Shambhala SunSpace Read the intro from the new Shambhala Sun book, Buddha’s Daughters: Teachings from Women Who Are Shaping Buddhism in the West In addition to A Beginner’s Guide to Meditation, this Spring marks the release of another Shambhala Sun book, Buddha’s Daughters, edited by Shambhala Sun Deputy Editor Andrea Miller. The book is available now — click here to order or for more information. Below, you can read Andrea’s introduction to the book (as well as browse its chock-full Table of Contents). Buddha’s Daughters: Introduction I had my first taste of Buddhism in university when I took a class on Chinese and Japanese religions. My professor did not go on to address modern Buddhism’s state of flux—that was beyond the scope of our class. Artist and former Buddhist monk Andrew Binkley explores “A Space Between” in Hawaii museum installation Photography collage from the “Just Being” series. Tell us what you think of the May Shambhala Sun in our quick online survey Thanks, Melvin (McLeod) Scrabble goes Zen?
Rebooting IT: Why financial institutions need a new technology model - Bain Brief However, in most financial institutions, significant gaps exist between the business’s aspirations and what they can realistically accomplish. Executives demand greater speed and agility, but their IT departments are unable to deliver, resulting in frustrations and mutual distrust. The C-suite demands for faster, cheaper, better grow louder as the IT function has become slow, expensive and, in some extreme instances, paralyzed. Many factors contribute to this immobilization, including rapidly increasing volumes of business and regulatory demands, a growing need to support complex business processes and products, inflexible legacy systems architectures, onerous internal processes and talent limitations. We believe this problem is larger than IT; it is a strategic business challenge as well as a great opportunity. A new digital IT operating model What does this transformation aim to achieve? So how can IT functions respond to this challenge? Priorities and alignment. Organization.
8 Things Everybody Ought to Know About Concentrating “Music helps me concentrate,” Mike said to me glancing briefly over his shoulder. Mike was in his room writing a paper for his U.S. History class. Mike made a shift about every thirty seconds between all of the above. Do you know a person like this? The Science Behind Concentration In the above account, Mike’s obviously stuck in a routine that many of us may have found ourselves in, yet in the moment we feel it’s almost an impossible routine to get out of. When we constantly multitask to get things done, we’re not multitasking, we’re rapidly shifting our attention. Phase 1: Blood Rush Alert When Mike decides to start writing his History essay, blood rushes to his anterior prefrontal cortex. Phase 2: Find and Execute The alert carries an electrical charge that’s composed of two parts: first, a search query (which is needed to find the correct neurons for executing the task of writing), and second, a command (which tells the appropriate neuron what to do). Phase 3: Disengagement 1. 2. 3. 4.
Books that will induce a Here is the list of books that will officially induce mindfucks, sorted alphabetically by author. Those authors in bold have been recommended by one or more people as being generally mindfucking - any books listed under their names are particularly odd. You're welcome to /msg me to make an addition to this list. And finally, although he's way down at the bottom, my personal recommendation is definitely Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, as it turns the ultimate mindfuck: inverting the world-view of our entire culture, and it is non-fiction.
Buddhism and the Brain ? SEEDMAGAZINE.COM Credit: Flickr user eschipul Over the last few decades many Buddhists and quite a few neuroscientists have examined Buddhism and neuroscience, with both groups reporting overlap. I’m sorry to say I have been privately dismissive. One hears this sort of thing all the time, from any religion, and I was sure in this case it would break down upon closer scrutiny. When a scientific discovery seems to support any religious teaching, you can expect members of that religion to become strict empiricists, telling themselves and the world that their belief is grounded in reality. But science isn’t supposed to care about preconceived notions. Despite my doubts, neurology and neuroscience do not appear to profoundly contradict Buddhist thought. Buddhists say pretty much the same thing. When considering a Buddhist contemplating his soul, one is immediately struck by a disconnect between religious teaching and perception. Mr. The next day Mr. Consider how easily Buddhism accepts what happened to Mr.
Buddhism now VISION-STRATEGY-PRODUCT (VSP) Yacht: Rapidly Achieve Problem-Solution… 29 Semi-Productive Things I Do Online When I'm Trying to Avoid Real Work You don’t always have to work hard to be productive. Productivity can simply be the side effect of doing the right things. So here’s a list of 29 semi-productive things I do online when my mind is set on avoiding ‘real work.’ Check delicious popular tags like ‘useful,’ ‘tutorials,’ ‘tips,’ ‘howto,’ ‘advice,’ ‘entrepreneurship,’ etc. for interesting, educational articles to read.Watch one of the thousands of educational videos streaming at TED.com, Academic Earth and Teacher Tube.Read an online book list and find a new book to grab next time I’m at the library. Here’s another list. And another. Oh, and ever since I bought my new (super sexy) Apple iPad , I’ve been enjoying all of these sites on the go and catching looks from almost everyone who passes me while I browse. So what kind of semi-productive things do you do online in your off-time? Photo by: Colorblind Picaso Party Casino Related 30 Life-Enhancing Things You Can Do in 30 Minutes or Less April 19, 2012 In "Happiness" October 4, 2010
25 Beautifully Illustrated Thought-Provoking Questions A question that makes you think is worth asking… At the cusp of a new day, week, month, or year, most of us take a little time to reflect on our lives by looking back over the past and ahead into the future. We ponder the successes, failures and standout events that are slowly scripting our life’s story. This process of self reflection helps us maintain a conscious awareness of where we’ve been and where we intend to go. It is pertinent to the organization and preservation of our dreams, goals and desires. If you would like to maximize the benefits of self reflection, our new sister site, Thought Questions, is for you. Remember, these questions have no right or wrong answers. Here’s a sample of 25 recent thought questions posted on the site: Thought Questions is updated daily. Title photo by: Oberazzi For all other photo credits please refer to ThoughtQuestions.com Related 6 Questions that Will Save Your Relationships May 21, 2014 In "Life" 20 Questions You Should Ask Yourself Every Sunday
A Lesson on Forgiveness The Buddha was sitting under a tree talking to his disciples when a man came and spit on his face. He wiped it off, and he asked the man, “What next? What do you want to say next?” The man was a little puzzled because he himself never expected that when you spit on somebody’s face, he will ask, “What next?” Buddha’s disciples became angry, they reacted. Buddha said, “You keep silent. “If you think on it deeply,” Buddha said, “he has spit on his own mind. The man was even more puzzled! Puzzled, confused, the man returned home. The next morning he was back there. The man looked at Buddha and said, “Forgive me for what I did yesterday.” Buddha said, “Forgive? “And you also are new.
Thinking in Buddhism All chapters Notes: The most readable version of this thesis is the nicely-formatted PDF (created by Christopher Richardson in 2001). The 1994 original was written in the TEX publishing code, which did not allow for easy conversion to html. Some characters are missing. Preface Any research into a school of thought whose texts are in a foreign language encounters certain difficulties in deciding which words to translate and which ones to leave in the original. Finally, two processing errors must be explained. "Misery only doth exist, none miserable, No doer is there; naught save the deed is found. Chapter 1 Introduction The study of Buddhism has in recent years become quite a vogue in the West. Buddhism also seemed curious to the Western mind because, like so many Oriental philosophies, it was neither really a philosophy nor a religion, but something with elements of both. The form of Buddhism that has most captured the attention of the West, especially America, is Japan's Zen. Note: Cf.
Value Mapping – Development Impact and You What makes you do what you do? The Value Mapping tool helps you answer this by enabling you to describe the values which are embodied in your personal work and in the wider organisation. These values are probably more influential than anything else in shaping what you do. They might be something that you take for granted, that you think is obvious, or that you’ve never actually articulated or written down.
Mark Twain Gives Nine Tips for Living an Extraordinary Life by Henrik Edberg Is truth stranger than fiction? Perhaps. In this great article written by Henrik Edberg, we find that Mark Twain had expressed in his writings over the years an entire philosophy for living. If he were around today, it seems he would be on the lecture circuit with the likes of Eckhart Tolle or Wayne Dyer. “Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” “When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.” You may know Mark Twain for some of his very popular books like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain is known for his many – and often funny – quotes. 1. “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” If you don’t approve of yourself, of your behaviour and actions then you’ll probably walk around most of the day with a sort of uncomfortable feeling. This can, in a related way, be a big obstacle in personal growth. 2. “Age is an issue of mind over matter.