Oh wow... oh lord...

I can work with that image...

You sound a tad...breathless there hon. ROTFLMAOL!!!

Today's thought comes from James Burke...

Exactly.

Though, I think I got enough of James Burke back in my AP history class in high school. Most of his stuff is interesting no doubt, but it's bloody hard to stay awake watching his documentaries in a pitch-black room with no windows or air conditioning!

I actually really like James Burke... I am buying some of his DVDs... I love the Connections 2 series...

I had a question on my mind that perhaps tadpole or someone more knowledgeable in Buddhism could answer.

I read quite a bit of the Dalai Lama's works, and in the one I am reading right now (How to Practice) he often refers to, as he puts it, the fundamental state and 'knowing nature' of the mind. I'm a bit confused on this concept and perhaps someone could clarify it for me, as well as its relation to calm abiding.

*bumpage*

No answer?

Anyway, here's a good quote from Nargarjuna on God/gods:

"The gods are all eternal scoundrels
Incapable of dissolving the suffering of impermanence.
Those who serve them and venerate them
May even in this world sink into a sea of sorrow.
We know the gods are false and have no concrete being;
Therefore the wise man believes them not
The fate of the world depends on causes and conditions
Therefore the wise man many not rely on gods."

Or from the Bhûridatta Jataka

If the creator of the world entire
They call God, of every being be the Lord
Why does he order such misfortune
And not create concord?

If the creator of the world entire
They call God, of every being be the Lord
Why prevail deceit, lies and ignorance
And he such inequity and injustice create?

If the creator of the world entire
They call God, of every being be the Lord
Then an evil master is he, (O Aritta)
Knowing what's right did let wrong prevail!

The first one is Dissatisfactoriness or dukkha — that all conditioned, created things are off-the-mark and ultimately dissatisfying. The second truth is the cause of this dukkha: Clinging to those dissatisfying things, investing in that fool’s gold, greed for those illusory, fleeting, impermanent things. The cause of that suffering is attachment, greed, clinging, thirst, fixation, craving — in Pali, tanha. Identifying with things as me and mine.

the Third Truth: Nirvana. Ahh! Enough of all this suffering already, let’s get onto Nirvana. We’ve been running for so many miles, when are we going to get there? Nirvana, the Third Noble Truth, the end of suffering. First there is the fact we all face of dissatisfaction; then its cause, attachment; then the end of suffering, the fact that suffering does have an end, dissatisfaction does have an end — that the fire of craving and clinging, the roiling ocean of the passions of conflicting emotions, does have an end. The end is in Nirvana, the cessation of craving and clinging, the great peace, everlasting fulfillment, enlightenment itself.

The cause of our gnawing dissatisfaction and anxiety is incessant greed and demandingness, which generates the friction that irritates us so much. Although Buddhism has filled up many, many shelves with books and teachings, according to the Buddha himself it all comes down to the fact of our dissatisfaction with things, the cause of it, and the end of it — which means the real relinquishment or burning out of the fire of craving, the irritating friction of wanting, of clinging, of holding on to that which cannot be held for long. For everything changes, nothing remains. And only contentment is true wealth.
New Dharma Talks - How To Do A Meditation Retreat

Think all those little cameras are for traffic control?