Mindfulness and loving-kindness are traditionally described as two wings of a bird. With the wing of mindfulness, you develop the capacity to observe non-judgmentally and allow things to be as they already are. With the kindness wing, you cultivate a friendly and compassionate stance toward what is happening. And you need both wings to fly.

When mindfulness encounters suffering and sees it clearly for what it is, compassion will naturally arise. The same is true with compassion: compassion has the seed of wisdom built in.

One of the core teachings is the four foundations of mindfulness-

mindfulness of the body

mindfulness of feeling tones

mindfulness of the mind

mindfulness of how the mind operates

Mindfulness teaches us how to relate to our experiences differently. Even our pain.

~Christine Wolf

for all that we cannot burn away…..

inquiry for today~   ‘your life as a living metaphor’ is a way to come into your life through the backdoor……no tricks….simply the bare bones of reality which is like the soft closing of the screen door that we hardly notice…..

the empty vessel at stillpoint

If you feel pensive or sad from the impermanence of life, you are looking at life as a kind of object that you want to hold on to. the feelings and thoughts you experience as a human being are important, but they arise from emptiness, the dynamic functioning of your life. So experience emptiness first; then you can think and create ideas based on wisdom. Usually we do the opposite, then we get dragged around by our thoughts and feelings based on ignorance. Don’t get dragged around! All you have to do is just be alive!

You are the aliveness of life. When you see your life exactly as it is, there is no way to feel sad because you see that your life is constantly emerging. So just take care of your life. No matter what happens in your life, just deal with it and let it go. Move forward. That is practicing wisdom of the emptiness of the conditioned.

~Dainin Katagiri Roshi