on this day, we celebrate romance and relationships, which can be a beautiful expression of love.
but why limit our idea of love?
love is far more vast than romance and can be found in so many places if our hearts are open to it.
it is true, that love is everywhere, and that includes our very own hearts.
we can begin there. begin by loving ourselves well, with open-heartedness, with tenderness, kindness and compassion. we too are worthy of our own love.
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche said, “It is this tender heart that has the power to transform the world.”
Tashi Delek and Happy Losar, the Tibetan New Year!
also, Happy Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year!
2021 is the Year of the Iron Ox. the Iron Ox has a calm, steady strength and is tenacious, and also has a sense of integrity and responsibility – all traits we can practice in this year ahead!
Your up and down emotions are like clouds in the sky; beyond them, the real, basic human nature is clear and pure.
~
Lama Thubten Yeshe
we can allow our thoughts and emotions to arise and fall away. unpleasant and pleasant, we don’t grasp after them or run away from them, or ignore them. we can acknowledge them with a light touch and just see them for what they are, thoughts and emotions. we are not our thoughts and emotions.
it didn’t happen overnight. it began with lies, propaganda, hateful rhetoric, public discrimination born out of anti-Semitism, racism, and xenophobia. it was an outcome of White Supremacist cult.
sound familiar from recent memory of Confederate flags flying at the Capital insurrectionist siege, of a man wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” or another man wearing a shirt with “6MWE” on it which is an abbreviation of “6 Million Wasn’t Enough”? or perhaps another not too distant memory of torch carrying White Supremacists chanting “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville? in both cases Donald Trump gave a nod of approval with statements “there are good people on both sides” and “We love you. You’re very special.”
these moments are lines in the sand. this really isn’t that difficult. to continue to be loyal to Trump and the movement that took hold of him and elevated him to figurehead, to leader, is to be on the wrong side of history. it’s siding with White Supremacy, it’s siding with anti-Semitism. those who have supported Trump and are moved by this and don’t want to be aligned with such associations, should abandon their support and abandon such a path. it only leads to destruction and suffering.
in recognition of the truth of interdependence, our view should be one of community rather than individualism. there’s no moral or ethical reason that supports allowing people to go hungry or die from lack of healthcare when others live in exorbitant wealth that they can’t possibly spend or use in not just this one, but multiple lifetimes. it is a failure of our species to place a priority of individualism at the cost of others and the environment. it is a path that leads to destruction. may we embrace and engage a more altruistic view.
ah, words. our superpower. able to lift others out of darkness or put them there in the first place. when we realize just how harmful or beneficial our words can be, and the nuance, we may just choose to speak with more care and a bit less. deep listening is an ally to Right Speech. so is working with our minds. thoughts give birth to words. may we become more spacious and less attached to thoughts, and more aware of our speech.
Rather than ignoring, or running away from unpleasant feelings, thoughts, situations, and rather than grasping onto pleasant feelings, thoughts, and situations, we can simply offer them. Whatever we are feeling – sadness, loneliness, anger, fear, grief – we can offer it. When we are feeling happiness, comfort, bliss, we can offer these also, knowing that these feelings also do not last and when they leave us we usually suffer. So, we can offer them.
We can make this into a practice, using the breath as our vehicle for support and letting go. Breathing in, we can feel supported by life, by our body, by the oxygen filled air. Our bodies need oxygen to function properly and survive, so when we breathe, our body is receiving what it needs and is supported by the oxygen in the air right here in our life. We don’t even have to try to do it, it just happens, we can just allow it. We can also feel supported emotionally, spiritually as we breathe in. We may not know why we are here or how we got here, but we are here – right here in this life, where our lives are supported by innumerable conditions. Then, feeling supported, we can acknowledge how we feel, no matter what we are feeling. We can acknowledge it, touching it lightly – ah, yes, this is sadness or fear or anger or happiness, or whatever. Then as we breathe out, we can release whatever we are feeling, allowing it to go out with the breath back into the air. We can offer it back to life – here is my sadness, here is my anger, here is my happiness, I release it, I let it go, I offer it.
The Metta Garden 