Happy New Year 2008

    As we enter the new year of 2008 may I offer you my most sincere wishes that you have great new year. I know that many of us at this time enter into of the new year having made certain resolutions. These can range widely from vows we take to let go of certain behaviors and tendencies that we feel are no longer useful to us and stand in the way of our feelings of inner peace to those qualities or action we have chosen to cultivate in the hopes of becoming better people in world and which will help us to fulfill our life destinies. Whether we are aware of it or not, resolution making is a tradition based in the age old law of Karma which states that everything we are experiencing in our lives and this moment is a result of some past action we have taken and that the state of our futures will be determined by the actions we choose to take now in the present. We have chosen our resolutions because karmicaly speaking we believe that the results of these new actions will bring us more happiness and freedom in the coming year.
    Whatever your resolutions may be remember that one of the greatest tools we have to ensure that we are successful in our endeavor's is the practice of meditation. Sitting still and watching the breath, even for just 5 minutes a day (though an increase in practice will lead to greater results), is a potent means to purify our thoughts and to control the mind. All actions arise from thought. Meditation helps us to gain space from our thoughts and in that space we can decide "is this a thought that I should act upon? Will it help me to uphold my resolutions? or, perhaps should I let it go and wait to act until I know that the action I take is born from a thought which will help  me move in the direction that I want to be heading."  Without that space how can true change occur? What would stop us from just falling back into the old thought habits of the mind that led to our suffering in the first place?
    Heed well these words of Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta:

"Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what hold you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom."

And may peace and love be with you in this new year.