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There are some of these many cute emails you get that you can’t just put in the trash can. You really might look at this later and enjoy it again. If they are in an email archive you will never find them again but if they are on a web site then there is a chance that you run into them again at a later time.

Here is one such email that is fortunately published on a web site – if you have a son … with quite some scary pictures like this …

and good information like

If you hook a dog leash over a ceiling fan, the motor is not strong enough to rotate a 42 pound Boy wearing Batman underwear and a Superman cape. It is strong enough, however, if tied to a paint can, to spread paint on all four walls of a 20×20 ft. room.

For many years I have hung out in Hacienda Heigts, California, to pursue my profession with a company that happened to be located close to this rather uninteresting and dull city.

And I never knew that just up the street was a huge Chinese-Buddhist temple – five minutes away from where I usually got on the freeway when going home to the center of all cuture – Hollywood.

A few days ago I was invited by a friend to go to this Buddhist Temple she had discovered for herself and that was really working well for her in terms of prayers being heard – and not only heard in the sense of “Oh year, thanks, got it!” but in the sense of being acted upon and fullfilled.

So, one Monday we got on the road and headed towards Hacienda Heights and when we off the freeway at Hacienda Blvd. heading south I got rather curious because I thought I knew the area but was absolutely not aware of a temple. But I had to admit that I had never followed Hacienda Blvd up that far.

And then suddenly there it was, totally mis-placed in the suburan area, this huge temple – the Hsi Lai Temple.

We did all the things you usually do in a temple like this and it felt good. I was reminded of a visit to a Buddhist temple in Berlin, Germany, many years ago that had a lasting impact on me. I don’t remember much of that visit, especially where in Berlin that temple was but after some research I have concluded that it might have been “das Buddhistische Haus” in Berlin-Frohnau. I remember that we took the S-Bahn very far north in West-Berlin, but the pictures on the web site do not match what I remember.

But what I certainly remember was the total mental silence that filled the place and was instantly noticable right after stepping through the gate from the street. I remember that this silence was so unnerving to my friend who had taken me there, that he needed body contact to be able to stand it.

Back to the Hsi Lai Temple – it did not have that intense silence permeating it, but it is certainly a place where you can spend some time reflecting and gathering energy.

On leaving we passed a little stand where you could get a Dharma Word for a donation of one dollar. I certainly had to do this. I got one little plastic ball with no way to open, but right next to the dispenser of the plastic ball was a plastic ball crusher. You put your newly aquired plastic ball into this crusher, banged down the handle and so now I can share what I found in the sphere…

Dharma Word

When our mind overcomes all temptations, every day is a happy day. When illusory thoughts do not arise, every place is a peaceful place. When the mind is still and all thoughts cease, that is true wealth. When selfish desires terminate, that is the true field of merit.

(sing this headline to the song “What a difference a day makes, 24 little hours…)

Found this on my quest to read the web every day:

In Seminole County, Florida, kids who get all A’s and B’s, have a good attendance record, or receive good marks for behavior can get a free Happy Meal at their local McDonald’s.

There is additional interesting trivia to this story, like the fact that the envelopes the report cards are sent in have this offer printed on – have to say, a probably very good and inexpensive ad campaign for McDonalds, probably just printing the envelopes for the school and maybe even paying the postage.

But that’s not really the point – what I find so fascinating is that the kids that have good grades, probably because their parents keep them away from junk food are now directly targeted to lower their grades. It is probably true that a Big Mac once in a while will not kill a kid, but why get them started in the first place. There is so much good food around actually nourishing a body that there is no need for Big Macs.

And want to see what happens if the exposure is increased and made permanent? Look at this guy who was loaned out to the the US for just a few years…

and what happened to him when he moved back to Italy a few years later after a diet of good American junk food…

PS: sorry for the little bug that I got onto your screen up there at the top of the article – it’s totally harmless, so don’t worry.

I just browsed through some comic strips of Calvin and Hobbes and found one that was very interesting when compared to my experience with the government in general and the IRS in particular.

I would love to post the whole strip here but I am afraid the copyright owner would not like that, so I leave it to your imagination and just give you the text.

Dialog between Calvin and the bully in the school yard:

Bully: I want that truck, Twinky

Calvin: It’s mine, Moe. I brought it from home.

Bully: I said, give me the truck.

Calvin: Moe, you can’t just take things from people because you’re bigger!

Bully: I’m not taking it. You’re giving it to me because we’ll be so much happier that way. (grabbing Calvin’s collar and clenching his first.)

Calvin (by himself): How touching…

Calvin (a bit later): Moe, give me my truck back. It’s not yours.

Bully: It’s now. You gave it to me.

Calvin: I didn’t have much choice, didn’t I!? It was either give up the truck or get punched!

Bully: So?

Calvin: So I only ‘gave’ it to you because you are bigger and meaner than me!

Bully: Yeah? So?

Calvin: The forensic marvel has reduced my logic to shambles.

Bully: You’re saying you changed your mind about getting punched?

So, honestly, does that remind you of any interactions with the Infernal Revenue Service?

I am working on some spiritual solution for that problem at a site that will help to get rid of fear of the IRS. Join me there and help spread the word. The site and program are still in the construction phase but you can help getting it off the ground and – - – be a guinea pig.

Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert says our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong — a premise he supports with intriguing research, and explains in his accessible and unexpectedly.

Thus is the introduction to an article about the “scientific proof” that the current crop of gurus is right, that…

• We create our own reality;
• we attract to us what we put our attention on

I put together two interesting talks from TED in the article Synthetic Happiness on the Universal Serenity site.