how many mass shootings should an individual have to survive in their lifetime? 1? 2? 3?
there have been 67 mass shootings so far in 2023 (mass shooting defined as a single event with at least four people shot whether killed or injured). up from last year at this time.
your very heart dear friends, even with all of its wounds and scars, remains a touchstone to the Love which is the source of all things. do not underestimate the resilience of this fist size muscle within your chest, and it’s capacity to hold all that life brings and offer back.
your vulnerability (and by that i mean openness), your tenderness and gentleness, your generosity and compassion are the very strengths and healing antidote the wounds of this world need.
may the love celebrated this day, open us to the Great Love of all days and all moments throughout and beyond time and space.
“Why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places? Look for delusion and truth in the bottom of your own hearts.” ~ Ryōkan
it is said we have all that we need right here in this body, in this moment, with these experiences and relationships in life, to wake up, steady our minds, and open our hearts.
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” ~ William Shakespeare
call IT what you will, all names fall short. call it God, call it Dao, call it Ultimate Reality, the Universe, Buddhanature, the Ground of Being, The Beloved, even call it the Force, if you want. i call it Love. it is beyond all of this, yet within all of this. the main thing is that we let go of all we cling to and think we know, and open our hearts to it, engage with and dance, and laugh and sing and cry and sit with it.
i’m less interested in what religion, spiritual tradition, or belief system someone belongs to – people go to wars over this! people divide, marginalize, target and harm over this! we are seeing it right now not just in other countries, but right here in the USA in politics and in extremist groups.
instead, show me how you choose to live, tell me how you love!
may we all have a beginner’s mind and an open heart. may we see this life with fresh new eyes in every moment, interdependent, interconnected, and filled with impermanence and possibility.
originally posted on the @cacradicalgrace IG account. this is needed/beneficial teaching for our time from one of Zen Buddhism’s most influential contemporary voices.
i’ve been reading the quote over and over, it’s so perfectly succinct in its wisdom, so forgive my rambling thoughts on it that follow.
this is true Mahayana Buddhist view, that our liberation, our awakening, our freedom from suffering is tied together. in fact many Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists (which includes Zen and Tibetan Buddhism respectively) take the Bodhisattva Vow embodied in Shantideva’s words, “As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world.”
the Buddhist view (and i think reality bares this out) is that we are interdependent and interconnected, so there is no separate me that is not influenced by and does not influence others. if this is the case, collective liberation (collective transformation, collective change) is really the most authentic, fully realized, ultimate liberation. what happens to you, matters to me. what happens to me, matters to you.
how can Authentic Love leave anyone out???
and when we think about systems and structures, is this not the same? if we take this larger Mahayana view and want to end suffering, then even if individuals have an awakening, a conversion of heart, and no longer harm, but the larger systems and structures continue to harm and destroy – then unnecessary suffering continues.
collective change, collective transformation, collective liberation cannot genuinely and fully happen outside of individual change, transformation, or liberation. and individual change, transformation, liberation should lead (and if it is the genuine work of Love, i believe it does) to disruption and change of the systemic and structural status quo, which always leaves someone(s) out!
obsession with devils, performance art, drag shows, and pronouns as some sort of evil distracts from and enables the very real evils of preventable poverty, out of reach health care, unnecessary war, erasure/revision of history, and attacks on the targeted and marginalized.
it’s a sham for personal and political gain. it isn’t the genuine work of love.
may we wake up to the real harm and suffering that needs the genuine work of love – our attention and care, and may we hold our leaders accountable to do the same.
Kindness is a decision. It’s a decision to incline the heart toward goodwill for all beings, especially those that are suffering in ignorance, knowingly or unknowingly.
Ruth King, “Ungripping the Heart and Mind: Practicing Kindness”
The Metta Garden 