Eternal Spring

Step by step
a new-born lamb
eternal spring 

Zen Master Soen Nakagawa

1955

In his "Preface" to Endless Vow: The Zen Path of Soen Nakagawa (presented with an Introduction by Eido Tai Shimano, Shambhala 1996) Kazuaki Tanahashi writes: "Zen Master Soen Nakagawa was a key figure in the transmission of Zen Buddhism from Japan to the Western world. As abbot of the historic Ryutaku Monastery, he trained monks and lay practitioners. Among them were Robert Aitken and Philip Kapleau, who later became two of the first Westerners to teach Zen in the United States . . . Soen Nakagawa was also an extraordinary poet. In Japan his haiku are renowned, even though no substantial collection of his work has been made available to the general public."

Action Creates Abundance

"Think like a man of action, and act like a man of thought."
- Henri Bergson

Meaning:
Think and analyze quickly and thoroughly, but don't act impulsively. Come up with a plan quickly, but take your time putting it into action.


“To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.”
- Henri Bergson (French Philosopher, 1927 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1859-1941)

Life does not proceed by the association and addition of elements, but by dissociation and division.”
- Henri Bergson


“Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”


“Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832)


“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.”  ~Goethe

“Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his own image”
-  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”
- Plato

Coca-Cola

What Happens to Your Body When You Drink a Can of Coke?



By Wade Meredith from Blisstree.com


Have you ever wondered why Coke comes with a smile? Because it gets you high. They removed the cocaine almost 100 years ago. Why? Because it was redundant.
In the first 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavour, allowing you to keep it down.
20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get its hands on into fat. (And there’s plenty of that at this particular moment.)
40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dilate; your blood pressure rises; as a response, your liver dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked, preventing drowsiness.

45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production, stimulating the pleasure centres of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
> 60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium, and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
> 60 minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium, and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolytes, and water.

> 60 minutes: As the rave inside you dies down, you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like hydrating your system

Statues of Buddhist monks

 

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Statues of Buddhist monks are lined near a temple in Payathonzu, near the Burmese border with Thailand, February 20, 2012.
REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang 

 

Statues of Buddhist monks are lined near a temple in Payathonzu, near the Burmese border with Thailand 

 

Myanmar's new government signed a ceasefire deal with New Mon State Party and its military wing, the Mon National Liberation Army, on February 1 after decades of conflict and has outlined a three-stage plan for permanent peace with all 16 of the country's ethnic rebel groups, promising of village development projects like housing, roads, water electricity and resettlement of refugees and internally displaced people. 

 

It is in talks with investors to set up factories in former conflict areas once political deals are signed, with the promise of higher wages for the hundreds of thousands of people from Myanmar working across the border in Thailand.

 

 

 

 

 

Python Love

Photos of the Day 02/14 - The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Erroll Escobar kisses his partner Princess Madrolejo as they pose for photographers while carrying a 16-foot and 200 kg Albino Burmese Python during a Valentine's Day presentation inside a Malabon zoo, north of Manila.
A survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) from December 3 to December 7 last year shows that only three out of 10 Filipinos would change their religion in the name of love. The SWS noted that the unwillingness to change their religion for their loved ones is strong in all religions, a local media reported.