Mom on “Flight to Friday Harbor” (26 Jul 2010 (Mon) @ 6:45 PM (PDT))	Sounds like a great learning experience and fun to...
Mom on “New Front Siding” (15 Jul 2010 (Thu) @ 6:44 PM (PDT))	Wow -that looks amazing. Great job!
Lord Cheese on “Portland” (6 Jun 2010 (Sun) @ 10:38 PM (PDT))	Had a great time ..cant wait till next time. :)
Mom on “Portland” (6 Jun 2010 (Sun) @ 11:09 AM (PDT))	Wow - sounds like a great weekend. I can't wait f...
Jeremy on “About the Sun” (20 May 2010 (Thu) @ 7:17 PM (PDT))	And then his dad wonders why Calvin is so odd...

Today I walked by a salvation army collection tin, Starbuck’s drink in hand. It struck me how non-generous I am. (non-generous = stingy, I suppose, to avoid un-necessary negation). After canceling my Compassion International child sponsorship (she turned 18, so I figured she wasn’t a child anymore, but they were happy to keep collecting the money), I realized I don’t actually currently support any charitable causes. I’m the ultimate penny pinching stingy miser. I am Scrooge.

Being Scrooge is, as the fable is wont to point out, a spiritual crisis.

People equate Buddhism with meditation and chanting and all that. But actually, all that stuff is, in essence, “tacked on” to the end. The scriptures specify an “order” or “progression” of teaching:

He saw Suppabuddha the leper sitting in the assembly, and on seeing him the thought occurred to him, “This person here is capable of understanding the Teaching.” So, aiming at Suppabuddha the leper, he gave a step-by-step talk, i.e., a talk on giving, a talk on virtue, a talk on heaven; he declared the drawbacks, degradation, & corruption of sensual passions, and the rewards of renunciation.

Then when he saw that Suppabuddha the leper’s mind was ready, malleable, free from hindrances, elated, & bright, he then gave the Teaching-talk peculiar to Awakened Ones, i.e., stress, origination, cessation, & path. And just as a clean cloth, free of stains, would properly absorb a dye, in the same way, as Suppabuddha the leper was sitting in that very seat, the dustless, stainless eye of Truth arose within him, “Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.”

The very first step is giving. Without giving, you have built a house without first building a foundation.

Maybe it’s my cynical outlook, the pessimist, always assuming that everyone is a fraud or cheat. Maybe I’m too afraid of giving in case I find I need it later. Maybe it’s the overwhelming endless open hands grasping give me, give me, give me that just makes me want to turn away. Maybe it’s the liars who say “I need” when they mean “I want”. Maybe it’s the “don’t feed the bears” mentality. I don’t know. But somehow, balance is essential to find...

Even if a person throws the rinsings of a bowl or a cup into a village pool or pond, thinking, ‘May whatever animals live here feed on this,’ that would be a source of merit.