#samsaranmusing

[panatmansam]

Hi Sam. You may not claim the title 'teacher'. But if I hadn't stumbled upon samsaranmusings 10 years ago, I would never have started meditating, never would have practiced Buddhism, never would have felt the kind of peace that there is on this path. I wouldn't have even met my 3d teacher. I'm so beyond grateful for you, no matter what title 💜

Thank you. Sometimes I feel a little alone and wonder if I made a difference and then I get a message like this out of the blue and my heart rejoices. With all my love, Sam.

[aglaydis]

https://pantadora-blog.tumblr.com/post/62195960145/samsaranmusing-proof-of-intelligent-design

[sipping-tea-with-my-suffering]

Action, not learning, will set you straight with the universe.

panatmansam

[gvrdenhead-blog]

Today is a sad day for Tumblr. Samsaran has deactivated his account, I love how so many Tumblr users are coming together to wish him a good farewell. One of the purest souls this existence has ever seen. You will be missed.

[tea-from-the-bodhi-tree]

Sam's guide to Dificult people ( REPOST)

( Hello everyone. Many people are saddened or upset about Samsaramusings deactivation here on tumblr. Hes help so many of us out so many times. I saved some of Sams writings and guides on my computer, I'll be re-posting them at times, So all credit is to Sam. May you find happiness where ever you are. - Levi )

One of the problems we all face in our lives is dealing with difficult, angry, obnoxious and aggressive people. They can be a teacher, an employer or manager, co-worker, fellow student, family member or even a “friend”. 

What do we do?

Well, it goes without saying that dealing with difficult people can be … well … difficult.  You see we cannot change other people. This is a tough one to accept but it is true. They are going to do as they will and the only thing we can do is decide how we are going to let their behavior affect us.

Who says we have to take offense when somebody is rude, pushy or obnoxious? In fact if we let their behavior influence our state of mind then we have granted them power over us.

Why granted?

Because words are just so much air. So long as there is no physical violence then words can be ignored, rejected or deflected. 

It is our ego that gets in the way of this. It is ego which can be hurt by a slight, insult or criticism. No ego, no offense. Besides, these people are soul sick, sick inside. Why else would they be deliberately trying to harm someone else, especially someone in their family?

Just as you would not be angry with a small child or a person with a brain tumor who said hurtful things you should treat these people as sick friends. Don’t fight back, don’t show pity or condescension just get out as soon as you can and forget about it. This is hard at first because ego wants to retaliate; however, it gets easier with practice.

In the beginning, maybe even for months or years, we will sometimes fail in this. After all we are trying to break not only a lifetime’s habit but 100,000 years of human conditioning. We want to fight back. It seems unnatural not to fight back, and it a way, it is. The trick is to view every single verbal attack as an opportunity. How well can we do this time? How long can I maintain my composure? Can I beat my “highscore” from last time? Keep at it. Not only is it good for you, but for them and indeed, since these emotions are transferred from person to person, for the entire world.

(Updated 9/8/13)

One of the problems we all face in our lives is dealing with difficult, angry, obnoxious and aggressive people. They can be a teacher, an employer or manager, co-worker, fellow student, family member or even a “friend”. 

What do we do?

Well, it goes without saying that dealing with difficult people can be … well … difficult.  You see we cannot change other people. This is a tough one to accept but it is true. They are going to do as they will and the only thing we can do is decide how we are going to let their behavior affect us.

Who says we have to take offense when somebody is rude, pushy or obnoxious? In fact if we let their behavior influence our state of mind then we have granted them power over us.

Why granted?

Because words are just so much air. So long as there is no physical violence then words can be ignored, rejected or deflected. 

It is our ego that gets in the way of this. It is ego which can be hurt by a slight, insult or criticism. No ego, no offense. Besides, these people are soul sick, sick inside. Why else would they be deliberately trying to harm someone else, especially someone in their family?

Just as you would not be angry with a small child or a person with a brain tumor who said hurtful things you should treat these people as sick friends. Don’t fight back, don’t show pity or condescension just get out as soon as you can and forget about it. This is hard at first because ego wants to retaliate; however, it gets easier with practice.

In the beginning, maybe even for months or years, we will sometimes fail in this. After all we are trying to break not only a lifetime’s habit but 100,000 years of human conditioning. We want to fight back. It seems unnatural not to fight back, and it a way, it is. The trick is to view every single verbal attack as an opportunity. How well can we do this time? How long can I maintain my composure? Can I beat my “highscore” from last time? Keep at it. Not only is it good for you, but for them and indeed, since these emotions are transferred from person to person, for the entire world.

Sam

[panatmansam]

I have a strange relationship with Tumblr. I was introduced to it in 2009 when my daughter Ann was in middle school. I had no idea what Tumblr was. I had a blog where I wrote philosophical essays and occasionally got a few comments. Ann suggested Tumblr as a better platform. Here I am.

You may note that this blog only goes back to 2011. That’s because I had a previous blog which was exactly the same as this one, a little rougher perhaps, only maybe 3,000 answered asks instead of 28,000 more primitive search algorithm and far fewer followers fewer than 30k I think.

My daughter Ann was starting to show signs of Borderline Personality Disorder. This included a complete shutdown with respect to me. She refused to listen to me. Rebelled at every turn. I was the target of her rages whenever life frustrated her. I tried to teach her calming techniques but it was futile. She was convinced that I could fix her with a word or gesture despite the irrationality of this thought.

One day in 2011 sixteen-year-old Ann came into my room in yet another rage, her face red, eyes teary, nose running and said: “you give all your energy to these STRANGERS on your blog and your stupid LAW CLIENTS when you should be focusing on MOMMA and ME.

I stopped typing. Looked at her. Then without a word clicked the buttons to delete the blog.”Are you sure” asks Tumblr. “This can’t be undone”. “Yes” I answer,

Click.

Three years. 40,000 posts. Sam’s guides. All that stuff. Gone. Poof. Up in smoke.

She looks at me in HORROR. “Did ... did ... did you just ...” “Yes” I reply, yes I deleted my blog for you. Now I can focus on solving your problems exclusively shall we get started?”

She never responded. She burst into uncontrollable tears. Maybe that was harsh but I had had it. I was willing to do whatever she wanted at that point. I figured that the blog was taking up a lot of my time.

The truth was that I had found in Tumblr a pleasant companion. It was artistic. It was a place where a man could quote poetry and make art. I could discuss philosophy and especially the secular form of Western Buddhism that I had embraced.

I even met a young woman Ann’s age who was everything Ann was not. This young woman was intellectual, well read, she too struggled with serious emotional issues and a difficult upbringing but she was taking positive action in her life. We developed a paternal friendship. Her Dad was kind of loser to hear her tell the tale. 

Tumblr was a place for me to create beauty and appreciate the beauty that you guys create. That simple. Now, it so happens that there was an emergency meeting called and most of my guides were found on the Wayback Machine. A bunch more of my stuff had been saved by followers. Tzillah had my Gmail and contacted me and I explained the circumstances. My wife and daughter then came to me and asked me to reconsider my decision and so I did and I made this blog.

A decade ago. Here I am. I am. Ego. That’s Latin for “I am”. YHWH also means “I am” or “I am what I am” that’s the so-called name that the Bible says God gave to Moses on Sinai. Really it’s a Hebrew way of saying “none of your business human you’ll just try to conjure with it if I give it to you”. ◀ (weird riff on “I am”)

p.s. There are about fifty of you left who were with me on the old samsaranmusing blog. I refer to you old timers as the “first called” and treasure each one of you. I think we all know who we are. Our circle is shrinking and that saddens me but some very bright lights remain and that gladdens my heart.♥

[eniarc]

Samsaranmusing

I have to say I was shocked and pretty saddened when I discovered today that Sam's blog was gone. His wisdom and teachings meant a lot to me. I guess it is another lesson in attachment/impermanence. I will miss him. Luckily, some of his work has been preserved.

http://samsguides.tumblr.com/

https://web.archive.org/web/20140125131746/http://samsaranmusing.tumblr.com/

I have also gone through my archive to tag all of his posts that I've reblogged. You can find them here:

http://flowers-of-adaptation.tumblr.com/tagged/sam

EDIT: Credit for the above links goes to PeacefulHealing who put together the Sam's Guides page, and to Our-vocation-is-love who posted the second link. If I'm mistaken please correct me. Much love!

[protoslacker]

"We must cultivate our garden."

For a long time posts from Musings by Samsaran populated my dash. Those posts made me glad. I wasn't alone. I got some glimmer of the popularity of Sam's blog the time he mentioned my blog and within a very short time got dozens of new followers. Sometimes I would go to the blog because it was a kind of garden of life-affirming beauty.

Then I pointed pointed my browser to the address and Musings by Samsaran was not there.

Teju Cole  is a brilliant writer and photographer. Over the years he has put up blogs. The first time his blog disappeared from the Web I was shocked, dumfounded. It's very rare for blog posts to move me to tears, as not only one of Teju Cole's posts had. His Web site provides a glimpse of the beautiful aesthetic of his photography and writing and the magical relationship of the two.

Not so long after the first blog I knew of by Teju Cole disappeared from the Internet, Cassava Press published his book Everyday Is A Thief. I'm pointing to that link because, strangely the link to the book on Cole's Web site is dead. But I notice that Random House is publishing the book for release in March of this year, Amazon. I mention Teju Cole as an example of loosing something online only to discover that all is not lost.

I do hope that nothing is going terribly wrong in Samsarn's life. My hunch is he's okay. In any case I love him, even while I know him only by his blog.

I am not a Buddhist. And as being a  teacher goes one might ask: What can I learn from a fool? The first and obvious answer to that is not to do as I do. If there is anything at all good to learn from me, it's in those moments when I am kind.

Samsaran introduced me to the word "Sangha."  The paragraph above is a necessary disclaimer, but I am part of the Sangha which congregated around Musings by Samsaran.  I bid you peace.

Max has done great work in organising the Skype group, which I've never joined in. That blog is where I've looked to connect with others in the Sangha. Of course there is rich meaning in the word Sangha and searching that tag provides a window into the broader community of Buddhists. Nowadays Buddhists communities can be found in many locales, and even where not there are others practising mindfulness to be found.

I suspect that there will be people who will curate Sam's Guides, I hope so anyhow because they are helpful. And I suspect that those of us who enjoyed Musings by Samsaran will find ways to signal one another. This post is my stab at that. 

[zenmister]

Goodbye Samsara

The aimless aim of Buddhism is to transcend Samsara. Samsara is the cycle of birth, life and death. Anybody who aspires to Nirvana is living in Samsara. When you transcend Samsara there are no regrets, no longing, no looking back, there is only Nirvana.

In Samsara we have attachments, desires, anger, greed, and ignorance. When we transcend Samsara we lose all that, but we see others still stuck in the cycle, still suffering, and so we help them.

A beautiful, compassionate, wise, brilliant, enlightened man, who called himself Sam, and shared his Samsaran musings to help relieve the suffering in the world, just took his practice offline. As we are delighted to transcend Samsara, we are delighted to get a final, powerful lesson in impermanence and attachment from Sam. Goodbye friend, thank you for the teaching. Enjoy Nirvana.

ps - Sam seems to be enjoying Nirvana in a new blog at: http://panatmansam.tumblr.com/

[doomelemental]

whoa whoa! :O what on earth happened to Sam? (samsaranmusing)

did someone hack his blog? did he just left and deleted it? did something happen to him personally?

[sipping-tea-with-my-suffering]

To those saddened by the sudden disappearance of Sam's blog, remember what you have learned from him and more importantly, that the guru lies within and not without. This sangha will remain strong if we make it so.

[tea-from-the-bodhi-tree]

Samsaramusing.

Most people on the spiritual side of this web sight either know or have heard of Samsaramusing, or as we called him Sam. Today he has deactivated his blog, weather this is forever or just at the moment this is unknown. He was and is a great teacher to all of us, and a great friend/uncle/companion. Do not be saddened by his exit, he has given us much help and advice, we have learned from him, and now it is time for us to use what we have learned. Sam, if you are reading this. Thank you. I hope you are happy were ever you are.  - Levi

[panatmansam]

Do you have a Twitter

I do. It is just pics though: samsaranmusing

[momentomoment]

Looks like one of my favorite tumblrs is gone. I hope this is just a fluke, I truly loved the community Sam built and the wisdom and love he shared in his blog. Thank you Sam and I hope you will be back <3 Namaste

[lifeonlifestermz]

Try. Try and fail. Try. Try and succeed. It is the trying which indicates character not the succeeding.

Sam

[pixelatedparadox]

... The wisest man was an illiterate rice farmer in Medieval China named Wei Ling. He discovered the true meaning of life but, being illiterate, never wrote it down.

Sam