I wanted a plateful of cookies. To have that required sharing cookies with neighbors. I still have some left. If you’re a neighbor, let me know if you want some. In writing about cookies and sharing with neighbors, I think of my good fortune and make another donation to share with neighbors less fortunate, too.
Professor Douglas Brooks on language and the India pilgrimage. I have just finished leading the group house practice and need to meditate before going to bed, so I do not have time to write more, but I wanted to draw your attention to this blog for your own contemplations about language and practice. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to join in part of the conversation and look forward to going ever deeper.
If I have done this correctly, it is Christmas day (Boxing day for those of you who are email subscribers). If all is on schedule, I am basking in warmth (though possibly with lots of rain) witnessing ritual that in form is another world than Christmas in the cold United States. At another level, it is all one–a deep and heartfelt yearning for and an offering of love. Whatever your beliefs, whatever you are doing on this day, and however you might practice or worship, if at all, I wish you all much love, peace, and joy.
We hear the stories of a the tragedy unfolding in Japan, and our hearts cannot help but cry out. This is a wonderful aspect of humanity. A friend sent me an insightful article from Caroline Myss in which she very articulately lets all her readers know why we need to work to ensure that we do not have nuclear weapons (and, I would add, new nuclear power) with which I wholeheartedly agree.
The unfolding tragedy also drives home for me how important it is that we speak out against the wars in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and on the verge in Libya and for sustainable environmental policies. On the 11th of March, I wrote this in my journal: “Mother Nature is wild and fierce no matter how much control we try to exert. I pray that a nuclear disaster does not follow. U.S. military is working with [later note: I think that was just an offer] the Japanese to share experience and skill to get in back up power to bring water in to cool the reactors. Peaceful military work, I am behind. Some fearful reflection of Hiroshima.”
My question is this: why are we sending money to those living in the third largest economy in the world (Japan’s own citizens are reportedly wondering why their government is not doing more to help–sort of how people like us wondered and may still be wondering about the lack of assistance from the government of our wealthy country after Katrina)? We are denying money on a societal level to help those in the poorest countries or perhaps are not making offerings on an individual level (or not speaking to our elected officials about such topsy-turvy, anti-compassion policies?) Why do we send our hearts and prayers to those suffering from a sudden natural disaster, but forget to do so for the tens of thousands and their families our own country has killed or wounded? Why do we spend or allow to be spent in our name billions on killing, but let it be determined that we do not have millions on aid for the suffering or for enhancing life through the arts, education, taking care of our cities, our parks, the natural beauty around us?
I, like all of you, am filled with a sense of horror and loss and love and compassion and an impulse to help. How I am choosing to use the energy of my upsurge in awareness of suffering from the unfolding disaster is to give more than I usually give to organizations that work to heal the environment and to prevent new damage by virtue of the current political policies, to seek the end of war, and to give humanitarian aid to the poorest of the poor who are dying and suffering every day at home and around the world in numbers far exceeding the sudden loss in Japan, and to support the increase in light through the arts and education and parks.
What do you think is the best way you can transmute the natural compassion you have been feeling from reading the news of Japan into making the world a better place?
As I was walking to work and passing through the park on the north side of the Capitol, I saw this young woman first doing pranayama and then settling into meditation.
I do not know whether this is her neighborhood or where she works or whether she is in town as a tourist or to petition her elected officials. What I do know is that whether this is home or a new and different place and whether she was pausing before play or work, her reactions to all around her will likely be deeper, steadier, and brighter for having paused to meditate.
If you have not yet sat for meditation today or otherwise practiced in a way that brought you to the center and essence of your being, I invite you to start or renew your practice today. You might not have a half hour or an hour, but no matter how busy you are, you have 10 minutes.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
We all have one of these. The question is whether we can learn to use, repurpose, refine, release, and dissolve to best serve ourselves and our environment.
Peace and light, E — Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.
