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Below is my best attempt to maintain an accurate profile that can be easily updated to portray my ever-changing mind space. I don’t intend for any of the writings to represent any precise knowledge. They simply represent the ideas I’m consciously choosing to focus my attention on for the time being.


5/30/08

What’s UP With me Lately….

I’ve been feeling very balanced and peaceful over the last several months. I refocused a lot of my personal reflection and meditation practices at the end of 2007. After almost two years of focusing my attention on a Tibetan based Buddhist practice (Kadampa Buddhism), I decided to experiment with another Buddhist practice (Zen Buddhism). So far it seems to be a lot more complimentary to my unique personality and mindset. Yet I know I learned a lot from the Tibetan Buddhist practice and will continue to integrate it into my life as much as possible.

Zen Buddhism (vs Kadampa) seems to be aimed directly at obtaining a peaceful state of mind. It’s less about analyzing thoughts and ideas, less about trying to understand or control our life. The primary basis seems to be about accepting the inevitable complexities of life and being open to all possibilities. It’s about realizing the paradoxical nature of all phenomena. It’s about always maintaining a beginner’s mindset in which we never let ourselves actual believe we know something for sure. It’s about being at peace with constant change. It’s about awakening the mind to see the awe and beauty in all situations. Zazen is the primary tool - a sitting mediation that focuses specifically on calming the mind while breaking down our conditioned responses and preconceived ideas. Achieving such a goal aims to help us to continually experience reality with a fresh perspective and empower us to make more conscious choices.

I’ve definitely come to notice that my mind is more at peace/ less agitated. My mind no longer gets stuck on analyzing past events and preparing to control future scenarios like it once did. My intellectual thought processes have significantly subsided from my mind. If my mind is clear and in-the-flow, I seem to gain access to insights beyond the level of my intellect. Everything just seems to sort itself out without much effort. I’m usually quick to accept whatever happens to me as necessary for my personal growth and well-being. I take things less seriously and have been able to laugh and smile at the infinite complexities of everyday experience.



What I am most grateful and excited about these days…


I feel so grateful to have connected deeply with Heather at such a perfect turning point in our lives, and I’m very excited to explore our connection further. She is such an incredible person - so open, so authentic, so aware, so beautiful, so so sweet.

I’m excited to follow my school/ career path as a counselor. Many inspiring visions and ideas are flowing through my mind. I know counseling work will serve as a very fulfilling path for me and will best utilize my natural talents and passions.

I’m excited to begin working a couple of volunteer counselor positions in order to gain a better understanding of the exact type of counseling work I want to focus my master’s degree on.

I’m very grateful to have taken an Abnormal Psychology class this past semester. I had one of the best teachers of my life, and I really enjoyed the information I was taught.

I’m so grateful to have interacted with many amazing people in the last few months of my life. ] I have been able to freely and openly connect with strangers more than ever before in my life.

I’m still incredibly grateful to be living here in San Francisco. I have so many conscious and creative people all around me. I’m living in one of the most vibrant areas of the city. I have access to so many spiritual practices and social gatherings. I can easily access any part of the city by bike. I love my home.

I’m very grateful for the information and activism being provided across the globe by Pachamma Alliance. Their model for spreading awareness to the human race is brilliant. It gives me great hope in the face of relentless challenges.

I’m really grateful for all the wonderful people I get to work with at my relatively new job at Crustacean. Everyone is so open and warm natured.

I’m so grateful to be able to always remain conscious of the many privileges and social advantages I’ve been blessed with in my life. Such a consciousness empowers me to handle disappoints without stress while still being able to place my concerns on those who have less.

I’m so grateful that the How Weird was a great success this year! The universe conspired in our favor and the event came together nicely in the face of great challenges. Overall, people loved the new location. I also feel like the community activist zone went well, and will be supported even further next year. It felt great to have been able to offer up such important workshops and presentations to the How Weird community.

Grateful to have had the chance to go snowboarding for the first time last April. Wow, what an exhilarating experience.

I’m excited about having a lot of bursts of creativity lately. I recently finished a few beautiful projects and have many more in the works!


I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to see one on my favorite musical artists – Caribou. My expectations were greatly surpassed. One of the most dynamic and beautiful sounding shows I’ve ever witnessed.

Overall, I’m excited to start focusing my energy and attention on serving others. I feel like I’ve reached a very stable and balanced point in my own life, and have an abundance of energy and insight to share with those who need it most.



11/9/07

Favorite Quotes and Personal Mantras (for the time-being):

“All the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our own life.” M.C. Richards

“An unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates

“We must never hope to perceive or understand anything fully.” David Baird

“To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.” Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Happiness is wanting what we already have.” Buddhist philosophy

“Happiness is an inside job. Do not seek it without.” Buddhist philosophy

“Very happy people differ markedly from average people in one principal way: a rich and fulfilling social life.” Martin Seligman

Be yourself. Reveal your unique personality to people without restraint. Be proud of who you have chosen to be. Don’t try to be everything to everyone.

“Love people by wishing them to be happy, not by requiring them to make us happy.” Kadampa Buddhism

“People in the west are always getting ready to live.” Chinese Proverb

Live life now. Don’t give up the present in exchange for an imaginary future.

“There is no such thing as truth. There is only perception.” Gustave Flaubert

“Satisfaction of one’s curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.” Linus Pauling

“Humility makes us see rightly; pride and arrogance blind us to see the way we would like to see.” Swami Amar Jyoti

Love others for simply being able to maintain positive emotions and exchanges of energy in such a harsh, relentless world of challenges. Everyone is doing the best they can to be happy and remain free from suffering.

“When somebody actually listens to us, it creates us, it makes us unfold and expand, and ideas actually begin to grow within us and come to life.” David Baird

“Accept there will always be pain and challenges in a noble life. Pain is an undeniable sign of growth.” Unknown

Accept that we will always have some emotional baggage present in our life no matter how good every other factor may be at any particular point.

We are quick to realize what people do not do right. But we rarely recognize what they do right.” Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

“Those closest to us will hurt us from time to time, as we will hurt them. Make apologies well in advance.” Unknown

“Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus

“Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.” Henry Miller

Get out of your head and enjoy the abundance of beauty all around you.

“Have much, be confused.” Lao Tzu

Always try to keep your thoughts positive. Acknowledge the fact that what we hold in our mind manifests itself more frequently into our physical reality.

We must learn to generate bliss within ourselves through the use of our imagination or through reflection on past experiences. We must not require specific physical causes to generate specific positive feelings.

Tantra – “to free ourselves from the attachment of external pleasures by empowering ourselves to generate bliss through our own mind.” Kadampa Buddhism

Tantra – “to bring more bliss into all of our life experiences through our own mind – to add fuel to the fire of ordinary experiences.” Kadampa Buddhism

If we can’t generate a feeling of love towards someone, we must at least feel compassion for them and treat them with love. Everyone deserves compassion for simply being able to sustain their lives in this harsh, unjust world full of relentless challenges.

“The love you make is equal to the love you take.” John Lennon

Always be aware that many unperceivable forces and unknown variables govern people’s choices. We must never let ourselves jump to conclusions or judgments based on our limited ability to fully understand or perceive. Instead, we must remain open to an infinite amount of possibilities that may be influencing a choice made by another.

Focus more on loving than on being loved. Instead of asking “what can I do to get people to care about me,” ask “what can I do to show I care about others.”

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” Mohandas Gandhi

“Television is the opiate of the masses.” Unknown

“Repetitive rhythmical movement was thought essential to build up the moment of ecstatic union with the deity.” Erowid.org

Use ecstatic dance as a source for healing. Dance to connect to the source.

“As individuals it’ easy to put limitations on others and expect that they abide by them. However, we should remember that we were all blessed with the freedom of choice and that such limitations will only end up placing the very same boundaries on our own life.”

“In applying standards and criteria to others, we create these very same standards and criteria on ourselves in our own subconscious, which then applies to us.” Dr. Murphy

“Those who are free from resentful thoughts surely find peace.” Buddha

“There is nothing permanent except change.” Heraclitus

“Grant me the power to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Reinhold Niebuhr

We must begin to live our lives “in the flow.” Don’t let ourselves get stuck in a constant state of anxiety, a constant state of “what’s next.”

Always remain open and proactive to random interactions with people we do not know. Break the ego open, and give up control of how others perceive you.

“We think everything is important because it is important to us. We think we are the center of the universe. Everyone else disagrees.” Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

Every individual viewpoint and perspective is paradoxical, both right and wrong at the same time. There are always too many angles to perceive something from. It takes a wide range of perspectives and viewpoints to begin to really understand something. Thus, a plurality of perspectives and viewpoints must be sought out before one can feel justified in firmly believing a certain belief and/or idea.

Much spiritual growth can be found through dialogue with others from all walks of life. Understanding people’s unique viewpoints help to bring our own viewpoints into balance. The more holistic and integral are viewpoints are, the more real our life becomes.



What am I most grateful and excited about these days:

I’m so grateful to have so many choices of action available to me in a world of infinite possibility. I’m free to do whatever I want with my life. The horizons are endless.

I’m incredibly grateful for all my old friends. For how much they inspire me in my day-to-day interactions. For all the experiences I’ve had with them. For all that I have learned from them.

I’m so grateful for my wonderful family, and specifically for my Dad who has taught me so much and inspired me to be my best.

I’m grateful for whatever otherworldly force is continuing to keep me healthy and free from harm while granting me life on this beautiful planet.

I’m excited about the current state of my life. I have an abundance of free time, and I’m very excited to focus more on my social and spiritual endeavors.

I’m so grateful for the peaceful and loving household I’m living in.

I’m so excited about all the extraordinary resources available to me in this day in age – music, art, Internet, movies, literature, relationships, meditation, etc….what a beautiful time to be alive!

I’m excited to apply to a new graduate school program and carryout my deepest held beliefs and aspirations directing my career path ahead.

I’m excited to reach out more to old friends and develop new ones.

I’m so excited to be living here in San Francisco. To have immediate access to so many inspiring people that I do not already know in the community around me. To have so many amazing social gatherings taking place around me.

I’m excited about launching my new idea to freely reflect on my life and express myself through the use of my online profile.

I’m grateful to have been able to resist the urge for social success and to have instead been able to stay true to my core values and beliefs.

I’m grateful for breaking free of many social fears and learn to freely use the Internet to express myself openly and freely to others as my true self.

I’m so excited to have the free time to read lots of intriguing books and articles!

I’m very grateful for the happiness and peace I’ve been able to sustain in my mind lately.

I’m grateful to be able to resist my ego/ social fears and maintain my freedom of expression in the face of many naysayers that want to limit my choices.

I’m excited about visiting New York this winter and seeing a bunch of friends and family that I haven’t had the opportunity to deeply interact with in many years.

I’m excited about finally getting a Netflix and GreenCine account to catch up on all the great films and documentaries I’ve missed throughout my life.

I’m grateful for a how effective some of my meditations techniques have been recently.


Current questions that need to be reflected upon: