The Lotus Still Blooms Read Online Free PDF Page B

attending only the 9 A.M. service for years. If she had attended the 11 A.M. service, she would have observed David staying through the offering and even giving his weekly tithe.
    Are you sure about what you are sure about?
    To help bring clarity to your mind by asking, “Are you sure?” I suggest creating several flash cards containing only those words written in bold script in your own handwriting. Place them where they will be most frequently seen: in your journal, taped to mirrors in your home, on the dashboard of your car, at your desk, at your computer. Place at least four or five around your environment.
    Our thinking can be far off the mark, and we can be so out of touch. We can use Right View by asking, “Are you sure?” This is a place to begin to right our thinking.
    Second: Ask, “What am I doing?” or, as Dr. Phil of TV fame so perfectly asks in response to people’s outlandish behavior, “What were you thinking?” When you create needless stress, ask: “What am I doing?” When you are anxious, ask: “What am I doing?” When you feel anger rising, ask: “What am I doing?” When you speak unkindly of another, ask: “What am I doing?” When you harbor ill feelings or resentments, ask: “What am I doing?” When you water seeds of negativity, ask: “What am I doing?” When you are racing through your life or through a simple task, ask: “What am I doing?” When your cosmic plate has become a platter and is overflowing, ask, “What am I doing?”
    In the 1960s Ram Dass popularized the phrase “Be here now.” These concepts lead to self-awakening and bring us fully into the present moment, which is the only place we can know the truth. When we are swept up in the trauma of life, living with unskilled rather than skilled behavior, it is good to stop and ask ourselves, “What am I doing?” When anger rises in us, let us ask, “What am I doing?” Whenever we feel victimized, ask, “What am I doing?”
    We are such habitual creatures, we repeat a habit, energy, an attitude, a behavior without much forethought. We need to be aware when we are doing this, and one way to do this is to say to ourselves, “Hello, habit energy.” We can then begin to notice our habitual, compulsive, ceaseless thoughts. Sometimes it is simply a habit to worry or to be distracted. If at these moments we can pause, recognize the habitual behaviors and greet them, we can begin to learn to get past them.
    Third: Ask, “Is this helpful?” This is a phrase I resonated toward when I first heard it. It is like a reality barometer. Is this gossiping conversation helpful? Is this attitude helpful? Is this prejudice helpful? Is this fear helpful? Is this anger helpful? Is this guilt helpful? Is this long-held belief helpful? Is holding family secrets helpful?
    We all can carry hidden beliefs—attitudes based on fear and negative programming from our family, culture and society that keep us separated from one another. These beliefs keep us asleep.
    Is this helpful? This simple, clear question is a way to assist us living mindfully. In the moment-by-moment living of our lives, this question is a simple way to explore our thoughts, beliefs and attitudes. This leads to our healing, to our becoming a more whole, aware human being, to becoming a person living out of an attitude of loving kindness, rather than living from hate, fear and prejudice.
    A word I fell in love with in my earliest years of studying Buddhism was “bodhichitta.” Bodhichitta is the manifestation of compassion, grace, love and goodness, all rolled up together. When we welcome and strive to express bodhichitta energy, we long to assist all others in realizing freedom from suffering. Bodhichitta translates as “the enlightened essence of the heart,” or “the heart of our enlightened mind.” The great Buddhist saint Shantideva called bodhichitta “the supreme elixir, the inexhaustible treasure, the supreme medicine, the tree that shelters all