Update content for gemtext

14 files changed, 377 insertions, 107 deletions

diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-03-16-the-pragmatic-programmer-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-03-16-the-pragmatic-programmer-book-notes.gmi
index 87087a8c..ba633744 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2023-03-16-the-pragmatic-programmer-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2023-03-16-the-pragmatic-programmer-book-notes.gmi
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes
diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi
index fc76127a..d7736ed2 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2023-04-01-never-split-the-difference-book-notes.gmi
@@ -139,6 +139,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes
diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi
index 591339a6..5e73d05d 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2023-05-06-the-obstacle-is-the-way-book-notes.gmi
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes
diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi
index d61d08aa..9dc83fc3 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2023-07-17-career-guide-and-soft-skills-book-notes.gmi
@@ -308,6 +308,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes
diff --git a/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi
index 93cf4f23..b866a8eb 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2023-11-11-mind-management-book-notes.gmi
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes
diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi
index 9dc007c7..2817b430 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2024-05-01-slow-productivity-book-notes.gmi
@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes
diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi
index 6ebd8d77..8fa0ff58 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes (You are currently reading this)
diff --git a/gemfeed/2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi
index fdf891d3..8f7e48f8 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes (You are currently reading this)
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes
diff --git a/gemfeed/2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi
index 3810d761..dbbf80f7 100644
--- a/gemfeed/2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
 
 Other book notes of mine are:
 
+=> ./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi 2025-06-07 "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
 => ./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.gmi 2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes (You are currently reading this)
 => ./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.gmi 2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes
 => ./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.gmi 2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes
diff --git a/gemfeed/2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi b/gemfeed/2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..51872d2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gemfeed/2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+# "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
+
+> Published at 2025-06-07T10:30:11+03:00
+
+These are my personal book notes from Gelong Thubten's "A Monk's Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st century." They are for my own reference, but I hope they might be useful to you as well.
+
+## Table of Contents
+
+* ⇢ "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
+* ⇢ ⇢ Understanding Happiness
+* ⇢ ⇢ The Role of Meditation
+* ⇢ ⇢ Managing Thoughts and Emotions
+* ⇢ ⇢ Practice and Discipline
+* ⇢ ⇢ Perspectives on Relationships and Interactions
+* ⇢ ⇢ Reflective Questions
+* ⇢ ⇢ Miscellaneous Guidelines
+
+## Understanding Happiness
+
+* Happiness is a skill we can train. 
+* Happiness is not about accomplishing goals, as that would be in the future. 
+* Feel free now. No urge about past and future. 
+* We can learn to produce our own happiness independently of physical needs. When we walk in a park, how do we feel? We can train to reproduce that feeling independently. 
+
+## The Role of Meditation
+
+* Meditation is not about clearing your mind. A busy mind has nothing to do with interfering with your meditation.
+* Our problem is that we need to detect that awareness. Meditation connects us with awareness. Awareness is freedom.
+* We can let the mind be and don't care about the thoughts. It will have benefits for your life. It will protect you from all kinds of stress.
+* Better meditate with open eyes so you don't associate it with the dark. You will also be able to be in a meditation state of mind outside of the meditation session.
+* Have a baseline for time to build up discipline.
+* We don't need to do anything about stress, just take a step back.
+
+## Managing Thoughts and Emotions
+
+* Our flow of emotions is really just habits. That can be changed through training, e.g., meditation training.
+* A part of the mind recognises that we are sad or angry. That part is not sad or angry by itself, obviously. So we can escape to that part of the mind, be the observer, and not draw in the constant flow of emotions and thoughts. 
+* Let the front and back doors of your house open, and let the thoughts come in and leave. Just don't serve them tea. This once said, a great Zen master.
+* Thoughts are friends and not enemies. 
+* Thoughts help the meditation as they make us notice that we wandered off, and therefore, we strengthen the reflection.
+
+## Practice and Discipline
+
+* The importance of habits to practice mindfulness. Bring mindfulness into the daily practice.
+* Integrating short moments of mindfulness during the day is the fast track to happiness. Start off with small tasks, e.g. while washing your hands.
+* Have many small doses of mindfulness and don't prolong as otherwise, your mind will revolt.
+* Have a small moment of mindfulness when you wake up and go to sleep.
+* Practice staying fully present in an uncomfortable situation and without judgement.
+* Don't become two persons who never meet: the meditator and the not meditator. So integrate mindfulness during the day too.
+
+## Perspectives on Relationships and Interactions
+
+* Who is the opponent? The other person. The things he said or our reactions to things? Forgiveness is a high form of compassion.
+* Understand the suffering of the person who "hurt" us. Where is the aggressor really coming from?
+* People who are stressed or unhappy do and say things they wouldn't have said have done otherwise. Acting under anger is like being influenced by alcohol.
+* People don't have a masterplan to destroy others, even if it seems so. They are under strong bad influence by themselves. Something terrible happened to them. Revenge makes no sense.
+* Be grateful for people "trying" to hurt you as they help you to practice your path.
+
+## Reflective Questions
+
+*  Why do I do all the things I do? What do I try to achieve?
+*  What am I doing about that? 
+*  Is it working?
+*  What are the real causes of happiness and suffering?
+*  What about meditation? How does that address the situation?
+
+## Miscellaneous Guidelines
+
+*  Posture is important as the mind and body are connected.
+*  Don't use music, so you don't rely on music to change your state of mind. Similar regular guided meditation. Guided meditation is good for learning a technique, but you should not rely on another voice.
+*  You are not trying to relax. Relaxing and trying are two different things.
+*  When you love everything, even the bad things happening to you, then you are invincible.
+*  Happiness is all in your mind. As if you flip a switch there.
+*  Digging for answers will never end. It will always cause more material to dig.
+
+If happiness is a mental issue. Clearly, the best time is spent training your mind in your free time and don't always be busy with other things. E.g. meditation, or think about the benefits of meditation. All that we do in our free time is search for happiness. Are the things we do actually working? There is always something around the corner...
+
+E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
+
+=> ../ Back to the main site
diff --git a/gemfeed/2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi.tpl b/gemfeed/2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi.tpl
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a3149b9d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gemfeed/2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi.tpl
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+# "A Monk's Guide to Happiness" book notes
+
+> Published at 2025-06-07T10:30:11+03:00
+
+These are my personal book notes from Gelong Thubten's "A Monk's Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st century." They are for my own reference, but I hope they might be useful to you as well.
+
+<< template::inline::toc
+
+## Understanding Happiness
+
+* Happiness is a skill we can train. 
+* Happiness is not about accomplishing goals, as that would be in the future. 
+* Feel free now. No urge about past and future. 
+* We can learn to produce our own happiness independently of physical needs. When we walk in a park, how do we feel? We can train to reproduce that feeling independently. 
+
+## The Role of Meditation
+
+* Meditation is not about clearing your mind. A busy mind has nothing to do with interfering with your meditation.
+* Our problem is that we need to detect that awareness. Meditation connects us with awareness. Awareness is freedom.
+* We can let the mind be and don't care about the thoughts. It will have benefits for your life. It will protect you from all kinds of stress.
+* Better meditate with open eyes so you don't associate it with the dark. You will also be able to be in a meditation state of mind outside of the meditation session.
+* Have a baseline for time to build up discipline.
+* We don't need to do anything about stress, just take a step back.
+
+## Managing Thoughts and Emotions
+
+* Our flow of emotions is really just habits. That can be changed through training, e.g., meditation training.
+* A part of the mind recognises that we are sad or angry. That part is not sad or angry by itself, obviously. So we can escape to that part of the mind, be the observer, and not draw in the constant flow of emotions and thoughts. 
+* Let the front and back doors of your house open, and let the thoughts come in and leave. Just don't serve them tea. This once said, a great Zen master.
+* Thoughts are friends and not enemies. 
+* Thoughts help the meditation as they make us notice that we wandered off, and therefore, we strengthen the reflection.
+
+## Practice and Discipline
+
+* The importance of habits to practice mindfulness. Bring mindfulness into the daily practice.
+* Integrating short moments of mindfulness during the day is the fast track to happiness. Start off with small tasks, e.g. while washing your hands.
+* Have many small doses of mindfulness and don't prolong as otherwise, your mind will revolt.
+* Have a small moment of mindfulness when you wake up and go to sleep.
+* Practice staying fully present in an uncomfortable situation and without judgement.
+* Don't become two persons who never meet: the meditator and the not meditator. So integrate mindfulness during the day too.
+
+## Perspectives on Relationships and Interactions
+
+* Who is the opponent? The other person. The things he said or our reactions to things? Forgiveness is a high form of compassion.
+* Understand the suffering of the person who "hurt" us. Where is the aggressor really coming from?
+* People who are stressed or unhappy do and say things they wouldn't have said have done otherwise. Acting under anger is like being influenced by alcohol.
+* People don't have a masterplan to destroy others, even if it seems so. They are under strong bad influence by themselves. Something terrible happened to them. Revenge makes no sense.
+* Be grateful for people "trying" to hurt you as they help you to practice your path.
+
+## Reflective Questions
+
+*  Why do I do all the things I do? What do I try to achieve?
+*  What am I doing about that? 
+*  Is it working?
+*  What are the real causes of happiness and suffering?
+*  What about meditation? How does that address the situation?
+
+## Miscellaneous Guidelines
+
+*  Posture is important as the mind and body are connected.
+*  Don't use music, so you don't rely on music to change your state of mind. Similar regular guided meditation. Guided meditation is good for learning a technique, but you should not rely on another voice.
+*  You are not trying to relax. Relaxing and trying are two different things.
+*  When you love everything, even the bad things happening to you, then you are invincible.
+*  Happiness is all in your mind. As if you flip a switch there.
+*  Digging for answers will never end. It will always cause more material to dig.
+
+If happiness is a mental issue. Clearly, the best time is spent training your mind in your free time and don't always be busy with other things. E.g. meditation, or think about the benefits of meditation. All that we do in our free time is search for happiness. Are the things we do actually working? There is always something around the corner...
+
+E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org` :-)
+
+=> ../ Back to the main site
diff --git a/gemfeed/DRAFT-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-6.gmi b/gemfeed/DRAFT-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-6.gmi
index 7c353136..aab615e5 100644
--- a/gemfeed/DRAFT-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-6.gmi
+++ b/gemfeed/DRAFT-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-6.gmi
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ This is the sixth blog post about the f3s series for self-hosting demands in a h
 * ⇢ ⇢ UFS Setup
 * ⇢ ⇢ ZFS Setup
 * ⇢ ⇢ ⇢ Encryption
+* ⇢ ⇢ HAST
 
 ## Introduction
 
@@ -185,6 +186,108 @@ config:
 
 errors: No known data errors
 ```
+## HAST
+
+```
+doas zpool export zdata
+
+paul@f0:/etc/rc.d % cat /etc/hast.conf
+resource storage {
+        on f0 {
+                local /dev/ada1
+                remote 192.168.1.130
+        }
+        on f1 {
+                local /dev/ada1
+                remote 192.168.1.131
+        }
+}
+
+paul@f0:/etc/rc.d % doas hastctl create storage
+paul@f0:/etc/rc.d % doas hastctl role primary storage
+paul@f0:/etc/rc.d % doas service hastd onestart
+Starting hastd.
+
+paul@f1:/etc/rc.d % doas hastctl create storage
+paul@f1:/etc/rc.d % doas hastctl role secondary storage
+paul@f1:/etc/rc.d % doas service hastd onestart
+Starting hastd.
+
+
+paul@f0:/var/log % doas hastctl status
+Name    Status   Role           Components
+storage complete primary        /dev/ada1       192.168.1.131
+
+paul@f1:/var/log % doas hastctl status
+Name    Status   Role           Components
+storage complete secondary      /dev/ada1       192.168.1.130
+
+
+
+paul@f0:/dev/hast % ls -l /dev/hast/storage
+crw-r-----  1 root operator 0x83 Jun  6 00:08 /dev/hast/storage
+
+paul@f0:/dev/hast % doas zpool create -m /zhast zhast /dev/hast/storage
+paul@f0:/dev/hast % doas zpool status zhast
+  pool: zhast
+ state: ONLINE
+config:
+
+        NAME            STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
+        zhast           ONLINE       0     0     0
+          hast/storage  ONLINE       0     0     0
+
+errors: No known data errors
+paul@f0:/dev/hast % doas zpool list
+NAME    SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  CKPOINT  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP    HEALTH  ALTROOT
+zhast   928G   420K   928G        -         -     0%     0%  1.00x    ONLINE  -
+zroot   472G  21.0G   451G        -         -     0%     4%  1.00x    ONLINE  -```
+
+
+paul@f0:/dev/hast % doas openssl rand -out /keys/zhast.key 32
+paul@f0:/dev/hast % doas zfs create -o encryption=on -o keyformat=raw -o keylocation=file:///keys/zhast.key zhast/enc
+paul@f0:/data/enc % zfs list | grep hast
+zhast                                          764K   899G    96K  /zhast
+zhast/enc                                      200K   899G   200K  /zhast/enc
+
+... copying the key to f1
+
+
+paul@f1:/var/log % doas hastctl list
+storage:
+  role: secondary
+  provname: storage
+  localpath: /dev/ada1
+  extentsize: 2097152 (2.0MB)
+  keepdirty: 0
+  remoteaddr: 192.168.1.130
+  replication: memsync
+  status: complete
+  workerpid: 2546
+  dirty: 0 (0B)
+  statistics:
+    reads: 0
+    writes: 26
+    deletes: 0
+    flushes: 0
+    activemap updates: 0
+    local errors: read: 0, write: 0, delete: 0, flush: 0
+    queues: local: 0, send: 0, recv: 0, done: 0, idle: 255
+
+
+
+
+
+paul@f1:/var/log % zfs get all zhast/enc | grep -E '(encryption|key)'
+zhast/enc  encryption            aes-256-gcm             -
+zhast/enc  keylocation           file:///keys/zhast.key  local
+zhast/enc  keyformat             raw                     -
+zhast/enc  encryptionroot        zhast/enc               -
+zhast/enc  keystatus             unavailable             -
+
+root@f0:/zhast/enc # sysrc hastd_enable=YES
+hastd_enable: NO -> YES
+
 
 ZFS auto scrubbing....~?
 
@@ -206,3 +309,5 @@ Other *BSD-related posts:
 E-Mail your comments to `paul@nospam.buetow.org`
 
 => ../ Back to the main site
+
+https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/hast-and-zfs-with-carp-failover.29639/
diff --git a/gemfeed/atom.xml b/gemfeed/atom.xml
index e118ed3d..ac8dedb9 100644
--- a/gemfeed/atom.xml
+++ b/gemfeed/atom.xml
@@ -1,12 +1,113 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 <feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
-    <updated>2025-06-03T10:27:49+03:00</updated>
+    <updated>2025-06-07T10:30:12+03:00</updated>
     <title>foo.zone feed</title>
     <subtitle>To be in the .zone!</subtitle>
     <link href="gemini://foo.zone/gemfeed/atom.xml" rel="self" />
     <link href="gemini://foo.zone/" />
     <id>gemini://foo.zone/</id>
     <entry>
+        <title>'A Monk's Guide to Happiness' book notes</title>
+        <link href="gemini://foo.zone/gemfeed/2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi" />
+        <id>gemini://foo.zone/gemfeed/2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.gmi</id>
+        <updated>2025-06-07T10:30:11+03:00</updated>
+        <author>
+            <name>Paul Buetow aka snonux</name>
+            <email>paul@dev.buetow.org</email>
+        </author>
+        <summary>These are my personal book notes from Gelong Thubten's 'A Monk's Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st century.' They are for my own reference, but I hope they might be useful to you as well.</summary>
+        <content type="xhtml">
+            <div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+                <h1 style='display: inline' id='a-monk-s-guide-to-happiness-book-notes'>"A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</h1><br />
+<br />
+<span>These are my personal book notes from Gelong Thubten&#39;s "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness: Meditation in the 21st century." They are for my own reference, but I hope they might be useful to you as well.</span><br />
+<br />
+<h2 style='display: inline' id='table-of-contents'>Table of Contents</h2><br />
+<br />
+<ul>
+<li><a href='#a-monk-s-guide-to-happiness-book-notes'>"A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a></li>
+<li>⇢ <a href='#understanding-happiness'>Understanding Happiness</a></li>
+<li>⇢ <a href='#the-role-of-meditation'>The Role of Meditation</a></li>
+<li>⇢ <a href='#managing-thoughts-and-emotions'>Managing Thoughts and Emotions</a></li>
+<li>⇢ <a href='#practice-and-discipline'>Practice and Discipline</a></li>
+<li>⇢ <a href='#perspectives-on-relationships-and-interactions'>Perspectives on Relationships and Interactions</a></li>
+<li>⇢ <a href='#reflective-questions'>Reflective Questions</a></li>
+<li>⇢ <a href='#miscellaneous-guidelines'>Miscellaneous Guidelines</a></li>
+</ul><br />
+<h2 style='display: inline' id='understanding-happiness'>Understanding Happiness</h2><br />
+<br />
+<ul>
+<li>Happiness is a skill we can train. </li>
+<li>Happiness is not about accomplishing goals, as that would be in the future. </li>
+<li>Feel free now. No urge about past and future. </li>
+<li>We can learn to produce our own happiness independently of physical needs. When we walk in a park, how do we feel? We can train to reproduce that feeling independently. </li>
+</ul><br />
+<h2 style='display: inline' id='the-role-of-meditation'>The Role of Meditation</h2><br />
+<br />
+<ul>
+<li>Meditation is not about clearing your mind. A busy mind has nothing to do with interfering with your meditation.</li>
+<li>Our problem is that we need to detect that awareness. Meditation connects us with awareness. Awareness is freedom.</li>
+<li>We can let the mind be and don&#39;t care about the thoughts. It will have benefits for your life. It will protect you from all kinds of stress.</li>
+<li>Better meditate with open eyes so you don&#39;t associate it with the dark. You will also be able to be in a meditation state of mind outside of the meditation session.</li>
+<li>Have a baseline for time to build up discipline.</li>
+<li>We don&#39;t need to do anything about stress, just take a step back.</li>
+</ul><br />
+<h2 style='display: inline' id='managing-thoughts-and-emotions'>Managing Thoughts and Emotions</h2><br />
+<br />
+<ul>
+<li>Our flow of emotions is really just habits. That can be changed through training, e.g., meditation training.</li>
+<li>A part of the mind recognises that we are sad or angry. That part is not sad or angry by itself, obviously. So we can escape to that part of the mind, be the observer, and not draw in the constant flow of emotions and thoughts. </li>
+<li>Let the front and back doors of your house open, and let the thoughts come in and leave. Just don&#39;t serve them tea. This once said, a great Zen master.</li>
+<li>Thoughts are friends and not enemies. </li>
+<li>Thoughts help the meditation as they make us notice that we wandered off, and therefore, we strengthen the reflection.</li>
+</ul><br />
+<h2 style='display: inline' id='practice-and-discipline'>Practice and Discipline</h2><br />
+<br />
+<ul>
+<li>The importance of habits to practice mindfulness. Bring mindfulness into the daily practice.</li>
+<li>Integrating short moments of mindfulness during the day is the fast track to happiness. Start off with small tasks, e.g. while washing your hands.</li>
+<li>Have many small doses of mindfulness and don&#39;t prolong as otherwise, your mind will revolt.</li>
+<li>Have a small moment of mindfulness when you wake up and go to sleep.</li>
+<li>Practice staying fully present in an uncomfortable situation and without judgement.</li>
+<li>Don&#39;t become two persons who never meet: the meditator and the not meditator. So integrate mindfulness during the day too.</li>
+</ul><br />
+<h2 style='display: inline' id='perspectives-on-relationships-and-interactions'>Perspectives on Relationships and Interactions</h2><br />
+<br />
+<ul>
+<li>Who is the opponent? The other person. The things he said or our reactions to things? Forgiveness is a high form of compassion.</li>
+<li>Understand the suffering of the person who "hurt" us. Where is the aggressor really coming from?</li>
+<li>People who are stressed or unhappy do and say things they wouldn&#39;t have said have done otherwise. Acting under anger is like being influenced by alcohol.</li>
+<li>People don&#39;t have a masterplan to destroy others, even if it seems so. They are under strong bad influence by themselves. Something terrible happened to them. Revenge makes no sense.</li>
+<li>Be grateful for people "trying" to hurt you as they help you to practice your path.</li>
+</ul><br />
+<h2 style='display: inline' id='reflective-questions'>Reflective Questions</h2><br />
+<br />
+<ul>
+<li> Why do I do all the things I do? What do I try to achieve?</li>
+<li> What am I doing about that? </li>
+<li> Is it working?</li>
+<li> What are the real causes of happiness and suffering?</li>
+<li> What about meditation? How does that address the situation?</li>
+</ul><br />
+<h2 style='display: inline' id='miscellaneous-guidelines'>Miscellaneous Guidelines</h2><br />
+<br />
+<ul>
+<li> Posture is important as the mind and body are connected.</li>
+<li> Don&#39;t use music, so you don&#39;t rely on music to change your state of mind. Similar regular guided meditation. Guided meditation is good for learning a technique, but you should not rely on another voice.</li>
+<li> You are not trying to relax. Relaxing and trying are two different things.</li>
+<li> When you love everything, even the bad things happening to you, then you are invincible.</li>
+<li> Happiness is all in your mind. As if you flip a switch there.</li>
+<li> Digging for answers will never end. It will always cause more material to dig.</li>
+</ul><br />
+<span>If happiness is a mental issue. Clearly, the best time is spent training your mind in your free time and don&#39;t always be busy with other things. E.g. meditation, or think about the benefits of meditation. All that we do in our free time is search for happiness. Are the things we do actually working? There is always something around the corner...</span><br />
+<br />
+<span>E-Mail your comments to <span class='inlinecode'>paul@nospam.buetow.org</span> :-)</span><br />
+<br />
+<a class='textlink' href='../'>Back to the main site</a><br />
+            </div>
+        </content>
+    </entry>
+    <entry>
         <title>f3s: Kubernetes with FreeBSD - Part 5: WireGuard mesh network</title>
         <link href="gemini://foo.zone/gemfeed/2025-05-11-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-5.gmi" />
         <id>gemini://foo.zone/gemfeed/2025-05-11-f3s-kubernetes-with-freebsd-part-5.gmi</id>
@@ -1552,6 +1653,7 @@ __ejm\___/________dwb`---`______________________
 <br />
 <span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
 <br />
+<a class='textlink' href='./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.html'>2025-06-07 "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.html'>2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes (You are currently reading this)</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.html'>2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.html'>2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a><br />
@@ -4669,6 +4771,7 @@ dev.cpu.<font color="#000000">0</font>.freq: <font color="#000000">2922</font>
 <br />
 <span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
 <br />
+<a class='textlink' href='./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.html'>2025-06-07 "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.html'>2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.html'>2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes (You are currently reading this)</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.html'>2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a><br />
@@ -5323,6 +5426,7 @@ jgs \\`_..---.Y.---.._`//
 <br />
 <span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
 <br />
+<a class='textlink' href='./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.html'>2025-06-07 "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.html'>2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.html'>2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.html'>2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes (You are currently reading this)</a><br />
@@ -6664,6 +6768,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
 <br />
 <span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
 <br />
+<a class='textlink' href='./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.html'>2025-06-07 "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.html'>2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.html'>2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.html'>2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a><br />
@@ -8096,6 +8201,7 @@ echo baz
 <br />
 <span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
 <br />
+<a class='textlink' href='./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.html'>2025-06-07 "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.html'>2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.html'>2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.html'>2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a><br />
@@ -9318,6 +9424,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
 <br />
 <span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
 <br />
+<a class='textlink' href='./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.html'>2025-06-07 "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.html'>2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.html'>2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.html'>2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a><br />
@@ -9747,6 +9854,7 @@ http://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite -->
 <br />
 <span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
 <br />
+<a class='textlink' href='./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.html'>2025-06-07 "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-19-when-book-notes.html'>2025-04-19 "When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-10-24-staff-engineer-book-notes.html'>2024-10-24 "Staff Engineer" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2024-07-07-the-stoic-challenge-book-notes.html'>2024-07-07 "The Stoic Challenge" book notes</a><br />
@@ -10114,6 +10222,7 @@ no1 in   455 days, 18:52:44 | at                        Sun Jul 21 07:37:51 2024
 <br />
 <span>Other book notes of mine are:</span><br />
 <br />
+<a class='textlink' href='./2025-06-07-a-monks-guide-to-happiness-book-notes.html'>2025-06-07 "A Monk&#39;s Guide to Happiness" book notes</a><br />
 <a class='textlink' href='./2025-04-19-w