I found this site today. I’ve not read through a lot of it but I get a good feeling from it. The author, David Yeh, expresses himself in a way that I enjoy and admire.
Enjoy…
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TrackbackOkay… it’s not often You’ll see me posting links to software, so relish this moment while you can. What’s more, this software performs a pretty mundane sort of task… yet that’s just it — ZipGenius performs this otherwise mundane task with excellence.
What am I on about?
Well, ZIPing and unZIPing files. Actually ZIP is just one format of file compression. RAR and many others are available too. ZipGenius has to be the best ZIP related program I’ve seen, on all accounts. The best and most amazing part is that it’s free!! Open source software that out does well established commercial software is just fantastic.
If you’re into Zipping up files the get hold of this application and I’m sure it’ll only be minutes before you’re uninstalling whatever other zip related software you were using before.
Comments rss TrackbackI am going to start posting recommendations for books, audio books, and e-books that I feel may be of value to people interested in this weblog. Here’s the first recommendation for you…
Comments rss TrackbackOver the last few years I’ve watched family members raising children. There is something within this child raising process that I have observed and explored on numerous occasions which last night I was reminded of whilst listening to a discourse given by a past spiritual teacher. Hearing his mention of this brought my awareness around this issue firmly to the forefront of my awareness. I will share these revelations here for they may be of value to someone.
So, what it this “thing” I am referring to?
It is the madness within our culture whereby we invest a relatively large amount of time and energy programming children to say “please” and “thank you” like robots. Do you know what I am talking about?
“Dad, can you help me put my shoes on?”
“What do you say Johnny”
“Please Dad…”
“Good boy… yes, I’ll help you put your shoes on”.
… and once the shoes have been successfully put on and little Johnny is walking of to get on with the next moment…
“Johnny, where’s your manners? What do you say?”
“Oh… thanks Daddy”.
To give thanks is to act on and express a feeling of gratitude. This feeling of gratitude is a deep connected state of appreciation. I like to change this word around from “grateful” over to “great-full”. For gratitude is in my experience about re-cognising and feeling the greatness of life as it unfolds in a particular moment and form — perhaps the form of someone extending an act of kindness toward me. This greatness, how can the word “Thanks” do it any justice? It’s about as dismal as Man’s attempt to express the experience and state of That which we call “love” in the words “I love you”.
I know for myself that when I truly feel great-ful about something this great-ness will move my actions to a place of greatness also. I will therefore act in a way that reflects my gratitude. If I am grateful for something Sue has done in my world then my actions and my whole state of being will reflect and emanate this gratitude, or this “greatness”. Sue will receive and experience that on whatever level she is aware. Although if she is seeking for something as superficial as a “Thank you” then she might miss the experience of my gratitude entirely.
I am not suggesting that people should cease to say “Thank you”, although I am sure that if people said “Thank you” with greater awareness then they’d pretty soon drop this phrase from their vocabulary for the most part. Just as the seeker of truth will discover how ridiculous the words “I love you” are in comparison to the overwhelming experience of Love within every fibre of their Being, such a seeker will also discover that “Thank you” really doesn’t achieve much. If I really am grateful (great-ful) then it will pour out of me and uplift the person or object I feel grateful toward and they will get it, and “thank you” will have no purpose except to sustain a wounded ego. Likewise, if I don’t genuinely feel grateful (great-ful — full of greatness) toward someone then saying “thank you” is an outright lie, and again it’s only purpose is to stroke this person’s wounded ego.
To some degree I put the formality of saying “Please” into this discussion also. Not because “please” has no authentic role to play (in the way that “Thank You” has no such role) but rather because the way we are taught to use this word is all too often devoid of all meaning and authentic function. In French they say “sil vous plait” which literally means “If it pleases you”.
“Dad, will you drive me into town, if it pleases you?”
Put another way, “If it is in your joy to do so, then come over here and help me out with what I’m trying to do. If it does not bring you joy then forget it”. My only want for you is one of pleasure and joy.
“Dad, if it pleases you to do so, help me put on my shoes. Otherwise I’ll find someone else to assist because I don’t want to invoke your misery by going out of your way to help me”.
So, to me the word “Please” or “If it pleases you” does have a place in clear, concise, conscious communication, but not when people say it on auto-pilot. Then it is just a mindless formality infecting the mind and the person would be best to let this programming go.
“Thank you”, however, really has very little function in a world of authenticity. I understand that in India, for instance, they seldom use the term “thank you”. I’ve not studied it in depth but I suspect that it is for the most part a peculiarity of the “Western” world mindset.
Back to the issue of raising children and not passing this mindless insanity into their receptive little brains…
I feel that it would be far more loving and wiser for parents to spend time with their children helping them to get in touch with that part of their heart that feels gratitude and connectedness. When a child doesn’t learn to ignore and forget this part of their self then their gratitude will not only be naturally expressed through their actions but it will also be far more extensive and responsive to far more of life. To say “I give thanks God for this meal I am about to eat” means nothing on it’s own. Again, it’s just a madness, a formality arising out of the misconceptions of the ego-mind. Do we really think there is some old chap called God that even gives a shit about whether we thank him or not? On the other hand, to feel deep gratitude for each mouthful of food as I eat and relish my meal, great-full that my body and my life is being sustained by this miracle, and great-full for all the forces and people that have played a part in getting this food to my mouth in this moment… well, that’s an entirely different thing. To feel and BE in that place of gratitude will spill out from my heart into all of Life.
Let us guide our children toward that sort of experience rather than this experience of mindlessly blurting out “thank you” all over the show and just about any time any one does any thing for them.
In terms of saying “please” all the time — well, again, let us bring the attention of our child to that loving place within their heart where they what people to experience greater joy. Where they can be aware that if doing something for me brings you joy and it pleases you then by all means do it for me. The flip side of this is that the child will also get in touch with (or remain in touch with) that part of them that also feels joy when helping other people. They want go around doing stuff for people purely out of an automatic sense of obligation, which really serves nothing but madness again. The more they extend themselves in the world for the sake of other beings the more joy they will feel — and, without the need to hear the words “thank you”. The joy such a child is feeling will be more than enough compensation.
With love and blessings,
