Making it up as you go along

I begin this writing project by talking about names.  I was anticipating the birth of my first child at that time, and here I am now, still anticipating that same event.  Now, of course, that anticipation is building and building as it gets closer and closer to her arrival.  Soon I'll add another title to the list that I've been building up over the years.

This week I plan on writing a bit about being a father.  It's something that I don't really know anything about.  I met my own father three or four times in my life, and I never spent a good deal of time around other people's fathers either.  I think that everyone that becomes a parent ends up making it up as they go along, but I'd like to take the week to try to get my head around some ideas.

Hopefully it'll help me to sort out some of my ideas, and maybe you can give me a little help along the way.

My cup overfloweth, buddhism as daily practice

Imagine your mind as a cup.

This cup fills itself.

Thoughts and reactions and ideas slowly bubble up from the bottom.

Whether you are optimistic or pessimistic; you are full.

There's no need for anyone to come by with a pitcher and top you up.

You are overflowing.

What drops out of you dirties up your table, splashes onto others, requires towel after towel after towel to clean up.

You try to stop the cup from filling itself, but that's impossible.

It's nature is to fill itself, whether you want it to be full or not.

What you have to learn to do is to safely pour a bit from your cup out into other vessels when they are a little empty themselves.

Finally, the Fourth!

There's a spare minute in my day, and so I can finally put up the final part of the Basics of Buddhism.  There are Four Noble Truths.  #1, #2, and #3 are done.

#4

There's a way to set things right.

Suffering isn't a broken leg

Some people like things simple, some people like explanations.  The problem with simple things is that they don't always represent the underlying complexity of what's going on.  The problem with complex things is that they can hide the real simplicity that underlies much of our life.

Here's the simple stream of consciousness reply: