i am a dwelling place of spirit, hope, healing and possibility.
a resting place for doubt, grief, fear, uncertainty, worry, frustration, disappointment and anger to be aired out with breath and tender patience.
an abiding of body, heart and mind in joy, equanimity, compassion, transformative love and freedom.
a sacred space.
In the wake of the Charleston massacre, I led a dharma discussion for my sangha, Lansing Area Mindfulness Community, on being good spiritual friends and reflected on ways we can take care of ourselves and one another in the face of racism, bias, and injustice. I shared passages from Zenju Earthlyn Manuel’s book, The Way of Tenderness, which I had been studying since its release last winter, and invited all to deeply penetrate the body as nature:
“Seeing body as nature is to directly see form
as nature, as of the earth.
It is to see the pure form of life without the distortions…
Rage springs up when certain embodied forms of life–blackness, queerness, and so on
–are not recognized and honored as part of nature.”
Once again, Zenju offers healing wisdom through an embodied practice of breathing. I hope you will share this far and wide with others who are seeking to reconcile with and find refuge within the body…as nature, as home:
“May the great light of this Earth surround me,
May I be released from past harm and imposed hatred.
May I come to recognize my existence in the true nature of life.
May I come back to this breath, to this body,
as the sacred place in which I remain awake
and connected to the fragrance and taste of liberation.”
May our healing continue…
Read Zenju’s full post here: I Can Breathe: A Meditation on Surviving Acts of Hatred
tscottmiller 