The Wise Heart by Jack Kornfield: Principle 2 of 24
Be compassion now.
We have the unique opportunity as spiritual beings having this human experience to express our true nature, one of radiant radical compassion.
The second principle of Buddhist psychology:
Compassion is our deepest nature. It arises from our interconnection with all things.
O Nobly Born, now there is born in you exceeding compassion for all those living creatures who have forgotten their true nature. ~ Mahamudra text of Tibetan yogi Longchenpa
In Africa when you ask someone ‘How are you’ the reply you get is in the plural even when you are speaking to one person. A man would say, ‘We are well’ or ‘We are not well.’ He himself may be quite well, but his grandmother is not well and so he is not well either….The solitary, isolated human being is really a contradiction in terms.” ~Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu
When it gets down to one life, the mind achieves a vivid understanding. If I take the deaths in one at a time, I notice that marine lance corporal Michael E. Linderman, Jr., of Douglas, Oregon, was only 19, and I know what it was like to be 19. And I notice that there wasn’t a standard military portrait taken of marine private, first class, Dion J. Stephenson of Bountiful, Utah, and so they used his prom picture and you can see the hook on the strap of his bow tie….After you look at these pictures, the war becomes difficult to follow, because to be decent, you have to stop and love them and mourn their passing, and there are getting to be so many of them it’s impossible not to fall behind. ~Novelist Ann Patchett about the first Gulf War
Never succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter. As you press for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the instruments of love. ~Martin Luther King Jr.
Much love, Jodi
