Jack Kornfield: Moving From Delusion and Ignorance Toward Freedom

With recognition we step out of denial. Denial undermines our freedom. The diabetic who denies his body's illness if not free. Neither is the driven, stressed-out executive who denies the cost of her lifestyle or the self-critical would-be painter who denies his love of making art. The society that denies its poverty and injustice has lost part of its freedom as well. If we deny our dissatisfaction, our anger, our pain, our ambition, we will suffer. If we deny our values, our beliefs, our longings, or our goodness, we will suffer.

There is a powerful opening that comes whenever we truly recognize what is so. "The emergence and blossoming of understanding, love, and intelligence has nothing to do with any outer tradition," observes Zen teacher Toni Packer. "It happens completely on its own when a human being questions, wonders, listens, and looks without getting stuck in fear. When self-concern is quiet, in abeyance, heaven and earth are open."

With recognition our awareness becomes like the dignified host. We name and inwardly bow to our experience: "Ah, sorrow; now pain, yes, and now, ah, the judging mind." Recognition moves us from delusion and ignorance toward freedom. "We can light a lamp in the darkness," says the Buddha. We can see what is so...

As individuals, we have to start with the reality of our own suffering. As a society, we have to start with the reality of collective suffering, of injustice, racism, greed, and hate. We can only transform the world as we learn to transform ourselves. As Carl Jung once remarked, "Perhaps I myself am the enemy who must be loved."

~ Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings  

of Buddhist Psychology 

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Spiritual practice involves, on the one hand, acting out of concern for others' well-being. On the other, it entails transforming ourselves so that we become more readily disposed to do so. ~ Dalai Lama  

John O'Donohue: In Praise of the Earth

In Praise of the Earth

Let us bless
The imagination of the Earth.
That knew early the patience
To harness the mind of time,
Waited for the seas to warm,
Ready to welcome the emergence
Of things dreaming of voyaging
Among the stillness of land.

 

And how light knew to nurse
The growth until the face of the Earth
Brightened beneath a vision of color.

 

When the ages of ice came
And sealed the Earth inside
An endless coma of cold,
The heart of the Earth held hope,
Storing fragments of memory,
Ready for the return of the sun.

 

Let us thank the Earth
That offers ground for home
And holds our feet firm
To walk in space open
To infinite galaxies.

 

Let us salute the silence
And certainty of mountains:
Their sublime stillness,
Their dream-filled hearts.

 

The wonder of a garden
Trusting the first warmth of spring
Until its black infinity of cells
Becomes charged with dream;
Then the silent, slow nurture
Of the seed's self, coaxing it
To trust the act of death.

 

The humility of the Earth
That transfigures all
That has fallen
Of outlived growth.

 

The kindness of the Earth,
Opening to receive
Our worn forms
Into the final stillness.

 

Let us ask forgiveness of the Earth
For all our sins against her:
For our violence and poisonings
Of her beauty.

 

Let us remember within us
The ancient clay,
Holding the memory of seasons,
The passion of the wind,
The fluency of water,
The warmth of fire,
The quiver-touch of the sun
And shadowed sureness of the moon.

 

That we may awaken,
To live to the full
The dream of the Earth
Who chose us to emerge
And incarnate its hidden night
In mind, spirit, and light.

 

~ John O'Donohue ~

 

(To Bless the Space Between Us)

Web version: www.panhala.net/Archive/In_Praise_of_the_Earth.html

Thomas Merton: Seeing With Each Other Through the Eyes of the Divine

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty

of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin

nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their

reality, the person that each one is in the eyes of the Divine.

If only they could see themselves as they really are.  

If only we could see each other that way all the time.

There would be no more war, no more hatred,

no more cruelty, no more greed...

I suppose the big problem would be that we

would fall down and worship each other.

 

- Thomas Merton    

Jack Kornfield: The Awakened Heart

Jack Kornfield

Today Ron and I joined friends and hundreds of others for an amazing experience participating in our first of two days with Jack Kornfield as he shares teachings rooted in the Psychology of the Awakened Heart. What an extraordinary experience! I am also aware in this moment of my heart being so tender, so open, so filled with gratitude and lovingkindness. And I am moved to share these quotes from this amazing man who illuminates what we have forgotten. May each and every one of us root more and more deeply into a path with heart. May all beings be at peace. Blessed be. ♥ Molly

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 "You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible."

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“In the end, just three things matter:

How well we have lived
How well we have loved
How well we have learned to let go”
 

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"To bow to the fact of our life's sorrows and betrayals is to accept them; and from this deep gesture we discover that all life is workable. As we learn to bow, we discover that the heart holds more freedom and compassion than we could imagine."
 

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"When we let go of our battles and open our heart to things as they are, then we come to rest in the present moment. This is the beginning and the end of spiritual practice. Only in this moment can we discover that which is timeless. Only here can we find the love that we seek. Love in the past is simply memory, and love in the future is fantasy. Only in the reality of the present can we love, can we awaken, can we find peace and understanding and connection with ourselves and the world."

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"We must look at ourselves over and over again in order to learn to love, to discover what has kept our hearts closed, and what it means to allow our hearts to open."
 

- Jack Kornfield 

from http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/59705.Jack_Kornfield

Mark Twain: The Seeing Eye

The common eye sees only 
the outside of things, 

and judges by that, 
but the seeing eye 
pierces through and reads 
the heart and soul, 

finding there capacities 
which the outside 

didn't indicate or promise, 
and which the other kind 

couldn't detect.
 

- Mark Twain

Reflections on the Lost Art of Compassion and the Transformation of Ourselves and Our World

It is truly amazing to be on a path of awakening. Each day, each year I grow older, I never cease to be astonished by this life I have been given. The wonders of this Sacred Earth we share and all its beings, of each precious moment, of the beautiful blue sky out my window, the smile of my doggie, the sweetness of my children, the embrace of my beloved partner - for all of this and so much more I am deeply, deeply grateful.

It is both challenging and a blessed and profound gift to be present with my heart, my eyes, my mind increasingly open. This is a common experience which I believe we humans share, this struggle to be more awakened, with each of us falling somewhere on a continuum of being more or less conscious, awake, aware, open. And certainly as we do grow older, and depending upon what we have been feeding inside of ourselves over the years, we are largely either growing more expansive or more defended, more kind or bitter, more loving or more fearful, more rooted in the experience of interbeing or more stuck in the illusion of separateness. My experience for some time now is also the awareness that Spirit works through others to offer us opportunities to reconnect with remembrance of that which we have forgotten.  Many apparent coincidences could perhaps more accurately be seen as Grace working in our lives.

It is with profound gratitude that I bow to all the teachers who have blessed me on this journey of awakening. Most recently I have been reading "The Lost Art of Compassion: Discovering the Practice of Happiness in the Meeting of Buddhism and Psychology" by Lorne Ladner, Ph.D. In just the first few pages in the introduction, I have been so struck with an even deeper awareness of what is largely missing in American culture that is essential to our well-being. While there are parallels with some other cultures, it is certainly apparent that the roots of this suffering is deeply rooted into our indoctrination, into our acculturation, into what so many of us are taught from our earliest beginnings here in the land of the "free" is "normal" and just the way it is.

Connecting the dots has become a passion for me. Today I see more and more clearly how it is all connected -- bombs blowing apart people on American streets and across the planet; war, torture, global warming, Monsanto, white collar crime, the struggles over gay rights, women's rights, worker's rights, gun restrictions, undocumented immigrants, same sex marriage; Narcissistic, Sociopathic, and other Personality Disorders; cancer - with 1 out of 3 women, and 1 out of every 2 men, in America having a cancer diagnosis in their lifetimes; lack of access to healthcare, housing, and other basic needs; classism, racism, rape, religious abuse and violence, over population, prostitution, individual and mass shootings, poverty, polarizing propaganda, sex trafficking, Big Money infotainment media, Citizen's United, greed, drones, species extinction, the poisoning and destruction of the environment, terrorism and the war on terrorism, the extreme inequities of wealth distribution, starvation, corporate scandals, the American Dream, the pharmaceutical industry, resource depletion, right/left and saved/unsaved and the many faces of Us against an Other, substance addiction and all other addictions, suicide, wire tapping and surveillance, the war on drugs, mass incarceration, child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, violent video games, personality disorders, depression, oppression, exploitation, ignorance, prejudice, unemployment, factory farms, eating disorders, sexual abuse, pornography, consumerism, rugged individualism, Guantanamo, fascism, corporatism and the best "democracy" money can buy - all this and more - can at its root, I believe, be traced to what I will quote below from "The Lost Art of Compassion." One does not have to be Buddhist to have these teachings resonate and touch one's mind, heart, spirit, soul with a deeper remembrance.

My continued prayer is that humankind evolve. May our species grow past our childhood and adolescence and awaken to the depth and beauty of our true nature. May we embrace and remember the lost art of compassion. Another world is possible - one filled with compassion, connection, belonging, abundance, joy, beauty, love, peace, and the consciousness of our Sacred connection with all of Life. Bless us all. Namaste ~ Molly

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 Excerpts from The Lost Art of Compassion by Lorne Ladner:

Over the past seven centuries our traditions of mathematics, science, and capitalism have placed more and more emphasis on those things that can be counted, weighed, measured, and given specific economic value.  William Kittredge says, "Europeans taught themselves to believe anything that cannot be priced is without worth. Values like compassion and empathy, unquantifiable and therefore impossible to commodify, began to seem archaic, maybe unreal."

The longer I work and live, the more clearly I see what our cultural devaluation of compassion has cost us as individuals and as a society. Without any means for developing the qualities that give life meaning and that bring genuine peace and joy, we are left to follow the advise of advertisers, purchasing things and seeking entertainment to find the happiness for which we hope. The more psychologically minded of us are left to seek pills to bring happiness through changes in brain chemistry, or we're left to think endlessly about our childhoods, our self-esteem, our boundaries, and our coping skills for getting as many of our desires met as is humanly possible. Without any real emphasis on sincere love, compassion, contentment, and joy, we are left with a terribly limited approach to psychology, which is useful in curing certain pathological conditions but offers us almost nothing when it comes to living good lives or teaching our children to do so. In brief, we are left poor of heart.

In recent decades politicians, researchers, and psychologists have begun considering the idea of prevention - preventing domestic violence, child abuse, suicide, school violence, drug abuse, racial discrimination, terrorism, corporate scandals, and the like. Too often , our prevention begins at the line of last defense. In home already filled with tension and anger, we strive to prevent aggression; in schools filled with alienation, despair, and rage, we strive to prevent violence; and in corporations filled wit greed, we strive to prevent scandals. To the extent that we feel caring and connected with each other in our homes, schools, and corporations, we naturally refrain from harmful behaviors. Empathy ad compassion are foundational for natural ethics and for positive social relationships. Of course, a fear of punishment ca stop people from engaging in behaviors that harm others, but empathy and compassion are much more powerful and effective means of prevention. When we empathize wit and feel compassion toward others' suffering, this stops us from doing things that would have a negative effect on them. When we feel others' suffering as our own, we cannot bring ourselves to harm them.

Our traditions of psychology, education, and economics must take some of the responsibility for the various social ills that we face. If each of us doesn't take on the responsibility to develop positive qualities like compassion in ourself and to model these qualities and teach them to others, then things will not improve over the long run, for us individually or for our society as a whole.

In the West, psychology is a relatively small branch of science tht has been developed over roughly a hundred years. In Tibet alone, the inner science of overcoming negative mental states and cultivating positive ones has been a central focus for over twelve hundred years.

Of all the topics that Tibet's inner scientists studied, His Holiness the Dalai Lama notes that the most important subject has been "altruism based on love and compassion."... Perhaps the most significant finding from all the centuries of research is this: cultivating compassion is the single most effective way to make oneself psychologically healthy, happy, and joyful.

Compassion is not about holding to any dogma; it is the human quality that allows us to reach out across differences in race, ethnicity, religion, or nationality, connecting with each other. Compassion is a direct antidote to prejudice and aggression, promoting peace in ourselves and in the world...

So if we were to give a psychological answer to the question of what constitutes a good, happy, meaningful life, the response would be a life spent cultivating compassion. As a state of mind or heart, compassion serves as a direct psychological cause for contentment, happiness, and joy. Many of the things we usually associate with a good life - contributing something to the world, being close with family members, having deep friendships, inner peace, and peace between people - actually result from living compassionately.  

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Real happiness starts when you begin to cherish others.

- Lama Zopa Rinpoche   

Thich Nhat Hanh: To Work For Peace Is To Uproot War From Ourselves

We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds- our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come. 
 

― Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ