dianafilms

building peace

we can either be a bridge to peace and understanding or a block to conflict, one flows, the other merely slows

right speech

Before speaking about something you feel needs correcting (aka criticism), engaging in gossip, etc...:

"Is it true? Is it beneficial? Is this the right time and place to say it? Am I the right person to say this? If you can honestly answer Yes to all four questions, go ahead with your comments. Even then, though, you have to look at their results. If you see that they weren’t actually beneficial or timely, learn from your mistake. That’s how your discernment grows." —Thanissaro Bhikkhu

my addendum to this has been: Is it loving?  Is it Kind?  Is it needed?  Is it useful and to whom?  Will it bring peace, clarity and closure in the long term?  Is it respectfully phrased?  Is your ego attached to the outcome in any way? i.e. do you need to be right about something?  Are you saying this because you need to say it, or because someone needs to hear it?  Would silence preferable? 

Mashup extraordinaire: Jim & Debbie together again for the first time!

 

LOVE

Keep the focus on the story, enjoy the work, respect the audience and most of all, find joy in the doing. Kvell because of the community y/our project created, think of all the careers you're supporting and the jobs you're creating.  You're very fortunate!

If you can, allow yourself to fall in love with it (the process), just a little.  That bounce in your step and that joy is contagious, that top down happy thing has its own momentum and inteligence.  It makes good projects great and difficulties bearable.

 

excerpt from: Notes to New Producers
© Francesca Prada All Rights Reserved 2010

the tao

To be whole, let yourself break.
To be straight, let yourself bend.
To be full, let yourself be empty.
To be new, let yourself wear out.
To have everything, give everything up.

Knowing others is a kind of knowledge;
knowing yourself is wisdom.
Conquering others requires strength;
conquering yourself is true power.
To realize that you have enough is true wealth.
Pushing ahead may succeed,
but staying put brings endurance.
Die without perishing, and find the eternal.

To know that you do not know is strength.
Not knowing that you do not know is a sickness.
The cure begins with the recognition of the sickness.

Knowing what is permanent: enlightenment.
Not knowing what is permanent: disaster.
Knowing what is permanent opens the mind.
Open mind, open heart.
Open heart, magnanimity.

LaoTsu