Blatherskite

Foolish gibberish

recent posts

about

I am a Children’s Librarian living in the Portland, Oregon area. When I am not Children’s Librianing I like to play with cameras and film. I also like playing the ukulele, knitting, sketching, and hiking.

Category: Thoughts and Opinions

Ranty rant rant. Sometimes an enlightened thought.

  • intention

    A few months ago one of my friends posted a photo on Twitter of what was (incorrectly) deemed to be the mission statement of a nutrition company: “Don’t Be A Dick.” I often think about this phrase and how it can be a good motto in which to live one’s life (sexism aside). In the…

  • Emptiness

    Last night I listened to a dharma talk about emptiness.  The talk was really good and it clarified the philosophy really well. At the end of the talk we had a discussion, in which I was trying to express my thoughts as they came to me but I feel like I didn’t quite get them…

  • The first noble truth

    I was at my meditation group last night, listening to our teacher talk about the 4 noble truths. As she was talking I had an insight. You have probably heard of the 4 Noble Truths. They are a central teaching of Buddhism. When I first encountered Buddhism this is how they were presented: Life is…

  • Discipline and routine

    I’ve been meditating for about 7 years, but I have had a really hard time sticking to a regular meditation routine. It seems like it is really easy to talk myself out of it. Any excuse will work for me. Meditation is, if I’m being honest, quite boring. All you do is sit there for…

  • right speech

    Yesterday, I found these instructions from the Buddha on right speech: The criteria for deciding what is worth saying [1] “In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial (or: not connected with the goal), unendearing & disagreeable to others, he does not say them. [2] “In the case of…