Women, Tools, and Heated Floors!

Ingrid Weir

Selfish Reasons to Exercise Compassion

So, he was telling me about the writings of the Dalai Lama, which made me want to learn more about it.  I've known a little about the Buddhist religion and have agreed with most of the teachings, but I had never really delved into all of it as I do with everything else.

This little excerpt really spoke to me. 

Friends and enemies

I must emphasize again that merely thinking that compassion and reason and patience are good will not be enough to develop them.  We must wait for difficulties to arise and then attempt to practice them.

And who creates such opportunities?  Not our friends, of course, but our enemies.  They are the ones who give us the most trouble, so if we truly wish to learn, we should consider enemies to be our best teacher!

For a person who cherishes compassion and love, the practice of tolerance is essential, and for that, an enemy is indispensable.  So we should feel grateful to our enemies, for it is they who can best help us develop a tranquil mind!  Also, it is often the case in both personal and public life, that with a change in circumstances, enemies become friends.

So anger and hatred are always harmful, and unless we train our minds and work to reduce their negative force, they will continue to disturb us and disrupt our attempts to develop a calm mind.  Anger and hatred are our real enemies.  These are the forces we most need to confront and defeat, not the temporary "enemies" who appear intermittently throughout life.

Of course, it is natural and right that we all want friends.  I often joke that if you really want to be selfish, you should be very altruistic!  You should take good care of others, be concerned for their welfare, help them, serve them, make more friends, make more smiles, the result?  When you yourself need help, you find plenty of helpers!  If, on the other hand, you neglect the happiness of others, in the long term you will be the loser.  And is friendship produced through quarrels and anger, jealousy and intense competitiveness?  I do not think so.  Only affection brings us genuine close friends.

In today's materialistic society, if you have money and power, you seem to have many friends.  But they are not friends of yours; they are the friends of your money and power.  When you lose your wealth and influence, you will find it very difficult to track these people down.

The trouble is that when things in the world go well for us, we become confident that we can manage by ourselves and feel we do not need friends, but as our status and health decline, we quickly realize how wrong we were.  That is the moment when we learn who is really helpful and who is completely useless.  So to prepare for that moment, to make genuine friends who will help us when the need arises, we ourselves must cultivate altruism!

Though sometimes people laugh when I say it, I myself always want more friends.  I love smiles.  Because of this, I have the problem of knowing how to make more friends and how to get more smiles, in particular, genuine smiles.  For there are many kinds of smile, such as sarcastic, artificial or diplomatic smiles.  Many smiles produce no feeling of satisfaction, and sometimes they can even create suspicion or fear, can't they?  But a genuine smile really gives us a feeling of freshness and is, I believe, unique to human beings.  If these are the smiles we want, then we ourselves must create the reasons for them to appear.

You can find more about ‘Compassion and the Individual' at:  http://www.dalailama.com/page.166.htm

Even though I, myself, am a practicing Christian, I understand Mahatma Gandhi's stance, "I love your Christ.  It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."  It seems, though, that both religions are quite similar in that they both preach respect for one another, unconditional love, and compassion among other qualities revolving around kindness and love. 

It seems we could all use a genuine smile a day… perhaps we should start out by giving one, and pretty soon, maybe we all will begin to receive.

Women in Construction: Managing Tools and the Glass Ceiling

Buy, You Fools, Buy! – The Economy will be Fine When We Decide It Is

REAL ESTATE

I know, the real estate market is just awful, right?  Well, the funny thing is that here in Georgia, it took several years before everyone started to finally listen to the media and stop buying, selling, and building houses… even with a high foreclosure rate.  People still built houses, bought them, and sold them for some reason through it all.

GAS PRICES

Now, I know we have the gas crisis, which is just insane that no one stood up and stopped it before it came to this.  It's  funny, though, how as soon as someone starts to "speculate" that gas prices are going to rise, they suddenly do!  Hmm… this is interesting… let's see, is there ANY other market where they are that accurate that often?  I haven't found one yet, but if you have one, let me know.  Otherwise, it would seem that as soon as someone says something is going to happen, "they" decide it should go ahead. 

JOB MARKET & THE BOTTOM LINE

Now, the job market is directly related to sales, revenue, profitability, etc.  So, I know, sales are down lately for almost everyone but Exxon, of course.  I understand that it is difficult for employers to continue to pay for employees when the money isn't coming in, and the bottom line is shrinking…  I know that the rising cost of health insurance is eating away at you.  If you choose not to provide health insurance to your employees, you risk losing in the long run because your employees might become sick or injured and not be able to seek care.

HEALTH CARE, TAXES, & UNEMPLOYMENT

However, if we do not ride out this rough patch, we will continue on a downward spiral.  People without jobs cannot buy things because they have no money.  They become depressed, which results in increased accidental injuries and failing health.  This puts more drain on our families and social relationships, our healthcare systems, Medicaid, unemployment, and even taxes because the ones fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work are paying for it all with their taxes. 

CHILDREN

This continues to trickle down to the children, who grow up seeing this and suffer as a result in more ways than I care to think about at this time.  Their health suffers, they receive less of an education, neglect and abuse arise because the parents take out their frustrations on the children… and then, of course, the children are robbed of the opportunities that they so richly deserve.

THE PLAN

So, what can we do about this?  Stick this out, stop being negative, and enjoy what we have.  The American economy has never gone through anything that has completely destroyed it forever.  The key?  Stop listening to everyone telling you how it is, and what?!  Buy, you fools, buy! 

REMEMBER

America is still the land of opportunity.  We may get knocked down, but we ALWAYS get back up again!

• Previous Posts:

• Selfish Reasons to Exercise Compassion
• Women in Construction: Managing Tools and the Glass Ceiling
• Buy, You Fools, Buy! – The Economy will be Fine When We Decide It Is
• 5 Steps to Increase Your Home Value
• Dryer not Drying? Try This!
• Do You Feel Like a Man When You Push Her Around?
• Under Carpet Heating in the Nursery and Daycare Centers
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