Being self-aware in the midst of our daily lives provides us with so much material with which to notice the reality of our imperfect selves but, at the same time, to be brought to realize how we are embraced by Ultimate Wisdom and Compassion at all times. There’s no practice a person can specifically do to attain perfect awakening, whether it’s meditation or trying to follow precepts. Of course these are good practices, but we can never totally free ourselves of our blind passions. If we believe we can do it this way, the calculation is a reflection of our ego-selves. Instead, we can be mindful of the dharma as we go about our lives………Reverend Patricia Kanaya Usuki

to satiate means to face loss as well…..to know the beginning and the end….how much courage can we feel within our fear of sadness? and how can we open to the fullest expression of this life?

I drank at every vine

The last was like the first.

I came upon no wine

So wonderful as thirst.

I gnawed at every root.

I ate of every plant.

I came upon no fruit

So wonderful as want.

Feed the grape and bean

To the vintner and monger;

I will lay down lean

With my thirst and my hunger.

….Edna St. Vincent Millay

to be fully alive

Edna St. Vincent Millay says in her poem that she ‘came upon no wine so wonderful as thirst’ and ‘no fruit so wonderful as want.’ If we risk the imaginary dangers of being hungry for a passionate life- if we allow ourselves to feel the emptiness long enough and deep enough to hear the heart’s messages- we end up loving the longing itself. We become less apt to want to rush to fill our every desire. We allow ourselves to feel tender and open and even lonely, without having to do anything about it. Hunger becomes a sign of being alive. You want what you need when you are really hungry. Hazrat Inayat Khan said that ‘life is an opportunity to satisfy the hunger and thirst of the soul.’ We’ll only know what the soul hungers for if we let ourselves be hungry long enough to feel its presence…..Elizabeth Lesser