Tara Brach writes in Radical Acceptance, Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha:
"Feeling guilty or bad about ourselves for something we've done might temporarily restrain us from doing harm, but ultimately blaming and hating ourselves only leads to further harmful actions. We can't punish ourselves into being a good person. Only by holding ourselves with the compassion of forgiveness do we experience our goodness and respond to our circumstances with wisdom and care."
"Especially when things seem to be falling apart-we lose a job, suffer a serious injury, become estranged from a loved one-our lives can become painfully bound by experience that something is wrong with us. We buy into the belief that we are fundamentally flawed, bad and undeserving of love...we forget our goodness and feel cut off from our heart. The Buddha taught, however, that no matter how lost in delusion we might be, our essence, our Buddha nature, is pure and undefiled."
The Buddha said:
"Like a caring mother
Holding and guarding the life
Of her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Hold yourself and all beings."
"The fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz wrote:"
Don't surrender your lonliness
So quickly.
Let it cut more deep.
Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.
Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice
So tender,
My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.
"The contemporary Indian master Bapuji lovingly reminds us to cherish our goodness:"
My beloved child,
Break your heart no longer.
Each time you judge yourself you break your own heart.
You stop feeding on the love which is the wellspring of your vitality.
The time has come, your time
To live, to celebrate and to see the goodness that you are...
Let no one, no thing, no idea or ideal obstruct you
If one comes, even in the name of "Truth," forgive it for its
unknowing
Do not fight.
Let go.
And breathe--into the goodness that you are
Thomas Merton writes,"True love and prayer are learned in the hour where prayer has become impossible and the heart has turned to stone."
Bodhisattva - "May this suffering serve to awaken compassion."
Sufi teaching -
"Overcome any bitterness that my have come
because you were not up to the magnitude of the pain
that was entrusted to you.
Like the Mother of the World,
Who carries the pain of the world in her heart,
Each one of us is part of her heart,
And therefore endowed
With a certain measure of cosmic pain."
2 comments:
Mieko,
The philosophers you quoted in your post were inspiring and they still resonate with all forward-thinking people. But, you must consider the fact that most of the quotes were made in an era totally different tahn the world in which we now exist.
Whwn I read youor entire blog, I was left with the feeling that you had doubts about your purpose in life. Baby, we all have those thoughts. You are well educated, bright and extremely beautiful. You have had some trying experiences in your short life but you have survived, which indicates that whatever trials that you faced, you conquered. "Uncle" Don is concerned and he is always available for you. Everyone should be so lucky. You can reach out to me anytime if you want to talk about anything.
Peace & Love,
Tim
"The Buddha taught, however, that no matter how lost in delusion we might be, our essence, our Buddha nature, is pure and undefiled."
Thank you for sharing that quote. All things are possible to them that believe. There is absolutely nothing wrong with seeing yourself, as pure, undefiled and whole. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
You are beautiful and a precious gift sent to us from above. Blossom and allow us to see your wings, so that we too may have hope, and so that we too may fly.
I love you. Your big sis!
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