Practice

I'm going to be honest, part of me in the morning whines that I "have to" or "should" meditate. But, those feelings I get thruoght the day of peace and calmness are, to me, invaluable, and what this life is about. It is why I practice.

My Dharma sister Koki said that practice feels to her like she is in the middle of fire. This is the quote she used to describe it.

"Bodhisattvas practice 'in the middle of the fire.' This means they enter into the suffering of the world; it also means they stay steady with the fire of their own painful emotions. They neither act them out nor repress them. They are willing to stay 'on the dot' and explore an emotion's ungraspable qualities and fluid energies -- and to let that experience link them to the pain and courage of others." Pema Chodron

I replied to her how odd it is that practice is so different to everyone and if we could ascribe words to those seconds of satori that we have, how different they would be. Yet, the thing that stood out in my mind as I contemplated what I just said was that we all practice, we all see things differently but there is no difference between you or me, or him or her or anyone. We are all the Buddha. Our inner being is like a piece of sunlight that has been trapped in a bottle and only we can let it out, never ending and boundless peace. THAT, I believe is the same in all of us.

So I say odd but wonderful how we are all like snowflakes, different and unique, no two the same. But when the sun shines and we melt and we are all the same.

With love,
Jake