The Key to Eradicating Your Fears --by Jinny Ditzler

2011 is a tough year, with palpable stress and fear in the air; recovery expectations dashed; bad news, night after night; and human suffering reaching new depths in Japan and the Middle East. All of this is occurring in an environment of chaos and ever-increasing distractions. New challenges, problems and tasks being added daily to lists already impossibly long.

It may be shocking to read words like these coming from Mrs. Best Year Yet, but these realities have affected all of us, including me. And sometimes it felt like it has affected me especially. Here I am, working in the business 24/7, way past retirement age, and the stress of years of working this hard finally erupted this year in scary pain and health issues -- for both Tim and me. We have had our home on the market for two and a half years, having long since said goodbye to that nest egg strategy, while we've struggled through months of low sales, waiting for our new Best Year Yet online software to take off. Will we ever be able to stop?

I don't ever remember having a fear that took the breath out of me and sometimes brought clutching chest pains. Then last November I broke my foot, leaving the emergency room on crutches!

In the midst of all this, I couldn't find my way, and nothing seemed to work. I was lost in the pit of self-pity and didn't even know it. I've always believed in miracles, but the well was dry.

Then one day I overheard my lifelong friend Sally talking about a conversation she'd recently had with friends. Someone had asked the question, "What's the source of miracles?" A deep discussion followed and they reached a profound conclusion. The source of miracles is gratitude.

Your Mind Is a Great Thing to Lose --by Ed and Deb Shapiro

Ed and Deb ShapiroSpiritual teachers;
award-winning authors,
'Be the Change'; columnists, Oprah.com

There are billions of people on our planet, and yet, amazingly, each one of us has a completely different mind with exclusive thoughts, feelings, likes and dislikes. One may desire to be an astronaut and walk on the moon, another a caregiver helping the elderly, another gets lost in the world of delusion or depression.

This mind is able to grasp the most complicated technical theories or create beautiful works of art, yet it can just as easily be distracted by meaningless trivia or get painfully addicted to heroin. Have you ever wondered about your own mind? How it can move so quickly from feeling good to despair, from clarity to utter confusion, and all in just a moment?

Quotes from Thich Nhat Hanh

I awoke this morning with these particular quotes from Thay on my mind.  I invite you to meditate upon them.  May all beings be happy, May all beings be peaceful, May all beings be free from suffering.  --COF Administration

"If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation-our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations?"

The Next Buddha: "The next Buddha will not take the form of an individual. The next Buddha may take the form of a community; a community practicing understanding and loving kindness, a community practicing mindful living. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the Earth."

"The present moment is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all moments."

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Spring Trust --by Gary Zukav



Photograph by Bryan Touchstone Photography

In the northern hemisphere, where I live, it is spring. Blossoms are blooming on the fruit trees and leaves are budding. Everyone is relieved that the winter is over at last. Why speak of trust when everything is becoming fresh anew, vibrant, and wondrous?

It is not only things going wrong that frighten us. It is also our lives going profoundly right. It is clarity piercing the armor of encrusted prejudices about others and ourselves. It is new vitality sweeping away the stagnation of lethargy. It is deep roots, long buried beneath the surface, sending up sprouts to at last burst uncontrolled into sunlight.

That sunlight is your consciousness. The birth of new life is as challenging as it is exhilarating, as frightening as it is liberating. Are you prepared to leave old fears, angers, and judgments behind? Are you willing to see yourself as endlessly creative, and responsible for what you create?

From Ode Magazine - People, Passion, Possibilities: A Letter from Sendai

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

It's utterly amazingly that where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."

Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.

COF Recipe for Challenging Economic Times: Affordable, Healthy "Non-Percussive" Beans & Rice! --by Tanya Touchstone

When I was a little girl growing up in SE Texas, my father worked at an oil refinery. Oil refinery workers belonged to Unions, and sometimes there were strikes, meaning no money came into the house for long periods of time. I learned at a young age the beauty of a dried bean and a pot of rice, and how to stretch the grocery dollar with what we called "Strike Menus." This experience prepared me well for lean times that occasionally came in adulthood. Given the state of the economy, COF is sharing with you a wonderful recipe from my childhood that can be used with any type of dried bean.  Delicious and healthy! If you do it right, a pot of beans with rice as a side item, a pan of corn bread .. a week's worth of food for a family totaling about $5! Enjoy ---and save! --COF Administration

"Non-Percussive" Beans with Rice

To take the "percussion" out of a pot of beans, you must start the soaking process the night before. Find a large bowl and fill it with water. Empty a bag of beans in the bowl of water, adding 1/2 tablespoon of baking soda. Stir the baking soda in, cover the beans with a dish towel, and do what you do until tomorrow. Be sure not to use salt in the soaking process. About 16 hours later, a lot of the "percussive" ingredients will have dissolved! Now drain and then rinse the beans 3 times.

Recipe (Any Type Beans)

½ T Baking Soda (for soaking process)
1     Bag of any type of bean

A Letter to the Little Sisters of the World - What Are You Worth? --by Tanya Touchstone

My Dear Little Sisters of the World,

The other evening I was celebrating with two dear friends my three year victory over cancer. To me, as I gazed across the table at them, they were two of the loveliest women I'd ever seen, for they had offered me care when I was too weak or sick to function. We took photos to commemorate the event, and as we looked at the photos we'd just taken, I was dismayed to hear them severely criticize their appearance. They were very upset with different features and talked horribly about themselves, to which I responded, "Please don't talk that way about my friends." On the way home, this occurrence of severe self-criticism caused me to have the following thoughts for my little sisters of the world.

Little Sisters,

If your lips are too large,
It is only because you have been given the capacity to offer large messages of hope.

If you have more than one chin,
It is only because your mouth needs the extra support for the care your speech will offer others.

If your hair is gray and thinning,
It is only because you have worried over others when offering them your care.

If your body is too large,
It is only because you have been given the capacity to hold others up when they have fallen down.

If your body or stature is too small,
It is only because you have been given the size to get into the small places of others where hurt resides.

If your hands are too large,
It is only because you have been given the capacity to offer a tender touch to a sick child.

If your hips are too large,
It is because they have the capacity to bring forth the generations.

If your body is sick or mangled,
It is only because you have been given the opportunity to inspire through self- acceptance.

Little Sisters,
Do you know what you are worth?
Do you know that what you have been given is there to be used for others?
Do you know that you are uniquely beautiful in every way imaginable?

When people look back upon their lives and remember the people who were special to them,
They do not remember dress size, extra chins, or size of body.

No, Little Sisters.
When people look back over their lives,
The only thing they remember is the care you offered, the joy you gave.

Know the worth of what you have been given, and celebrate all that you are.
Everything you have is for a purpose.

The only feature people will remember
Is the size and beauty of your heart.

With love,
A woman who has received all these things, and more from every size and shape imaginable.

Tanya Touchstone, A Circle of Friends Facilitator
© 2011

Thich Nhat Hanh: Message to Friends in Japan --by Thich Nhat Hanh

Dear friends in Japan,

As we contemplate the great number of people who have died in this tragedy, we may feel very strongly that we ourselves, in some part or manner, also have died.

The pain of one part of humankind is the pain of the whole of humankind. And the human species and the planet Earth are one body. What happens to one part of the body happens to the whole body.

An event such as this reminds us of the impermanent nature of our lives. It helps us remember that what's most important is to love each other, to be there for each other, and to treasure each moment we have that we are alive. This is the best that we can do for those who have died: we can live in such a way that they continue, beautifully, in us.

Here in France and at our practice centers all over the world, our brothers and sisters will continue to chant for you, sending you the energy of peace, healing and protection.

Our prayers are with you.

A Perspective on [Pema Chodron's] 'When Things Fall Apart' --by Nancy Colasurdo

Author Pema Chodron has been on my radar for a while, but you know how it is when life keeps moving and you mean to get to something.

Well, I got to Chodron this week, or perhaps more accurately, this wise American Buddhist nun got to me. I have read just three essays – a total of 17 pages – in her book When Things Fall Apart and already my perspective has widened on the personal, the political, the global. It is exquisitely written.

While its subtitle, “Heart Advice for Difficult Times,” suggests a personal message, it is impossible while reading it not to think of what is happening in Egypt or apply its wisdom to almost any significant movement where people are pushing through what is troubling or oppressive.

“When things fall apart and we’re on the verge of we know not what, the test for each of us is to stay on that brink and not concretize,” Chodron writes.

Is this not simultaneously more difficult and much easier when applied to a collective? People joined in a passionate cause can lean on one another, encourage and lift one another. An individual striving to “not concretize” has only to focus one mind and heart, but is not part of that larger energy force. Keeping the collective focused, on either side, is what brings about real change in communities and nations.

Dalai Lama Will Give Up Political Role In Tibetan Government-In-Exile

03/ 9/11 11:46 PM  

DHARMSALA, India -- The Dalai Lama says he will give up his political role in Tibet's government-in-exile, shifting that power to an elected representative.

The Tibetan spiritual leader has long said he wanted the elected government-in-exile based in this Indian hill town to have more power.

He says in a Thursday speech he would soon be proposing amendments to the exile constitution "reflecting my decision to devolve my formal authority to the elected leader."

Tanafos (Breathe)

From COF Administration:  This is an offering from Soheila.  As a point of interest, Sleeping Prophet Edgar Cayce also endorsed this method.

The nose has a left and a right side; we use both to inhale and exhale. Actually they are different; you would be able to feel the difference. The right side represents the sun, left side represents the moon. During a headache, try to close your right nose and use your left nose to breathe. In about 5 mins, your headache will go. 

If you feel tired, just reverse, close your left nose and breathe through your right nose.  After a while, you will feel your mind is refreshed. 

Right side belongs to 'hot', so it gets heated up easily, left side belongs to 'cold'.  Most females breathe with their left noses, so they get "cooled off" faster.  Most of the guys breathe with their right noses, they get worked up. Do you notice the moment we wake up, which side breathes faster? Left or right?  If left is faster, you will feel tired.  So, close your left nose and use your right nose for breathing, you will get refreshed quickly.

Dr. Dyer's Television Special, Excuses Begone! Airs This Month

Excuses Begone!
Don't miss Dr. Dyer's Public Television special!

Check your local listings to find out what times Wayne's extraordinary public television special will be broadcast in your area and get ready to say, "Excuses Begone!"

Learn how to change the self-defeating thinking patterns that have prevented you from living at the highest levels of success, happiness, and health by saying Begone—to all your excuses! You'll ultimately realize that there are no excuses worth defending, ever, even if they've always been a part of your life—and the joy of releasing them will permeate to your very core and you'll awaken to the life of your dreams.

Move out of established thought patterns and realize that there is nothing standing in your way of living at your highest levels. Find out how with Excuses Begone!

The Path to Buddhist Enlightenment: Sometimes Assertion, Sometimes Surrender --by Jay Michaelson

Anyone who's been in the spiritual world long enough knows that just about everything can be packaged as the latest, greatest way to get enlightened. Surrender everything, "manifest" everything, celebrate the body, abandon the body -- you name it, and both it and its opposite are the one sure-fire way to spiritual success.

That's why I love a pair of enlightenment stories in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition, which illustrate how what is needed for liberation is unique to each individual. The stories are of the Buddha himself, and his longtime aide and disciple, Ananda.

In the classic story of the Buddha's enlightenment, he sits under the Bodhi tree and resolves not to get up until he is fully liberated from suffering. Over the watches of a single night, he recalls all his past lives, goes through a series of trials and finally is besieged by Mara, the embodiment of all obstacles seekers face along the spiritual path. Mara, in a role similar to that of Satan in the story of Christ, tempts the Buddha with wealth, sensual pleasures and so on. Mara tries to terrify him. And finally, when all these and other tactics have failed, Mara assails the Buddha with his ultimate weapon: doubt.

Happy 400th, King James Bible! -- by Jon M. Sweeney

You may have heard that 2011 marks the 400th anniversary since the original publication of the King James Bible. So what? The KJV (King James Version) is not simply a Bible, it is the Bible that has influenced the English-speaking world more than any other.

There are, however, several popular, mistaken notions about this book. First of all, it was not the first English translation of the Bible. Several came before it, including a famous one by a guy named Wycliffe and another by a man who was burnt at the stake for translating the Bible into the vernacular, Tyndale.

Second, King James did none of the work. He appointed someone who then assembled a series of translation committees made up of scholars and poets who did the work.