is it ok to call HH The 14th Dalai Lama cute? i mean his smile, his belly laugh, head scratching and the way he carefully removes his loafers before being seated. observed, of course, with thumbs to my third eye and tears in the first two. i don't really think he'd mind i find him cute. especially since he spoke all about the nature of the mind this morning during his visit to UCSB. as i listened to him speak today, i let myself just take in what i needed, tried not to worry about what i might be missing in the translation. toward the end i felt compelled to take some quick notes. just snippets to reflect upon later. what i am most resonating with as i look at what i was able to get down, is the practice of looking for the precious gaps between thoughts, trying to "tease up" transitional periods where the radiant clear light mind resides. i like that. and i also like the last thing i noted: 

sense of wonderment leads to rips awareness. 

that's what the iphone autocorrect changed it to. and since i was being sneaky using my phone "notepad" to write (no phones allowed in the auditorium), i couldn't see the correction being made. now i'm not sure if i meant to write "ripples into awareness" or, literally, "rips" awareness. i think maybe it's both. sometimes a sense of wonderment guides us into a gentle rippling. other times, it rips us wide open. either way, i'll take it. 

and another little doorway: as i was looking for a photo of HH, i wound up on this site. 

it's called loveology. and it's an homage to beautiful things with oodles of pretty pictures.

i could get lost in there.

another day inspired and closer to being free.

(photo found on loveology)