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Contribute to Your Favorite Cause
Contribute to your favorite cause. Determine which is worthy of your help by figuring out what is truly important to you. Many people are working this very moment to try to advance your favorite idea, so find out about them and donate to the organization at which they're employed.
Make sure the amount you give is not enough to put you in financial difficulty, but enough so that you know you've made a substantial contribution — for you. This may be $1,000, $100, or $1. The amount is not important. What is important is its significance to your budget. Go just a little farther than what you know you are comfortable giving.
With your check, enclose a little note thanking the people who work for your cause for their dedication, good deeds, and sacrifice. Let them know you appreciate their efforts, and that it makes you feel good to realize they're working to accomplish something you deem vital.
Figuring what's worthy of your help.
Valentine Be Mine
If your child is from age 6 - 9 years of age and has a vibrant curiosity, you can join him/her in a quest to find out more about Valentine's Day on February 14. This handy and entertaining paperback provides plenty of information of the origin of this romantic holiday going all the way back to Rome in the first century. For example, Valentine refers to three different Christian martyrs.
Jacqueline Farmer shares where the romantic emphasis came from and the origin of the idea of exchanging cards. Also included are pieces on the symbolism of Cupid, doves, hearts, and flowers. Farmer and illustrators Megan Halsey and Sean Addy present instructions on making your own Valentine's Day card.
Ready for two more bits of information?
• 41,000,000 Valentine's Day cards are exchanged in the U.S. every year.
• About 3 percent of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their animal companions.
Handy and entertaining information for children on the origins of this romantic holiday.
A Code of Jewish Ethics, Volume 2
"The Hebrew term lashon hara refers to negative, critical speech about others. Maimonides proposes, in effect, the precise opposite, lashon hatov, good speech, in which we praise others and relate anecdotes that show them in a good light. A friend relates that when 'I meet someone I know with their offspring, I compliment the parent to their child. I try to relate something specific that the parent once did, rather than a generic compliment.' We often think in terms of complimenting children to their parents, but it is equally important for parents that their children realize that others hold them in high regard.
"The Jerusalem writer Sara Rigler offers additional practical suggestions on how to make lashon hatova part of daily behavior: 'Every night at dinnertime or bedtime, tell your spouse one positive thing about each of your children: 'When Rachel spoke on the phone with her grandmother today, she showed her a lot of love and respect.' We should also note our spouse's good points to our children [unfortunately, some couples do the opposite and complain about their mate to their children]: 'Daddy was very tired tonight, but even so, he helped you with your homework.' Similarly, we should mention our friends' good traits to one another: 'Debbie is reliable. She promised to do something for me, and even though it was inconvenient, she followed through.' We should speak lashon hatov about those who work for us as well (many people harp on the flaws of their employees): 'My secretary is sick, but she came in today because she knew it was important and I really needed her.'
"Concludes Rigler: 'With each if these simple statements, you fulfill the most glorious of all mitzvot: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Joseph Telushkin and Sara Rigler on praising others and trying to always show them in a good light
The Tibetan Book of Yoga
"This brings us to an important part of yoga that isn't much talked about. The exercises at level one — the level of our physical body — function to facilitate the flow of inner wind through the various subtle channels. This is the whole point of yoga poses as they were originally intended.
"Think of your inner channels like little garden hoses with knots in them. Suppose there's no water coming out of the hose, because there's a knot. And then maybe you don't notice the knot, and you go and turn the faucet wide open. You could bust the hose.
"The same sort of thing can happen when you do some vigorous yoga, which sends more and more inner wind racing through the channels. If you haven't made an equal effort to loosen up the knots in the channels, you can get some unexpected results. These can range anywhere from a pulled muscle to feelings of irritability or competitiveness as you do more and more yoga.
"Every student of yoga needs to work on avoiding this problem — it can undo all the efforts we make in our yoga classes. The best way to work on the knots is simply to be very serious in the practice of Giving and Taking as you go through a session. Concentrate on the exhale of your breath — especially as you explode the air out with the sound of 'ha' at the end of the Arrow. Send out the gift of joyful effort.
"You know the wonderful feeling you get when you're excited about something you're working on — the creative juices are flowing, and there's a kind of excitement in the air. Your mind sinks into the task, and sleep or food might be forgotten for many hours at a time.
"What we give upon the breath of the rose and the light of the diamond in this exercise is exactly that same kind of joyful excitement, in doing the most exciting thing in life; helping other people. Imagine that the person you're sending your gift to is suddenly inspired to be a Mother Teresa, in little things, to everyone around them all the time. Helping others is a bit here and a bit there, all through the day, in your home or office: handing out kindnesses like Christmas gifts, all year long. Your knots won't be able to resist the joy you plant. The winds that your yoga stirs up will flow so free.”
Geshe Michael Roach on the benefits of virtuous yoga that includes kindness to others.
Being Good
"If you keep your practice steady, / morning and night, summer and winter, / there is nothing you cannot do / and nothing that can harm you" goes a text in the Upasakashila Sutra. And the practice of being good, according to Master Hsing Yun, a Chinese monk, is an essential part of the path of liberation in Buddhism. This founder of Fo Kuang Shan monastery in Taiwan presents an enlightening overview of ethics for everyday life based on the Dharma.
A Chinese folk saying goes: "A good word melts the cold of March, while a bad word can freeze the warmth of June." Master Hsing Yun discusses the harm that can come to others when we use words to lie, flatter, or mislead people. One Buddhist text even goes so far as to state that whenever we tease somebody viciously, it is as if we were cutting him or her with a knife.
To end anger, Master Hsing Yun suggests that we regard all sentient beings as our children — why then would we want to harm them? He believes that dissatisfaction with what we have can be overcome by wisdom and by helping others. The author offers other sagacious practices to enhance compassion, faith, and generosity. Being Good by Master Hsing Yun has been translated by Tom Graham.
Presents an enlightening overview of ethics for everyday life based on the Dharma.
Anger
"There may be times when you are angry with someone, and you try everything you can to transform your anger, but nothing seems to work. In this case, the Buddha proposes that you give the other person a present. It sounds childish, but it is very effective. When we're angry with someone, we want to hurt them. Giving them a present changes that into wanting to make them happy. So, when you are angry with someone, send him a present. After you have sent it, you will stop being angry with him. It's very simple, and it always works.
"Don't wait until you get angry to go and buy the present. When you feel very grateful, when you feel you love him or her so much, then go and buy the present right away. But don't send it; don't give it to the other person yet. Keep it. You may have the luxury of having two or three presents stored secretly in your drawer. Later, when you feel angry, take one out and deliver it. It is very effective. The Buddha was very smart."
To Practice: Go shopping and get a gift for your partner or a friend to have on hand next time you are angry with him/her.
Thich Nhat Hanh on simple and practical ways to defuse anger in ourselves and others.
Navigating the Tides of Change
An Excerpt from Navigating the Tides of Change: Stories from Science, the Sacred, and a Wise Planet by David La Chapelle
David La Chapelle charts the tides of change rocking our world and challenges readers to change their ways of being, seeing, and doing. In the following dramatic passage, he points to the healing powers inherent in the spiritual practice of kindness.
"If nature can give away its bounty with such abundance, then why can't the human community? Historically, some communities did. First Nations people in the Pacific Northwest organized regular potlatches in which individuals gained social and spiritual benefits by giving away much of their tangible wealth — an exercise in economic redistribution that may have helped stabilize their culture over hundreds of generations.
"It is the habit of the universe to give. Maintaining tight control over money, protecting one's assets, and living from a Darwinian perspective of survival of the fittest may create sinkholes in the ecology of economics that will doom the system in the long run. When the capacity to give becomes an anchor point of one's identity and stature, the synthesis of spirituality with rightful economic activities can help restore integrity to a system that is currently failing to meet the needs of the planet. In the end, as in the beginning, this is about love."
David La Chapelle on giving to restore the integrity of a system.
Rambam's Ladder
"Political leaders exhort us to volunteer, to give to the needy. Yet the United States hasn't been able to secure a foothold on the second step of the ladder, which requires that giving should be proportionate to the suffering. We have more billionaires than any country in the world — 216 out of 497 in 2001. Yet the U.S. Bureau of the Census reported in September 2002 that 32.9 million Americans, 9.2 of the total population, were officially considered poor.
"If worldwide suffering is thrown into the equation, the imbalance becomes even starker. The United States, now the world's only superpower, does not equate military, economic, and cultural dominance with charitable duty overseas. Somehow bombing is always easier to finance than building — or rebuilding. In 1992, the twenty-two richest members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development agreed that they should target 0.7 percent of gross domestic product for overseas aid. By the turn of the century, almost all of the rich nations had consistently failed to reach that goal. The smallest contributor by percentage, although largest in dollar amount, was the United States, the world's richest nation. And just as Citigroup links its charity to business opportunity, so the United States ties charitable giving to military and economic objectives and complains when its philanthropy does not achieve the desired results. J. Brian Atwood, former head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said in a speech to the Overseas Development Council, 'Despite many well-publicized trade missions, we saw virtually no increase of trade with the poorest nations. These nations could not engage in trade because they could not afford to buy anything.' "
On giving as a nation to other nations, using ancient Jewish text to shed light on charity.
Reinventing Medicine
In this visionary work bolstered by a solid foundation of scientific evidence, Dr. Larry Dossey takes us beyond the limitations of mechanical medicine (Era I) and mind/body medicine (Era II) to the unbounded medicine of Era III, where the nonlocal mind works wonders outside the confines of normal space and linear time. Here at last is a watershed work that publishes the banns and then joyfully celebrates the wedding of science and spirituality. The art of healing on these pages is an amalgam of love, empathy, compassion, generosity, sharing, and mystery.
The author of the 1993 New York Times bestseller Healing Words begins with his own experiences of nonlocality and then presents the most up-to-date clinical and laboratory research on the capacity of human consciousness to function outside the individual brain and body. Scientists are discovering what mystics, visionaries, and saints have known for centuries — the unity and interdependence of all human beings, animals, and inanimate things.
Dossey impressively maps the psycho-spiritual dimensions of Era III medicine where intercessory prayer, intuition, telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, visions, prophetic dreams, and the sharing of physical symptoms between distant individuals will be taken seriously. What's more, these experiences will be utilized as part of a healing process facilitated by patients, physicians, and healthcare workers. Such tools will greatly enhance the diagnoses and treatment protocols already at work in Era I and Era II medicine.
Dossey's ambitious and imaginative reinvention of medicine concludes with his discussion of "eternity medicine" where he deals with near-death experiences, visitations from the dead, and reincarnation. The author realizes that technological medicine is not enough in this era when millions of people are embracing a holistic and spiritual understanding of life.
A watershed work that publishes the banns and then joyfully celebrates the wedding of science and spirituality.
Lovingkindness
Sharon Salzberg presents a rounded and revealing treatment of this important Buddhist practice. The author, who is a founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, uses 25 years of teaching experience to shed light on the "incandescent power of love" that is present in all of us. She talks about the significance of intimacy with ourselves as a prelude to reaching out to others.
Some of the hindrances to lovingkindness are enslavement to desire and attachment as well as addiction to anger and aversion. Salzberg affirms equanimity and generosity as keys to developing a compassionate heart. This is the right book on the right subject for our troubled times.
A rounded and revealing treatment of this important Buddhist practice.