Philisophical rantings...

Sinus pressure is not fun. Major Change: Linguistics and Psychology. Definitely aiming towards getting a Ph.D. in Psychology.

Akari retitled her blog, "right here, right now," which is a really great philosophy..."Live in the moment," eh? I think that is the unconscious goal of everyone, for some the conscious. "The present moment is the truth," as they say, is a very important idea in Buddhism. The idea is extremely logical, being that we cannot control what is going to happen tomorrow and we cannot change what happened yesterday. Technically speaking, though our actions in the present change the course of our lives, we cannot do anything at any time but the present. Hence, "the present moment is the truth". Now, as great as that philosophy sounds, I don't think anyone is capable or should try to live it out in the most literal interpretation. Imagine if everyone lived in the present....without any worry at all about what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow...yeah, those people exist. They're called serial killers.
Of course, Buddhism is not encouraging people to become remorseless or sociopaths. It's not our fault that we live in our minds sometimes.
Sometimes we can't help but live in the future or the past if the present is unappealing. Sometimes we don't want to live in the present.

The idea is that as humans, we're envious. "We always want what we had....what someone else has..." (Lucky Number Slevin). "The grass is always greener when you're lookin' at someone else's yard" (Janis Joplin - Cry Baby) As cliché as those things sound, they couldn't be more true.
Which brings up the whole idea of Karma (actions bring about a result, i.e. Karma). People label Karma as either being "bad" or "good" Karma, when in fact, it is relative. No one can tell you that what is happening to you is bad or good Karma because it may change depending on the perspective and/or circumstance. For example, if you drop coffee all over yourself in a coffee shop and think, "this is such bad karma...worst day ever..." and then some guy comes over and helps you clean up and he ends up becoming your husband, that's not such bad karma, is it? It brought about something good. If you hadn't spilt coffee on yourself, he wouldn't have come up to you (for the purpose of this example). Life can change depending on the color of your lenses.
The point is, people are always comparing themselves with each other without any really logical reason for doing so.
Luckily, the media has provided paradigms for everything so that we don't have to come up with anything on our own: love, beauty, happiness, etc. Let's hear it for the media for warping our perception of key ideas!
Our experiences with things in life are all different. Having said that, how can we compare ourselves with each other? Do people need a reference to make sure they're doing things right? What is right? Why do I talk to myself on the internet? 笑

(That's my Buddhist lesson of the day, I guess...)

There may be a ton of religions out there, but the core, fundamental, underlying idea for most religions is to love each other, treat others as you would like to be treated.
Whether Heaven exists or not, this world is the only thing we know for sure is real. Why run towards something that may or may not exist, when we have this reality here and now? Enjoy it! Earth is beautiful (let's keep it beautiful, yeah? lol).

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All we can do is live the absolute best way we're capable, and no one can tell you any differently.

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This blog was all over the place.
思い通じたかな～。