QUOTE | Whenever we find fault with others ...

"Whenever we find fault with others, whether through anger, contemptuous certainty, self-righteousness, or gossip, it is often based in fear. We may not be aware of our fears, but when we look deeply, we may discover the fear of rejection, loss of control, of unworthiness, or the fear of disconnection. But refraining alone is not enough—by itself it is just behavior modification—and it is neither healing nor transformative. Only through uncovering and consciously entering into the deep hole inside, welcoming the fear with curiosity and compassion, can we ultimately reconnect with the basic wholeness of our true nature."

—Ezra Bayda

QUOTE | Failure and Success

“Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.”

– Po Bronson

we must make a relationship with loneliness until it becomes aloneness

"We leave our homeland, our property and our friends. We give up the familiar ground that supports our ego, admit the helplessness of ego to control its world and secure itself. We give up our clingings to superiority and self-preservation...It means giving up searching for a home, becoming a refugee, a lonely person who must depend on himself...Fundamentally, no one can help us. If we seek to relieve our loneliness, we will be distracted from the path. Instead, we must make a relationship with loneliness until it becomes aloneness."

~ Chögyam Trungpa (The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation)

PATTI SMITH | "... please don’t abandon the book"

“I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf. Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don’t abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book.”

~ Patti Smith, in her acceptance speech for the 2010 National Book Awards

Giving Gift Cards for Christmas?

"Book buying, by extension, has become an impersonal exchange. Soulless gift cards and instant e-certificates are, of course, the only option when there is no specific book object to wrap. But giving gift cards in a long-term relationship is depressing. It's like saying, 'Here's 150 Amazon dollars. That's how much I love you. Please adjust to reflect my portion of the mortgage payment.' "

--Leah McLaren in her Globe & Mail column "How the rise of e-readers takes the fun out of giving books."

But I like gift-cards to bookstores. Give me, please?

Eat, Pray, Love the movie: "Ruin is a gift"

Liz: "A friend took me to the most amazing place the other day. It's called the Augusteum. Octavian Augustus built it to house his remains. When the barbarians came they trashed it a long with everything else. The great Augustus, Rome's first true great emperor. How could he have imagined that Rome, the whole world as far as he was concerned, would be in ruins. It's one of the quietest, loneliest places in Rome. The city has grown up around it over the centuries. It feels like a precious wound, a heartbreak you won't let go of because it hurts too good. We all want things to stay the same. Settle for living in misery because we're afraid of change, of things crumbling to ruins. Then I looked at around to this place, at the chaos it has endured - the way it has been adapted, burned, pillaged and found a way to build itself back up again. And I was reassured, maybe my life hasn't been so chaotic, it's just the world that is, and the real trap is getting attached to any of it. Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation."

~ from the film "Eat, Pray, Love"

MONDAY LYRICS | 追 ("Chase")

追(電影 『金枝玉葉』插曲)

曲:李迪文 詞:林夕 編: George Leong

這一生 也在進取
這分鐘 卻掛念誰
我會說 是唯獨你 不可失去
好風光 似幻似虛
誰明人生樂趣
我會說 為情為愛 仍然是對

誰比你重要 成功了敗了也完全無重要
誰比你重要 狂風與暴雨都因你燃燒

一追再追 只想追趕生命裡一分一秒
原來多麼可笑 你是真正目標
一追再追 追蹤一些生活最基本需要
原來早不缺少 wo..ha..
有了你 即使平凡卻最重要

好光陰 縱沒太多 一分鐘又如何
會與你 共同渡過 都不枉過
瘋戀多 錯誤更多 如能重新做過
我會說 願能為你 提前做錯

一追再追 只想追趕生命裡一分一秒
原來多麼可笑 你是真正目
標一追再追 追蹤一些生活最基本需要
原來早不缺少 WO..HA..
只得你 會叫我彷彿人群裡最重要
有了你 即使沈睡了 也在笑

Om Namah Shivaya Gurave

Om Namah Shivaya Gurave
(I offer myself to the one true teacher within and without)

Saccidananda Murtaye
(In the forms of reality, consciousness and bliss)

Nisprapancaya Shantaya
(Ever present and full of peace)

Niralambaya Tejase
(Independent being, the vital essence of illumination)

2 December 2010

What a Friend Said about Me: "You are funny... things go good, you are uncomfortable, things aren't cosy, you are in your element."

Reading Eat, Pray, Love at the moment, because I enjoyed the film with Julia Roberts -- and because sometimes you are just in a strange kind of mood for a book about travel and healing. Besides, I just picked it up from the library today. I was #19 on the Reservation List.