Parinama

  Gradually, we become more aware about what causes happiness as well as what causes distress.   Without loving-kindness for ourselves, it is difficult, if not impossible, to genuinely feel it for others. Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty     My daughter is recovering well after surgery.   In the days after, and after years of a debilitating illness, she began to feel energy, hope, and purpose again.   Her skin has an alabaster luster, her curly chestnut hair a rich sheen.   In the week after surgery, she bought new clothes, art magazines, red lipstick, and cream for her alabaster skin.   She has started running again, “just around the block” and gets up early to write her passions.   She is an explosion of freedom and creativity long tucked away in her illness.   She has begun to speak to me about how sick she was and what it has been like to be young and disabled.   She scheduled the second su...

    Through refraining, we see that there’s something between the arising of the craving – or the aggression or the loneliness or whatever it might be and whatever action we take as a result.   There’s something there in us that we don’t want to experience, and we never do experience, because we’re so quick to act.   The practice of mindfulness and refraining is a way to get in touch with basic groundlessness-by noticing how we try to avoid it. Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty   How many many things They call to mind These cherry blossoms! Basho   When my daughter went in for surgery, I clenched my jaw tightly so I wouldn’t cry in front of her.   She had been up most of the night and looked small under her grey hoodie and sweatpants.   “See you on the other-side,” I told her not wanting to say goodbye.    I wouldn’t see her for another 14 hours.   It was raining outside and windy. ...