Whenever my friends encounter problems in their schoolwork regardless of what subject it is, I try to help them as best as I can as I hope that I encounter problems, there would be someone to teach me and guide me through it. What goes around comes around, as they say. May everyone sincerely help others who are in trouble. Amitabha.

HOW INCONCEIVABLE IS THE POWER OF EARTH STORE BODHISATTVAMother’s Day is celebrated with flowers, gifts and treats at restaurants for most mothers. Last year, my 20 year-old son woke up very early in the morning, came to my room and wished me “Happy Mother’s Day”, with a beautifully wrapped gift, waiting anxiously for my response as I opened the box. Nestled in the box was a small and beautiful statuette of Earth Store Bodhisattva. The gift gave a poignant feeling, as my children had reminded me about filiality and gratitude to this Great Bodhisattva who had in the past displayed inconceivable power and kindness during times of grave illness. Back…

I prayed for a man wanting to go home that he would get there.

As a gratitude to an old mentor, I wrote a small poem to him a few weeks before he passed away this month. He was Director of the Council of Churches’ civil rights organization based in Mississippi, where we met. He remained a Presbyterian minister while I became a lay-Buddhist but our commonality connected when we began sharing ideas of our spirituality.A Next Jouney—It is okay for me to be Afraid to fear the inevitable to wander off into my past and torture myself for experiences I wish I’d had not had to wander then to deep moving moments in my lifetime that I will forever cherish all those moving…

I was helping a monk yesterday, he has less than perfect lungs, and has developed a cough. My training allows me to help out , and try to keep him well. Whilst we talked he told me about Drarma Radio , and played me the music, one song was written by our Abbot. The monastery is such a source of help for me, and helping others there seems to be so natural , I almost can’t tell if I’m helping them or they me. Generosity touches my heart , and so it opens up. We all benefit.

I have a 12 1/2 year old Lab who is an amputee because of cancer. (She had her leg amputated 2 years ago)She started throwing up over the weekend. Test confirmed she has a recurring bladder infection. The Vet put her on an antibiotic, which upset her stomach.Thursday she was not feeling well at all. I needed to get food in her system so she could take her medications. She would not eat the small portions I put in her bowl, which mean she is really sick because she never refused food!In the evening, I sat with her off and on and fed her by hand. She took little bits…

When my daughters went off to college I was struck by how unprepared I was to be alone. This loneliness, while selfish, caused me to run away. I ran far. All the way to India where I met a man who was taking care of his family, and another 11 other children along with his extended family. I gave him the last of my savings to start a school because it felt good to be able to help some one. I realized that someone in this world still needed me. But was most profound was that I realized that my daughters leaving home did not mean that they did not…

I submit the story last time, I haven’t receive your songs. I would love to play those songs to my patients in my clinic. So would you email me the songs in paramita?Thanks very much.

I found a purse in a shopping cart at a local grocery store. It took a while to find anything with her phone number on it because there were at least a dozen credit cards, cash, driver’s license, etc. there. Finally, I found a business card and called the lady – from her expensive cell phone. She hadn’t realized she had left it yet and was thrilled to hear from me. We met halfway between our homes and when she took the purse from me she gave me an autographed signed copy of a inspirational book that she had written. Besides the type of book being right on for me…

I’ve looked into Buddhism quite a few times before, but it never seemed right for me. I was afraid to be seen as some granola-crunching, New Age poseur hippie or something, so I would briefly surf some websites, and be done with it. But at this current time, I am kind of at a cross-roads in my life, and unemployed, and i decided that i have plenty of time to right my wrongs, & try to become a better person. I have borderline personality disorder, & i was amazed to read that facets of the Buddhist mindfulness training were appropriated for Dialectic Behavioral Therapy, a treatment for this disorder. So–in…