bless

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On the journey of the warrior-bodhisattva, the path goes down, not up, as if the mountain pointed toward the earth instead of the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward turbulence and doubt however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. 

If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of bodhichitta. Bodhichitta is our heart—our wounded, softened heart. 

Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die. This love is bodhichitta. It is gentle and warm; it is clear and sharp; it is open and spacious. The awakened heart of bodhichitta is the basic goodness of all beings.


—Pema Chödrön
Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion

 

. . .

 

It is our suffering that brings us together. It is not love. 

Love does not obey the mind, and turns to hate when forced.


—Ursula K. Le Guin
The Dispossessed

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the seed cracked open

 

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It used to be
That when I would wake in the morning
I could with confidence say,
“What am ‘I’ going to 
Do?” 

That was before the seed
Cracked open.
Now Hafiz is certain:
There are two of us housed
In this body,
Doing the shopping together in the market and
Tickling each other
While fixing the evening’s food. 

Now when I awake
All the internal instruments play the same music:
“God, what love-mischief can 'We’ do
For the world
Today?”
  

—Hafiz
The Gift

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