This I Believe…
Hello all 🙂
It’s been a crazy few weeks in the world. Crazy few months, now that I think about it. Governments overthrown, governments on the brink of shutting down, people dug into positions and ideologies that are hard to overcome sometimes. It’s a deep time in our world, in our communities and in the deep places in our hearts.
In times like this, when so much happens so quickly, when what we see and hear a lot of times is negative or argumentative, I think it’s important to slow down and remember that deep inside, we are all good people. For every person out there who is out to do someone harm, there are ten more who truly will stop to lend a hand. In times like this, I often think of this essay from This I Believe.
For the uninitiated, This I Believe is an international organization engaging people in writing and sharing essays describing the core values that guide their daily lives. More than 90,000 of these essays, written by people from all walks of life, are archived on their website, heard on public radio, chronicled in books, and featured in weekly podcasts. The project is based on the popular 1950s radio series of the same name hosted by Edward R. Murrow.
What follows is one of my all time favorites, by Robert A. Heinlein. If you’d like to find the full page with audio, you can find that here. Feel free to leave comments with your favorites as well.
Before I leave you with a cut and paste from their website, a closing thought from me….I know this is a hard time for a lot of people, including many of you who read this blog. With that in mind, a gentle reminder to breathe and be gentle with yourselves. Keep the faith, sweet friends. We are all we’ve got, and in times like this, I think it’s important to remember that we are enough. YOU are enough. Relax. Breathe in deep. Loosen your shoulders . Let the Divine whisper reminders of sweet Love in your ears. Remember that no matter what the news tells you, people are still good at their core. Love still makes the world go round. Lol, and chocolate still makes the trip worthwhile. 😉
I hope as you read this, it helps you remember your own noble, essential decency and goodness. Enjoy!
Our Noble, Essential Decency
I am not going to talk about religious beliefs but about matters so obvious that it has gone out of style to mention them. I believe in my neighbors. I know their faults, and I know that their virtues far outweigh their faults.
Take Father Michael, down our road a piece. I’m not of his creed, but I know that goodness and charity and loving kindness shine in his daily actions. I believe in Father Mike. If I’m in trouble, I’ll go to him. My next door neighbor’s a veterinary doctor. Doc will get out of bed after a hard day to help a stray cat—no fee, no prospect of a fee. I believe in Doc.
I believe in my townspeople. You can knock on any door in our town, say “I’m hungry,” and you’ll be fed. Our town is no exception. I found the same ready charity everywhere. For the one who says, “The heck with you, I’ve got mine,” there are a hundred, a thousand, who will say, “Sure pal, sit down.” I know that despite all warnings against hitchhikers, I can step to the highway, thumb for a ride, and in a few minutes a car or a truck will stop and someone will say, “Climb in Mack. How far you going?”
I believe in my fellow citizens. Our headlines are splashed with crime. Yet for every criminal, there are ten thousand honest, decent, kindly men. If it were not so, no child would live to grow up. Business could not go on from day to day. Decency is not news. It is buried in the obituaries, but it is a force stronger than crime.
I believe in the patient gallantry of nurses, in the tedious sacrifices of teachers. I believe in the unseen and unending fight against desperate odds that goes on quietly in almost every home in the land. I believe in the honest craft of workmen. Take a look around you. There never were enough bosses to check up on all that work. From Independence Hall to the Grand Coulee Dam, these things were built level and square by craftsmen who were honest in their bones.
I believe that almost all politicians are honest. For every bribed alderman, there are hundreds of politicians—low paid or not paid at all—doing their level best without thanks or glory to make our system work. If this were not true, we would never have gotten past the Thirteen Colonies.
I believe in Rodger Young. You and I are free today because of endless unnamed heroes from Valley Forge to the Yalu River. I believe in—I am proud to belong to—the United States. Despite shortcomings—from lynchings, to bad faith in high places—our nation has had the most decent and kindly internal practices and foreign policies to be found anywhere in history.
And finally, I believe in my whole race—yellow, white, black, red, brown—in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth—that we always make it just for the skin of our teeth—but that we will always make it, survive, endure.
I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching oversized braincase and the opposable thumb—this animal barely up from the apes—will endure, will endure longer than his home planet, will spread out to the other planets—to the stars and beyond—carrying with him his honesty, his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage, and his noble essential decency. This I believe with all my heart.
Robert A. Heinlein won four Hugo Awards during his 50-year career as a science fiction writer. Born and raised in Missouri, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1929 and did aeronautical engineering for the Navy during World War II. Heinlein’s books include “Starship Troopers” and “Stranger in a Strange Land.”
Jamie Oliver TED Talk
Hello all! Blogger Slacker Returns 🙂
I’ve had several conversations with people lately about food. Not just about what to have for dinner, but why we are choosing what to eat. Local? Organic? Free Trade? Healthy? Not? What really matters and why does it matter? Food is more than just about fuel for the body, although that is certainly important. But the food choices we make impact others and the health of the planet, as well as our own health.
During this conversation about food and choices, this really cool TED talk by Jamie Oliver came up, so I wanted to post it. In looking at the TED site, I again realized how many cool things are there. I’ll post some more of my faves in the coming weeks, but for now, enjoy Jamie Oliver excellent talk on the primal and communal nature of food and our choices. I hope it nourishes you in every way.
Peace and happy munching! 🙂
[ted id=765]
Be Still And Know …
Be still and know I Am God…
~~Psalm 46:10
Hello all 🙂 Blogger slacker strikes twice in a week, how bout that?
I’ve had lots of calls and emails this week about things going on in Japan, in the States, in personal and professional lives…lots of stress for people right now. In times of stress–and I realize this is counter-intuitive for some folks–but in times of stress, I think it’s helpful to remember that usually the best thing we can do is get quiet, regroup, get still and just breathe. It is only in the present moment that you can hear the still, small voice whispering in your ear… kind things, loving things, reassuring things, helpful things. That other voice…the one taunting you about mistakes of the past or fears of the future, the one that says you must be perfect, accomplish more in a day, hold on tighter, work harder, run faster and not rest…that is the voice of the oppressor, not the voice of the Divine. In this time of global tragedy, upheaval, turmoil and unrest, I think some deep breaths are in order.
So I was thinking that perhaps a gentle reminder to listen to the still, small Voice might be helpful today. One of my favorite reminders comes from The Vision of Enoch, found in a larger text called the Essene Gospel of Peace. I’ll let the scholars and archeologists and theologians hash out what they believe is true or not true or authentic about the origin or intention of that piece of literature. I’m honestly not concerned about that so much, I’m much more interested in the sweetness of the content. This is one of my favorite prayers and regardless of origin, I think no prayer is ever wasted.
So with that in mind….May you find the Vision of Peace within. May you hear a still, small voice whispering that you are good, that you can rest, that you can know and be known, that you are safe and all is well. If you are so inclined, feel free to share that stillness and rest with others, or at least aspire that they can also experience that level of peace and rest. Be still and know Divine peace and love surround you and dwell within you and that you can trust the process of life. Be gentle with you, have a great day and remember to breathe. And enjoy Enoch! 🙂
THE VISION OF ENOCH
God Speaks to you
I speak to you.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I spoke to you
When you were born.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I spoke to you
At your first sight.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I spoke to you
At your first word.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I spoke to you
At your first thought.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I spoke to you
At your first love.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I spoke to you
At your first song.
Be still
Know I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the grass of the meadows.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the trees of the forests.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the valleys and the hills.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the Holy Mountains.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the rain and the snow.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the waves of the sea.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the dew of the morning.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the peace of the evening.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the splendor of the sun.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the brilliant stars.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the storm and the clouds.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I speak to you
Through the thunder and lightning.
Be still
Know
I am
God
I speak to you
Through the mysterious rainbow.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I will speak to you
When you are alone.
Be still
Know
I am
God
I will speak to you
Through the Wisdom of the Ancients.
Be still
Know
I am
God
I will speak to you
At the end of time.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I will speak to you
When you have seen my Angels.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
I will speak to you
Throughout Eternity.
Be still
Know
I am
God
I speak to you.
Be still
Know
I am
God.
MABA & Tsunami Relief, Buddhist Events
Hello All! Blogger Slacker returns with spring events at MABA, including their China trip and tsunami relief for the Buddhist community in Japan. If you have never been to MABA, this pic is from them.
www.maba-usa.org for directions and information
Mid-America Buddhist Association Monastery
via Hwy. 94 to Schindler Rd. in Augusta , MO – a secluded and tranquil setting
Dear Friends,
See Below for information about:
1) Earthquake – Tsunami Relief
2) Sunday Meditation Schedule
3) Sunday Study Group
4) Spring Meditation Retreat — April 16
5) Qingming Ancestor Memorial
6) May preview – Vesak Day May 15 and Retreat May 28
7) Trip to China – Sept 15-29
As the three month Monastic Winter Retreat comes to a close at the end of March, MABA opens again with a number of events. This email summarizes and highlights our offerings to the public.
First, we hold in our hearts all those who have suffered greatly from the recent earthquakes from New Zealand to Japan. We are very concerned most recently about the events in Japan. Some may wish to donate directly through a Buddhist Charity. Tzu Chi Foundation is one well-known charity and can be found online. They already have a network of assistance on the ground in Japan.
From our Dharma Friend, Rosan, head of the Missouri Zen Center, he forwards this message to us:
There has been an outpouring of grief and sympathy for those who are suffering there. Many people have contacted us at the Soto Zen Buddhism North America Office asking how they can contribute money for disaster relief to help in the recovery. We will collect relief funds at our office and take them to Sotoshu. If you and your temple or center wish to help with this, please send a check to our office payable to “Association of Soto Zen Buddhists” by April 10th, 2011. Please write on the check that it is specifically for “Japan Earthquake Relief.” The address is 123 S. Hewitt St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. The Abbot is thankful for our consideration.
Visitors to MABA will notice some important changes, including the nearly completed construction of the Humble Cottage, a residence for monks and a men’s retreat dormitory. The building is partially heated and cooled by geothermal technology.
MABA Sunday Schedule
8:40 am – Study Group (optional, see below)
10:00 am – Sitting Meditation
10:40 am – Walking Meditation
11:00 am – Dharma Talk
11:34 am – Chanting the Sutras (mostly in English)
11:45 am – Vegetarian Lunch
All activities are free and open to the public. No pre-registration required.
Donations are greatly appreciated.
MABA resumes its usual Sunday schedule on March 27. Master Jiru will give his first talk in over three months. This will be his only public Dharma Talk here until August.
Mahayana Buddhist Study Group
Every Sunday starting April 3, 2011
8:40 to 9:50 before meditation
The Sunday Study Group resumes on April 3, facilitated by Ven. Kongmu. We will be studying Bhikkhu Bodhi’s In the Buddha’s Words. This book can be ordered online, and MABA has some copies for purchase as well. This is a fundamental text, giving us a step-by-step guide to understanding the Buddha’s teachings. For those of us who studied this in 2007, this gives us an opportunity to go more deeply into the teachings and share our understanding with others.
Register by contacting donshushu@yahoo.com.
Spring Retreat at MABA
Saturday, April 16, 2011
8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Mindfulness and Understanding Consciousness
In the past few years our Beginner Retreats have focused on Mindfulness and the Four Noble Truths and Mindfulness and the Three Divisions of the Eightfold Path. This year we will be looking more deeply into consciousness, what it is and how to transform it.
This retreat is especially designed for beginners but is also open to more experienced meditators. We all benefit from renewing our practice, and, as Suzuki Roshi said, Zen is cultivating our “Beginner’s Mind.”
This one day mini-retreat will allow us to investigate the connection between mindfulness sitting practice and how to understand and transform our consciousness. Each Dharma talk will also include a time for questions and answers and some discussion. There will also be short breaks between the sessions.
Pre-Registration is required.
Please contact donshushu@yahoo.com to pre-register. Space is limited. Register soon as we have had to put people on the waiting list in the past. There are no overnight provisions for this Retreat. $35.00 Donation to MABA for food and facilities appreciated.
Qingming Ancestor Memorial
At MABA’s Dizang Hall
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Times and Details to be announced
Qingming Ancestor Memorial is a traditional Chinese day of remembering those in our family who have passed away. We remember their contributions and honor their memory. Chanting will be done in the Dizang Hall.
We hope to see all of you soon. Please come and join us.
In May we have more offerings.
Vesak Day is at MABA this year. Save the date: Sunday, May 15
Refuge and Precept Retreat will be on Saturday, May 28
China Trip September 15-29, 2011
Have you ever wanted to visit China? We will be traveling with Buddhist Monastics across China for 2 weeks, visiting Beijing (Great Wall, Forbidden City), Xi’an (clay soldiers), Chengdu (Er Mei Mountain), Potuoshan Island (Guanyin Mountain), and Shanghai.
Cost: Approximately $3000 !!! This includes direct flight airfare from Chicago, all hotels (5 and 4 stars), most meals, and entrance fees to events (Chinese acrobats, Monasteries, etc). This is truly a chance of a lifetime. Katty Choi is organizing and leading the trip. To get on the list of those very interested, email donshushu@yahoo.com. Participants will be limited because we want to have enough translators. Pre-planning is required for Travel Visas, etc.
Whole Hearted Courage
Courage is the power to let go of the familiar…
~~Raymond Lundquist
Hello all 🙂 Blogger Slacker returns…
I took this pic a few weeks ago in a remote place called Cathedral Canyon, in The Middle Of Nowhere, Missouri. To reach this place, you have to leave all that is familiar, drive 2 hours from a major city, then hike even further into the more-middle-of-nowhere. I must say~~ it was totally worth it. The pic doesn’t do it justice. I spent a few days in that part of the world, totally off the grid and reconnecting with myself. It was lovely in a million different ways. During that time, I pondered why it is that I often have to leave all that is familiar on the outside to reconnect to what I love that is familiar on the inside. But that is another blog post for another day.
I was thinking today about all of the horror in Japan, reflecting on the impermanence of everything we think is familiar, all we hold dear. The funny thing is that as things change or become unfamiliar, the human tendency is to engage in our familiar patterns that often don’t serve us….old patterns of shutting up or down, lashing out or in, running away instead of running toward the change. Yet there is so much change happening all the time and that’s what we call life. When we like the changes we say things are going well, when we don’t like the changes we say they aren’t. But that’s familiar too. I think it takes real courage to go with all the flows of life, to swim through what might feel like a tsunami with an open heart. I’m amazed by how many people are able to do just that and I’m grateful when I can do it myself.
This is a time of Lent for some…fasting, prayer and reflection. This is a time of loss and horror for others…unprecedented, horrible loss on a scale I can’t even begin to comprehend. This is a time of joy for others…birth, new jobs, new homes, dreams coming true. This is a time of death and illness for others and on and on the list of changes goes. No matter what the circumstance, it takes courage to face it and walk through it with an open mind and heart. And in the middle of it all, in the middle of all the magic and all the tragic, we all crave connection with others. I have come to believe with my whole heart that the only way I can have a connection with you is if I have a connection with myself first. And, at least for myself, I feel most connected in a helpful way to myself if I feel connected to the Divine and all of the ways in which God moves within.
All of this made me think of Brene Brown and her work. Brene has done some very interesting research in the fields of courage, compassion, shame and how to live with a whole heart. She speaks of the original meaning of the word “courage,” meaning to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart. Her research is very interesting and beautiful, I’ll post a clip at the end of one of her TED talks. It’s well worth the 20 minutes or so it takes to watch.
As you ponder courage and living life with a whole heart…If you are so inclined, please remember those for whom this is a hard or tragic time. If you are further inclined, perhaps you could hold yourself and others in the gentle and loving space of a whole heart, or at least hold the aspiration that you can do so, for yourself and others. We are all we’ve got, sweet friends. And I think it’s important to remember we are all enough. YOU are enough. Yes, you. May you go forth with that knowing and the courage of a whole heart of peace and kindness toward yourself and others.
With that, I leave you with Dr. Brene Brown, her bio and video.
Brené Brown, Ph.D., LMSW is a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. She has spent the past ten years studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame. Brené spent the first five years of her decade-long study focusing on shame and empathy, and is now using that work to explore a concept that she calls Wholeheartedness. She poses the questions:
How do we learn to embrace our vulnerabilities and imperfections so that we can engage in our lives from a place of authenticity and worthiness? How do we cultivate the courage, compassion, and connection that we need to recognize that we are enough – that we are worthy of love, belonging, and joy?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Qm9cGRub0]
What Love Is
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres….And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
~~1 Corinthians 13
Today’s post is a direct cut and paste from What Love Is, by Ayya Khema, a Dharma Teacher. Born in Berlin of Jewish parents in 1923, Ayya Khema escaped Nazi Germany in 1938 to Glasgow. She joined her parents two years later in Shanghai, where the family was put into a Japanese POW camp in which her father died. Four years after her camp was liberated, Ayya Khema emigrated to the United States where she married and had two children. While traveling in Asia from 1960 to 1964, she learned meditation and in 1975, began to teach. Three years later she established Wat Buddha Dhamma, a forest monastery in the Theravada tradition near Sydney, Australia. In 1979 she was ordained as a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka. She is currently the spiritual director of BuddhaHaus in Oy-Mittleberg, Germany, which she established. She has written numerous books in English and German, including Being Nobody, Going Nowhere and When the Iron Eagle Flies.
I’ve thought a lot about “love” lately and what it means to really love and love well. I wrote some thoughts on this a few months ago in a post entitled Love is Kind. You can find that here if you are interested. More and more I realize it is only middle and upper class people who demand to pray or meditate in clean, “spiritual” places. People have prayed and felt love in concentration camps, mine shafts, wide open prairies, ghettos and slums since the beginning of time. Love has always been with us and can always be if we choose it. I find a great deal of inspiration from Jesus, Buddha, Mother Theresa and many other teachers, but honestly at times they seem very removed from my daily life, perhaps “not understanding” what I might be up against. Reading teachings by Ayya Khema and others who have come through experiences like hers somehow makes distant teachings seem more present, accessible and real. There is no real new information here…all of the great teachers and sages tell us the same things again and again. But today, when our country spends millions of dollars on cheap chocolate and Hallmark, I thought I might pass along a wonderful reading on What Love Is. Enjoy!
~~~~~
MOST PEOPLE are under the impression that they can think out their lives. But that’s a misconception. We are subject to our emotions and think in ways based on our emotions. So it’s extremely important to do something about our emotions. In the same way as the Buddha gave us the Four Supreme Efforts for the mind, he also outlined the Four Emotions for the heart. The Four Emotions–lovingkindness (metta), compassion (karuna), joy with others (mudita), and equanimity (upekkha)–are called the “divine abodes.” When we have perfected these four, we have heaven on earth, paradise in our own heart.
I think everybody knows that above us is the sky and not heaven. We have heaven and hell within us and can experience this quite easily. So even without having complete concentration in meditation and profound insights, the Four Divine Abodes enable us to live on a level of truth and lovingness, security, and certainty, which gives life a totally different quality. When we are able to arouse love in our hearts without any cause, just because love is the heart’s quality, we feel secure. It is impossible to buy security, even though many people would like to do so. Insurance companies have the largest buildings because people try to buy security. But when we create certainty within, through a loving heart, we feel assured that our reactions and feelings are not going to be detrimental to our own or other people’s happiness. Many fears will vanish.
Metta–the first of the Supreme Emotions–is usually translated as “loving kindness.” But loving-kindness doesn’t have the same impact in English that the word love has, which carries a lot of meaning for us. We have many ideas about love. The most profound thought we have about love, which is propagated in novels, movies, and billboards, is the idea that love exists between two people who are utterly compatible, usually young and pretty, and who for some odd reason have a chemical attraction toward each other-none of which can last. Most people find out during the course of their lifetime that this is a myth, that it doesn’t work that way. Most people then think it’s their own fault or the other person’s fault or the fault of both, and they try a new relationship. After the third, fourth, or fifth try, they might know better; but a lot of people are still trying. That’s usually what’s called love in our society.
In reality, love is a quality of our heart. The heart has no other function. If we were aware that we all contain love within us, and that we can foster and develop it, we would certainly give that far more attention than we do. In all developed societies there are institutions to foster the expansion of the mind, from the age of three until death. But we don’t have any institutions to develop the heart, so we have to do it ourselves. Most people are either waiting for or relating to the one person who makes it possible for them to feel love at last. But that kind of love is beset with fear, and fear is part of hate. What we hate is the idea that this special person may die, walk away, have other feelings and thoughts-in other words, the fear that love may end, because we believe that love is situated strictly in that one person. Since there are six billion people on this planet, this is rather absurd. Yet most people think that our love-ability is dependent upon one person and having that one person near us. That creates the fear of loss, and love beset by fear cannot be pure. We create a dependency upon that person, and on his or her ideas and emotions. There is no freedom in that, no freedom to love.
If we see quite clearly that love is a quality that we all have, then we can start developing that ability. Any skill that we have, we have developed through practice. If we’ve learned to type, we’ve had to practice. We can practice love and eventually we’ll have that skill. Love has nothing to do with finding somebody who is worth loving, or checking out people to see whether they are truly lovable. If we investigate ourselves honestly enough, we find that we’re not all that lovable either, so why do we expect somebody else to be totally lovable? It has nothing to do with the qualities of the other person, or whether he or she wants to be loved, is going to love us back, or needs love. Everyone needs love. Because we know our own faults, when somebody loves us we think, Oh, that’s great, this person loves me and doesn’t even know I have all these problems. We’re looking for somebody to love us to support a certain image of ourselves. If we can’t find anybody, we feel bereft. People even get depressed or search for escape routes. These are wrong ways of going at it.
IN THE spiritual path, there’s nothing to get, and everything to get rid of. The first thing to let go of is trying to “get” love, and instead to give it. That’s the secret of the spiritual path. One has to give oneself wholeheartedly. Whatever we do half heartedly, brings halfhearted results. How can we give ourselves? By not holding back. By not wanting for ourselves. If we want to be loved, we are looking for a support system. If we want to love, we are looking for spiritual growth. Disliking others is far too easy. Anybody can do it and justify it because, of course, people are often not very bright and don’t act the way we’d like them to act. Disliking makes grooves in the heart, and it becomes easier and easier to fall into these grooves. We not only dislike others, but also ourselves. If one likes or loves oneself, it’s easier to love others, which is why we always start loving-kindness meditations with the focus on ourselves. That’s not egocentricity. If we don’t like ourselves because we have faults, or have made mistakes, we will transfer that dislike to others and judge them accordingly. We are not here to be judge and jury. First of all, we don’t even have the qualifications. It’s also a very unsatisfactory job, doesn’t pay, and just makes people unhappy.
PEOPLE OFTEN feel that it’s necessary to be that way to protect themselves. But what do we need to protect ourselves from? We have to protect our bodies from injury. Do we have to protect ourselves from love? We are all in this together, living on this planet at the same time, breathing the same air. We all have the same limbs, thoughts, and emotions. The idea that we are separate beings is an illusion. If we practice meditation diligently with perseverance, then one day we’ll get over this illusion of separation. Meditation makes it possible to see the totality of all manifestation. There is one creation and we are all part of it. What can we be afraid of? We are afraid to love ourselves, afraid to love creation, afraid to love others because we know negative things about ourselves. Knowing that we do things wrong, that we have unhappy or unwholesome thoughts, is no reason not to love. A mother who loves her children doesn’t stop loving them when they act silly or unpleasant. Small children have hundreds of unwholesome thoughts a day and give voice to them quite loudly. We have them too, but we do not express them all.
So, if a mother can love a child who is making difficulties for her, why can’t we love ourselves? Loving oneself and knowing oneself are not the same thing. Love is the warmth of the heart, the connectedness, the protection, the caring, the concern, the embrace that comes from acceptance and understanding for oneself. Having practiced that, we are in a much better position to practice love toward others. They are just as unlovable as we are, and they have just as many unwholesome thoughts. But that doesn’t matter. We are not judge and jury. When we realize that we can actually love ourselves, there is a feeling of being at ease. We don’t constantly have to become or pretend, or strive to be somebody. We can just be. It’s nice to just be, and not be “somebody.” Love makes that possible. By the same token, when we relate to other people, we can let them just be and love them. We all have daily opportunities to practice this. It’s a skill, like any other.
….I hope this finds everyone resting in Big Love today!!!! 🙂
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