"Buddha was a human being, like you or me. He never claimed divinity, he merely knew he had the buddha nature, the seed of enlightenment, and that everyone else did too. The buddha nature is simply the birthright of every sentient being, and I always say: "Our buddha nature is as good as any buddha's buddha nature." 

In preparation for the trip around Europe later this year, I have ordered some books online today. Got to love Amazon.ca where I was able to save almost 50% of the book cost (with an extra coupon for 10 bucks off). 

There is no business like show business and American politics are a prime example of it. I had a good chuckle watching the latest opening sketch on Saturday Night Live this past weekend, but there is even a better one put together on YouTube. This lady definitely trumps the SNL impersonation.

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The holy secret of the practice of Tonglen is one that the mystic masters and saints of every tradition know; and living it and embodying it, with the abandon and fervor of true wisdom and true compassion, is what fills their lives with joy. One modern figure who has dedicated her life to serving the sick and dying and who radiates this joy of giving and receiving is Mother Teresa. I know of no more inspiring statement of the spiritual essence of Tonglen than these words of hers: We all long for heaven where God is, but we have it in our power to be in heaven with Him at this very moment. But being happy with Him now means: Loving as He loves, Helping as He helps, Giving as He gives, Serving as He serves, Rescuing as He rescues, Being with Him twenty-four hours, Touching Him in his distressing disguise. 

Lately I have been thinking how much I miss Buenos Aires. In a way I have been comparing it to Barcelona, trying to  see which of the two cities is a winner. The fact of the matter is that you cannot do that, since each one of them is so very much different its nature. Sure there some similarities between them, but there are both as unique as they could be. From my own perspective I guess miss Buenos Aires a little more, it is a bigger city therefore it has a lot more to offer. Depending in which barrio you are, you are almost visiting another town, yet they are all interconnected and very much co-dependent on each other. And this formula is the essence of it and I miss that specific essence. I have been to many cities all over this planet and Buenos Aires feels right to me. 

Fellow Twitter shared with me an invitation to the beta of the new application called Dropbox yesterday. What is Dropbox? Dropbox is a desktop application (for both Windows and Mac OS X) and storage service that just works. It's the easiest way to share and store files online and keep files in sync across your computers. They have aput together a simple video explaining the concept (video demo here). It is very fast to install across all your computers no matter which OS you are using and it works like charm. I have been looking for something like that for a while, I used my home network to transfer files before as well as USB key, but this process took time and effort. With Dropbox you simply drop the file you want to share between your computers and it is automatically synchronized so you can access it on another machine. Changes to your files are instantly synced across your computers as well, all of your stuff is available via the web, so you can get it no matter where you are. Plus you may also upload a file remotely through a web browser anywhere in the world and the file will show up on your computers. You can undelete files or restore old versions in a snap, so you never lose anything. You may also share folders and its content with your friends or family. The service is in beta right now so it is free at the moment. I don't know what the plans for the future, but I hope they will offer some kind free accounts once they roll it out to the public. I have got 10 invites in the mean time, so if anyone is interested in this product, please leave a comment with your e-mail address and I will be happy to share them with those who want to check it out.  

This is cool music video done on a Mac to a catchy song: 

(via squandrous.com)

Everything can be used as an invitation to meditation. A smile, a face in the subway, the sight of a small flower growing in the crack of cement pavement, a fall of rich cloth in a shop window, the way the sun lights up flower pots on a windowsill. Be alert for any sign of beauty or grace. Offer up every joy, be awake at all moments, to "the news that is always arriving out of silence." Slowly, you will become a master of your own bliss, a chemist of your own joy, with all sorts of remedies always at hand to elevate, cheer, illuminate, and inspire your every breath and movement.  

Doors Open Toronto is back on May 24th and May 25th this year with free admission to all events as always. What is it? Well here is a little more about it: 

The master at work, continues to amaze me with her abilities to stay on top of her games decade after a decade: 

It is important to remember always that the principle of egolessness does not mean that there was an ego in the first place but the Buddhists did away with it. On the contrary, it means there was never any ego at all to begin with. To realize this is called "egolessness. "  

It is not a secret that I love walking, all my friends know and sometimes hate me for saying: "No worries it is within a walking distance from here". Five years ago I have moved back right downtown - in the heart of the city so I can sell my car and have everything within a walking distance. There is something liberating about the idea of being right in the middle of things, being able to take a short stroll to store, movie theater or a local bar/club. Even the shopping centre, hundreds and hundreds of other shops, parks, cafes is literally around the corner from where I live now. I walk to the post office and to the library, local pharmacy and the bank is a block away! I love it and I would not want to live anywhere else in the city. 

How do you know if where you live or planning to move to is a walking friendly barrio? You can check it out now using a web site called Walk Score. I can proudly say that my neighbourhood is very walkable and my Walk Score is 90! Looking back right now, it makes a lot of sense to me that I made the right choice picking the place I am at moment. No matter if you are a renter or home buyer, before you move somewhere, you should truly take under serious consideration how walkable the area is for you and how much long term impact it will have on your lifestyle and overall costs. Especially in today's uncertain world of gas prices... As a added bonus - living in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment. What's your walk score? 

Six realms of existence are identified in Buddhism: gods, demigods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hells. They are each the result of one of the six main negative emotions: pride, jealousy, desire, ignorance, greed, and anger. Looking at the world around us, and into our own minds, we can see that the six realms definitely do exist. They exist in the way we unconsciously allow our negative emotions to project and crystallize entire realms around us, and to define the style, form, flavor, and context of our life in those realms. And they exist also inwardly as the different seeds and tendencies of the various negative emotions within our psychophysical system, always ready to germinate and grow, depending on what influences them and how we choose to live. 

Biographies are brilliant learning tool, I have always been a huge fun of them. Recently I have re-discovered The Biography Channel which I have always had an access to on my cable TV, but did not pay as much attention as I should have. It is amazing how much you can learn about life from other people mistakes, misconceptions, ideas, good and bad choices and often plain stupidity. And we all know that there is nothing better than learning from mistakes of others. This is why biographies and autobiographies serve me as role models now, illustrating how prominent or successful people experience triumphs, failures, and hardships throughout their lives. They are often full of fascinating details you would not normally know about or simply never heard of from media or other books. Each of the one hour shows enables you to get a good understanding of someone's choices they made in life and what impact and outcome it had on their journey through life, their career and their works and how you can apply this knowledge to your own situation, your own life. Biographies are also an amazing resources about the relationship between someone's life and times they lived in, so you get clear picture of history as well. Learn from others by reading or watching biographies, you will be amazed how many of them will have direct relationship to you in one way or the other. Yesterday was a great piece about Andy Warhol and tomorrow at 10pm there is a biography of Salvador Dali!