February 2016 - Emptiness Mind

So it’s Friday today and of course one needs to find food to eat. How to do that properly? If one considers carefully, food should be consumed and understood via only honest, articulate and ethical methods.

Beginning the day with a wisdom state of mind, a bodhicitta motivation, one should aspire to and engage as follows. May I attain the state of Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings. I’ll get to why compassion is the means to that end later.

Firstly, the ABC of Buddhist thought and action is how to perform and artistically engage in mindfulness, alertness and introspection for the purposes of creating actions of body, speech and mind that are beneficial and useful to oneself and others. Don’t just mindlessly roll out of bed in a bad mood, selfishly thinking life is just a basketcase and all too hard. Life maybe not much if you don’t understand Buddhist logic, but these days we have little excuse because the Tibetan Buddhist Dharma is being spread throughout the world.

OK, so I am a valid teacher, but how to prove that? Well use your common sense and look at my long list of qualifications.

The day usually starts off with and continues with action right? Action must be designed carefully, with a positive understanding of the nature of reality, the empty nature of reality. Really how lucky are we to be able to acquire and happily drink an organic Ceylon Tea, with full cream organic milk? No, further back. I started the day with a nescafe coffee, with raw sugar and beautiful runny cream, in a lovely handcrafted cup. These essentials for the body and mind are indicative of the great kindness of others, of skill and method and wisdom. So it’s very important to always live with an attitude that is gracious and appreciative of how difficult it is to gain or organize these things. Really, Ceylon isn’t next door.

I’m not saying you need to consume a great deal to be happy, to find happiness, but you do need to act with care, with a caring mind, with a mind intent on the benefit of oneself and others. Firstly, aim not to harm oneself and others, and then if you can with great wisdom create actions that benefit the community as a whole.

Life at the Foodcourt.

Not much these days is said about the nice Indian food retailer at Chadstone Shopping Centre. I arrived at the foodcourt a little after 12pm and most of the tables were already occupied. I ordered two curries, a lamb korma and a beef curry to go with dhal and rice and a bottle of water. It’s good value and the meat is not really tough.

What stinks is the form of humans that surrounds the place. Really the human form is regarded to be filthy. You are supposed to overcome it’s dysfunction by aspiring to and engaging in the deeds of bodhisattvas to create the causes to achieve the profundity of the fully enlightened body, speech and mind of a Buddha.

I like to try to eat in quiet, just mindfully taking one bite of food at a time and trying to chew it carefully so as not to cause digestive problems. Anyway, without taking with you in your mind everywhere you go the attitudes of mindfulness, alertness and introspection, conscientiously applying these to your deeds, you simply won’t have a very good time.

Instead of walking with aggression, impatiently pushing past others or into others with anger and hostility, try taking life at a slower, more meaningful pace. Don’t be a jerk, thinking you are more important than others, because the simple answer to that is that we are all in need of being relevant, by being positive and caring of the beings within our environment, with whom we share this realm.

Post One

14 February 2016

How to Organize the Pantry – Part One

When looking at the kitchen and how to organize it according to Arya Sangha rules, you should start with a good clean of the pantry. You need to dust out the pantry for cobwebs, then spray each shelf with something like Ajax or some antibacterial cleaning spray, and wipe down the shelves and cupboards thoroughly. This should be done hopefully at least twice a year.

According to Arya Sangha rules, it is always best to function and operate the kitchen according to the following advice. Keep it fresh.

It’s not a good idea to overstock the pantry. Rather, when looking to stock a good pantry, only keep the bear essentials and look at buying fresh ingredients according to the recipes we provide you with on a daily basis. Don’t say you don’t have time. If you aspire to become a fully enlightened being, you need to understand just how important a healthy diet is to grow, flourish and maintain a healthy body, speech and mind system of wealth.

So having cleaned the pantry, lets take a look at how to stock it well.

Firstly, what do you like to drink to stay calm. Let’s discuss tea and coffee.

I recommend stocking a variety of tea. Look at buying some Ceylon Loose Leaf Tea, like that grown by Nature’s Cuppa, Twinnings, or Dilmah. Then some English Breakfast tea bags or Ceylon tea teabags. Natures Cuppa has a lovely organic variety. I recommend some Peppermint Tea from T2, a packet of Green Tea and even some Ginger Tea (all loose leaf). So you need a proper tea strainer holder to brew a teaspoon of loose leaf tea in a cup. You can buy these from places like Oriental Tea House in Melbourne.

There, so that’s tea, now what about coffee. These days people think of two places to go to for coffee in particular. Obviously Nescafe is good, because it’s not too strong, but you should just buy the smallest jar and use it just when it’s fresh. Don’t buy too much, because it goes stale.

Then if you have a Nespresso coffee machine, you could stock some Nespresso coffee capsules and have them for a nice treat.

My advice on cleaning

OK, so this is what really pisses me off. I’m not being aggressive, so don’t go acting bananas yourself, but have you checked out how truly retarded cleaning companies have become these days?

Let me tell you a story. I employ a cleaner to come over. I ask them to start cleaning out the pantry and I explain about everything that needs to be cleaned throughout the house. Then I give the cleaner two new sponges and cleaning materials to start the cleaning. The next thing I know she is asking if she can first start cleaning the bathroom before the kitchen. Look everyone. You all need a fucking wake up call. This is what is wrong with that.

Point One. Hygiene.

How do you clean a house? Does no-one know yet how to clean a house?

Firstly, if you have to clean shelves, benches, floors, toilets, bathroom basins etc, you don’t mix up the sponges or wiping products. A sponge used to clean the shelves, benches, you don’t use on the floor. And what the fuck do you think you clean the toilet with? Not a sponge or product you are going to use anywhere else.

So my advice, why not spray down the toilet and then use toilet paper that you then flush down the toilet after you finish wiping down the toilet. I don’t need cleaners to mix up the sponges and use bathroom or toilet cleaners in the kitchen, living room or anywhere else.

What do office cleaners do? Well, they come in at night and clean the office toilets. Don’t tell me they then use those sponges or superwipes to then clean out the office kitchen or office desks. How disgusting.

Can Australia and it’s cleaning services please get this one right and not continue spreading disease everywhere?

This Community Service Announcement is brought to you by someone trained in monastic discipline. Monastic discipline, the vinaya actually has a point to it. Let’s not die of poisoning in the simple task of trying to get the house or office cleaned.

As this advice is given free of charge, in the interests of understanding community health and safety, why not stop paying huge dollars for useless information found in Vogue Magazine that doesn’t ordinarily provide for advice on how to dress in a way that is not infuriating to mens desire.

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