Browse published articles attributed to E. (anagarika eddie) Raymond Rock, with full-archive search.
My father timidly put his hand on my shoulder. "I am sorry that I have not been able to make you happy, Son. I have tried. Lord I have tried." He looked into my eyes searching for some kind of recognition, but I gave him none. "It's just that since your mother died," he continued, "I have been ...
"What now, my ‘king,'" he greeted me sarcastically, his face expressing his obvious exasperation. "I have been experiencing unusual wisdom, and wondered what I should do?" "The wisdom you have experienced and are now telling me about is dead and gone. Do you see that? The truth can only ...
Have you noticed the interest being generated in the ranks of our young people by the political races? It reminds me of the sixties when young people took a hard turn left. Many of the kids raised after this, however, took a decidedly turn right, ala Reaganites. It seem that these shifts occur ...
Dear God, Can you hear me? If you’re busy, I understand, But I just have a little time now. So I was hopin’ you could maybe hear me today. Just a couple loose ends to tidy up, If you can help. I done a few bad things, Won’t have time to make them right now, So I thought maybe you could ...
Conqueror limped stiffly but was always eager to begin a new journey, loving the spontaneity of adventure as much as I did. Occasional wafts of warm air greeted us as we made our way down the mountain persuading me to take off my fur wrap and tie it to the horse. I wasn't sure where we were ...
Walking meditation can be done in many ways and for many purposes, but I have found this technique to be outstanding in relieving stress. It's easy to do, and you should feel a distinct benefit from the first fifteen minutes of trying it.n n This technique is particularly effective for those who ...
"To curb both of your curiosities," he said, "I will briefly mention the roadblocks, but they will be difficult for you to grasp at this stage of your development. At any rate, there are ten roadblocks that prevent you from your key. By overcoming the first three, you will establish Stream ...
"Becoming" is a word used to describe, among other things, striving to attain states of transcendence in meditation practice. We intellectually figure out a goal, and then imagine that we have somehow attained that goal. This is the trick of a clever ego; a chameleon in the ways in which it can ...
I was talking to some friends the other day who just returned to Florida. They have a home down here as well as one in Philadelphia, and when I asked why they came back so early, they said that they just had to get away from their relatives! They went on to tell me about their daughters tragic ...
We are coming to the end of an era. Beginning 35,000 years ago when we were savages, we have evolved because of numerous shifts in consciousness to where we are now. This present level of consciousness is characterized by a disregard of our planet, a disdain of other's problems, an unhealthy ...
Have you ever wondered what makes a saint, a saint? We have heard expressions such as, "He has the patience of a saint," but what other qualities do saints have that sets them apart from us normal people, and how have they attained these qualities? Were they just blessed by God because God liked ...
How do we go about understanding ourselves? This is a very important question because if we don't understand ourselves, how are we going to change? Do we wait for divine intervention to create our pure hearts, or do we do something proactive? If we are not sure, then why not try both ways and ...
One evening on the outskirts of the Kingdom of Ayatana, an old man in rags with one eye, leading a lame white horse, came upon an old beggar who lay dying by the side of the road. The old man gently sat the beggar up, and holding him up in his arms, gave him some water. But the beggar could not ...
Years ago, I thought of manufacturing and selling edible Bibles. The book would be condensed, including only the most frequently quoted scriptures with pages made of a thin, wafer material similar to Catholic Holy Communion hosts. The idea was to cut out your favorite scripture and then eat it, ...
"You learn that if you sit down in the woods and wait, something happens."nn- Henry David Thoreau. Deepening what you know about your spirituality, and deepening your spirituality per se, are two different things. Deepening what you know about spirituality is relatively easy; just read ...
Weeks drifted by with no sign of Ariya, or anybody else for that matter, but the silence was eerie, compelling me to look over my shoulder more often now. I was back where my enemies might find me, and my life was definitely in grave danger. They knew that I was still alive. n One morning just ...
Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of capital. Our rewards are in direct proportion to our efforts - no free lunch here. If you are energetic and intelligent, connected and educated, you should do fine. If not, you could easily end up living on the streets. This system ...
Thomas Merton, famous Catholic monk belonging to the cloistered Trappist tradition (Order of Cistercians of the strict observance), once said that he wanted, "to become as good a Buddhist as I can." Before he converted to Catholicism at age twenty-three, he read about Christian mysticism. He ...
We are a democratic people who believe in democracy, which means equality, due process, freedom, privacy, consent and dissent, toleration, and the common good. We believe in it so adamantly that we advocate it for the world. This is because in the past, democracy has worked well for our country. But within the last decade, problems have arisen that threaten our democracy's very existence. One of the main tenants of a democracy is bringing people of common thought and goals together. It requires a country with like-minded people and defined borders, both of which have deteriorated.
I am not trained in psychology, nor do I completely understand psychological terms. I am strictly speaking in a nonprofessional manner using nonprofessional terms about psychology, and about how I believe psychotherapy fails to address the primary problem regarding the mind. The primary ...
This is the indicatio I got while watching one of the financial cable channels recently. “Do you have enough money for retirement?” “Are you using your money to its best advantage?” “Don’t be left behind while others are becoming wealthy!” I am certainly not ready for retirement, and what ...
When we fall in love, we are blinded from these three signs. This is Mother Nature's way of making sure that babies happen! After about two years, however, we regain our perspective, and these three signs begin to show up. If you are very aware, you can notice them almost immediately even ...
What are those unique qualities we call bravery; those almost subconscious qualities that we can't readily put our fingers on whenever we see a hero in action but somehow recognize every time someone does something out of the ordinary? It's almost as if what they do is superhuman, yet their ...
Contemporary Christians are discovering the deeper aspects of meditation. Previously, many Christians who have experimented with meditation misunderstood the real benefits of meditation by mistakenly believing that meditation is simply a relaxation technique, or a way to think about and worship ...
Several weeks after the meeting with Ariya, we were making our way across a meadow when we unexpectedly ran across the most charming yellow cottage one could imagine. Nestled in the wood line behind a gorgeous flower garden with carefully tended vegetable patches on both sides, the cottage ...
We walked from village to village for two years, and eventually reached a thriving village at the foot of a high, snow-capped mountain. According to my water-stained map, this village was only a few kilometers from the mysterious cave. I located the village elder and told him of my intentions ...
To make sure that your future beyond this world is going to be the best it can be, make each day a little more meaningful than the last. That's it! Make each day just a little better, just an infinitesimal amount better than the last. "Better" doesn't mean what you do, but what you notice. ...
You've been with her for many years. You have shared the ups and downs, the tragedies and the triumphs. You became used to each other and shared your dreams, the dreams you both had, with bright eyes and wondrous anticipation when you were young. . . . And then one day, she was gone. Just that ...
Sahmad began the secret instructions, "Close your eye and pay close attention so that you can precisely remember these directions. They are complicated but essential, and any deviation could prove disastrous. And remeber; opening the centers should be done every time you begin your inner work. ...
We walked across great plains and countless farm fields framed against pristine days of clear morning skies, yellow-white days and nights filled with endless stars. Eventually the plains gave way to forests, and as we continued our trek, we soon could see the tangled jungle ahead. Before long, ...
It's not easy to find something to believe in these days. There is so much information on the internet that whatever we believe in can be very effectively debunked in a heartbeat, leaving us with doubts at best, and at worst; total disbelief. But we can't seem to function as human beings ...
To give you a tiny sampling, a flavor of what Theravada Buddhist monks chant every morning, following are a few stanzas of the Buddha's exact teachings in his native Pali language (with translations), which have been precisely kept intact by his order of monks for over 2500 years, or since three ...
Miraculously, I was still alive when I woke up, having slept well. I lit my lamp to see what the monster was up to, and could see the beast slowly licking some tiger bones. It was carefully watching me out of the corner of its eye, and it was perplexed. Last night brought up things that were ...
As with all advice, always check with your health care practitioner before embarking on any regimen, especially one that you haven’t tried before. Everybody’s body is different. Having said that, I would like to introduce you to the secrets I discovered about sleep while living as Buddhist monk ...
Just about everything we actively do is on the conscious level. While this is happening on the surface, our body and all its organs are subconsciously being given instructions and messages so that they can function. Not only the body, but the mind is working subconsciously as well, as it filters ...
Conqueror was lying motionless next to the black horse. I saw immediatelty that their injuries would eventually prove fatal, but only after many long days of agony . . . and I could never let that happen. I retrieved the fiance's knife, as the black horse continued to struggle trying to get up ...
It can really get heavy at times. I was recently corresponding with a good friend of mine who mentioned that he didn’t think that he was capable of developing a calm mind in such a chaotic world, which might be a common problem for a lot of us. With stress levels at an all time high, a ...
To most of us, God is an abstract thing, so isn't it curious that we fight over our differences conce ing God? Maybe this is because few actually devote their lives to piercing the abstract and coming face-to-face with God. The reason, perhaps, that few search for God is because when they do, ...
I walked back to where a John was waiting and told him about the skeleton. He said he was well aware of the tragic situation and then told me the rest of the story. "Soon after the woman died, her body was placed in a sealed box and stored beneath one of the huts to cure, for it would take ...
They knew how to chord a guitar, how to live together, how to relax, and how to live on a shoestring (and off Mom and Dad mostly!) And they didn't know about money or power – that would have been way too square! Hippies were a brief respite on this road of life, one of those strange eras that ...
Have you ever considered the flower? It doesn’t live long, but while it does, it displays itself so beautifully. It doesn’t conce itself with tomorrow, or yesterday; only this one precious moment is important as it unfolds its petals. It positions itself so that it doesn’t crowd the other ...
This group of men had become my family, and leaving them was difficult. I went through the motions of following the schedule for the next few days, but halfheartedly, faced with the reality of striking out on my own again with Conqueror, my solitary companion, and once more following a restless ...
I found the dog lying almost dead near the path. A crossbow arrow, a type not used by the villagers, had silenced him. Somebody was after me, and apparently wanted the bounty all for himself. My instincts told me to slowly back away and move toward the denser part of the forest, but just as I ...
This I didn't want to hear. But knowing that it was best to follow a John's advice, I made my way to the cliff and carefully peered over the edge staying as far back as I could. There, one hundred feet below were teeth-like jagged rocks that would impale anyone unfortunate enough to fall from ...
The important thing is to never lose a religious argument, and this article will tell you exactly how to do that - beginning with the first rule: Don't make the usual mistakes! The usual mistakes include circling arguments. You will be challenged on circling arguments every time because they are ...
The first five steps of sainthood spelled out in my previous two articles on the subject are not too difficult to understand. These last five, however, can be challenging, especially to common, non-saintly folks like us who might not have personal, deep discussions with God to fall back on! ...
"Surface happiness comes and goes," A John continued, "no different than breathing in and breathing out. We cannot breathe in always, we must eventually breathe out. The deeper happiness, however, is constant. If we are continuously lost in the surface happiness, and the temporary pleasure it ...
Sahmad dispatched one of his attendants to summon a physician, while another stayed behind as an interpreter. Sahmad then instructed me to lie down, and he lit two large cones of incense, carefully placing them on my bare chest. He told me to concentrate on the pain that would soon come, as the ...
I was lying on the floor of my little hut in Thailand suffering from one of the many tropical fevers to which I seemed to succumb, and I saw, for the first time in my life, that nothing truly mattered. I found myself directly in the moment. Given the fact that as a Buddhist forest monk I was not ...
When the hunter spit in my face, I felt the familiar rush that always preceded my deadly encounters. But this time, for Maradin's sake, I maintained my composure. "Wait a minute my friend," I said, as I put my hand up in a gesture of amity, "you have it all wrong. I only stopped by to help her ...