Someone once asked Helen Keller “What could be worse than being Blind?” Her response was “Having no vision!”

The old adage contains at least some truth: “There are none so blind than those who will not see”.

Hakuin Zenji (1689-1769) the Buddhist Zen Master of the Rinzai School, (who is credited with saving Zen) asks a question: “What is true Meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong into one single Koan.”

                                           ~Prayer…Is Not The Words

“Dao” is the / a word Taoists use for the concept of Prayer. I believe that Prayer is essential in / to our lives in general, not only when situations manifest , and that is regardless of what Tradition one follows.

One interesting point that arises when dealing with Asian beliefs (as Asian beliefs tend not to be Deistically based.) is “to whom do you Pray ?” Prayer is many things to many people; a state of Communion, an act of Meditation, a feeling of connectedness, and an act of reflection…as it is an inquiry into some deep part of yourself.

Those who follow the Judeo / Christian Path feel that Prayer is conversing with God (The Creative and Sustaining Power of the Universe).

                              Thoughts of the Everyday-ness of Life ~

“Hey Fred…I have a question…a problem really : “How do I clean my heart and mind of toxic thoughts and feelings ?”

Well my friend, personally I oft-times simply recite the myriad names for / of God, ("The Creative and Sustaining Power of the Universe" from the various Traditions) and that helps fill me.

The name “God” I believe carries an energetic vibration that clears and heals and energizes…

However, the Practice I employ to cleanse my self daily of toxicity goes something like this :

Well first, let me share something…

Oh, well... For those of you who don't know Meister Eckhart, he was a Christian Mystic,  (1260-1328) a Pontifix (bridge-builder) himself, with quotes that have become points of contact between other traditions, such as:" The Eye with which I see God is the same Eye with which God sees me."

I've been thinking...and I read alot, and sometimes I find myself in the "slough of dispond," as Paul Bunyan would say... Some days are so bleak for me, that I actually find myself thinking, "today, I lost ground"...