Lynn J Kelly provides another provocative post and this time she addresses the constant change in our lives. Some might even say “Change” is their middle name.
Hope this wisdom reminder is helpful to you today.
Lynn J. Kelly offers us some alternative New Year’s goals for consideration.
Lynn J Kelly offers another helpful blogpost on how and why we might meditate. I encourage you to check out her link below for all of her mindfulness offerings.
Here’s a quick explanation of people to avoid: the taker, the talker, the flatterer, and the reckless from Lynn J Kelly. See picture above and link below. Thank you, Lynn.
We all need refuge from overwhelming times. Some people hide behind watching TV, overeating or overdrinking, or spending time with people doing things that may hurt us in the long term.
Today, Lynn J Kelly, an Australian American practicing Buddhist, offers another option that may be of some interest to you. See her blogpost below:
Posted on October 5, 2025 by lynnjkelly
One “becomes a Buddhist” by sincerely taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha. This is only meaningful if we have some sense of what that means. When we are afraid or unhappy, where do we go? Most of us take refuge in the ordinary comforts of our lives – music, on-line entertainment, TV, food, reading, friends or family, or some activity that we find absorbing. From the Pali canon:
They go to many a refuge,
Those who have been struck by fear;
They go to mountains and forests,
To parks and trees and shrines.
(Dhammapada 188, translated by John Kelly)
However, these refuges only offer temporary relief.
When we take refuge in the triple gem (Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha), we are saying that when things get rough, we look to:
Many of us started looking into the Buddha’s path with only a vague hope that it might help us become less confused. We naturally want to minimize suffering for ourselves and others, but how to go about that can be mysterious.
Committing to the Buddha’s path takes time. It generally requires some motivation (suffering?) and some inspiration, through reading or hearing about the Buddha’s teachings. But it’s only by taking up and trying out the Buddha’s instructions in our own lives that we develop faith – faith in the possibility of awakening, faith that the Buddha himself and many others have tasted the freedom he points to. For example, the teachings on how generosity and ethical behavior affect our mind state, if put into practice, will quickly produce results in our experience.
The thought of meditating can be a stumbling block for new practitioners. Remember that nothing special is meant to happen. We could think of it simply as a short period of unplugging from our normal inputs. We find a way to set worries aside and relax for 20 minutes or so, usually by training the attention on the breath or some other neutral object. If we accept whatever energy is in our body and mind, as it is in the present moment, we may find that it changes and is gradually replaced with a relatively steadier mind state. In this way, step by step, we learn to live fully in the present, whatever it contains.
“Every action we take with words or body has a component of intention. The smallest ethical action has the power to set us on the path to awakening. Inversely, when we behave in a harmful way, towards ourselves or others, it sets a trajectory in a direction it would be better not to go.”
I’ve seen the truth of the above statement in both directions.
For the full blog written by Lynn J Kelly, see the link below.
The article below reminds me of the scouting practice to “always leave a place better than you found it,” meaning that we treat our environment and those around us with respect and care.
May your day and this holiday season be filled with joy and wisdom.
A fresh cup of coffee to start the day, re-reading a familiar passage from a favorite book, letting go of unnecessary complexity in our lives, oh what joy can be received from a simple life!
Keeping it short, sweet and simple (KISSS) is a mantra worth remembering.
Below is an excerpt from a Tricycle article on Full Simplicity written by Kim Allen for a Buddhist take on the art of living more simply and skillfully.
http://www.uncontrived.org/books.html
Doing more with less: A teaching from the Metta Sutta By Kim Allen
“(The) idea of valuing simplicity is a notion that is consonant with the early (Buddhist) teachings. Choosing just one of many examples, we can find the value of simplicity expressed in the opening lines of the Metta Sutta (Sn 1.8).
This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness
And who knows the path of peace:Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
These verses suggest a link between goodwill (metta), ethical behavior, and simplicity.
Once we turn our mind toward the value of simplicity, we will notice ways in which complication has burdened or tangled our relationship with life. Here are a few possibilities for practice that can be extracted from these lines:
Centering (your) simplicity practice on these few lines from the Metta Sutta could go very far … Pragmatic wisdom also guides how we view and think about life activities:
Excerpted with permission of the author from Full Simplicity: The Art of Renunciation and Letting Go, by Kim Allen, an exploration of how to fully embrace the dharma life as a layperson.
Kim Allen is an Insight teacher who draws from a background in long retreat practice, sutta study, and contemplative living to bring classical dharma to modern life. Her website is http://www.uncontrived.org.
See tricycle.org/article/value-of-simplicity/ for the full article.
“An open mind is a strong mind … our doubting and questioning spur us on and keep us intellectually alert and can help us develop confidence in our innate qualities.”
Senior teacher, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo encourages us to live our lives with a question mark and to not settle for blind faith. Instead, we can experience our faith firsthand and not be content with what other people think or describe.
I hope you enjoy excerpts from the provocative Tricycle article below,
Ani Tenzin Palmo teaches that a questioning mind is essential to the Buddhist path.
By Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo SUMMER 2002
we have a tendency to regard doubt as something shameful, almost as an enemy. We feel that if we have doubts, it means that we are denying the teachings and that we should really have unquestioning faith.
Referring to the dharma, the Buddha said, “come and see,” or “come and investigate,” not “come and believe.”
A famous sutra tells of a group of villagers who came to visit the Buddha. They said to him, “Many teachers come through here. Each has his own doctrine. Each claims that his particular philosophy and practice is the truth, but they all contradict each other. Now we’re totally confused. What do we do?” Doesn’t this story sound modern? Yet this was twenty-five hundred years ago. Same problems.
The Buddha replied, “You have a right to be confused. This is a confusing situation. Do not take anything on trust merely because it has passed down through tradition, or because your teachers say it, or because your elders have taught you, or because it’s written in some famous scripture. When you have seen it and experienced it for yourself to be right and true, then you can accept it.”
We need to be patient. We should not expect to understand the profound expositions of an enlightened mind in our first encounter with them.
instead of suppressing the questions, I brought up the things I questioned and examined them one by one. When I came out the other end, I realized that it simply didn’t matter. We can be quite happy with a question mark.
We need to know what great teachers in the past have said, because they have been there ahead of us and have laid down maps for us to follow.
Following the path is about experiencing it for ourselves. It’s not taking on what other people have described. It’s not based on blind faith.
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is the current president of the Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women. She is one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Buddhist nun and the founder of the Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery in India.
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