Contemplating Priorities and Boundaries
Inspired by Adam Wethington and Thich Nhat Hanh. Priority #1: Well-being. Priority #2: Connection. Priority #3: Livelihood. Priority #4: Development. Priority #5: Spirituality.
Meditations on the 40 Tenets of Plum Village
Breathing in, I am aware that space is a conditioned dharma. Breathing out, I know that it manifests with time, matter and consciousness. Space is conditioned; Manifesting with other dharmas.
Equanimity and Letting Go
“When I was a child, I had a toy called a Weeble. It was shaped like an egg and made of plastic. There was some kind of weight in the bottom that kept it balanced and centered. You could tip it over and it seemed like it would fall, but then it wouldn’t. It rocked back and forth, and always came back upright to stillness. What is it that allows us to come back to balance when the transitions and challenges of our life knock us off center? What is that inner weight at our core? Equanimity is a fundamental practice that can help us to center and balance ourselves.”
Calmly Facing the Eight Worldly Winds
“In many countries across Asia, in Buddhist temples you find a common symbol of a wheel with eight spokes, with a hole in the center for the axle. I learned that this represents the Dharma, or the teachings of the Buddha, which are like a wheel being set in motion, and the eight spokes represent the Noble Eightfold Path taught by the Buddha.While living in Sri Lanka, I was offered an additional meaning of this symbol: the eight spokes represent the eight worldly winds. They are four pairs of opposites—pleasure and pain, gain and loss, praise and blame, and fame and disrepute. They are the four things we hope for and the four things we fear.”
Peace Begins Here
“I see the path quite clearly. If you want to live, live in a beautiful way, with a lot of meaning, and surely you will be successful. Living for the sake of compassion, understanding, and nonviolence is very beautiful. I tread this path and I will never renounce it. If I were in your situation, I would follow this path. I learned this lesson in my home country. Hundreds of thousands of people died in frustration, because they embraced the path of violence. They killed each other, brothers and sisters, and I don’t want you to do the same. Peace is possible. We are not talking vaguely, we mean concrete action. That action is directed to ourselves and to the world at the same time. It is a process of transformation, healing, and peace. The spiritual power of such action can change the world.”