Oh hey it’s you! Hey honey! Look who’s back! Man, we’ve missed you. How have you been? We’re okay…we’ve been thinking good things for you the whole time you’ve been away. Looks like life’s had it’s way with you. Ouch. Where’d you pick up those scrapes? It was hard when you first left. We were so there with you when you had your big shock. It was hard to watch you get angry like that. You hurt a lot of people you know. I mean we knew we’d be safe, …
I was listening to a dharma talk by Steve Armstrong (listen to it here) on working with the defilements of the mind. He begins the talk by quoting the Buddha who says that the pure mind is radiant and bright and that everything else is the result of being visited by defilements. In Buddhism these include greed, aversion and delusion. Less important than the dharma content of this talk though is a line that Steve Armstrong said that zinged home with me. He said that when we sit down to meditate, we should not expect to have …
I first saw Van Jones speak at the Pegasus conference last year, and I know of his work through some of the people I have been working with in the Food and Society network. Here is an article summing up his thoughts on a New Green Deal, which brings social and economic justice together. Having done some work this past week setting up a national network of urban Aboriginal economic development practiitoners and thinkers, I think what Van is pointing to here has immediate relevence for Canada as well: To change our laws and culture, the green movement …
I had dinner with Hanns and Marlene Skoutajan tonight here in Ottawa. Hanns was the my minister at my church when I was a teenager and he was largely responsible for supporting my call which was at one time to join the United Church of Canada as a minister. He was also responsible for introducing me to church politics and structure such that I decided not to pursue my career for that employer. Hanns and Marlene were a particular anamoly in my upper middle class neighbourhood, where they stood out as the most visible members of the New …