Dear Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There’s a beautiful poem attributed to Hafiz:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It Felt Love<\/strong><\/p>
How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart<\/p>And give to this world
All its
Beauty?<\/p>It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being.<\/p>Otherwise,
We all remain<\/p>Too<\/p>
Frightened.<\/p>Hafiz and Daniel Ladinsky. The Gift<\/em>. New York, Penguin \/ Arkana, 1999.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
(You can hear Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer sing a beautiful rendition of this poem here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The importance of kindness in our practice cannot be understated. How can we open ourselves to our own inner goodness and see what is wise, unless we can be with what is here now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We too need to feel the encouragement of light against our being. That’s the role of kindness in our practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, I invite you to intentionally bring kindness into your practice. Perhaps you may want to follow along with this guided meditation by Diana Clark:
https:\/\/youtu.be\/ZUOWNNbQAXM<\/a> (video)
https:\/\/www.audiodharma.org\/talks\/audio_player\/12242.html<\/a> (audio only)<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat do you notice when you practice with kindness? Perhaps there is some resistance — maybe you have some stories about how kindness is something for other people (I know that story) — just notice that too, with kindness. Perhaps you forget to be kind (I do that) — also not a problem either: we’re planting seeds of kindness that will take root.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My training manual has a quote from Martin Aylward:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no wrong experience. No thought you shouldn’t have, no feeling that shouldn’t arise. When you meet experience like this, everything is welcome; your heart is wide open, and free.<\/p>Martin Aylward, SIT Mindfulness Training Manual<\/em>, Mindfulness Training Institute, 2020<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Feel free to share your reflections or experience as a comment to this blog, or by email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With kindness,
Andrea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Friends, There’s a beautiful poem attributed to Hafiz: It Felt Love HowDid the roseEver open its heart And give to this worldAll itsBeauty? It felt the encouragement of lightAgainst itsBeing. Otherwise,We all remain Too Frightened. Hafiz and Daniel Ladinsky. The Gift. New York, Penguin \/ Arkana, 1999. (You can hear Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer sing a beautiful rendition\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[238],"tags":[272,273,271,266,41,270],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jan-2021","tag-daniel-ladinsky","tag-diana-clark","tag-hafiz","tag-martin-aylward","tag-metta","tag-rosemerry-wahtola-trommer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1242,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions\/1242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grzesina.net\/meditation\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}