Dear Friends,
The first lines of a book, a speech, a song, a movie, often points to the subject or theme that will be explored in the work. (You can probably think of several opening lines that have stayed with you over the years.)
Christina Feldman starts A Boundless Heart with this paragraph:
There is no greater love than the immeasurable friendliness that can embrace all beings, all events, and all experiences with unshakeable kindness. There is no compassion greater than the fearless heart that can turn toward suffering and pain, tremble with empathy, and live with the commitment to end the causes of anguish. There is no greater happiness than inwardly generated joy and peace. There is no equanimity more unshakeable than the profound poise of the liberated heart that can meet the world of ungraspable conditions and events without being shattered.
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This is what we’re going to explore this month – these qualities of heart-mind that we can bring into our meditation and, more importantly, into our lives, as we relate to one another and ourselves.
Like the opening sentence of a book, we can start our meditation, our day, our month, and so on, by setting an intention. This can help us determine our purpose/values/aim and can help us realign when we find we’ve veered off course.
If you want a bit of inspiration, here’s a 16 minute meditation and talk by Oren Jay Sofer:
2018-04-20 Guided Meditation: Settling and Arriving
https://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/248/talk/49656/
Note – for dharmaseed.org, if you’re listening on a mobile device, you probably have to choose the “download” option. On Chrome or other browsers, you may have to click on the box where the player is to enable the Flash Player.
What brought you to meditation, to this month? What’s your “opening sentence”?
With warm wishes,
Andrea
What a lovely opening paragraph to her book. I am going to check it out from the Library. Thanks so much Andrea for the sharing of yourself and the dharma this way. What a great beginning. I am looking forward, in a wholesome, non-clinging way 🙂 to the rest of the month.
What a wonderful, thoughtful, and thought provoking beginning. Thank you Andrea.
So, what brought me here? The confluence, I believe, of you and me and us. Why am I here? In a word, ehipassiko. And the confusion, conflicts, hope, and insights that arise. As Stephen Batchelor says of entering the stream, “The result is turbulence.”
But to be honest, guilt and dis-ease are also reasons. Maybe because I’m neither diligent nor reflective enough. So, I’m here with intention.
Something I read just now by Alan Watts in The Wisdom of Insecurity also characterizes this ‘me’ and ‘I’;
“It’s as if we are divided into two parts. On the one hand there is the conscious “I”, at once intrigued and baffled, the creature who is caught in the trap. On the other hand there is “me”, and “me” is a part of nature—the wayward flesh with all its currently beautiful and frustrating limitations. “I” fancies itself as a reasonable fellow, and is forever criticizing “me” for its perversity—for having passions which get “I” into trouble, for being easily subject to painful and irritating diseases, for having organs that wear out, and for having appetites which can never be satisfied—so designed that you try to allay them and finally in one big “bust”, you get sick.” (ch. 3)
with mettā
What a stunning opening paragraph —
Embracing all with unshakeable kindness.
A fearless heart that turns *towards suffering and pain.
Inwardly generated joy and peace.
Unshakeable equanimity.
Never being shattered.
The poise of the liberated heart is an achievements worthy of our aspirations.
My intention is to join you in exploring this path to liberating our hearts and unshakeable equanimity.
with metta,
Geralyne