A Few of My Favorite Things

Over the last few weeks I've been selling off most of my possessions. This is the second time in the last six months that this urge has struck. The first time I was considering moving out of state and I didn't want to move a lot of furniture and other miscellaneous stuff. When I moved to Florida early in 2007 I hired movers and filled my car to the brim. And yet, after I got resettled, I sold nearly everything I had brought from Chicago. Why did I believe I needed those things? What is the attachment people have to material things? Don't get me wrong, I'm no ascetic, nor some modern day traveling gypsy, though I sometimes fantasize about that kind of life. When I'm in friends' homes or seeing some show on HGTV or browsing a magazine, I do find myself imagining what it would be like to have the home of my dreams.

It's very spacious, older, probably built in the 1920s or earlier. It has wood floors throughout and wide porcelain sinks. The bath has a claw foot tub. The kitchen has natural wood cabinets. The windows are all very tall to accommodate the high ceilings. There are about four bedrooms and separate living and dining rooms. I'm not into the modern open floor plan so popular today. I like separate rooms, each with its own character. And fireplaces, lots of fireplaces but probably no central air. It would have a large yard, big enough to have both gardening and leisure spaces. There would be lots of rugs strewn in every room but not so much that the wood floors aren't seen. And the furnishings would be minimal. The basics. A comfy sofa and some sitting chairs in the living room. A good size dining table. Big comfy beds and dressers. A writing desk in the den. I dig dens. However, what is the attraction, the draw to a place like this?

I have found of late that the more I develop my spiritual life, the less the material world seems to matter. The home I imagine above may be a home I have lived in before. Perhaps it was a home I had a very good life in. While past lives are fascinating and can be helpful in understanding our motivations in our present lives, they are also in the past. In this life, my needs are simpler and I'm most happy with less stuff. I often get the desire to just go, whether out of town or farther. Having a home or an apartment anchors one to a place. There are responsibilities to homes for most of us that cannot be completely ignored. Also, I've always had a very independent spirit in this life and have, at times, suffered unnecessarily because I could not ask for help when it was really needed. It may be that my present circumstances are a way for the Universe to teach me to reach out to others. Family (not necessarily by blood), friends, teachers, guides, and community are important. No matter how accomplished anyone may be, they did not become accomplished all on there own. No one is an island. We now know that the human race, that all existence, is inexorably connected and everything has an effect on everything else. Even when we think we are most alone, we aren't. What I'm learning through all of this is that my favorite things are of the subtler planes. My spirit, compassion, empathy, intellect, intuition, and love are some of my favorite things. Although, I do still have some material things I treasure as well. I love my djembe and its ability to forge a spontaneous community whenever I encounter a drum circle. My laptop is an invaluable tool to keep me physically connected to the world. My car allows me to get to the places I both want and need to go to. And my friends keep me sane.

Universal Peace and Love Event

Last evening, the Brevard County Buddhist Fellowship celebrated its Universal Peace and Love Event at Unity of Melbourne in coordination with the 11 Days of Peace sponsored by We, the World. We were delighted to have both Buddhist and those of other faiths participate. After brief introductions from Tim, Michael, Matt, and Micah, we set our merit for peace in the world and in ourselves. Tim explained that if there is peace in ourselves, it would grow throughout the world. Next we chanted the Universal Love Prayer. Micah created an interactive dvd that projected the words to the love prayer and also the Om Mani Padme Hum that followed. The fellowship was able to provide both percussion instruments and bells to accompany the chanting and together we created a rythmic vibration of vocal and instrumental sounds that moved everyone who was there and went out into the Universe for the utmost good. The chanting and music continued for nearly 40 minutes carried along of its own accord. At times the chanting was more dominant and at other times the music became more pronounced. Both vibrations wove together synergistically to create an abundance of Universal Peace. At the close of the ceremony, the group stated the Love Prayer again for added emphasis and we enjoyed some social time with a vegetarian feast.

What Happens When We Die?

By M.J. STEPHEY Fri Sep 19, 4:05 AM ET

A fellow at New York's Weill Cornell Medical Center, Dr. Sam Parnia is one of the world's leading experts on the scientific study of death. Last week, Parnia and his colleagues at the Human Consciousness Project announced their first major undertaking: a 3-year exploration of the biology behind "out-of-body" experiences. The study, known as AWARE (AWAreness during REsuscitation), involves the collaboration of 25 major medical centers through Europe, Canada and the U.S., and will examine some 1,500 survivors of cardiac arrest. TIME spoke with Parnia about the project's origins, its skeptics, and the difference between the mind and the brain.

What methods will this project use to verify people's claims of "near-death" experience?

When your heart stops beating, there is no blood getting to your brain. And so what happens is that within about ten seconds, brain activity ceases - as you would imagine. Yet paradoxically, ten or 20 percent of people who are brought back to life from that period, which may be a few minutes or over an hour, will report having consciousness. So the key thing here is, are these real, or is it some sort of illusion? So the only way to tell is to have pictures only visible from the ceiling and nowhere else, because they claim they can see everything from the ceiling. So if we then get a series of 200 or 300 people who all were clinically dead, and yet they're able to come back and tell us what we were doing and were able see those pictures, that confirms consciousness really was continuing even though the brain wasn't functioning.

How is technology challenging this perception of death as a moment?

Nowadays, we have technology that's improved so that we can bring some [cardiac-arrest survivors] back to life. In fact, there are drugs being developed right now - who knows if they'll ever come out to the market - that may actually slow down the process of brain-cell injury and death. Imagine, you fast-forward ten years down the line and you've given a patient whose heart has just stopped this amazing drug, and actually what it does is it slows everything down so that the things that would've happened over an hour, now happen over two days. As medicine progresses, we will end up with lots and lots of ethical questions.

How does this project relate to society's perception of death?

People commonly perceive death as being a moment - you're either dead or you're alive. And that's a social definition we have. But the clinical definition we use is when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working, and as a consequence the brain itself stops working. When doctors shine a light into someone's pupil, it's to demonstrate that there is no reflex present. The eye reflex is mediated by the brain stem and that's the area that keeps us alive; if that doesn't work then that means that the brain itself isn't working. So at that point I'll call a nurse into the room so I can certify that this patient is dead. Fifty years ago, people couldn't survive after that.

But what is happening to the individual at that time, what's really going on? Because there is a lack of blood flow, the cells go into a kind of a frenzy to keep themselves alive. And within about 5 minutes or so they start to damage or change. After an hour or so the damage is so great that even if we restart the heart again and pump blood, the person can no longer be viable because the cells have just been changed too much. And then the cells continue to change so that within a couple of days the body actually decomposes. So it's not a moment, it's a process that actually begins when the heart stops and culminates in the complete loss of the body, the decompositions of all the cells. However, ultimately what matters is, What's going on to a person's mind? What happens to the human mind and consciousness during death? Does that cease immediately as soon as the heart stops? Does it cease activity within the first 2 seconds, the first 2 minutes? Because we know that cells are continuously changing at that time. Does it stop after ten minutes, after half an hour, after an hour? And at this point we don't know.

What was your first interview like with someone who had reported an out-of-body experience?

Eye opening and very humbling. Because what you see is that, first of all, they are completely genuine people who are not looking for any kind of fame or attention. In many cases they haven't even told anybody else about it because they're afraid of what people will think of them. I have about five hundred or so cases of people that I've interviewed since I first started out more than ten years ago. It's the consistency of the experiences, the reality of what they were describing. I managed to speak to doctors and nurses who had been present and said these patients told them exactly what had happened and they couldn't explain it. I actually documented a few of those in my book What Happens When We Die because I wanted people to get both angles - not just the patients' side but also get the doctors' side - and see how it feels for the doctors to have a patient come back and tell them what was going on. There was a cardiologist that I spoke with who said he hasn't told anyone else about it because he has no explanation for how this patient could have been able to describe in detail what he had said and done. He was so freaked out by it that he just decided not to think about it anymore.

Why do you think there is such resistance to studies like yours?

Because we're pushing through the boundaries of science, working against assumptions and perceptions that have been fixed. A lot of people hold this idea that well, when you die you die, that's it. Death is a moment, you know you're either dead or you're alive. All these things are not scientifically valid but they're social perceptions. If you look back at the end of the 19th century, physicists at that time had been working with Newtonian laws of motion and they really felt they had all the answers to everything that was out there in the universe. When we look at the world around us, Newtonian physics is perfectly sufficient. It explains most things that we deal with - except if you go to the really low level beyond the atoms.

But then it was discovered that actually when you look at motion at really small levels - beyond the level of the atoms - Newton's laws no longer apply. A new physics was needed, hence, we eventually ended up with quantum physics. It caused a lot of controversy, even Einstein himself didn't believe in it. Now, if you look at the mind, consciousness, and the brain, the assumption that the mind and brain are the same thing is fine for most circumstances, because in 99% of circumstances we can't separate the mind and brain, they work at the exactly the same time. But then there are certain extreme examples, like when he brain shuts down, that we see that that this assumption may no longer seem to hold true. So a new science is needed in the same way that we had to have a new quantum physics. The CERN particle accelerator may take us back to our roots. It may take us back to the first moments after the big bang, the very beginning. With our study, for the first time, we have the technology and the means to be able to investigate this. To see what happens at the end for us. Does something continue? View this article onTime.com

Copyright © 2008 Time Inc.,Yahoo! Inc., All rights reserved.

Chanting is a Powerful Practice

Chanting is a powerful tool that has been used for centuries in most of the world's religions. When one repeats sacred words in a meditative state, it releases a vibration that extends to the furthest reaches of the Universe. While chanting can be just as powerful when practiced by one person, the experience of chanting can be one hundred fold when practiced by groups. I have used chanting in many of the spiritual paths I have explored over the years and currently utilize several chants as a Shin Buddhist. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to lead a small group of interested people, some Buddhist, some of other faiths, in simultaneous chants for peace, compassion, and oneness with the Universe. We chanted Om Mani Padme Hum, Nembutsu, and Om at the same time. There were 2-3 people carrying each chant and the way the three chants reverberated about our space, off each other, and within was truly transformational. It was an experiment for me. I had never attempted to do simultaneous chants that were related but used completely different words. The way the vibrations began to blend was as if the three chants became one and also reminded me of the way the sounds of drums in a drum circle will become as one without any conscious effort from the participants. It's a wonderful example and experience of Universal Oneness.

The Buddha said that the mind is a creator; it paints reality like an artist paints a portrait. Your mind's portrait is the life you are leading right at this moment. Through the practice of the following Eightfold Daily Observances, and Practices you can transform your inner reality and “paint” a new life, full of liberation, peace and joy, thereby positively transforming your life and the world you live in. ...[T]he observance ends with the (chanting) of the Nembutsu - Namu-Amida-Butsu, as the living embodiment of the Oneness of reality (Buddha-nature) manifesting itself in our hearts and minds.

The vibration produced by chanting Om in the physical universe corresponds to the original vibration that first arose at the time of creation.

Om Mani Padme Hum

Give Peace a Chance

Beginning Thursday, September 11 you too can give peace a chance. Over the next week, Unity of Melbourne will be celebrating and actively promoting peace through We, the World's annual 11 Days of Peace event. Each day there will be events taking place at the church and other peace loving organizations around the world marking this period with meditations, rituals, music, and services with the aim of increasing peace in our world. So if you live in the Melbourne Florida area, then come on out and give peace a chance.

Shanti, Michael, and friend celebrate hippiness

End of the Line

One World, One People and one hippy me

Melbourne Peace March

I'm at it again. Well, the current administration is anyway. You may have heard the rumors and/or seen the evidence that the Bush administration is considering war with Iran to make them cease their nuclear ambitions no matter what they may be. I can't say that I'm surprised. Who would be after the events of the last eight years. I used to believe this administration simply enjoyed being at war and would sacrifice anything or anyone for oil. As it happens this assumption is essentially true but the reasons behind all this warmongering goes much deeper and is much more insidious than most people realize. However, whatever one believes as to the administration's motivation and whether one believes the U.S. should or should not enter yet another ambiguous war doesn't negate the reason(s) to march for peace. I don't know if others have noticed that during the twentieth century, and currently, war has become so prevalent that it is nearly a part of every day life. Unfortunately for the American public, it is also not much of a reality. It's always happening over there or somewhere else. This is unfortunate because even though the U.S. is the aggressor in many of the world's wars, they seem removed from our own existence while many parts of the world live in a constant state of chaos. It doesn't seem real to us. War is something we see on television or hear about on the radio or get glimpses of online. As is true with any reality, the people most affected are those who are directly effected. Soldiers and their families in the U.S. military and both civilians and their military wherever the war happens to be engaged are the people most effected. Is it worth it? Is it even just to expect any people to sacrifice themselves so that a government can have more power and money? Perhaps one would agree it is worth it provided they are on the "winning" side, but are there truly ever any winners in war? Is the loss of human life, on both sides, worth it? It isn't for me and that's why I actively take part in peace marches and other events that promote a peaceful existence. It's unacceptable to me that the U.S. (or any other) government would sacrifice its own people in pursuit of power and money (perhaps seen as the same). The world has become a place of divisions. We are constantly looking and striving for that which sets us apart from others.

I'm an American, you're not.
I'm white, you're not.
I'm educated, your not.
I'm rich, you're not.
I'm strong, you're weak.
I'll show you the way.

It's not about any label one can come up with that sets one apart from another. Life is about what brings us together. Many are familiar with the phrase "we are all connected" but wonder what does it really mean. Is it some New Age tag line or does it have any real world application? Obviously we are connected through the human race and this should be enough to end all wars however naive it may sound. But for those who need more, a lot more, take us down to the subatomic level and one can actually see how we are all connected. Our atoms interact with the atoms of those around us. The energy our bodies emit effects the energy fields of those around us. Our actions have reverberations that can be physically felt. If one introduces a parasite that is more virulent than its host, then the host dies. War is one such parasite and the human race is its host. The American people have been directly affected by previous wars. We are being affected by current wars. And we will one day have war on our own soil again if we do not do something to end the cycle. What can we do? It's so simple and yet so hard for people to do.

Simply realize the ultimate truth that we are all truly connected.
Realize that our actions affect ourselves as much as those they are directed upon.
Stop looking for ways to divide the people of the world and start seeing ways to unite us.
Each one of us has the power to change the world.
Are you ready? Let's change the world.

PEACE