Quote from Vinny Ferraro - Freedom is Going Beyond Conditions

This is a nice quote from Vinny Ferraro, one of Noah Levine's closest friends and co-teachers. -walt

Freedom is Going Beyond Conditions

The Buddha taught that freedom is going beyond conditions. For me, the people who have been through the harshest conditions—and survived—have the greatest potential to transform the madness of their lives. See, that madness made them who they are. So if they can take that madness, claim it, and stand on top of its incredible energy, they can transform it into power.
-Vinny Ferraro, "The Heartful Dodger"

http://www.tricycle.com/feature/heartful-dodger

Control Yourself by Kevin Griffin (from another blog)

Last night during Kevin Griffin's class at Spirit Rock, he mentioned a blog posting he had just written. Here's a link to that new posting, with an excerpt from it below about the real purpose of meditation:

http://improveourconsciouscontact.blogspot.com/2011/04/control-yourself.html

Mindfulness meditation is, first of all, about seeing clearly what is happening in the present moment. When our bodies hurt, mindfulness suggests we try to bring our awareness to what that exactly feels like; when our thoughts are washing through our minds, mindfulness says, notice what thoughts you’re having and see what patterns emerge—there’s important information there; when we are falling asleep we have the opportunity to see what fatigue feels like—it’s a trigger for addiction, so it’s wise to see it clearly.
--Kevin Griffin