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Lick Your Fingers, Wipe Your Face & Smile
for the Camera

August 07, 2007

susan_preston_mantis5.jpg

Lick Your Fingers ~ Canon 30d

The essence of [Buddhist] practice is always the same: instead of falling prey to a chain reaction of revenge or self-hatred, we gradually learn to catch the emotional reaction & drop the story lines.
~ Pema Chodron

susan_preston_mantiswash.jpg

Wipe Your Face ~ Canon 30d

History shows that there is nothing so easy to enslave and nothing so hard to emancipate as ignorance, hence it becomes the double enemy of civilization. By its servility it is the prey of tyranny, and by its credulity it is the foe of enlightenment.
~ Lemuel K. Washburn


susan_preston_mantissmile.jpg

Smile for the Camera ~ Canon 30d

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.
~ Thomas Jefferson

Ignorance, revenge & self-hatred ~ these are the foes of enlightenment. If one wishes to become enlightened, practice a powerful antidote ~ unconditional friendliness toward others and self.


Posted by vincent at August 7, 2007 04:02 PM

Comments

What wonderful quotes, Susan. And just what was Mr. Mantis eating????

You MUST read THREE CUPS OF TEA by Mortenson. I will send it to you as soon is Chuck reads it and my book club discusses it. It is about a young mountain climber who begins building schools for girls in small, poor towns in northern Pakistan. You will so enjoy his struggle to complete such an altruistic task.

Posted by: janet at August 7, 2007 05:32 PM

K, will do!

Posted by: susan at August 7, 2007 05:38 PM

This is life in the raw. No judgments and no excuses. The Mantis makes no escuses for its nature. No guilt. We humans, make escuses and try to justify our actions because of guilt. We have greed, hate, shame, lust, judgment, and we top this off with the cherry of ignorace, so we can sleep a happy life in oppulence, when deep inside these things create inner conflict as ghost that emerge in many different ways.

Sorry, I don't mean to steal your thunder. As you can see I have lots of thoughts on these things. I guess it would suffice it to say that your posts resonate with me deeply.

Posted by: Bob at August 8, 2007 10:12 AM

Thunder-stealing is completely allowed, especially when it's this ON TARGET ~ thunder ahead, Bob... thunder ahead!

Posted by: susan at August 8, 2007 10:22 AM