Sunday, January 22, 2006

Oh Library Thing!

Oh Library Thing

There's a most cool website called Library Thing, which I recently discovered. Bibliophiles can catalogue all their books, and 'tag' them with categories. You can also see how many other folks have the same books or tags. This way you can discover who shares your esoteric interests. Rather than finding reasons to buy fewer books, I've found reasons to buy more books! For example, I see books I don't have and must/should have. I've also felt much better about my book collecting vice. I see some unfortunates suffer from this bibliomaniac vice far worse than I. Some people have 6,000 books! Suddenly my 600 or so books seem hardly worth discussing. I particularly like reading participants' profiles, though I wish more people wrote about their love of books. In profiles we discover the answers to all the fellow bibliophile's burning questions: Why do I have so many books? Where do I put them? What rooms are books piled in? Does my dog/cat like to sit on my books? What are my favorite subjects? Do I read books from cover to cover? Do I read several books at once? How many books are stored in boxes in some other state? How do books make me feel? What if I marry a fellow bibliophile, or a non-bibliophile, or a bibliophobe?

http://www.librarything.com/

Buddhism, pt. 2

25 More Reasons to Embrace Buddhism/ Meditation

Just in case you thought I forgot, I'm back with 25 more reasons to embrace meditation/Buddhism.
26. To be at one with life
27. To develop self-confidence
28. To develop inner strength
29. To appreciate more
30. To be in the moment
31. To get closer to nature
32. To learn to self-nurture
33. To let go of the past
34. To become more spiritual
35. To reduce anxiety
36. To communicate better
37. To develop body awareness
38. To improve my yoga practice
39. To improve general health
40. To become more secure with myself
41. To 'need' less
42. To balance energy flow
43. To meet like-minded people
44. To be part of a community
45. To find a way
46. To get connected
47. To teach others
48. To develop a healthy routine
49. To improve my posture
50. To discover what is within

Friday, January 6, 2006

Buddhism, pt. 1

100 Reasons to Embrace Buddhism/Meditation
Of course any book on Buddhism/Meditation would say to have no expectations for meditation. The only reason is 'no reason.' Nevertheless, I managed to come up with 100 reasons, the last of which is: "to find nothing." Seems reasonable enough. Here are the first 25 reasons.
1. to develop self-love
2. to cultivate loving-kindness
3. to find myself
4. to control my thoughts
5. to learn to let go
6. to know my mind
7. to know my thought patterns
8. to learn to breathe
9. to accept my emotions
10.to separate from my ego
11.to learn compassion
12.to find a way to help others
13.to develop an ethics for living
14.to validate my philosophy of life
15.to become wiser
16.to care less about external things
17.to be more calm
18.to be more relaxed
19.to become more centered
20.to lose myself to find myself
21.to change my life
22.to know reality better
23.to live my life as best I can
24.to accept things
25.to develop a more positive outlook