Powering Choice

08/27/2024

Thank you to those who have donated. We're nearly at $1k already in 2 weeks. Once we've reached the full $25k, Kaleke kasome foundation will be able to purchase the building that serves as their home and center. They will have a true, physical foundation they can transform without the monthly threat of losing the one space that serves so many minds and hearts.

If you haven't donated already, please pitch in. If you haven't shared already, please do! Repost far and wide:

The purpose of this campaign is to raise money to allow Kaleke Kasom… Christopher Garrett needs your support for Help Kaleke Kasome Foundation Secure Its Home

08/11/2021

What is "dharma"? It means "the way things are." Buddha described the way things are in relation to the human experience with suffering.

To understand, Buddha describes what are called the "Four Noble Truths" which includes the "Noble Eightfold Path."

In a nutshell:
1. Suffering exists,
2. There is a cause,
3. There is a means to cease it, and
4. The means to cease it is the eightfold path.

The eightfold path may have eight areas of application, but two of them are the most important for developing continuous understanding and insight: right view and right mindfulness.
Right view is a reference to the four noble truths (so it circularly references the eightfold path) and right mindfulness is a commitment to making mindfulness a priority rather than a thing one practices sometimes. With the two of these, the other six elements of the eightfold path reveal themselves.

The core of the cause of suffering, referenced by the second noble truth, is clinging and craving in a realm marked by impermanence. All things in our universe are subject to change and all that lives will break down over time, transition into other forms, or pass away completely. Right view asks us to see this truth. Right mindfulness asks us to study ourselves, our clinging, and our craving, so we may understand this truth from personal experience and free ourselves from it.

08/11/2021

Attachment to things, people, outcomes, and the ways to achieve outcomes is at the root of suffering. Freedom from attachment does not mean becoming a hermit who owns nothing. It means bringing awareness to attachment itself and releasing oneself from thinking what one is attached to defines them. And then, it means bringing awareness to one's attachment to self and releasing one's definitions of what this being is or should be.

03/21/2021

Healing Journey

Life happens and the mind fashions a story. The story becomes the definition of the self. Bounded. Specific. A certain way.

Look deeply into the story to understand how the self came to be what it is. Love, as compassion, will wrap itself around the story, the self who was, and the self who is. The old patterns of the mind wrapped in the story ebb and flow. Ego struggles. The self who knows the story begins to see the self beyond the story. Each encounter now is seen differently than it ever was before. Integration.

Light shines through old holes and cracks. Subtle paths become clear.

Releasing. Surrender.

This moment. This breath. Right here. Right now.

03/21/2021

Love and joy may arise on their own, but they are also a choice--something to be practiced.

Remind yourself, each morning you wake up, especially when it's a bad hair day, that you choose love and joy.

02/17/2021

“The present moment is the substance with which the future is made. Therefore, the best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment. What else can you do?” -- Thich Nhat Hanh

02/16/2021

It is when slowing down and *not* doing that you can begin to see the finer details of yourself. These are the details that matter because they define the outlines of your life.

If you slow down enough to feel your heart beating by just bringing your mind's awareness to it, that's a good starting point.

01/30/2021

The more that is released, the more one knows peace. But letting go is a process. It requires depth.

To simply rip a w**d from the ground by swiftly grabbing its exposed body will leave its roots still in tact.

01/26/2021

Your emotions and feelings may hurt. But they are not weakness.

Your thoughts may be negative. But their truth is not in the words or images. Their truth is in their roots. Their roots are in your feelings.

Spend time with the roots and they will tell you what they need.

01/26/2021

Let happiness be redefined as grace with change.

All in life is subject to change. If you were born, you will die. What has been built will whither. Even history and memory are malleable.

01/26/2021

If you do not determine success by how whole you feel, let some of your definition for success be redefined.

Money-rich or money-poor, all are susceptible to an impoverished mind. The impoverished mind is stuffed with information, yet it does not see itself well. It is convinced success is to be defined by information, how it is seen by other people, how much money it thinks it has, and what it has accomplished. The impoverished mind is disconnected from its body; it is blinded by its own stories; happiness becomes a thing to chase; and depression is nothing more than a thing to be solved or medicated.

This is not a religious page, but this quote from Romans is worth sharing:

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2