Good Karma Music Stories

It all started when I heard a teacher in my school named Mr. Allen talking about trash on the playground. So I began picking up trash on the playground and after all of the trash on the playground was gone, I had a handful of trash! Then he gave me a speacial piece of paper called a Monarch Chafacter Counts slip and thats how I ended up typing this story.

I will do good things everyday like picking up trash at school, pick up recyclable items from the street, helping my mom with cooking, speak gentle words to my friends and not get angry, and recite the “Heart Sutra” everyday.I will also not to waste paper, water, and foods.

I’ve learned this lesson from my 7-year-old daughter. As I have released little bugs in my house, my daughter and husband start doing the same thing. I even say the triple jewels and recite the Amitabha Buddha 3 times before releasing them, and my daughter takes this habit after me. However, she is even more gentle with them than I do. I have a habit of blowing the bugs out of my hand, and when she sees that, she’d tell me, “Mom, you’ve hurted them, no one wants to be thrown down like that.” I often end up apologizing to the bugs and her. Not only she corrects me, but my daughter actually models her words. When she released them, she would put her hand on the ground and let them crawl down gently from her hands or the soft art brittle brush. Moreover, when she sees the tiniest bugs or spiders, she calls for me to take them out gently because she is afraid that she’d kill them. I am glad that we teach each other the lesson of compassion.

Hi everyone I just heard of someone who has recently been excommunicated from a community of monks becaus e he liked to play with girls a little. So I felt he may need a little help and thought of that wonderful Mantra of the Heart Sutra:Gone, Gone Gone beyondGone beyond the BeyondMay the Gone live !and I spend the whole day searching the internet for a nice song that includes that mantra so that I could mail it to him and help to enliven the essence of it deep within his soul. So I checked out various chantings, finally came across the great Paramita American buddhist folk song and immidiately felt: Yes that´s it. Heaven was obviously helping with that beautiful song “Another one Gone ” May this little story help all those who read it to contemplate about the value of those moments in life when you (only)think you have lost it.

Last week, I organized some fair trade awareness events which included: handing out free samples of fair trade coffee, providing information on fair trade, and going to an informational presentation on fair trade at a local business. I stressed out about getting all the supplies and getting the word out all last week, that I lost focus and what was important. But when I had faculty members and fellow students come up to me and tell me that they learned a lot and were going to start trying to be more aware of the things they buy, it all made sense again. It is amazing what pouring yourself out to other people can do for oneself.

I spent the last week being the steward or personal attendant for two Thai forest monks who were spending their rains retreat near Mosier OR. I prepared meals and tea, cleaned up and managed meal offerings.It was awesome.

Our neighborhood is very walkable and attracts many from apartments outside who like to come and walk their dogs through the shady streets. Unfortunately some people don’t clean up behind their dogs when they do their thing. We are also in a drought and have not had much rain in a long time which in a normal year would wash some of this a way. Consequently, much doggy doo has been deposited and left in the streets and in people’s yards and more or less public sections of the streets. I took a platic grocery bag with me on a walk with my dog and picked up all the dog poops that I came upon snaking through the neighborhood. I filled a whole bag. I think many will appreciate it. What’s more, I felt better after doing this than I normally do when I come upon a pile left behind and just end up grousing about people’s thoughtlessness. So I got a double bonus!