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i heard the incomparable Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Pema Chödrön, give a talk once where she shared a story of waiting in line at an airport. she recalled looking around and seeing all the different people going through their different experiences – frustration, impatience, and irritation, but also laughter, joy, sadness. all these different people coming and going, and hurrying and waiting. and she thought about her own emotional experience dealing with flying, what she was going through, and she thought to herself, “Just like me.”  looking around at each person, she said to herself, “Just like me.” and this, she shared, could be a practice. whether at the airport, or stuck in traffic, or in line at the bank, grocery store – whatever – we could use that time to connect with those people around us, recalling that we have a shared human experience, “Just like me”, and we can wish for them whatever it is we too may be needing, whatever seems supportive in the moment.

of course, on one level, our lives are very different from each other. we may all be bobbing around in the same ocean, but some are bobbing around in yachts, while others are bobbing around in rafts, barely afloat. we should keep aware of such inequity and do our part to remedy it. so on one level our experiences have a taste of uniqueness to them, however on another level, we will all share the human experience of gain and loss, of old age (if we are fortunate), sickness, and death. we will have our various experiences of laughter and tears, of love and loss, bliss and pain. the practice can be that we remember this when we feel alone in our experience, or when we feel divided, separate from each other. we can recall our shared human experience, and looking around at each person we see, we can say to ourselves, “Just like me.”

~j

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#interdependence #life #OpenHeart #path #practice #PemaChodron #JinpaLhaga #JMWart #calligraphy #art