Baby Buddhas

I like to think that if the Buddha were alive today, he would hang out at the local playground. I could imagine him playing on the swings or goofing around the water fountain on a hot summer day. He would, I suspect, encounter several kindred spirits in the sandbox. The boy digging a hole and singing to himself. The two friends burying each other's feet. The mother nursing a baby.
I didn't start to picture the Buddha at the playground until I had a child of my own, and also became an elementary school teacher. I had thought a lot about the Buddhist principles of mindfulness and compassion, but it wasn't until I was living and working with small children that I truly began to try and put those principles into practice. Two questions kept occurring to me: How can the principles of mindfulness and compassion enrich our parenting? What can babies and young children teach their parents about mindfulness and compassion?
In his account of the Buddha's life, Old Path White Clouds, Thich Nhat Hanh describes a discussion about mindfulness that the Buddha has with a group of village children. To demonstrate the value of living in the present moment, the Buddha explains the difference between eating a tangerine with awareness and without awareness. With awareness, the sweet fragrance and flavor of the tangerine can be fully savored, but when eaten without awareness, the tangerine's smell and taste remain unnoticed.
This discussion occurs early in the Buddha's spiritual journey, just after he has discovered the path he will follow, but before he has set out to formally teach his wisdom to monks and other seekers. It is noteworthy and highly appropriate that children are the Buddha's first audience for an account of mindfulness. Unlike adults, who are often preoccupied with the past and future, young children and babies intuitively know how to live in the here and now.
--Jennifer Soalt

Swami Vivekananda Quotations

1. The only test of good things is that they make us strong.
- Swami Vivekananda

2. Is it not tremendously blasphemous to believe against reason? What right have we not to use the greatest gift that God has given to us? I am sure God will pardon a man who will use his reason and cannot believe, rather than a man who believes blindly instead of using the facilities He has given him.
- Swami Vivekananda

3. We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.
- Swami Vivekananda

4. The first sign of your becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful.
- Swami Vivekananda

5. This I have seen in life, he who is overcautious about himself falls into dangers at every step; he who is afraid of losing honor and respect, gets only disgrace; he who is always afraid of loss always losses.
- Swami Vivekananda

6. In judging others we always judge them by our own ideals. That is not as it should be. Everyone must be judged according to his own ideal, and not by that of anyone else.
- Swami Vivekananda

Strength Strength Strength.......

First, believe in the world—that there is meaning behind everything.

Don't look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished.

This is the first lesson to learn: be determined not to curse anything outside, not to lay the blame upon anyone outside, but stand up, lay the blame on yourself. You will find that is always true. Get hold of yourself.

Tell the truth boldly, whether it hurts or not. Never pander to weakness. If truth is too much for intelligent people and sweeps them away, let them go; the sooner the better.

This life is a hard fact; work your way through it boldly, though it may be adamantine; no matter, the soul is stronger.

This I have seen in life—those who are overcautious about themselves fall into dangers at every step; those who are afraid of losing honor and respect, get only disgrace; and those who are always afraid of loss, always lose.

"Face the brutes." That is a lesson for all life—face the terrible, face it boldly. Like the monkeys, the hardships of life fall back when we cease to flee before them.
Those who work at a thing heart and soul not only achieve success in it but through their absorption in that they also realize the supreme truth—Brahman. Those who work at a thing with their whole heart receive help from God.

I, for one, thoroughly believe that no power in the universe can withhold from anyone anything they really deserve.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you free.

Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, fear is wrong life. All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in the world have proceeded from this evil spirit of fear.
-Swami Vivekananda