Saturday, December 6, 2008

Thoughtful Friday ~ intimate reciprocity

Okay, it's not Friday anymore but it was Friday when I started thinking of this post. That counts. Right?

my child eyes

"...if we wish for greater wisdom and kindness in the world, perhaps we could start by inhabiting our own body with some degree of kindness and wisdom, even for one moment just accepting ourselves as we are with kindness and compassion rather than forcing ourselves to conform to some impossible ideal. The world would immediately be different. If we wish to make a true difference in this world, perhaps we must first learn how to stand in relationship to our own lives and our own knowing, or at least learn along the way, which always amounts to the same thing, since the world does not wait for us but is unfolding along with us in intimate reciprocity. And if we wish to grow or change or heal in any way, perhaps to be less strident or acquisitive, or more confident or generous, perhaps we must first taste silence and stillness, and know that drinking deeply at their wells is itself healing and transformative through embracing in awareness itself whatever we find here in this moment, including our deeply ingrained and unconscious tendencies."

Jon Kabat-Zin, "Coming To Our Senses - Healing ourselves and the world through mindfulness" p.135

No comments: