05 February, 2009

Worry or Not?


If you stop worrying about things you can’t change, and there are tons of them, you'll begin to find your ability and frequency of happiness increases. I have found in moments of weakness, when worry creeps back in, if I get busy with helping others I can avoid it fairly easily. These ideas are not mine, but Buddha’s. Often tried by me, once I have heard the applicable teaching once or twice and made a bit firmer in meditation with concentration and reflection. My goal is lessen the irritation that is really low-level anger when we find fault in most everything we encounter. I am not trying to be humorless drone, and being so far from perfect, would be happy with 20% less dissatisfaction to things I don’t like. If I can accept things and just be neutral in feeling, instead of labeling as something I don’t like…I will easily see the happiness quotient increase.
So things I want to change become more of an intention for good, then a rejection of the bad. This actually has the benefit of expanding your world, instead being fenced in with the enormity of your dislikes. I would like to promote Lifestraw even through it is made of plastic, which in some poor countries is often burnt for disposal. Although it does not work on salt or chemically polluted water, it still is a valid and low cost way to save people’s lives. Many charities work hand in hand with Vestergaard Frandsen, the manufacturers of Lifestraw. For the $2 you spend on one coffee, you could help give one person clean drinking water for a year! That is how one could quickly jack up your happiness by putting yourself in another’s shoes. Especially for those less fortunate. My link to Mercy Corps in the upper right is just one of these charities.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reading The Inland Sea by Donald Ritchie today and found this haiku he wrote on page 144;

Lord Buddha had more
Disciples than had Jesus
And much less trouble

Anonymous said...

Who turned you on to this book? I am just curious.

I find it interesting that a Japanese American, came to me one day after seeing me meditate before Yoga and said I meditate more than then most people do in Japan. I may end up teaching Dharma or meditation in Asia...one day. Who knows?

Anonymous said...

I found Ritchie on my own while researching the differences between Japanese and Western world views. Did you like his work too?

Anonymous said...

No, but I guess I guess I should. I'm a bit behind, 10 years lost with brain injury reading problems. Still hard to read books to this day, but manage now.
When I looked his reviews on Amazon, there was raves. I will keep this on my reading list. Thanks

Anonymous said...

May I recommend you start with A View From The Chuo Line? It is a collection of short stories, some only a few pages, all very beautiful and showing his great heart. ISBN: 096533046X

His Wikipedia entry has a photo from this month! He is 85 and looks great. Bless him, may he live to be 101.

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