by Judyth Hill
Music:
FRANCIS GOYA - Johnny Guitar
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and
freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup. Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don't wait another minute.
Where are you now, my good friend?
Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche
Where are you now, my good friend? Are you out in the field, in
the forest, on the mountain, in a military camp, in a factory, at
your desk, in a hospital, in a prison? Regardless of where you
are, let us breathe in and out together, and let the Sun of
awareness enter. Let us begin with this breath and this
awareness. Whether life is an illusion, a dream, or a wondrous
reality depends on our insight and our mindfulness.
Awakening is a miracle. The darkness in a totally dark room will
disappear the moment the light is switched on.
In the same way, life will reveal itself as a miraculous reality
the second the Sun of Awareness begins to shine.
Our relationships with one another
are like the chance meeting
of two strangers in a parking lot.
They look at each other and smile.
That is all there is between them.
They leave and never see each other again.
That is what life is--
just a moment, a meeting, a
passing, and then it is gone.
If you understand this,
then there is no time to fight.
There is no time to argue.
There is no time to hurt one another.
Whether you think about it in terms of humanity, nations,
communities or indiviuals--
there is no time for anything less
than truly appreciating the brief
interaction we have with one another.
The Rose Within
Author Unknown
Charles C.Curran painting
A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully
and before it blossomed, he examined it.
He saw the bud that would soon blossom, but noticed thorns
upon the stem and he thought, "How can any beautiful flower
come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?
Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose,
and just before it was ready to bloom... it died.
So it is with many people. Within every soul there
is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth,
grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at
ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects.
We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come
from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and
eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.
Some people do not see the rose within themselves;
someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest
gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past
the thorns of another, and find the rose within them.
This is one of the characteristic of love... to look
at a person, know their true faults and accepting that
person into your life... all the while recognizing
the nobility in their soul. Help others to realize
they can overcome their faults. If we show them
the "rose" within themselves, they will conquer their
thorns. Only then will they blossom many times over.
