Practice can be difficult.
Often my body is filled with pain
Or clouded by fever.
I realize again
That compassion and patience
Must be extended to myself.
I consider impermanence and the connection of all,
Grateful for the many kindnesses of others.
These current conditions will change.
One breath at a time.
Let me grateful.
For when I awaken in the morning.
If I do so with relative ease and comfort,
This is a joy.
If I do so with suffering and pain,
This is also a joy.
Whatever happens, I have enormous opportunity.
Whether the day brings a chance to actively study and reflect;
Whether the day brings time to pause and rest.
Each provides an expedient time to practice.
May I seize every occasion possible
To act with kindness, compassion, and patience.
Towards myself; towards other beings; towards the world.
Do not ask for my heart; I have already given it.
Freely; willingly; with abandon. To you, yes, but also to:
The friend who calls from a distant land;
The neighbor who visits over the fence;
The postman who offers a friendly wave;
The stranger who walks down the street.
For these and many others, I have cast my devotion and regard,
Wanting each to be happy, at ease, free from suffering, and joyful.
So again, do not ask for my heart.
Know that you have it already and help spread it through the world.
We walk in bone fields of unknown dead
And crush the shards of countless shattered dreams
With each careless step.
Occasionally someone stops,
To whisper on the wind to those forgotten,
“I remember. I remember.”
A bird flying overhead might reply:
“You have been those bones.
Pick up whatever dreams you’ve lost and go on your way.
You will forget again soon.”
For a brief moment, the sun becomes radiant,
And the earth shifts.
How to delineate a life lived?
Let us use not temporal posts of days or years
But limn the finer measure
Of love given and received
Of kindness extended with a free hand
Of compassion shown in minute and larger ways
Of laughter shared with those around.
Choose to see joy
And continue to delight in our communal dance.
Steam rises from the cup.
Consider these things.
I am so grateful to have tea.
I bow down to the earth that nourished it.
I bow down to the farmers that grew it.
I bow down to the masters that crafted it.
I bow down to the workers that transported it.
Om Mani Padme Hung.
“May all beings have happiness and the cause of happness.
May they be free of suffering and the cause of suffering.
May they never be disassociated from the supreme happiness which is without suffering.
May they remain in the boundless equanimity, free from both attachment to close ones and rejection of others. “
You sent me repeated mesages that were not nice at all. You attacked my beliefs, or rather my lack of belief, and then you went to criticize my attractiveness. And you did this all in the guise of Christianity, in a attempt on a DATING SITE, to convert me. The only thing I did to provoke this onslaught was to mention in my introduction that I was an atheist. That apparently was enough to justify inappropriate behavior that borders on being seemingly unstable.
I usually would have responded snarkily. But I had been pondering the deep divisions I see around me and I made the decision that wherever possible I would not contribute to this on an individual basis. I do not know what a person is struggling with that makes them act or say the way they do and so I resolved to endeavor to try harder to treat others with kindness and compassion. And that means you. That means the person who gets in my face at the laundromat to berate me about Trump for no apparent reason. That means every single person I encounter, whether I like them or dislike them. I have generally approached people with the idea everyone I meet is a decent human being struggling to do the best they can with what they have at that moment…until they prove differently. Now I’m making an effort to eliminate that last clause. Some people WILL do their best to prove me wrong, true. But I am going to treat them kindly and with respect. Because that is what human beings do. Will I fail sometimes? Sure. I’m not perfect. But I will make the effort.