Morning coffee

Like many people, I started this blog as a way to vent. Maybe it's the season, but I want to focus more on the dynamic relationship between my practice of buddhism and "the world" since in truth they are one and the same.

I have no doubts about the ability of buddhism to emancipate the mind. Yet when I'm in a "newsy" phase, I can lose all objectivity, get swayed by the environment and, well, it's all down hill from there until my perspective broadens again. One misconception about buddhist practice is that you'll go to a happy place, which people assume means you'll never have "bad" feelings, which of course is not the case. Things change, feelings change, life is change. Sometimes you're happy, sometimes not. Sometimes things go well, then things don't. The practice of buddhism enables me (usually but not always) to roll with it all cheerfully. Practice is just that: practice, not a static, deadened life state.