On Achieving Ekstasis (part 2)

From "12 Steps to a Compassionate Life" by Karen Armstrong:

The aim of this step (Step 7, "How Little We Know") is threefold:

1. to recognize and appreciate the unknown and unknowable
2. to become sensitive to overconfident assertions of certainty in ourselves and other people
3. to make ourselves aware of the numinous mystery of each human being we encounter during the day

Hero

On Achieving Ekstasis

I am reading a book called "12 Steps to a Compassionate Life" by Karen Armstrong. I'm finding it to be one of the most inspiring books I've read in a long time. So I may take the next few posts to share some of the things that have stood out to me.

For today:

"Classical yoga was not an aerobic exercise but a systematic assault on the ego... [people ] engaged in the conquest of inner space and in a raid on the unconscious drives that held human beings captive to their me-first instincts...[a yogi] learned to master the ceaseless flux of thoughts, sensations, and fantasies that coursed through his mind in order to concentrate "on one point" As a result, he found that he saw other objects and people differently; because he had repressed the aura of memory and personal association surrounding each on of them, he no longer saw them through he filter of his own desires and needs. The "I" was disappearing from his thinking."

Something Extraordinary Is Happening

Great article explaining the following 5 reasons why there is something extraordinary happening.

1. No one can stand the employment model any longer.
2. The entrepreneurship model is also changing.
3. The rise of collaboration.
4. We are finally figuring out what the Internet is.
5. The fall of exaggerated consumerism.

Charter for Compassion (part 2)

Charter for Compassion (part 1)

11 Tips for Mindful Living

http://secularbuddhism.com/11-tips-for-mindful-living/

The Cool, Cool River

Moves like a fist through traffic
Anger and no one can heal it
Shoves a little bump into the momentum
It’s just a little lump
But you feel it
In the creases and the shadows
With a rattling, deep emotion
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean

Yes, Boss–the government handshake
Yes, Boss–the crusher of language
Yes, Boss–Mr. Stillwater
The face at the edge of the banquet
The cool, the cool river
The cool, the cool river

I believe in the future
I may live in my car
My radio tuned to
The voice of a star
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edge of a thunderstorm
And these old hopes and fears
Still at my side

Anger and no one can heal it
Slides through the metal detector
Lives like a mole in a motel
A slide in a slide projector
The cool, cool river
Sweeps the wild, white ocean
The rage, the rage of love turns inward
To become prayers of devotion
And these prayers are
The constant road across the wilderness
These prayers are
These prayers are the memory of God
The memory of God

And I believe in the future
We shall suffer no more
Maybe not in my lifetime
But in yours, I feel sure
Song dogs barking at the break of dawn
Lightning pushes the edges of a thunderstorm
And these streets
Quiet as a sleeping army
Send their battered dreams to heaven, to heaven
For the mother’s restless son
Who is a witness to, who is a warrior
Who denies his urge to break and run
Who says, “Hard times?
I’m used to them
The speeding planet burns
I’m used to that
My life’s so common it disappears”
And sometimes even music
Cannot substitute for tears

On Being Open to New Ideas

The Power of Habit