The notion of interdependence makes us question our basic perception of the world and then use this new perception again and again to lessen our attachments, our fears, and our aversions. An understanding of interdependence should demolish the wall of illusions that our minds have built up between ‘me’ and ‘the other.’ It makes a nonsense of pride, jealousy, greed, and malice. If not only all inert things but also all living beings are connected, then we should feel deeply concerned about the happiness and suffering of others. Feelings of universal love and of compassion are the direct consequences of interdependence. Thus knowledge of interdependence leads to a process of inner transformation, which continues throughout the journey of spiritual enlightenment. We are all made of stardust. As brothers of the wild beasts and cousins of the flowers in the fields, we all carry the history of the cosmos. Just by breathing, we are linked to all the other beings that have lived on the planet. It’s enough to know that enlightenment embraces everything and knows at each instant the number and the nature of things. It is this global view that permits omniscience……..Matthieu Ricard & Trinh Xuan Thuan

may inspiration sing down to the bone…..may honor lift this life into golden light…..may the real grit of our days show its beauty again and again……

Light cannot be seen without shade.
Shade cannot be seen without light.

By moonlight, we see in black and white. We cannot see colors. There is something fascinating and valuable about seeing the world that way. We see only what is essential. We see form emerging from a sea of blackness. . . . We can look at the world so familiar by daylight and see it anew in the black and white of moonlight. You see yin and yang. . .
The day warms, the night cools. The sun moves over a hill, changing the face from brightness to shadow. Stand in the middle of a forest and watch all the shadows and sunlight shift second by second. You see yin and yang……..Deng Ming-Dao

where the view shifts

A Sweetness Appears & Prevails

The reason we bother

to get up in the morning

is because of everything;

is because there is another arithmetic

without internal sense

and we ache at the borders;

is because the grey music

of the first chickadee before dawn

in the hemlocks

is the grinding engines of the humpyard

carried on morning air;

is because we are afraid

and do not know

who will soothe our tears

nor how many tears

we will hold unshed.

You seem to be you

and I seem to be me.

My sorrows are no greater

than your sorrows.

Thou art beautiful,

o my loves,

as tears are.

….Terrance Keenan