we would benefit from more deep looking and less bypassing and dissonance.
there is a desperate need for compassion at this moment, born from empathy.
and where empathy is not readily available, usually due to our own bias, blindness or lack of imagination, we should seek to have understanding. we can do this by bearing witness, deeply paying attention, through mindful looking and mindful listening while maintaining an open heart.
maybe then we can see through the delusions that continue to cause and perpetuate harm, the delusion that we are somehow separate, rather than of one family, of one life.
All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
~ St. Francis of Assisi
in the face of so much mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical suffering, may we be embodiments of love and wisdom, lighting the path toward ending suffering, not adding to it.
no one is forcing us to sit and breathe with our pain, to alchemize it within our heart, our body of love, transforming it into precious life, instead of transmitting it to others as harm and death.
what a miracle this heart and body are, born of Love’s lingering stardust. bright, burning, luminous.
the dark is just forgotten light.
may we remember who we are, that we are of each other, for each other, embodiments of the vast oneness, from beginning-less time. embodiments of Love.
what is vengeance, but a prison of forgotten love and light?
“Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better living conditions.”
~ Hafiz
fear moves us in regrettable ways. it shrinks us and walls up our heart. it can lead to greed and aggression. fear can make us forget our shared humanity. fear is a sort of death isn’t it?
love on the other hand, opens and expands us, aligning us with generosity and vastness of life. may we choose love. may we lean into love.
it is our collective responsibility as a world community to engage our empathy, compassion, and wisdom to address harm and suffering, to undo and heal the patterns that continue cycles of harm and suffering in the world for all peoples without bias, tribalism, and discrimination.
it is our individual responsibility as interdependent participants in this world to begin with our own heart and mind.
The Metta Garden 