https://youtu.be/A1JQV3RFvE4                           

Really worth  lesson

https://youtu.be/Cs-ju_L9pEQ
​

​Things to Think   by Robert Bly

Think in ways you've never thought before
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you've ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.

Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he's carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you've never seen.

When someone knocks on the door, think that he's about
To give you something large: tell you you're forgiven,
Or that it's not necessary to work all the time, or that it's
Been decided that if you lie down no one will die.

                                                         ©Robert Bly

​Meditation on Compassion
 
 
In generating compassion, you start by recognizing that you do not want suffering and that you have a right to have happiness.  This can be verified or validated by your own experience.  You then recognize that other people, just like yourself, also do not want to suffer and that they have a right to have happiness.  So this becomes the basis of your beginning to generate compassion.
 
Let us meditate on compassion today.  Begin by visualizing a person who is acutely suffering, someone who is in pain or is in a very unfortunate situation.  For the first three minutes of the meditation, reflect on that individual’s suffering in a more analytic way – think about their intense suffering and the unfortunate state of that person’s existence.  After thinking about that person’s suffering for a few minutes, next, try to relate that to yourself, thinking, ‘that individual has the same capacity for experiencing pain, joy, happiness, and suffering that I do.’   Then, try to allow your natural response to arise – a natural feeling of compassion towards that person.  Try to arrive at a conclusion:  thinking how strongly you wish for that person to be free from that suffering.  And resolve that you will help that person to be relived from their suffering.  Finally, place your mind single-pointedly on that kind of conclusion or resolution, and for the last few minutes of the meditation try to simply generate your mind in a compassionate or loving state.”


The Art of Happiness                                         Dali Lama
Howard Cutler
pages 128-129

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mwhhzdtbakx3kuv/Historical%20Roots%20of%20Western%20Vipassana_%202010-08-29%202.mp3?dl=0
​

​The Hope of Loving

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?

I think it is the hope of loving,
or being loved.

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey
to find its source, and how the moon wept
without her lover's warm gaze

We weep when light does not reach our hearts.  We wither
like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon us.


Meister Eckhart

​John Fox,  from When Jewels Sing
 
When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on the top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.
 
When someone deeply listens to you,
the room  where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It’s as if gold has been discovered.
 
When someone deeply listens to you
your barefeet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you

The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.
I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.
I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.
It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.
I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”
It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.
I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
​