What Does It Mean To Have Patience?

September 29, 2016September 30, 2016 Gary ReinerLeave a comment

Patience is the ability to hold still under threat until we can discern what is at stake. Patience demands neither passivity nor docility, but a fierce attentiveness to what is really happening.

The medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas observed that patience girds us “to endure immediate injuries in such a way as not to be unduly dejected by them.”

Transforming Our Painful Emotions: Spiritual Resources in Anger, Shame, Grief, Fear, and Loneliness
Evelyn Eaton Whitehead & James D. Whitehead

Background on Evelyn Eaton Whitehead & James D. Whitehead

How Can We Heal Our Memories?

September 14, 2016 Gary ReinerLeave a comment

“I’m sorry, forgive me, thank you, I love you.”

Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian healing practice that traditionally was invoked “to make right, establish harmony, correct what is wrong, and restore things to order.”

When individuals had disagreements, or relational problems appeared in a community, everyone gathered in the presence of all parties and there, under the guidance of a kahuna (priest), all were granted forgiveness.

“I’m sorry, forgive me, thank you, I love you.”
…– Healing mantra at the heart of Ho’oponopono practice

The healing practice of Ho’opononpono teaches us to cleanse our consciousness of negative memories, unconscious fears, and dysfunctional programming, and thus grant forgiveness, peace, and love. It is a process of atonement and reconciliation that can be practiced by oneself, among individuals of the same family or community, or even strangers.

The Book Ho’oponopono: The Hawaiian Practice of Forgiveness and Healing
Luc Bodin, MD, Nathalie Bodin Lamboy, Jean Graciet

Was Ancient Greece the Ideal Society?

September 2, 2016September 2, 2016 Gary ReinerLeave a comment

In ancient Greece, since each city was autonomous, the Greeks failed to develop a loyalty towards a union of the whole Greek world. They could not organize and act together, and their lives were spent in violent conflicts. Plato, it is true, dreamed of an ideal society, but it was conceived as a city state, not a common-wealth of mankind.

A Comparative History of Ideas
Hajime Nakamura

Hajime Nakamura
1911-1999

Professor Hajime Nakamura was one of the great authorities in Indian Philosophy and Buddhist Studies.

Nakamura was an expert on Sanskrit and Pali, and among his many writings are commentaries on Buddhist scriptures. He is most known in Japan as the first to translate the entire Pali Tripitaka into Japanese. This work is still considered as the definitive translation to date against which later translations are measured. The footnotes in his Pali translation often refer to other previous translations in German, English, French as well as the ancient Chinese translations of Sanskrit scriptures.

Because of his meticulous approach to translation he had a dominating and lasting influence in the study of Indic Philosophy in Japan at a time when it was establishing itself throughout the major Japanese universities.

He published more than 170 monographs, both in Japanese and in Western languages, and over a thousand articles.

Some Books by Hajime Nakamura:

What in the World was Going on During the Time of Buddha?

August 23, 2016August 24, 2016 Gary ReinerLeave a comment

When the Buddha was young, Zarathustra was exhorting the Persians, and the Second Isaiah and Ezekiel the Jews; when he became a Buddha, Cyrus was establishing his vast empire, and Confucius was twenty-three; and when he was in his seventies, the Greeks defeated the Persians at Marathon and Greek tragedy was taking shape.

Aeschylus and Sophocles were Buddha’s younger contemporaries; Euripides was probably born a year before Buddha died; Herodotus, Thucydides, and Socrates a few years later. No other age in the history of our world has seen a comparable explosion of such originality in so many widely different regions.

Buddha (563 BC-483 BC) lived to age 80. He was born at the foot of the Himalayas, in what is now Nepal, and spent much of his life traveling in northern India. His birth name was Siddhartha Gautama.

Religions in Four Dimensions: Existential, Aesthetic, Historical, Comparative
Walter Kaufmann

Background on Walter Kaufmann

How Are Courage And Patience Related?

August 18, 2016August 18, 2016 Gary ReinerLeave a comment

Courage supports the mature realization that there are values that outweigh our own comfort and security. Thomas Aquinas judged that the arousal of courage empowers us “to face the dreadful,” strengthening individuals “so that they will not turn back.” We feel this arousal when, in the face of a frightening situation, a threat to our safety or our dignity, we determine to act nevertheless. It is not easy to isolate and name this stirring.

A full and satisfying life must be open to taking risky actions. Courage here often takes the shape of patience. In patience we hold ourselves to valued ideals – of justice, of mercy, of compassion – even when we cannot guarantee they will win the day.

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Nourishing the Spirit: The Healing Emotions of Wonder, Joy, Compassion and Hope
James & Evelyn Whitehead