 - State of the Onion - by Submitted on May 12, 2010 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockAn onion is peculiar in that it has many layers. It also causes you to cry when you peel off the layers. So we could say that the state of the onion is complex, as well as tearful! Our country is kind of like an onion. Fifty states all wrapped around a flag that gets more tattered every day. ...
Views: 1127 - A Good Deed Never Goes Unpunished! - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockPerforming any deed, good or bad, has repercussions. A bad deed obviously sets us up for a load of bad karma and bad luck. But how could a good deed, that sets us up for good karma, punish us? The punishment comes from the illusion that someone performed the deed. When we perform a deed from a ...
Views: 1115 - Anger Mismanagement - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2007 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockWe will never succeed at changing ourselves by trying to change ourselves directly. We must do it indirectly. By indirectly means merely watching our anger instead of trying to rid ourselves of it, because attempts to aggressively change ourselves into something we wish ourselves to be results ...
Views: 1113 - You Can Talk the Talk, But Can You Walk the Walk? - by Submitted on Feb 21, 2010 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockThere are two faces of religion; that which we profess, and that which we project. Our professed religion follows our scriptures and our beliefs and are what we declare to be our truths, our ideals. It's the talk we talk. Our projection of our religion is how we act, what we say, how we say it, ...
Views: 1111(5 votes) - A Question Of Values - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockValues could be defined as beliefs in which we have an emotional investment. If we study the values of rural areas throughout the world, we see that a pastoral, agricultural life naturally propagates ethics and ideals that create harmony between people, such as thrift, honesty, quietness, ...
Views: 1102 - The Key (A Fairytale) — Chapter 2: Ariya (Part 2) - by Submitted on Apr 14, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockA tremendous exhilaration began rising inside of me, as I watched Ariya disappear into the treetops. All of my unanswered questions now faded into the background. The appearance of this mystical being, whatever she was, liberated me to the point that I was ready to forge ahead with reckless ...
Views: 1096 - The Most Important Person in the World - by Submitted on Feb 17, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockSome say that moms are the most important people in the world, after all; where would we be without moms? And dads too. We wouldn’t be at all!! Sisters and brothers can be very important in our lives, and in many ways create the foundations of what we are by testing us throughout our life’s ...
Views: 1085 - War and Peace - How We Lose Our Happiness - by Submitted on Jan 06, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockWar is the opposite of peace. When we say that we wage war in order to secure the peace, this is delusion, this is being ignorant of the truth of the moment, which is war, and replacing it with an ideal for the future, which is peace. It is a shell game. If we believe and confuse ourselves with ...
Views: 1077 - How To Make A Mess Of Your Life - by Submitted on Aug 05, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockEveryone wants happiness. Happiness is the driving force behind almost all of our actions, and even when we are unhappy, we are involved with somehow changing that unhappiness into happiness for ourselves. When we are confronted with someone or something, we either have a compulsion to pull ...
Views: 1063 - How Often Do You Use The “I” Word - by Submitted on Mar 24, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockWhen we talk, or when we write articles, the number of times that we use the word "I" can indicate the level of confusion we might have in our minds about ourselves. This wouldn't ordinarily be a problem if we are not attached to ourselves emotionally, and only use the term conventionally; ...
Views: 1059 - How to Transform Ourselves - by Submitted on Jan 23, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockThe last time I looked, personal transformation was not on America’s top ten list of achievements. Success, family, happiness, friends, wealth, respect, health, religious beliefs or spirituality, satisfying work — these took priority. Our spiritual institutions follow suit with the most ...
Views: 1059 - Why Politics And Religion Don’t Mix - by Submitted on Mar 25, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockChrist and the Buddha were wise men; they never talked about politics. They didn't talk about politics because political opinions and campaigns are but afterthoughts in humankind's evolutionary process. Politics, war, power, and ambition have never moved humankind to a fundamentally better ...
Views: 1055 - What Is Our Soul? - by Submitted on Apr 09, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockAsk anyone about the soul and more often than not, you will get a blank stare, or the soul might be explained as a spirit, a part of God, our basic being, or our true essence. But there has never been a good, logical explanation. So here goes! Although according to Buddhism the soul does not ...
Views: 1052 - Defining Good And Evil - by Submitted on Apr 04, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockThere are good people everywhere, but how do we define good? Pope Sixtus IV loved Tomas de Torquemada (arguably the most evil man that has ever lived)! Good and evil seem entwined with society’s expectations. Behavior can be considered good by some, bad by others, and volumes are written on this ...
Views: 1051 - Judging Others - What's Behind It? - by Submitted on Feb 01, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockBeing judgmental is being angry. Fear, the basis of anger, is always connected with the past or future. If you can look deeply within and find what it is that you fear, whether it is God, living up to some kind of ideal, fearing ideas different from yours, or people that are different from you, ...
Views: 1040 - The Thing - by Submitted on Feb 17, 2010 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockThere are many problems in life, kind of like endless itches and glitches that need scratched and resolved. If we're poor, we have to struggle to support ourselves because there is . . . never enough money. If we're rich, then we have the typical problems of rich people - trying not only to ...
Views: 1035(3 votes) - Buddhism: From The Top, Down - by Submitted on May 01, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockInterest in Buddhism usually begins with either the philosophy or psychology of Buddhism. Or maybe the esoteric nature of Buddhism, Buddhist meditation, or Buddhist wisdom. But the morality aspects of Buddhism are typically overlooked and frankly considered dull and boring. Keep in mind, ...
Views: 1034(1 vote) - Political Evolution - by Submitted on May 14, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockA political evolution is stirring. People are beginning to break free. But in order to understand this progression, we must look at what we were just yesterday, before we decided to think for ourselves. We must look at it because no matter what we do or what we think, the evolution is taking ...
Views: 1027 - Christian Meditation - Why It's Becoming Popular - by Submitted on Feb 17, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockWalk into any busy Zen center and you will more than likely find Christians practicing meditation. Many famous Christians, including Thomas Merton; Trappist monk, poet, writer and social activist, recommended meditation as a means of directly communicating with God. Whatever we can do to calm ...
Views: 1023 - Resolving Conflict - by Submitted on Jan 23, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockWhat we extend outward toward others, we internalize. Whether the emotions we extend are negative, such as hatred, animosity, and anger; or positive, such as love, forgiveness, and peace, these feelings seep inside of us and affect us deeply. You can feel the physical difference between, on one ...
Views: 1019 - . . . and Other Things We’ll Never Understand - by Submitted on Jan 16, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockCounting as fast as you can, at ten counts per second, for twenty-four hours a day and for twelve months, would only get you to less than one third of a billion. A billion is a big number. The universe is estimated to be about 16 billion years old. Carbon dating pegs the earth at about 4.5 ...
Views: 1018 - Death Is The Doorway To Life — Three Ways To Prepare (Part 3 of 3) - by Submitted on Mar 13, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond Rock3. Dying peacefully (From a talk by Ajahn Jagaro, the abbot of Wat Pah Nanachat when Janet and I trained in Thailand as a Buddhist monk and nun in 1981) "Having considered all of this, if dying becomes no longer a contemplation but an actual experience, we can face it without fear. Not only ...
Views: 1016 - What Does “I Am A Christian” Mean? - by Submitted on Jan 18, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockWhen we say that we are a Christian, or Buddhist, Jew, Muslim, or Hindu, what does that mean? When I was a faith-based Christian, it meant that I believed. I believed in God, Jesus, the Church, and I believed in Catholicism. I was proud of being a Catholic. It didn't matter whether my beliefs ...
Views: 1004 - Personal Transformation – What’s Really Involved? - by Submitted on Jan 04, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockJust as a fire is built by lighting small twigs so that they can in turn ignite the larger branches, we make the world a better place by changing ourselves first. This change, this transformation, must be mental, because all things begin with the mind, and mind is none other than our thoughts ...
Views: 988(1 vote) - Understanding the Eightfold Path - by Submitted on Jan 01, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockThe Buddha was called the great physician. In his quintessential teaching: The Four Noble Truths, he took us under his wing, as a good doctor should, to care for his favorite patients. In his First Truth, he diagnosed us as being very ill. In his second, he explained exactly what was making us ...
Views: 988 - Low Cost Health Insurance - by Submitted on Mar 09, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockIMPORTANT: Always check with your medical and mental health care professional before beginning any new regimen. 1. EXERCISE: Brisk walking: Three to five miles a day. Neck roll: Twice a day. (Do this exercise slowly and carefully until your neck and spine become loosened up). Touch your left ...
Views: 986 - The Heart of the Anger Problem - by Submitted on Dec 30, 2007 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockLife can be a beautiful thing, but if we don’t understand life, we might end up fighting it. More often than not, it’s you and I against the world. Making a living, holding on to our relationships, to our wealth, our political and spiritual beliefs, these can become monumental struggles. Worry ...
Views: 985 - Guns, Butter, And Social Injustice - by Submitted on Mar 14, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockAn old man with shaking hands counts out some crumpled bills to a receptionist in a doctor's office. The sign above the cashier's window says: "If you are a Medicare customer you will be required to pay your $135 deductable before service is rendered." But the old man only comes up with ...
Views: 972 - Compromise Or War — You Decide - by Submitted on Feb 22, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockWe compromise every day. With every moment, with every thought. Should I do this or that? Should I go here or there? If we didn't compromise, we would not consider choices, and if we didn't consider choices, then we would be less than animals, and we wouldn't survive. Making compromises reflects ...
Views: 969 - The Key (A Fairytale) - Chapter 7: A Step Above Oblivion (Part 1) - by Submitted on Jun 02, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond Rock"In the moments before death," a John began, "your whole life will flash before you and you will be able to see each separate moment simultaneously, noticing where you did well and where there is room for improvement. The reason that this only takes a fraction of a moment, which is a complete ...
Views: 963 - The Donkey and the Elephant (A Fable) - by Submitted on Feb 10, 2008 from E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond RockOnce upon a time, in a magical land far across the sea, there lived together a donkey and an elephant. This was very difficult, because they both had such different ways. The elephant loved to trample trees and make a lot of noise, while the donkey nibbled on lowly grasses and said almost ...
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