Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I've decided to basically stick with the template the way it is right now.I switched the font back to trebuchet and enlarged the font a bit so it's easier to read. As well as switching the title from bold and whitened up the description of the blog.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming:
We need to understand the concept of practice and what makes it spiritual. Practice is an activity that is regularly performed and is an open-ended process, never reaching a point of perfection. We can develop skills or even mastery with practice, but there always remains a quality of something new to learn. If approached with a dull mind, even the most exotic practice becomes a rote expression. A person could spend a lifetime in practice this way and accomplish no more than a perfunctory exterior form without any spiritual substance. Unfortunately, many people find themselves following a traditional practice for the wrong reasons. They make all the right moves, but there is no heart in it. We should approach the most mundane practice with a bright, open beginner's mind and regularly discover new insights, whether brushing our teeth, washing the dishes, or making the bed.
--David A. Cooper, Silence, Simplicity and Solitude
James: I think this is why practicing mindfulness is so important. I see meditation as the key and mindfulness as the door to Buddha nature or awakened being. I like to use the word awakened instead of enlightenment because enlightenment has become so charged and over-used. It has come to mean that there is some kind of "Ah HA!!" moment in one's practice that marks the end of one's journey. The reality is that every moment is an "Ah HA!!"
This can only be achieved in combining meditation, chanting, memorizing sutras with living in mindfulness.
~Peace to all beings~
