In the act of giving something is born...

• Love is a friendship set to music. – Joseph Campbell

When my spirit overflows with rich emotions, words are as difficult to tame as butterflies.
And so I remain rather dumbfoundedly speechless…
And instead rely on a grimace of a smile, watery eyes, a gesture of my hand to my heart, a deep sigh, and a softly spoken “thank you” to express the near to bursting feeling I experience in my heart.
People that are closest to me are familiar with this expression, because they are the ones who usually elicit such emotions in me.
And so… for these individuals, my closest friends, the ones I refer to as my-family-of-choice…
The ones who have shared with me their stories – some heart wrenching, some uplifting…
The ones who have shared with me their vulnerabilities – sacred glimpses into their most private worlds…
The ones who have introduced me to their loved ones, their families, their communities…
For these individuals I dedicate today’s posting.
I dedicate this to them, because of the joy and love they bring forth in my life.
I dedicate these few words to them, because they bring to life the following thoughts from Erich Fromm:

• The most important sphere of giving, however, is not that of material things, but lies in the specifically human realm. What does one person give to another? He gives of himself, of the most precious he has, he gives of his life. This does not necessarily mean that he sacrifices his life for the other – but that he gives him of that which is alive in him; he gives him of his joy, of his interest, of his understanding, of his knowledge, of his humor, of his sadness – of all expressions and manifestations of that which is alive in him. In thus giving of his life, he enriches the other person, he enhances the other’s sense of aliveness by enhancing his own sense of aliveness. He does not give in order to receive; giving is in itself exquisite joy. But in giving he cannot help bringing something to life in the other person, and this which is brought to life reflects back to him; in truly giving, he cannot help receiving that which is given back to him. Giving implies to make the other person a giver also and they both share in the joy of what they have brought to life. In the act of giving something is born, and both persons involved are grateful for the life that is born for both of them. Specifically with regard to love this means: love is a power which produces love…

Two quotes on Friendship from Henri Nouwen

• The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.
  
  
• When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

Quotes from Kahlil Gibran

• When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
  
  
• Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.
  
  
• Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

A quote from Zen master Shunryu Suzuki

The basic teaching of Buddhism is the teaching of transiency, or change. That everything changes is the basic truth for existence. This is the true teaching for all of us. Wherever we go this teaching is true. Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. We should find perfect existence through imperfect existence. We should find perfection in imperfection. We should find the truth in this world, through our difficulties, through our suffering. This is the basic teaching of Buddhism. Pleasure is not different from difficulty. Good is not different from bad. Bad is good; good is bad. They are two sides of one coin. So to find pleasure in suffering is the only way to accept the truth of transiency.

A quote from C. G. Jung

The man who would learn the human mind will gain almost nothing from experimental psychology. Far better for him to put away his academic gown, to say good-bye to the study and wander with the human heart through the world. There, in the horrors of the prison, the asylum, and the hospital, in the drinking shops, brothels and gambling halls, in the salons of the elegant, in the exchanges, socialist meetings, churches, religious revivals, the sectarian extasies, through love and hate, through the experience of passion in every form in his own body he would reap richer store of knowledge than text-books a foot thick give him. Then he would doctor the sick with real knowledge of the human soul.

Women Are Heroes...

I came across this political-art project through Rebecca Walker’s Twitter page…


The project is called... Women Are Heroes...

Have you seen this?
It's amazing...
It takes my breath away...
It makes me cry...

About Women Are Heroes:

The work is the creation of an anonymous French photo- grapher who goes by the initials JR.

Back in 2004, he started taking pictures with a camera he found in the subway.
In 2008, he started documenting the stories of women through his photographs…
And he converted these pictures into huge posters…

And trans- formed open spaces into outdoor photo galleries using decaying walls…


The sides of buses...







The exterior facades of homes…







Trains…










Tin roof tops.









In 2008, he photographed women in the most violent neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The women in these photos lost family members to clashes between local police and drug traffickers.
According to his website, JR explains that by photographing these women he intends to…
“underline their pivotal role and to highlight their dignity by shooting them in their daily lives and posting them on the walls of their country.”


He has since taken photo- graphs of women in Kenya, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Liberia…


Countries where “the violence suffered by women.. is the extreme expression of discriminations.”
Through his photographs of these women he conveys…
“their force, their courage and their noble struggle: first to live, then to exist.”

As I look at these photographs, I see the stories...
I see the stories that these women are otherwise made to believe should not be spoken.
I see strength...
Courage...
Vitality.
I see how resilient qualities manifest out of the void caused by their anguish.
I can read in the facial features and expressions of these women...
Stories that require something more visceral and more profound than words.
The public display of their images demand witnessing...
Witnessing of their stories...
Witnessing of their sacrifice...
Witnessing of their womanhood...
Witnessing of their heroism.

When you get a chance, please watch the following video clip:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4lv1b_trailer-women-are-heroes_creation

Near Enemies of Awakening...

The below passage is a transcription of an interview with Jack Kornfield from 1994. Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, India, and Burma. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, and is considered to be one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West.

True awakening is discovering a greater capacity to love, for compassion, for balance....

The near enemy to love is attachment. You can probably sense the difference in your life when you love someone and want them to be the way they are, and it turns into attachment. There’s a grasping, “they’re different, they’re separate,” and you need to possess them.

The near enemy to compassion is pity. “Oh, that poor person is suffering,” as if we ourselves didn’t, whereas true compassion is the shared heart of our joys and our sorrows.

And the near enemy to balance or spiritual equanimity is indifference. It masquerades as spirituality. “It doesn’t matter, easy come easy go, this marriage doesn’t work out, I’ll try another. These children… I can have more children.” And so it is a not caring that is fear.

The awakened spiritual potential is an opening of the heart and the mind in the midst of all things. It’s not a fear, but rather a discovery of this great heart of the Buddha that we each contain; this great human capacity for presence and freedom of spirit, in the midst of any circumstance. And that’s why we revere the greatest of sages and teachers. Not because they left the world, but because they sat in the midst of it, lived in the midst with such great love and freedom.