What Would Thoreau Say?

When you wash the dishes...wash the dishes simple Buddhist description of mindfulness What the Buddhist teachers are trying to get across here is that when we do something we should really be doing just that something.  We should be concentrating on the issue at hand. I don't know about you but I never do that.  When I'm washing the dishes (a task I try to avoid) I'm thinking about the kids and Jennifer's new baby, Kristin's new job, Kurt's poetry and writing that he's waiting to hear from a publisher about.  I'm not thinking about the cheese I'm washing off the plate, I'm wondering why I keep coughing, and how I'm going to raise the money I need to keep the monastery open. My mind is on money and figuring out if I have enough to make it this month. The dishes wash themselves, really. Truth is we all do this a lot.  We are always thinking about something else right? The past for me is bitter sweet, and I think about it a lo

As we proceed through the program Simplicity, Silence, Sabbath, let us look at the first of the five attitudes we must have to simplify our lives:  intention. Intention Some things you remember-I was seven or eight years old when I set the course of my life in motion.  I was to become a major league baseball player. You say, 'how do you remember you were seven or eight?'  I was in the back of my father's station wagon, with two friends, probably A.T. Higle and Rusty Hoehn, and we were coming back from a game at Yankee Stadium where the hated Yankees (Giants fans were the Aschermanns) played the Boston Red Sox.   I had my new 'SOX' hat on and was absolutely convinced from that day forward, nothing would stop me from one day wearing a real SOX hat and playing in that stadium.  (Little did I know at the time I had bought a White Sox hat when I thought I was buying a Red Sox hat; a telling sign I would say-see below). How you might also say could I be so sure

So, let us begin the exploration of these three words and their meaning to us today, here, in this world, at this time. I will tell you that in my 35+ year spiritual search I have determined that these three words comprise a summary of each of the spiritual disciplines I have studied and especially the one I practice, Christianity.  Each of the spiritual masters, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Moses, Mohammed and Jesus called us to a realistic way of life centered on living with as little complication as we can, going off to find times for silence and prayer, and sanctifying time, as in 'this is the only time I have and I should cherish it.'  Each of these masters, in their own words, have said "do not store up treasures here on earth where moth and rust consume and thieves break in and steal; rather store up treasures in heaven and you will be rewarded."  In other words, all the BMW's in the world ain't gonna make you happy (more on my BMW binge later in this blog).  &qu

My last post about the Republican candidates and Jesus caused enough stir that I decided to take a break.  Now I come back with something a little more postive and perhaps even...god forbid...enlightening and helpful. Recently I have done a series of talks predominantly at churches here in the DC area called Simplicity, Silence and Sabbath.  These talks have generated some interest and it occurred to me that it might be fun to take the content of these talks and turn them into entries on the blog and eventually perhaps turn them into another book, or ebook which I understand is becoming all the rage. So for the next god knows how many weeks and months, I'm going to begin posting my SiSiSa (as I call it) content for the millions of readers of this blog. My expectation is that after reading these entries and actually answering the questions, we will change the world. SiSiSa is a very personal program that provides opportunity for people to take a look at these three essential i