amanda of the bark cloth

Good Morning,

If there's one thing i know for certain today, it's that the end of the year is a happy time for "listers."

Why so many lists?

I just checked a popular website to learn that Time mag in partner with CNN has posted their 50 Top 10 Lists of 2007...

Some of these include…

Top 10 Natural Disasters… ???
Top 10 t-shirt worthy slogans
Top 10 Awkward Moments…
Top 10 buzz words

At best i guess they allow us to take a look and laugh at ourselves.

At worst they're a way to discover that you’ve been living under a rock for a year…

Top 10 Asia stories...turn to your office mate and discuss... (anything about a Giant panda doesn't count!)

I too like to make lists. so in the spirit of happy listing, I went through my AudioDharma library and selected 10 talks I thought anyone, regardless of religious affiliation might find useful and enjoy. You can find these talks at www.audiodharma.org or on iTunes.

Below I’ve listed the title of the talk, the speaker and why I selected them as favorites.

10 AudioDharma Talks (in no real particular order)

1. Effort and Karma (Gil Fronsdal)

Buddha dharma tough love!

2. Conceit, Restlessness, and Anxiety (Gil Fronsdal)

you get to hear a highly respected Buddha teacher with over 20 years of formal academic study…extensive retreat and monastic experience…sounds like a dad : )

3. Speech, Impermanence, and Beauty (Pamela Weiss)

the Buddha sounds socially awkward after his awakening and has a Mike Brady moment with his son

4. Patience (Berget Jelane)

interesting slip of the tongue. Listen for “when our hearts are small even the tiniest of insults will throw us into a titty…”

there’s ALSO a beautiful story at the end where a wise monk talks to his young student who'd just been spat (?) on by an American soldier

5. Impermanence (Andrea Fella)

an honest look at the inevitability of change and death.

6. Equanimity (Misha Merrill)

interesting concept: spiritual materialism. Funny to think of the implications. Competitive meditation…a room full of monks comparing notes on their Enlightenment

Mostly though I love her definition of patience and would like for her to come to my house and read me stories…

7. Perception of Change (Anushka Fernandopulle)

This is the cognitive psych class i wish i would've taught.

8. Loving Kindness (Andrea Fella)

The smile experiment—Andrea gets only 1 ½ min. of happiness out of her experiment. I’m quite sure I can beat that. A couple activities come to mind…like dancing!

9. Trusting Yourself (Heather Martin)

I just want this lady to come over and read me stories too…she has the most comforting voice…I’ve probably listened to this one the most during difficult times.

10. The Precepts: Refrain From SexualMisconduct - (3 of 5) (Ines Freedman)

Ines offers thought provoking questions and gives one of my favorite quotes...

While it’s theoretically possible to have sex without forming attachment,
it would require so much equanimity that the capable individual would also
have no problem eating dog poop in place of chocolate cake.

--Dali Lama

okay, Peace. Take Care and hope you're planning for a
great New Year.

--Amanda "of the bark cloth" (nooo reason for that. just a borrowed epithet that i enjoy : )

10 last minute Christmas gifts

Good Morning,

Just wanted to send out a little friendly reminder to put a little extra something in the kids’ stockings this year. Due to the way the holiday has fallen, many young souls will be experiencing—DOUBLE CHURCH!!!…the usual Sunday mass and now the Christmas “all-nighter” oops I mean the Christmas Eve (or day) celebration.

anyway,

my gift to you?

10 Last Minute Gift Ideas...on a budget

1. Stacker cups (as seen in the ESPN cup stacking competition). just go to the supermarket and get a package of large red Dixie cups.

2. Snu-plows. (i'm still working on this one...ice scrappers attached to your shoes!!!)

3. Thighmaster disaster. take a sturdy clothes hanger...bend and fold it in a "V" a la Jane Fonda...

4. The spa package. locate holiday socks. cut the toes out for toenail painting during the winter months. throw in eyebrow pencils and stencils for grandmas.

For the kids on your list

5. Froot Loop Necklace. string Froot Loops on a 12in. thread of dental floss. Kids can eat and when done have them bring the string to you for a lesson in flossing.

6. Spunky Spider. get a jar. coax that little bugger in if/when he scoots across your desk. Slap on a piece of masking tape. With Sharpie write SPUNKY SPIDER! …it’s all in the presentation.

7. Arrange for a visit from your pet.

Extra Thoughty Gifts

8. Use your nose to determine when the neighbors in your apartment building are doing their best baking. Show up on their door w/ an item to return…like a lawn chair. In the spirit of reciprical giving, you might end up leaving w/ some bakery fresh buckeyes arranged neatly on a re-giftable plate!

9. Eat a bunch of fruit and put the washed off seeds in a jar. Fill a baggie with dirt and pin a poem to it..."Without a warm and loving home this peach pit will not make it. Johnny Appleseed indeed! scatter me and I will be a tree!!! Plumbs are not dumb. Show us your green thumb!"

Best gifts come from Tiffany’s (jewelers) no, no the heart...

10. put your hat on backwards. grab your cat and sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

http://www.singsnap.com/snap/watchandlisten/play/ac118f407

happy monday & merry christmas.

amanda

and then there's that...

I'm currently reading the book "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl.

pp.42
"The Murderous Capo entered the room by chance and he was asked to recite one of his poems, which had become famous (or infamous) in camp. He did not need to be asked twice and quickly produced a kind of diary from which he began to read samples of his art. I bit my lips till they hurt in order to keep from laughing at one of his love poems…"

What I've learned so far from my reading is that even in a concentration camp bad poetry is funny... : )

This being said, the other night as i was stuck in a Hannah Montana traffic jam (carloads of preteens outside the arena), i sat trying my darndest to appreciate this poem. I listened intently as my AudioDharma teacher, after 46min. of solemn instruction offered "to end tonight i'd like to read you one of MY poems..."


THE HABIT OF TIME

What tense calls us night after summer night
Through the roses and jasmine spending themselves
In the cool copper air
Retina, stem, cerebrum
These ten tendencies shimmer and wink out
Habits of holding
Our home is the center
Of the bees winged flame
It opens the rose, the hip, the coming dark


okay, just a few thoughts i still need to let go of...

Unless you are a doctor or trying to be funny, no poem should contain the words retina, stem and or cerebrum

Our home is the center of the bees winged flame?... makes no sense whatsoever

…it opens the rose…the hip…now you’ve mixed plant and people parts...not good.

anyway, and it went on and on into the coming darkness.

hope you're having a Terrific Tuesday!

amanda cranky pants

a buddhist love poem

Interesting

This is a love poem between a Buddhist monk and a nun. The monk lived in a little hut in the woods. The nun, without a word, passed by every day on her way to the monastery. We don’t know if they ever “hooked up” but I for one hope they did.

Alternatively you might think of it as a beautiful poem about meeting love every day as if fresh and new.


A Buddhist love poem by Ryocan

With no mind blossoms invite the butterfly
With no mind the butterfly visits the blossoms
When the flower blooms the butterfly comes
When the butterfly comes the flower blooms

I do not know others
Others do not know me
Not knowing each other we naturally
Follow the way


Happy Monday.

amanda/the venerable amandala

**p.s.....the photo (above) and this link remind me that love takes many forms : ) nothin' says i love you more than a hotrod tribute!!! : ) : )

http://homepage.mac.com/amv12/iMovieTheater27.html
(for Windows)

http://web.mac.com/amv12/iWeb/Site/billhotrod.html

samples from mitty's chapbook

A Tribute to Fall

Sunbeams bath my perch
Birds still poop in the feeder
Snowy silence soon

Oh wrinkly raisin
Nestled deep in the carpet
Hidden gems of barf

Yellow leaves they fall
On grass still green yet crunchy
I like tuna treats!

Lily’s arms droop low
Off to sleep I fight it now
Offer her my cheese

Licking my toes clean
I smell cheese, cheese, cheese cheese cheese!
No worries about my butt


yeaaa, Mitty! (clap, clap, clap)

Happy Monday,

Amanda

do you hear what i hear

Good morning,

I've always enjoyed a good x-mas tune; however, i don't always understand them. For example, i hear the line "oh the fire is slowly dying and my dear is still good-bying..." (Let it Snow) and assume the "dear" is mildly "delayed." i get a full mental picture of an unfortunate soul standing flush on the doorstep repeatedly waving...waving...waving as the "Let it Snower" tries to make a "getaway" in the car...politely waving back...waving back... : )

In this light, today, i just have an x-mas tune i'd like to share..."Do You Hear What I Hear?" It's 1. a beautiful song sung by my friends Siena & Toast and 2. well, i "doctored" it a little : ) and 3. happy monday!...hope it's fun.

http://web.mac.com/amv12/iWeb/Site/do%20you%20hear.html

http://homepage.mac.com/amv12/iMovieTheater26.html
(for Windows)

a-lo

p.s. inspirational religious photo...i made this in CCD class...rotten baby jesus and mary peanut w/ stylized toilet paper veil! : )