I Shed A Tear.........

As a race, we have some growing up to do.
You said it there my friend...a LOT of growing up...we are up to it though...Peace Ya'll

Buddhism teaches that true happyness is found in self and all these material attatchments are worthless and serve to only create suffering. We're a sick society that looks outwards for happyness and constantly strive for material goods that only serve to mask or create the illusion of happyness. As soon as people are deprived of these material goods, their unhappyness in self shows. Like a crackhead deprived or rocks.

And don't worry either for fools who think not crying is a positive or masculine trait. It's a psychological disorder born of hatred or mental retardation. "None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear."

Don't worry either about changing the world and helping others at the expense of yourself. This idea that to change the world we must be selfless. Focus on changing yourself, and in that you'll help others. If everybody worked towards being happy with themselves we'd rid the world of most problems over night. I'll end with some quotes that inspire me.

"When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.
"But it, too, seemed immovable.
"As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
"And now, as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
"From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I may have even changed the world."

From the tombstone of an Anglican bishop in Westminster Abbey

There is a Vietnamese proverb, "Tri tuc, tien tuc, dai tuc, ha thoi tuc." That means, settling for "good enough" is enough. If we wait until all our needs and wants are met, we may wait forever. "Tri tuc" means "good enough." "Good enough" means being content with the minimum amount necessary. Your shirt and pair of shoes can last another year. It's all right for three or four people to share a desk for studying, there's no need for each to have her own desk. Settling for "good enough" in terms of simple living will bring us contentment, satisfaction, and happiness immediately.

As long as we think our lives are not good enough [materially], we will not have happiness. As soon as we realize our lives are good enough, happiness immediately appears. That is the practice of contentment.

In Vietnam there's a school of Buddhism called the Four Gratitudes. Just by practicing gratitude, we can find happiness. We must be grateful to our ancestors, our parents, our teachers, our friends, the Earth, the sky, the trees, the grass, the animals, the soil, the stones. Looking at the sunlight or at the forest, we feel gratitude. Looking at our breakfast, we feel grattitude. When we live in the spirit of gratitude, there will be much happiness in our life. The one who is grateful is the one who has much happiness while the one who is ungrateful will not be able to have happiness.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
~ Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

The tragedy of human history is decreasing happiness in the midst of increasing comforts.
Swami Chinmayananda

I believe that at every level of society the key to a happier world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities.

~ The 14th Dalai Lama

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us 'universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

~ Albert Einstein

To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places -- and there are so many -- where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
- Howard Zinn

I feel you bro, but emotion doesn't make any man less of a man, depends on how you use it. Sadness is bad but can be good for helping another, and happiness can come from the wrong reasons. This is the kind of stuff that hits home when you see it. I watched a documentary the other day on Japan and the after effects, devastating at the least. Soldiers finding pictures of families and children and they are still finding bodies underneath the mud and debris.

So very eloquent and wise . Any one of us at any time could be in a similar situation. It is time that people all over the world get their priorities strait and start thinking of the consequences of what they do. We rely too much on dangerous things that could end mankind as we know it.

reply to post by gary714

I'm glad to hear that others feel as I do. This world is going crazy, that's for sure.

Thanks for serving my friend!

reply to post by 90percent10less

I can't imagine the horrors these people are dealing with.

I heard a man on the radio today that said the best thing we can do for the people of Japan is to keep buying their damned TV's. Needless to say, his depth of compassion was easily accepted by the host. People amaze me sometimes.