Our Human Needs

We have a hierarchy of three tiers of non-negotiable needs.
FIRST: is the group of factors that meet our biological requirements --clean air, clean water, clean soil and food, energy and biodiversity. Unless these fundamental requirements are fulfilled, people will not be able to look beyond satisfying them immediately at any cost.
SECOND: is the needs coming from our social nature. In order to lead full, rich lives, we need love above all else, and the best way to satisfy that need is to provide for stability of families and communities. In order to develop one’s fullest potential, we must be assured of meaningful employment, justice and security, for without them, we become crippled and incomplete.
THIRD: as spiritual beings, we have to know that there are forces in the cosmos beyond understanding and control, that we are indissolubly part of the totality of life on earth, caught up in an endless process of creation. Only by meeting all of these levels of needs can society provide full satisfaction and opportunity to its members and achieve true sustainability.
The Sacred Balance (David Suzuki)
Sifu Hayes
www.silentriverkungfu.com Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada.

Higher Self

Self-improvement should be an on going process in life. There are always improvements that a person can make on himself or herself. Our process in life on this planet should be to get to the highest self. Everything in life will teach you something as long as you are willing to learn. I find that every day is a learning experience, my problem is that I am not a hundred percent in tune with what the world is trying to teach me. Remember lessons keep repeating themselves until they are learned. So when your head gets sore enough from that brick wall you finally say to yourself that is not the way the cosmos works.
Sifu Hayes
www.silentriverkungfu.com Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

Rant

Not to put a damper on the fact that man and all our earth digging, fossil fuel burning practices do not have an effect on global warming. I watched a few videos and read some articles even NASA acknowledges that all of the planets in our solar system have been warming up at aproximatly the same rate! I know that we should not be pumping dirty fumes into our atmosphere. But it does seem that this is what is going to happen until our thirst for electrical energy and transportation can take a turn, and we as a human race can come up with some new way of producing power, and fueling our vehicles.

In a time when the multitudes were passively relying on brahmins to tell them what to do, Buddha challenged each individual to do his own religious seeking.
"Do not accept what you hear by report, do not accept tradition, do not accept a statement because it is found in our books, nor because it is in accord with your belief, nor because it is the saying of your teacher. Be lamps unto yourselves only and not look for assistance to anyone besides themselves, it is they who shall reach the topmost height."

Sifu Hayes
www.silentriverkungfu.com Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada.

Fly Fishing

Fly Fishing is quite an art, watching someone who has done this for ten years or more. The fly line snakes back and forth over their head it looks like it is slow motion, as they let out more and more line. They are able to place a hook, anywhere they please with precision and getting a cast of twenty to thirty feet and more depending on stream size.
Well then there was me, line out over my back hooked in my vest, hooked in a willow tree, or the tall timothy grass behind me. Then letting the line go and it falls five feet in front of me. I finally did get the hang of it but the casting distance was nothing to write home about. We had a lot of laughs at my learning to Fly Fish. I did catch my first fish actually two on a fly rod what a blast. My fish were a whapping four inches long. Martin caught about fifteen fish, five to ten inches long. It looks like I need a lot more practice. Glad I choose this as a UBBT requirement.
Wading up and down a cool Alberta stream catching Arctic Grayling is something to behold, the silence broken by water running over the rocks, a fish jumping, a crow, raven or a whiskey jack. It really is nature at it best.
Sifu Hayes
www.silentriverkingfu.com Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada