Contemplating Pain

Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, "Go with the pain, let it take you...open your palms and your body to the pain. It comes in waves like a tide, and you must be open as a vessel lying on the beach, letting it fill you up and then, retreating, leaving you empty and clear...With a deep breath--it has to be as deep as the pain--one reaches a kind of inner freedom from pain, as though the pain were not your but your body's. The spirit lays the body on the alter."
As our lives, our moments offer us opportunity to be with difficulty, the constant temptation to move away from pain seduces us. We can enter into states of denial, creating illusions that our difficulties do not exist; we can give into distractions, like wine, lust, and career competitions; we can hide our fears with unnecessary expressions of power and ego.
Sometimes pain is our experience. When we retreat from it, we disconnect from our reality, falling into illusion.
Today, strive to be with all your experiences--those that are pleasant, and those that disorient. Whether on your run, when your lungs burn, your eyes fill with salty sweat, and your legs throb--or in the solitude of your fear--fear of aging, of disease, illness; or the fear of losing a loved one. Make meaning. Be present.

Part of Something Greater

"Our places give shelter. That is a given.

Focused only on ourselves, filled with possessions, trying
to impress others, they deny the unity of all.

Connection with the greater truths of otherness has far
greater import than minutiae of our lives.

Focus on ourselves is endless looking in a mirror, reading the same story, replaying the same tape.
There's more richness, new stories, adventures beyond the mirror. The truth of ourselves includes the selves on the outside of our skins, and inside other of our skins.

Bring those lives into your life."

Tom Bender

Mind, Body, and Spirit: Friendship

Our mind, body, and spirit work together, always and in every way. Just as body only becomes stronger when mind and spirit support that quest, so too does body become weak when our mind or spirit suffer. Only through the constant striving for limitlessness--in mind, body, and spirit--will we accomplish our best. To do this is to inspire--to instill friendship and goodwill in others.

Allowing less

One tires of living in the country, and moves to the city; one tires of one's native land, and travels abroad; one tires of Europe and goes to America, and so on; finally one indulges in the sentimental hope of endless journeyings from star to star. Or the movement is different but still extensive. One tires of porcelain dishes and eats on silver; one tires of silver and turns to gold; one burns half of Rome to get an idea of the burning of Troy. But this method defeats itself, it is plain endlessness.

My own method does not consist in such a change of field, but rather resembles the true rotation method in changing the crop and the mode of cultivation, rather than the field. Here we have the principle of limitation, the only saving principle in the world. The more you limit yourself, the more fertile you become in imagination. - Soren Kiekegard

"It’s a kind of a cheap shot that we go for constantly. We may not notice the subtle intelligence of the intangible, which is the binding factor that makes creation possible. The easy thing to do is to make the grand gesture that is noticed by everyone. But that is not necessarily where the real energy and wisdom manifests." (Alice Haspray)

Hagen, Chapter 10 Notes: The Warp & Woof of Reality

Once we accept dysfunction, take it in to be "normal," or alright, we live in illusion.

Nature is intentional, equanimous, interrelated. We are often at our most skilled when we choose to do nothing. It often takes great restraint and self-discipline to choose to not interfere with the cycle of life.

In our work places we can begin to notice the waterfall of problems that can be caused when we over-manage. Our discomfort with conflict and progress leads us to develop committees that slow decision-making often times about things that are inevitable. In my own workplace we find ourselves uncomfortable with the natural energy of students. We hurry them to be quiet, then wonder why they're not engaged. We then create committees to explore strategies to increase student engagement.

We grow when we act in accord with nature; the grass doesn't need to be told to grow.

Warm Welcome to You!

Be quiet, look within and enjoy the healing power of silence. Let go of your sorrow and attachments. Your inner core and wisdom heart remain untouched either by insult or by praise. So have faith in your heart and trust yourself.

Sit free from fear and worries. Rely on your true and sincere heart for your meditation. Pay attention and concentrate on your breath. Let peace and happiness prevail and spread through you. Remember that your life is intimately connected with all other life.

May all being benefit from your presence as a living embodiment of peace and happiness.

Venerable Samu Sunim