from BARDO

The stars are in our belly; the Milky Way our umbilicus.

Is it a consolation that the stuff of which we’re made

is star-stuff too?


– That wherever you go you can never fully disappear –

dispersal only: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen.


Tree, rain, coal, glow-worm, horse, gnat, rock.


Roselle Angwin

Thursday, 8 January 2015

practice 11

Interesting that the Tricycle Buddhist post that arrives daily in my inbox today mirrors what I've been saying in the last two posts, though the Ven Bhikku Bodhi puts it so much more eloquently and succinctly than I did.  (His is the quote I use in the footer of this blog.) (Later: ooops! No, not same man. Sorry.)

I think the word 'faith' is tricky and rather freighted with problems, and I'm not very keen on 'should', but the essence of what he's saying is spot-on. IMHO.

'People of faith should root transformative action in the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, and contemplation. While traditionally such practices served as stepping stones to the realization of a transcendent goal, today we need a wider spiritual vision that can encompass the divine and the mundane, the transcendent and the immanent, in an integral whole.'

~ Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, 'Foster Peace, Inside and Out'



2 comments:

  1. Hi Roselle and everyone - I once heard faith defined as 'what we put our trust in.' I find the open-endedness of that very helpful. Best wishes, Diana

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like that, Diana. Thank you. Rx

    ReplyDelete

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