align with love. connect with nature and life. keep focused. do the work needed with a heart of service for the benefit of others and all life (including yourself). let go. rest. rinse and repeat.
rather than ignoring, or running away from unpleasant feelings, thoughts, situations, & rather than grasping onto pleasant feelings, thoughts, & 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 & 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 & 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 & survive, so when we breathe, our body is receiving what it needs & 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.
all inclusive love is radical & revolutionary. such love isn’t indifferent to harm or suffering. compassion is inclusive love in action. compassion leaves no one & no thing out. it is the healing, transformative work of love.
may we align with such love, within our own lives, & with others who also choose compassion as path & practice.
A monk was traveling across a field and he encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger chasing after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed and snarled at him from above. Trembling and hanging there, the monk looked down to where, far below, a second tiger was waiting for him to fall, to eat him.
Then out of a crevice in the cliff two mice, one white and one black, appeared and little by little they started to gnaw away at the vine. The monk noticed a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. Delicious! How sweet it tasted!