Starting over, again.

Musings: Well, I now know what it takes to knock me off the exercise horse (so to speak). I was managing to stay active and exercise even while on vacation at Chautauqua, but when I came down with a bad upper respiratory virus while half-way through my week's vacation, I found myself taking it easy, resting, drinking plenty of fluids and no longer exercising. I'm still battling the lingering effects of the tenacious bug and have yet to begin exercising again. Housecleaning and going to work seemed more than enough to do.

Even though I did not continue with physical exercise, I did continue to exercise my mind and spirit. I read several books and listened to numerous podcasts of dharma talks. I did metta meditation and, once, having been inspired by Dr. Dharma Singh Kahlsa at Chautauqua, I found myself listening to a meditation (in song), Ek Onkar, Sat Nam, Siri Wahe Guru. I decided to galvanize myself and start blogging again, even though I'm not back at 100% yet.

For the mind: I'm listening to A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester seemingly about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, but actually an education in the advances of geology, plate techtonics, etc.

For the spirit: While surfing the web, I came across the following item from Buddhanet.net

The Game of Janken (Scissors, Paper, Rock)

Janken is perhaps the most popular game which the Japanese, young and old, play when deciding a trivial issue. It is played by thrusting forth the right hand simultaneously with the other player and extending or curling the fingers and thumb to represent the shape of scissors, paper, or rock. Scissors defeat paper because a pair of scissors can cut paper; rock beats scissors because scissors cannot cut rock; and paper defeats rock because it can be wrapped around a rock. This game conveys the profound Buddhist teaching of interdependence and relativeness.

I had no idea that this game had a Japanese ancestry nor did I even suspect it to be an explanation of the interdependence of Buddhism.