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direct result of decisions we’ve made as far back as ten years or lifetimes ago, and as recently as last night.
    We have a tremendous personal responsibility for the way our life has turned out, and an equally important role of steering it into the future. Although we constantly make decisions, we’re not always mindful of their far-reaching consequences.
    The first step is to have a very clear idea of the kind of life you want to live (perhaps a simple life, uncomplicated, comfortable, calm and happy). Then, before making any decision, ask yourself, “Will this action that I am considering get me closer to the kind of life I want to live, or farther from it?” The key, again, is to think of the far-reaching consequences of your decisions, not just instant gratification.
    Here’s the catch: the path of LEAST resistance will often take you farther from your destination than the seemingly more difficult one, but an easy trek in the wrong direction is ultimately far more exhausting and devastating than an uphill climb toward euphoria.
    Every decision you make is important. If you smoke now, for example, you might not be able to donate a lung to your own child in the future. And if you have more money than you need while someone else doesn’t have enough to buy food, you’re not changing the state of the world; you’re contributing to it. There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going to.
    Instead of looking to blame others for your dilemmas, look within. Any circumstance (no matter how devastating it may seem), is not only caused by a past event, but is actually a blessing if we gain wisdom from it. History doesn’t have to repeat itself if we can learn from our mistakes the first time around.
    Treat every living being, including yourself, with kindness, and the world will immediately be a better place.
    If you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don’t, you will find an excuse. —E. James Rohn

Utopia
    Imagine the world as a restaurant, and we are all its employees; a group of people who share the vision of a perfect dining experience (great food, wonderful service, and a pleasant ambiance).
    Each person has a different responsibility, and no task is more important than the other; it takes the combined effort of everyone involved for the dream of utopia to become a reality. While one person is the cook, another is a server, the other washes dishes, and yet another cleans the bathrooms, but they each do what they can in order to help the restaurant be a success.
    The most important (and difficult) aspect of ANY job is to focus on the task at hand, and to not worry whether someone else is doing her or his part.
    It is not our place to judge or comment on somebody else’s job performance. The minute we become more concerned with what someone else is (or is not) doing, is the minute we fail to do our own part.
    We cannot control what anyone else is up to; we can only be mindful of what we can each do individually, and do it well.
    This approach is very applicable in our daily lives. I have seen people who drive electric cars get angry with SUV owners, and vegetarians being downright hostile toward
    Their meat-eating brothers. Everything is subject to time, place and circumstance. We do not all ripen, awaken or mature at the same rate, and the opposite of what you know is also true.
    Be gentle with yourself, kind to others, and love your neighbors unconditionally (not only if they live according to your beliefs).
    Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live its entire life believing it is stupid. —Albert Einstein

Leave No Trace
    One of the practices in the kitchen at the Zen Center is to wash, towel-dry, and put used dishes back where they belong (it’s part of the “leave no trace” training).
    Other residents occasionally left their dishes in the sink, so I did what I thought was the “right thing” to do and put them back. The Temple Keeper