Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."
The Bible, Book of Luke, Chapter 10
Jesus famously said that if someone slaps you on one check, you should offer him the other cheek as well. "Turn the other cheek" has long since become a catch phrase for what Eckhart Tolle and others (like the Buddha even before the Christ) call non-reaction. It's really the only sane response to violence. Anything else will only perpetuate a cycle of violence that will never end until one of the parties is either annihilated or until one of them decides, finally, to employ non-reaction.
The position of every block in Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success is significant. None more significant perhaps than the placement of the "Intentness" block directly on top of the foundational "Enthusiasm."
Last week I expounded on the unconsciousness of large corporations as an element of reportage about an $18,000 bill Verizon sent to one of its loyal customers.
You have your optimists; these are the-glass-is-half-full people. You have your pessimists; these are the-glass-is-half-empty people. 
"I read the news today, oh boy!"
by Eckhart Tolle. In that book, our good friend Eckhart expounds upon his vision for the evolution of us humans:
What is evil to thee does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of thy corporeal covering. Where is it then? It is in that part of thee in which subsists the power of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it, the poor body, is cut, burnt, filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet, that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
In Zen they say: "Don't seek the truth. Just cease to cherish opinions."
Judge not, lest you be judged.
Whenever one is called upon to move refrigerators for a friend (that isn't us in the picture), it is likely in that mode of awakened doing our good friend Eckhart Tolle calls "Acceptance." The other two are "Enjoyment" and "Enthusiasm" (see Monetize Your Life for a complete discussion.), "you can at least accept that this is what you have to do. Acceptance means: For now, this is what this situation, this moment, requires me to do, and so I do it willingly."
The AP is reporting that the Vatican has launched a counter-offensive against what it sees as wrongful accusations alleging that Pope Benedict XVI was in some way complicit in cases of sex abuse by priests in Ireland, the United States and elsewhere.
He who sows the wind, reaps the whirlwind, to paraphrase the Jewish prophet Hosea. What goes around comes around. Karma.
Black Marriage Day is the 28th of March. What to wear? What to wear? Though I'm neither black nor married (with no prospects even), I'm pretty excited about it.
Ok, I'll go first. My drama has been to allow my pain-body to take over my thinking in the context of a love relationship. No...
