Daily Words of the Buddha for February 28, 2020

Pāli Word a Day for February 28, 2020 — ākāsa — [lit. shining forth, i. e. the illuminated space] air, sky, atmosphere; space

Saddhā tarati oghaṃ,
appamādena aṇṇavaṃ.
Vīriyena dukkhamacceti.
Paññāya parisujjhati.

Through conviction one crosses over the flood.
Through heedfulness, the sea.
Through persistence one overcomes suffering & stress.
Through discernment a person is purified.

Sutta Nipāta 1.186
Translated from Pāli by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Meditation Hour

\\ THE MANTRA \\

OM OM OM
OM SHRI ANANTAHA
NARAYANAHA
MANGALAM BHAGWAN VISHNU
MANGALAM GARURD DHWAJA
MANGALAM PUNDRI KAKSHU
MANGALAYAE TANU HARI

\\ THE MEANING \\

Its Bhagwan Vishnu Mantra, with this Mantra
We call upon the peaceful, powerful, positive energies of the Supreme creator.
OM is the Primordial Sound of the Universe
Narayanaha is the Vedic Supreme God according to Vedas, and is also known as Vishnu and Hari May auspiciousness be unto Lord Vishnu,
May all auspiciousness be unto the one who has the Garuda as his flag
May all auspiciousness be unto the Lord with lotus-like eyes,
And auspiciousness to Hari

Daily Words of the Buddha for February 27, 2020

Pāli Word a Day for February 27, 2020 — anukampaka — kind, caring, compassionate

Aññā hi lābhūpanisā,
aññā nibbānagāminī.
Evametaṃ abhiññāya,
bhikkhu buddhassa sāvako,
sakkāraṃ nābhinandeyya,
vivekamanubrūhaye.

One is the quest for worldly gain,
and quite another is the path to Nibbana.
Clearly understanding this,
let not the monk, the disciple of the Buddha,
be carried away by worldly acclaim,
but develop detachment instead.

Dhammapada 5.75
The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom, translated from Pāli by Acharya Buddharakkhita

Lāʻau Lāpaʻau | Consumption of Mixed Berries Containing Anthocyanins May Improve Post-prandial Insulin Response in Overweight and Pre-diabetic Adults

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Diabetes mellitus has become a significant public health concern in the modern era. It is considered to be a lifestyle disease that can be moderated by dietary and lifestyle changes. Studies have shown long-term and acute consumption of berries, high in polyphenols and fiber, may have positive effects on glucose metabolism and glucose-regulation. The objective of this randomized cross-over study was to evaluate the glucoregulatory benefits of mixed berries containing an array of anthocyanins to determine whether flavonoids/anthocyanins and/or fiber proved beneficial.

The study was conducted at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland between January 2018 and March 2019. Participants were recruited through emails sent to the Beltsville Nutrition Center volunteer database, local federal agencies, and the University of Maryland in the Baltimore and Washington DC geographical area. Participants were included between the ages of 21 and 75 years with a body mass…

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Lāʻau Lāpaʻau | Investing in Forests & Communities: A Pathway to a Sustainable Supply of Forest Herbs in the Eastern United States

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Forest botanicals are a subset of medicinal herbs that require special considerations in regard to sustainability, based on their unique growth patterns, supply chains, and trade history, and the complex and sensitive ecosystems in which they grow. This article introduces sustainability concepts and definitions in the context of the herbal products industry, and forest herbs in particular, and discusses the general trends and issues of forest-derived medicinal products in the eastern United States. Particular focus is given to Appalachia and several herbs native to the region that illustrate important concepts and factors affecting the sustainability of the forest herb supply chain. The authors outline key requirements for sustainable production and introduce forest farming as a potential solution to many of the challenges faced within the current forest herb supply chain.

Introduction

Forests are some of the most life-abundant and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, and humans have a long, rich…

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Lāʻau Lāpaʻau | Plants in Peril: Climate Crisis Threatens Medicinal and Aromatic Plants

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

HerbalGram issue 81, published in 2009, featured an extensive article by then-Managing Editor Courtney Cavaliere about the effects of climate change on medicinal and aromatic plants (MAPs).1 In the decade since then, the situation has intensified, and new insights have emerged.

In the face of climate change, plants, including MAPs, may move, adapt, or go extinct. Indeed, large-scale changes in plant distributions, flowering times, and community assemblages are occurring across the globe due to climate change. For now, there is little evidence of plant extinctions caused by climate change, but extinctions are expected to occur if plants cannot move or adapt quickly enough and current trends continue.2 A recent report found that 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction, with climate change listed as the third biggest driver of “change in nature.”3

Levels of carbon dioxide, a prevalent, heat-trapping greenhouse gas, are higher now…

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Lāʻau Lāpaʻau | Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

by Josef Brinckmann
HerbalGram. 2019; American Botanical Council

This opinion piece is based partly on direct observations from fieldwork over the decades with communities in rural and remote areas who depend on wild collection and farming of medicinal plants for some or all of their household income. Flowering, fruiting, harvesting periods, and yields of many of these plants have become erratic.1 My opinions also are informed by coming of age around the start of the modern environmental movement.While 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg inspired teenagers across the world with her proclamation in January 2019 that “our house is on fire,”3 which I applaud, I actually thought that “our house” was on fire 50 years ago.

This climate crisis didn’t show up unannounced. Some readers of this opinion piece may not believe that the climate crisis has been caused by human activity — and, therefore, cannot be corrected…

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Daily Words of the Buddha for February 25, 2020


Tañca kammaṃ kataṃ sādhu,
yaṃ katvā nānutappati,
yassa patīto sumano,
vipākaṃ paṭisevati.

Well done is that action of doing
which one repents not later,
and the fruit of which,
one reaps with delight and happiness.

Dhammapada 5.68
The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom, translated from Pāli by Acharya Buddharakkhita

La’au Lapa’au | Herbal Medicine Cabinet – Urban Moonshine

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

MEET SOME MEDICINAL HERBS THAT CAN KEEP YOU HEALTHY
ALL YEAR LONG

INTRODUCING THE URBAN MOONSHINE MEDICINE CABINET POSTER

1. CHAMOMILE

Chemicals: volatile oils
Body Systems: digestive, nervous
I am a delicate plant, but my flower’s gentleness belies its power. As a warm teabag, I soothe tired eyes; as a tea or tincture, I can untangle knots in the belly. Keep me around for kids and grownups alike.

2. USNEA

Chemicals: usnic acid, polysaccharides
Body Systems: respiratory, urinary
All around the world, my beards hang off the evergreens. Eat them whole, or try an extract: they’ll protect your lungs like they protect the forest. Savor my acrid flavor: it is a note to push out the season’s cold.

3. BITTERS

I’m a classic digestive remedy. So many versions to choose from—all help you enjoy your favorite foods without worry. Taste bitter, feel better!

4. ASTRAGALUS

Chemicals: saponins, glucans
Body Systems: immune
My…

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Foodstyles | Dirt Cake for Dessert

Cook Plant Meditate

IMG_3916

The title isn’t very appetizing but this cake is fantastic and is easy to throw together.  The components are simple – cake, pudding and Oreos.

I did this cake for a local groundbreaking ceremony at SolTrans in Vallejo.  The large decorative cake was done in a large terra cotta pot while the servings for the public were done in small cups similar those you would find on a buffet.

IMG_3914Dirt Cake

Chocolate cake, made from scratch or from a box
Pudding, prepared and chilled (I’m using vanilla today
Oreo cookies

Prepare cake and pudding according to instructions.  Using your food processor, pulse the Oreos into fine crumbs until it resembles dirt.

Crumble up the cake into crumbs.

In a Pyrex baking dish or torte dish, place cake crumbs on the bottom of the dish.  Dollop on a thick layer of pudding and smooth out with a spatula.  Top pudding with…

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Life Hacks | 41 Facts You Won’t Be Able To Forget 

“A man learns all his life and dies the day he thinks he has learned everything”- Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan The world we live in is full of mystery. No matter how much we learn and dedicate ourselves to research, there are always things that can surprise us, secrets that have been hidden from us, […]

Source: 41 Facts You Won’t Be Able To Forget – Healthy Food House

Matt Kahn | What is TRUTH?

The evaluation of truth is not necessarily based upon the evidence you collect. Simply because, anything you firmly believe attracts the subtle or profound events, outcomes, characters, or circumstances to further any degree of personal certainty. The greatest confirmation of truth is confirmed through the activity of your nervous system. When a higher truth is noticed, your nervous system is relaxed, your heart is open, you are more likely to forgive than to pass judgment, or allow the past to occupy space in your memory. When a lower truth is noticed, your nervous system is triggered into high alert. As a result, your heart shuts down in protection mode, where you are more likely to hold grudges and build walls up against your surroundings versus embrace the mercy of forgiveness.

This may help you realize there are degrees of truth.

There are higher truths as well as lower truths wherein each lower truth acts as a step on a staircase helping you ascend into higher altitudes of perspective. When you embrace a lower truth as gospel, you stop moving upward, in exchange for something to defend and project onto yourself or others. When a lower truth is embraced, as if it’s a higher truth, it brings out your least redeemable qualities which restrict the amount of light moving through you and into your reality.

The question isn’t what is or isn’t true. It’s all true, in some shape or form given the appropriate circumstances, your level of consciousness, and the timelines your awareness inhabits. And, it’s all a part of a higher truth that includes the fate of all possibilities.

A useful tool to sift through the lower truths you may be assuming to be higher truths is cultivating the attribute of self-awareness.

Yes, there are self-centered people on this planet feeding off the unprocessed pain dwelling in hearts worldwide. There is cruelty, abuse, narcissism, corruption, and addiction to be found for those who are eager to notice it. And yet, the question remains, what vibration, traits, and attributes do you embody when regularly diving into these subject matters? Do you instantly make enemies out of those who match the mental checklist of your personal judgments? Can you speak of narcissism or even the activities of an ex-lover with an open heart– or does the very filter of perception bring out your worst instead of your best? It doesn’t mean you should never speak of these subjects, but to spend your time acclimating to perceptions of experience that are more supportive to your nervous system instead of being dire and detrimental to your healing. As you evolve in consciousness, you will be able to shine a light of awareness that exposes the remaining shadows of personal and global atrocity, but from a perspective that offers transparency, respect, and affirming solutions for the greater good of all.

The viewpoints that bring out your best are the truths that are helping you be your best. Equally so, the viewpoints that bring your ego out to speak and act on your behalf confirm truths that are here to be acknowledged and seen through along a journey of infinite expansion.

Only the ego believes it has to divide characters into categories, naturally based on the fear of being taken advantage of or hurt once again. In my experience, to say I have been hurt by narcissistic tendencies would be a degree of truth, but not the whole truth at all.

In truth, it has been the will of God unexpectedly shaking me upside down, only to empty my pockets, so greater gifts can be received.

The notion that you cannot take your attention away from atrocity for one split second is the last ditch effort the vibration of fear tries to employ. Even the question of spiritual bypassing is a lower truth and power play tactic only fear can sell you. It’s quite easy to notice, since most people who know of bypassing are either accusing others of doing it or remain afraid of doing it themselves. It’s just a pattern of self-doubt shrouded in spiritual clothing. If the Universe never asks if you are bypassing, then why should you bully yourself with such a lower truth?

Even if you were bypassing, life will continually organize experiences to help you develop the courage to face your feelings at a future date. No one gets out of this game without waking up, so the question itself only cultivates fear or aggressive tendencies for those who use such a question as mechanisms of domination or defense.

How a degree of truth causes you to act, react, think, and respond, whether in-person or on social media, remains your most essential tool of discernment. If it’s your truth, you’ll be able to speak openly, passionately, and compassionately. If you find yourself without the ability to hold such a higher perspective and anchor it from an equally grounded space, it’s not untrue, just not yet your truth at this time.

Just because something is true, doesn’t make it helpful for your evolution. If it’s helpful, it will inspire generosity, mercy, compassion, patience, creativity, and respect, no matter how others choose to be.

Whether you know him as Jesus, Sananda, or Jeshua Ben Yosef, when on the cross, notice how he didn’t say: “Perhaps I was bypassing. Maybe I’m in resistance. Why did I attract this? I knew I should have listened to my friends in the conspiracy chatrooms more often.” Instead, he uttered the words, “Forgive them Father they know not what they do.” This demonstrates the power of our free will to choose light even in the presence of insurmountable darkness. Such a shift creates an expansion of consciousness with the power to awaken endless worlds of discovery in every heart.

Your highest truth is the insight that allows your heart to remain open, nourished, faithful, and inspired. That which brings out less than the purity and radiance of your heart is merely another idea to see through en route to an even higher truth — where all hearts are already free.

Please enjoy every section of this newsletter, and know that my heart is always with you.

Breakfast Enchiladas

Cook Plant Meditate

 

My daughter says I made enchiladas too often… but what’s not to love about enchiladas? You can even make them for breakfast!

Ingredients:
12 oz frozen or dried/reconstituted hash browns
1/2 small onion, diced
1 large bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup breakfast meat (or skip the meat and go vegetarian)
1 cup shredded cheese
3 eggs, scrambled
Your favorite enchilada sauce
High heat oil (I use corn)
Salt & pepper to taste
Corn or flour tortillas

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add about 1 tablespoon oil. When the oil is hot, add onions and bell peppers. Sautee about 7 minutes, tossing every couple of minutes, until vegetables are seared and softened. Remove to a bowl and return pan to the stove.

In the same skillet, prepare your hash browns according to package directions. Remove to a bowl and return pan to…

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Adaptogens: an introduction – Urban Moonshine

Crooked Bear Creek Organic Herbs

Harmony. To a musician, the concept is familiar: notes in a chord resonate together, reinforcing each other and expanding the sound. The math behind this–“constructive interference” of waveforms leading to a pleasing synergy–seems far away from our day-to-day.

Source: Adaptogens: an introduction – Urban Moonshine

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Daily Words of the Buddha for February 23, 2020

Pāli Word a Day for February 23, 2020 — vipassisuṃ — insight

Uṭṭhānenappamādena,
saṃyamena damena ca,
dīpaṃ kayirātha medhāvī
yaṃ ogho nābhikīrati.

By effort and heedfulness,
discipline and self-mastery,
let the wise one make for oneself
an island which no flood can overwhelm.

Dhammapada 2.25
The Dhammapada: The Buddha’s Path of Wisdom, translated from Pāli by Acharya Buddharakkhita

Health | Why You Don’t Need Fabric Softener

We all love our clothes fluffy, soft, and smelling nice. Doing the laundry can be a dull task, so things like fragrant detergents and softeners make it much easier. It means a lot to be able to get your clothes clean, soft, warm, and fresh, especially on cold days, and I know that you love […]

Source: Why You Don’t Need Fabric Softener – Healthy Food House

Daily Words of the Buddha for February 22, 2020

Pāli Word a Day for February 22, 2020 — paṇītaṃ — excellent, precious

Sabhaggato vā parisaggato vā
ekassa veko na musā bhaṇeyya.
Na bhāṇaye bhaṇataṃ nānujaññā.
Sabbaṃ abhūtaṃ parivajjayeyya.

Having entered a royal court or a company of people
one should not speak lies.
One should not speak lies (oneself) nor incite others to do so.
One should completely avoid falsehood.


The Discourse Collection: Selected Texts from the Sutta Nipāta, translated by John D. Ireland

Daily Words of the Buddha for February 21, 2020

Pāli Word a Day for February 21, 2020 — jambhati — to yawn, to awaken oneself, to rise, go forth

Saddhīdha vittaṃ purisassa seṭṭhaṃ
Dhammo suciṇṇo sukhamāvahāti.
Saccaṃ have sādutaraṃ rasānaṃ.
Paññājīviṃ jīvitamāhu seṭṭhaṃ.

Conviction is a person’s highest wealth.
Dhamma, when well-practiced, brings bliss.
Truth is the highest of tastes.
Living with discernment, one’s life is called best.

Sutta Nipāta 1.184
Translated from Pāli by Thanissaro Bhikkhu