Rational Nation USA

May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha Paul H. Greene, PHD -  Buddhism and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) are    very different ways of understanding people. They were developed thousands of years apart, in different hemispheres. Yet they don’t conflict as much as you would think. “In the words of the Buddha, … ’We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.’ It’s an idea that’s in line with current thinking in psychology. In fact, this simple philosophy – that changing the way we think can change the way we feel – underp...

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha A bit of science. Everything is impermeant, however some life forms have had a VERY long "shelf life"! OLDEST.ORG -  Cyanobacteria  are the oldest existing species in the world.   These bacteria are believed to be the Earth’s oldest known life form. Fossilized  stromatolites  — a type of layered rock made up of microbial mats of microorganisms — dating back to over 3.5 billion years ago contain evidence of cyanobacteria activity. However, this evidence is disputed and as of 2010, the  oldest undisputed evidence of cyan...

May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha  

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha Emptiness is not something to be afraid of, says Thich Nhat Hanh. The  Heart Sutra  teaches us that form may be empty of self but it’s full of everything else. Photo by  Ashim D’Silva   THICH NHAT HANH If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. We ca...

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha

May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha

  May all beings be happy. May they live in safety and joy.... As a mother watches over her child, willing to risk her own life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart... cherish all living beings, suffusing the whole world with unobstructed loving kindness... During all your waking hours, may you remain mindful of this heart and this way of living that is the best in the world. -  Shakyamuni Buddha STUDY BUDDHISM -   The world we live in is increasingly complex, global and interdependent. The challenges that face the current and future generations are expansive and far-reaching in nature. Their solutions most certainly require a new way of thinking and problem-solving that is collaborative, interdisciplinary and global-oriented.  Compassion  alone isn’t enough for engagement with the world. We need to complement  compassion  with responsible decision-making based on an  understanding  of the wider systems wi...