A prayer ….

Walking this path I count my steps

Carefully count my breaths

Walking straight and mindful

Vowing to bring fourth kindness

Drawing another breath I focuss

The simple motions

Eliminating negative emotions

Om nami padme hum

Loving living lotus compassion

Grant me the needed wisdom to encapsul

So i may bring joy while my steps

Carefully counting every breath

How . Haiku

How do they not see

The love and compassion

As the world crumbles

Illusion. The Rza

Understanding. By Unknown

Zen Tails; The Happiness Follows

 An old cat once walked up on a younger cat that was chasing his tail. The old cat asked, “what are you doing?” The younger replied, I just found out that my happiness is in my tail. I’m going to catch it and be happy. The older cat laughed and said “I heard that too when I was your age. What I found though is that if I just go about my day doing what needs to be done my happiness just seems to follow me wherever I go.

Street art in Paris; wordvirus.

Street art in London (between goswell road, old Street and clerkenwel), UK, by artist Vera Bugatti. Photo by Vera Bugatti.

via Street art in London — WORDVIRUS

It Can Be Done! The Great Middle Way

Abandon wrongdoing. It can be done. If there were no likelihood, I would not ask you to do it.

But since it is possible and brings about blessings and happiness, I do ask you to abandon wrongdoing.

Cultivate doing good. It can be done. If it brought deprivation and sorrow, I would not ask you to do it.

But since it brings blessings and happiness, I do ask you: Cultivate doing good.

—Buddha Shakyamuni, Angutara Nikaya

Source: It Can Be Done!

Let´s not fool ourselves; The Great Middle Way

The Buddha gives this instruction in the Griha Vinaya (Rules for Householders, Dharmika Sutra, Kshudraka Agama):

Let him not destroy, or cause to be destroyed,
any life at all, or sanction the acts of those who do so.
Let him refrain even from hurting any creature,
both those that are strong and those that tremble in the world.

If we fail to understand the universality of this injunction, the Buddha clarifies (Kshudraka Agama):

Whether they be creatures of the land or air,
whoever harms here any living being,
who has no compassion for all that live,
let such a one be known as depraved.

And in the Anguttara Agama:

I am a friend of the footless,
I am a friend of all bipeds,
I am a friend of those with four feet,
I am a friend of the many-footed.
…
May all creatures, all breathing things,
all beings one and all, without exception,
experience good fortune only.
May they not fall into any harm.

Should we intend to skirt the First Precept by claiming innocence of the deed if others do the killing for us, He adds (Kshudraka Agama):

One should not kill any living being,
nor cause it to be killed,
nor should one incite any other to kill.
Do never injure any being,
whether strong or weak, in this entire universe!

Source: Let´s not fool ourselves

Appreciation.

Photo post by @Ramblings_Claury.

Source: Appreciation

Change Your Emotions; GreatMiddleWay

To manifest any given emotional state, we develop a pattern:

We focus our attention on a specific feeling (pleasant or unpleasant) and magnify it

We generate a supporting discursive thought process and identify with it

We assume a compatible breath pattern and physical posture

If you want to change your emotional state, change your focus, your self-talk, your breath, and your posture.

Source: Change Your Emotions