Two pigeons were hanging out by the doorway. As I walked towards them, one scurried off to the left and the other one flew into the building. The one that flew into the building got trapped and despite all our coaxing and gesturing, couldn’t find its way out. It just kept flying straight into the […]
I felt twangs of guilt when I perceived one of the dine and ditchers was embarrassed after I publicly blacklisted her. So I turned to the footage from the security cameras, where I could count precisely how many bites of food the two women took and see how long they waited before telling their server […]
On a Sunday afternoon, two women sat and ordered one entree each. Six minutes after their food was served, they sent both dishes back to be reheated because it wasn’t hot enough and they wanted more sauce. The waitress said she could microwave it for them. The women said they didn’t eat food that came […]
At the produce market, one of the Chinese workers taught me how to say, “I love you” and “hello” in Cantonese as he loaded cases of fresh vegetables into the back of my car. The next couple times I saw him, he tested me on past vocab and taught me the names of vegetables, numbers, […]
I was frustrated at a bunch of unresolved issues when I started cutting off dead flower buds in our front yard. I found myself getting angrier with each snip. Why did blooming flowers have to share a common stem with the dry, wilted flowers? Why couldn’t they just die at the same time so I could […]
I find it interesting when people tell us they have nothing to think about. For me, there’s always something to think about. A few Sundays ago, I walked into a buffet at noon and noticed that the salads that were usually overflowing were all running low. I looked behind me and there was a steady […]
The flower shop employee cut off the stamen before handing me a bouquet of lilies. I asked her why she did that, and she said, “The pollen is bad. It kills the flowers.” “Really?” “Oh yeah, once the pollen hits the petals, the flower starts to die. It’s like, toxic. Kills them.” The flower lady made […]
I sent a couple questions to a colleague via a messaging app, and although they were marked “Read,” he didn’t respond. I got annoyed, thinking of all the times he had messaged me, asking urgent questions, redundant questions, questions he should’ve had to answers to, and each time I responded swiftly and decisively. I thought […]
My friend was complaining about her mom’s being blind to the evil actions of a particularly naughty grandson. The mother is unfair to my friend’s kids, blaming them for things they didn’t do, assuming they’re always guilty of something. Because of this, my friend has not been on speaking terms with her mother for two […]
At 9am, I scored parking at a metered spot half a block from my destination. It was a bit far compared to where I parked the last time I was there, but a decent spot, nonetheless. I put 30 minutes in the meter and walked over to the office building. When I walked through the […]
The first time I noticed him was when he got into the lane next to me at the pool. The air was suddenly filled with the stench of farm animals on a hot day. Every time I went to take a breath, especially when near him, I would get a mouthful of his rancid body […]
I heard a sermon given by an American monk, who had traveled to Thailand to train with a famous Thai monk. Upon recognizing that language would pose a great challenge in his efforts to further his studies, the American monk took it on himself to study and eventually master the Thai and Isaan (Northeastern dialect […]
One cup of coffee is all that it takes. When coffee is taken in the wrong place, in the bedroom instead of the kitchen or dining room, a spill can require a lot of cleaning and even some permanent damage. Just like our words, once spilled, cannot be taken back. The damage has been done. In […]
I’ve enjoyed eating tomatoes my whole life. Only when I started growing tomatoes at home did I realize that all this time, I had been buying red-colored tomatoes, but they weren’t ripe like I thought. The realization came when we picked a couple of homegrown orange-colored tomatoes and left them in a bowl. Two days later, they […]
This flattened cherry tomato is a good example of the concept of intentional sankhara and unintentional sankhara. Sometimes, it starts from a pure accident, like this tomato forced to grow between the fence boards. But once someone discovers it and sees a use for it, they seek to reproduce it. That’s when it becomes intentional […]
“I don’t like people using my things. They’re not careful and break them.” “If you don’t let them use your things, then maybe they won’t let you use theirs.” “I don’t want to use their things.” “But, it’s still nice to share.” “Why? They don’t have anything that I could ever possibly want.” Why should […]
When something feels annoying, it can seem like there’s no end in sight. But what I’ve learned is that all things have their time and season. I know that tomatoes don’t grow year round. So when I see a tomato plant latching onto a small blueberry plant, overtaking the space and hogging all the nutrients, I know that it’s […]
A boy didn’t finish his meal. I told him that no one was going to want his leftovers. He shrugged and said, “The poor kids in India want to eat it.” I told him, “I doubt that. Who would want to eat someone else’s scraps, if they could choose not to? Just because they will, […]
I found a ripe tomato wedged in between the fence boards. It made me think of how no matter how much I dislike someone, they just want to make it like anyone else. We are all struggling to survive, one way or another. Some have better karma (better positioning, sunlight, nutrients) while others have to […]
We have three waste bins, the gray and blue bins are collected every week, while the green bin is collected every other. My neighbor usually puts out his bins before we do, so when I see his green bin by the curb, I drag my green bin out too. When I went to collect the bins this morning, […]
Sleep Problems Raise Suicide Risk In The Elderly (NBC) Elderly adults with sleep problems may have an increased risk of suicide — even if they have no symptoms of depression. Researchers found men and women who reported poor sleep quality at the beginning of a ten year study were almost one and a half times […]
Last night, we discovered little black spots in the ice coming out of the ice maker machine. I washed out the water hose connected to the machine and was ready to test out whether the dirty hose was the true culprit. Before reattaching it to the ice maker machine, I started scooping out the ice that had been affected. […]
Just like when we zoom out on Google maps, we can go from a street view of a specific address, to the neighboring streets, to the neighborhood in general, to the city, to the county, to the state, to the country, and to the continent. How can viewing a city help solve a problem going […]
A familiar sight: a fly, buzzing around in the space between the glass and the window screen. Last time, I lifted the corner of the screen and tried to lead the fly to the opening, because I assumed it wanted to get out but couldn’t do it on its own. And did that work? […]
The opening sermon for the 2014 KPY USA Retreat Just like in the sermon, we’re taught that in contemplating dhamma, to default to if you feel any kind of suffering, that means you’re wrong. In certain issues, we can feel discomfort when we don’t think we’re wrong. But when we say, “we’re always wrong,” it […]
ช่วงรีทรีทปีนี้ เราได้ค้นหาจุดเด่นของตัวเอง เพื่อที่จะแก้ไขนิสัยพวกนี้ เราได้ถามกันว่าเรามีบุคลิกภาพแบบไหน เช่น: เจ้าชาย ฮีโร่ คนดี คุณแม่ ศิลปิน เถรตรง สำคัญมากที่เราจะรู้ว่าเรามีบุคลิคภาพแบบไหน เพราะคุณสมบัติพวกนี้เป็นเหตุให้เราทั้ง ประสบความสำเร็จ และ ไม่ประสบความสำเร็จ ในชีวิต อย่างนึงที่คนที่มารีทรีทเป็นกันหลายคนคือ เป็นคนที่เยอะ คือ มักจะดราม่า ชอบตกแต่ง และตอนพูด ก็จะพูดอ้อมโลกกว่าจะเข้าเรื่อง จะเติมข้อมูลและอธิบายเยอะๆ คนหนึ่งเห็นว่าตัวเองเป็นคนเยอะ ก็เลยไปคิดเรื่อง “น้ำ กับ เนื้อ” ไปพิจารณาว่าคำพูดส่วนไหนเป็นส่วนเกิน คือน้ำ และส่วนไหนเป็นส่วนจำเป็น คือเนื้อ หลังจากนั้นก็ไปคิดเรื่องรองเท้าที่บ้านว่า คู่ไหนเป็นน้ำ คู่ไหนเป็นเนื้อ ไปพบว่าส่วนใหญ่เป็นน้ำหมดเลย แล้วเห็นว่าส่วนอื่นๆ ของชีวิตประกอบไปด้วยน้ำแล้วส่วนใหญ่ ก็เลยพิจารณาต่อว่าในสิ่งของแวดล้อมเรานี้ ส่วนไหนเป็นน้ำ ส่วนไหนเป็นเนื้อ เอาประตู เบาะนั่ง ขวดน้ำดื่ม และ สิ่งของชิ้นอื่นๆ มาพิจารณาในด้าน น้ำ กับ เนื้อ สามารถที่จะพิจารณาแบบนี้ตลอดเวลาเลย ที่บ้าน ที่ทำงาน […]
My goggles were getting old, so I went to a sporting goods store to buy a new pair. I spent some time comparing the many different brands and styles and ended up purchasing two pairs. The next morning, I took them to the pool with me. I got into the pool and tried on the […]
A different lifeguard is on duty at each morning lap swim. One morning, I noticed a new lifeguard. She looked young, was wearing a bright red “LIFEGUARD” t-shirt, and greeted us with a friendly smile. The bright yellow signs for FAST MEDIUM SLOW were standing attention at their respective lane. And she walked around the pool […]
Have you ever noticed that when you’re in the courting stage, you hide your farts? You wait for your date to step away to fart or you hold it in until you get home. Then when you’re officially a couple, your farts are cute. The first one to slip is funny and adorable because you’ve […]
A fly was stuck in between the kitchen window and the screen. I tried to help it escape by pushing out the bottom righthand corner of the window screen. When the fly didn’t budge, I took a stick and tried to lead it to the opening. The fly flew towards the opening and then flew back to […]
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