Tag: courage

A Love to Overwing All Bounds.

My darlings, just look who came to visit today—a butterfly with gilded wings, and wishes of love for this day.

It reminded me of a letter once written by author John Keats:

“My dearest Lady,” he professed. “I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.”

Indeed, to live these days just as they were intended; with a voracity for the uncommon, and a passion for everything in between.

You are always new,” he wrote.

Oh, how we might blessed to see in much the same way—as if with each passage of light, a brand new world might be revealed.

“When it is moving on luxurious wings,
The soul is lost in pleasant smotherings.”

And so, a wish for you, my loves—that love may find the will to “overwing all bounds!”

Namaste <3

Living Fully for the Moment.

“Live each day as if your life had just begun.” Such wise words once shared by philosopher Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. And, words which help to underpin the sanctity of this human form.

It’s easy to forget what an amazing gift life is. We wrap ourselves around the ‘troubles’ of the day, sacrificing moments to energy which has not yet manifested. At times, we are so deliberate in our intention to dissuade – to coax our thoughts into a flurry of chaos.

In doing so, we forget – we forget about what we always knew to be true.

That life is but a cosmic blink – and yet, for one brief moment we are gifted the wonders of this human life.

When you think of it that way, my loves – you realize just how amazing your life really is.

“After all,” writes Neil deGrasse Tyson. “what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?”

And, what better reason to find the means to live these moments fully?

Leaving the Familiar Behind.

“Leave the familiar for a while,” writes Hafiz. “Let your senses and bodies stretch out like a welcomed season onto the meadows and shores and hills….Greet Yourself in your thousand other forms”

Such an empowering message this morning – one which marks the urgency in our being.

That is to say:

Each day we are gifted a myriad of opportunities to ‘leave the familiar behind’ – to take the ultimate risk, to embrace the thrill of a life fully lived.

And, yet…

Here we stand precarious of our journey, too afraid to venture forward another step.

We are frozen in this space of never knowing what comes next. And, so we sit complacent – yet horribly depressed.

But, with every journey there is a fear, a risk – a wondering of “will I ever make it home again?”

Until we find ‘courage enough’ to greet ourselves in one of those thousand other forms.

From the poet, Hafiz – “Hemispheres”; I do hope you’ll enjoy.

Much love, dears – and namaste.

<3

Hemispheres by Hafiz

Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.

Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting

While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.

A Love Just Like This.

My darlings, imagine a feeling of love greater than any you’ve ever felt before. A love which washes effortlessly over, bringing a warmth to our often wintered vision.

That’s the imagery created by author and spiritualist, Ram Dass, in his article, “The Entrance to Oneness.”

“This is your deeper heart, your intuitive heart,” he shares. “It is the place where the higher mind, pure awareness, the subtler emotions, and your soul identity all come together and you connect to the universe, where presence and love are.”

And, it is neither action, nor emotion; rather, a lovingness that just simply is.

This is our ‘entrance to oneness’, my loves – a space where the trappings of thinking mind are replaced by an unconditional joy; where love may exist unchallenged – and, where we are, at once, connected to our own inner peace.

My darlings, can you imagine a love just like this?

“This love is like sunshine,” he continues. “a natural force, a completion of what is, a bliss that permeates every particle of existence. It’s a different state of being beyond the mind.”

Perhaps, that is why love is so difficult to define? As, it’s impossible to distinguish from our connection to others?

And, reminding us – that we are loved ‘simply for existing.’

A little something to consider on this day, my darlings. And a wish for a moment to imagine a love just like this.

The Practice of Empathy.

I believe it was Walt Whitman who once wrote, “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.”

My darlings, how often do we place ourselves fully in the ‘shoes’ of another? To allow ourselves this moment in time to appreciate the depths of their emotion? To learn of their circumstance beyond what the headlines might tell?

In Buddhism, we speak of compassion – but, from the unique vantage point of our willingness to bear the pain of another. This critical distinction helps us to transition from the role of ‘observer’ to that of  ‘active participant’.

That is to say – in our willingness to engage, we subsequently reinforce our connection to all living beings; we become inexplicably joined with each of the beautiful hearts in this world. To ‘become the wounded person’ implies that we must, at some level, share in their burden.

Only then can we truly deepen the practice of empathy.

To Have Courage Enough to Live.

Philosopher Immanuel Kant once wrote, “By a lie, a man annihilates his dignity as a man.”

I’d like to think his reference extended far beyond it’s most literal translation. That is to say, we must all at some point learn this lesson of ‘to thine own self be true.’

To Kant, the world was simple – a series of fundamental concepts which structured our human experience. And, believing that one could never enjoy a direct relationship with their surroundings. That at best, our experience was comprised of a synapse of senses.

But, I think there’s so much more to it, than that.

Come to think of it, I’m not sure he and I would have gotten on so very well. As, it’s difficult for me to see things in terms which are so very ‘black and white.’

You see, I believe the world to be ripe with a million glorious colors…of passionate pinks, Monet blues, and Tiger Lily reds. And, isn’t it always those colors in between that make this life so very much worth living?

Life is not always so simple, my darlings.

At times, we may succeed…and others, we may fail. But, rest assured we’ll always have this symphony of shades.

Our inner truth shines brightly, my darlings. And our sole purpose in this life, my darlings – is to have ‘courage enough’ to experience it.

Because We Have Lived.

“I slept and dream’t that life was joy.
I woke and found that life was service.
I acted and behold…service was joy.” – Tagore

I am inspired on this day by the words of Frank Ostaseski, a pioneer in the field of compassionate end-of-life care.

Frank helped to found the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, California, which served as the very first Buddhist hospice in America. He first became involved in this field at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco in the ’80s. For many, it was a time marked by rampant fear, and a mindset ruled by ignorance. Even those institutions committed to the care of others, out of fear, had suddenly taken the position of turning the dying away.

“At the heart of it,” he shares, “all we can really offer each other is our full attention.”

You know, it’s interesting – I watched a young man at the store the other day. I could tell, he was struggling to find the ‘most perfect gift.’ After several moments, he walked away discouraged.

“It’s no use,” he sighed. “she never likes what I have to give anyway.”

Oh, my goodness – how I wanted to share so many things, to offer an insight of heart gathered through these many years. But mostly, to say – that the truest gift we might ever share extends far beyond a few flimsy purse strings.

I suppose that’s what has prompted Frank’s words to mind.

“In our experience,” he continues “we have noticed many dying people form two fundamental questions: “Am I loved” and “Did I love well”?”

How ironic at a moment so nearest the end, we find the means to fully engage this practice of mettā. Do you suppose it’s because loving-kindness is our one true purpose?

Imagine how much easier this life might be, if we kept to mind those much simpler things. Indeed, ‘am I loved?’ and ‘have I loved well?’

Or, more precisely, to know that even one life has breathed a little easier because we have lived.

This Ripple of Hope.

I believe it was Robert F. Kennedy who once said, “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.”

He was speaking to a group of students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. The year was 1966 – a year marked by the stench of injustice, and representing perhaps the very worst of the apartheid movement.

Kennedy had been invited by the National Union of South African Students (NAUSAS) to give the annual Day of Affirmation address at the university. He immediately accepted, embarking on a 5-day trip that would include this historic speech.

His words gave hope to the opponents of apartheid – hope that they might one day stand victorious against those who brandished fear as their weapon.

For those who are perhaps too young to remember, apartheid was the means by which the National Party enforced a system of racial segregation. Most notably, the forced ‘resettlement’ of millions of non-whites to their ‘designated areas.’

And that was just the beginning.

Through a series of legislation known as ‘petty apartheid’, the rights of non-whites were systematically eroded. It was, perhaps, one of the most volatile periods in South African history; one that went largely unnoticed by the rest of the world.

Until this momentous speech, that is.

“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice,” Kennedy remarked, “he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

Kennedy’s visit may have offered Americans their first glimpse into what it was like to live in the ‘land of the banned.’

“Few of us will have the greatness to bend history itself,” he offered. “but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.”

I don’t know why I am compelled to share this history with you today.

Perhaps, to reinforce this ‘power of one’ and the ability of Hope to change this world.

My darlings, we are not so very small, after all.

May action serve as our measure of our success.

In peace, love…and equanimity,

The Butterfly Inside.

When the venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche was once asked, “Why don’t more students attend your teachings.”

He thought for a while, and then he smiled, answering simply, “Because, there is great fear in becoming unmasked.”

Well now, isn’t that the truth?

I mean, how often have we failed to follow our ‘truth’ for fear that we *might* be rejected? So much so, that we tuck it away until our heart literally aches inside.

Are we so eager to impress, that we’ve forgotten the beautiful soul inside?

I wish I could remember who it was that said,

“You are only ever loved to the extent that you are known”.

Indeed, how can we ever feel loved for who we are – if we, ourselves, are too afraid to know?

It leaves me to wonder, how the caterpillar must have felt, when she finally had the courage to let it all go?

All that time, I’m sure, spent locked in worry – never realizing the ‘butterfly’ inside.

My darlings, our greatest potential exists in that moment – when we’ve courage enough to remove our ‘mask’ and realize the potential within.

<3

Taking Flight Into These Arms of Love.

“We have not come here to take prisoners
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy.
We have not come into this exquisite world
to hold ourselves hostage from love.
Run my dear, From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.
Run like hell, my dear,
From anyone likely to put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.
We have a duty to befriend
Those aspects of obedience of our house
And shout to our reason
“Oh please, oh please
come out and play.”
For we have not come here to take prisoners,
Or to confine our wondrous spirits
But to experience ever and ever more deeply
our divine courage, freedom, and Light!”

-Hafiz

One of my favorite passages from Sufi poet, Khajeh Shamseddin Mohammad Hafiz – a reminder of our heart’s most exquisite risk.

That we might learn to surrender to those little things which help to shape our wings.

To live the life we always dreamed, but never dared.

To experience “ever and ever more deeply” this warmth of light which fills our soul.

Some may call it our ‘divine right’, an obligation – a ‘duty to befriend.’ That we may, never once, confine our wondrous spirit – but rather, take flight into these arms of love.