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(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

The Tibetan New Year — the year of the Water Dragon — was on Wednesday, February 22, 2012.

Students from around the world gather for the festivities which include toasts to our dharma teachers.

One practitioner from Toronto, Canada tells us that while brushing her teeth that morning, she thought about what she would say in her toast to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (CTR) later that day.

Given the result — a heartfelt toast — brushing one’s teeth obviously brings good results!

Saying that CTR changed her life, she touches on several vital points, one of which is how important it is to work with negativity.

After the toast, I run home to brush my own teeth. This is what arises. Read the rest of this entry »

(Prologue: I’ve got first-hand experience that a real understanding of the laws of karma can substantially change our lives for the better. I created this weblog to share information and personal experience with others. May it be of benefit!)

“I just wish this were over.”

How often we have said this to ourselves when dealing with something we consider unpleasant.

Similarly, when we consider a situation pleasant, we say “I wish this would last.”

So we indulge in discursive thoughts and daydreams to get through the unpleasantness, or indulge in wishes that the pleasantness were permanent even though we know it isn’t.

We are caught in a time trap of our own making where things have a beginning and an end. But analysis demonstrates that time is just another concept made up of segments that run from macro ones such as “time zones” to micro segments called “nano seconds.” We’re taught that “every minute counts.” It’s a useful concept, to be sure. But like any other concept,  “time” lacks any solid existence.

But there is an alternative to this see-saw on which we go up and down constantly, an alternative that is available to us every moment, one that helps us to step outside the concept of time.

What is this alternative?

Staying in the NOW, “the magic of the present moment.”  In the NOW nothing starts and nothing ends. No duality. It just is as it is. Neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

Added benefit: There’s no accumulation of karma in the NOW…. Read the rest of this entry »