Beautiful day

I wonder if everybody that lives in Vancouver is also happy to have such a beautiful day like today. I am at home but I can see the sunshine. I think that since in Brazil we have sunshine almost every day, I have never given so much importance when the Sun shows its face.

I am also happy because a friend of mine that worked together with me long, long time ago, sent me an email. I haven't see her for more than 10 years... She lives in Canoas, in Rio Grande do Sul State. For those things, it is good to celebrate one more year of life. :)

Shinsokan Meditation

Here is a lecture about Shinsokan Prayerful Meditation in UK.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

And for the ones who prefer to read, on this link, it is possible to find the explanation on Shinsokan Prayerful Meditation.

Poem 'Unending love' by Rabindranth Tagore

I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times…
In life after life, in age after age, forever.
My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs,
That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms,
In life after life, in age after age, forever.

Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age-old pain,
It's ancient tale of being apart or together.
As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge,
Clad in the light of a pole-star piercing the darkness of time:
You become an image of what is remembered forever.

You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount.
At the heart of time, love of one for another.
We have played along side millions of lovers, shared in the same
Shy sweetness of meeting, the same distressful tears of farewell-
Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever.

Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you
The love of all man’s days both past and forever:
Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life.
The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours –
And the songs of every poet past and forever.

(In Portuguese: 'Amor interminável' por Rabindranth Tagore)
Eu pareço ter amado você em inúmeras formas, inúmeras vezes...
Em vida após vida, em ano após ano, para sempre.
Meu coração enfeitiçado tem feito e refeito o colar de canções,
que você toma como um presente, veste ao redor do pescoço em suas muitas formas,
em vida após vida, em ano após ano, para sempre.

Toda vez que eu ouço velhas crônicas de amor, é uma dor de longo tempo,
é uma velha estória de estar separado ou junto.
Como eu olho continuamente para o passado, no fim você emerge,
mesclada na luz de uma estrela cadente cortando a escuridão do tempo:
Você se torna uma imagem do que é lembrado para sempre.

Você e eu temos flutuado aqui sob a corrente que traz da fonte.
No coração do tempo, amor de um ao outro.
Nós temos atuado milhões de amantes, compartilhado da mesma
tímida docilidade do encontro, as mesmas sofridas lágrimas de adeus
velho amor mas em formas que renovam e renovam para sempre.

Hoje está reunido aos seus pés, pode ser achado o seu fim em você
O amor dos dias de todos os homens tanto passado e para sempre:
Alegria universal, tristeza universal, vida universal.
As memórias de todos os amores unindo com este amor seu -
E as canções de cada poeta passado e para sempre.

Inspiring quotes

I like a Canadian TV series called Being Erica. If you are in Canada, you can watch it on the cbc website. In it, there are many inspiring quotes:

'Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.' (Helen Keller)

'In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity'. (Albert Einstein)

'Pressure makes diamonds.' (General George S. Patton)

'The life which is unexamined is not worth living.' (Plato)

'We learn to do something by doing it. There is no other way.' (John Halt)

'Learn to be what you are, and learn to resign with good grace all that you are not.' (Henry Frederick Emile)

'It takes a lot of courage to grow up and be who you really are.' (EE Cummings)

Shinto & Japanese Mythology in anime

Long time ago, I watched an anime on TV in Brazil. It is called Little Prince and Eight-headed dragon (Wanpaku Ouji no Orochi Taiji). I was a child or teenager at that time. I could remember very well after so many years having been passed. Many characters of the anime came from Japanese mythology, a book called Kojiki, and in Shinto (Izanami, Izanagi, Amaterasu, Susanoo, Yamata no Orochi).

The anime was created is 1963. The music is unbelievably beautiful and you can get it in 9 parts on the links below. Enjoy it!

Audio in ENGLISH
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX

Audio in JAPANESE - without subtitles (Here the beginning is more complete than the previous one, but there is just the 1st part.)
Part I

Fear

Who never feel fear? I think that it is a common feeling. When we go to different paths into our lives, we have the fear for the unknown. Other times we don't know what will happen with people that we love. And this generates the fear of losing someone. Dr Taniguchi said that when we are hurt by others is also due to the fear:

'The reason we resent others,... is simply that we are afraid. We feel that our strength to live comes from the self. In short, we rely on finite strength. ... If we have the conviction that we are united with the boundless Grand True Existence, we are not intimidated by damage others might inflict upon us. That is because infinity remains infinity regardless of what you subtract from it. We may, for a while, feel the loss that has been inflicted on us; but when we learn to believe firmly that there will be an inflow from a reservoir fed by a spring of boundless life to make up for whatever has been lost, whether of health or wealth, we will find infinite serenity of mind - a peace and stability that come from the bottom of the mind...' (Taniguchi, M. 'Truth of life', v. 8, p. 7).

More than anything, it is important to reinforce to ourselves the idea that we are united with the Grand Life of the Universe, and therefore we are infinite and everything we need is given. There is no time and space, but just now: as the previous post title, the eternal now. Believe what is behind the eyes: the beauty, the silence, the peace and the love.

Eternal now

This is my first experience living in the spring season in Vancouver. I took this picture at the exit of Burrard Station. I was so enchanted by the sakura (plum trees). Are they not wonderful?

Everybody has some hard moments during life: people that hurt us or other hard situations. When we think about them, our heart becomes sad and our energy dissipates. Maybe we should try to do the opposite. I like this text:

'Instead of living in what is already finished, live in the eternal now. ... No matter how much sadness you may have suffered in the past, do not let yourself be troubled by it. ... The plum tree does not cry over the fact that it was exposed to the cold of winter in the past; instead, it is "now" covered with plum blossoms that radiate joy. You are human beings, more blessed, more powerful, and more courageous than the plum blossoms. Indeed, that which is filled with nothing but joyful happenings is this thing called "human life". ' (Taniguchi, M. "Truth of life", v. 37, pp. 6-7)