Our nature is love, yet through ego identification, this love becomes distorted. By following wholesome impulses, we strengthen our natural inclination to love.
Our fear management strategies--versions of fight/flight-- contract our body and mind, and separate us from others. As we learn to pause and contact the bodily fear with a gentle, mindful awareness, our sense of being enlarges. We rediscover our belonging to presence, love and life.
As we come near the end of a month or two months of retreat practice, we can reflect on how we might connect, as we enter the "world", our "inner" and "outer" practice. We can be inspired and energized by the figure of the bodhisattva, and by seeing the continuity of the core teachings and practices throughout all the parts of our lives.
What is the quality of awareness that facilitates a joyful presence and attitude toward experience that allows us to know the peace beyond the changing conditions of life?
Human life requires much tenderness and vulnerability to work with inevitable pain and suffering - the practice of compassion is a wonderful vehicle for this orientation.
