--- In [email protected], kyukyo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Perhaps It Is Anger At A Percieved Violation Of Your > Sanctuary That Has You Upset. There Is No Place You > Can Go, Nor Will Any Effort Succeed In Creating An > Oasis Where Nothing Suffers Or Dies. The Universes > Will Not Shift In Response To Your Desires Or To Mine.
I like this very much. Thanks for the responses Jackie & Alex. i've spent way too much time in my life being angry at the world for not being something different - sort of amusing to think of when i'm not depressed about it... this practice is so good about letting me simply _own_ all that i am. i used to set my radio alarm clock to play npr news each morning before work. i remember one morning hearing a story in which a young serbian man (boy) was interviewed about being taken into his military experience. i don't recall the details correctly - but the sense from his interview was that he was taken forcibly from his family & made to serve. part of his initiation was being forced to rape muslim women. he was driven by fear for his own life to participate in terrible things & was clearly as much a victim of the violence as the people he was attacking. at that time i had a young son - & i cried all day to think about all that goes on in the world while i am simply consumed with getting thru my daily jobs. i thought of how terrible it would be to have my own son be put thru such a thing, as well as the sadness of the mass graves & rapes that were being reported on a regular basis. during that time (& off & on since) i've gone thru short stints of therapy for depression. mostly that has never made much difference - and i was advised/decided to set my alarm to music instead of news. but there is always the nagging sense in the back of my mind that i don't have enough of a commitment to living from a compassionate place. difficult to nail down - just that all my energy goes into my own survival & i haven't found a way to commit more of my energies toward 'something greater/more healing for the world' (what ever that may turn out to be)... in the mean time life goes on & my children have grown. my son, who was unhappy in school & felt he could see no future for himself in the jobs he was going thru, is now a marine. we are all part of the same fabric & we all participate in the same beautiful(??) & violent dance. when i saw the picture of the young iraqi boy whose arms were burned to the bone & both hands gone asking 'can you give me my hands back? i don't want to live if you cannot give me my hands' i could hear the words that follow the last sit of the evening "DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME BY NIGHT OR DAY". and still i don't know what it would be to live for something other than my own survival... i think you've got the right idea Alex - "practice the first three paramitas" - and let go of this notion i can _make_ the world be anything other than what it is. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UwRTUD/UOnJAA/i1hLAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
