Here we are, modern global beings, living amidst vast beauty and increasing difficulty. The human caused difficulties we face include climate change, continuing racism, injustice, refugees suffering around the world, and cultural anxiety. One of our options is to live in denial. Often our culture promotes this, but there’s an alternative. Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh explained, “When the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked, all would be lost. But if even one person remained centered and calm on the boat, they showed the way for everyone else to survive.”
So whose responsibility is it to respond to these dilemmas? Miss Piggy would say, “Moi.” In community, in family, in our lives, in joy and sorrow, in birth and death—we are given the responsibility to hold ourselves in a web of love. Through this, you become the one person on the boat who can shine your lamp in the darkness and show the way for all.
“Quiet your mind, open your heart, center yourself, and realize that you can actually live from loving awareness, because who you really are is loving awareness.” – Jack Kornfield
I lived with one of my great colleagues, Maha Ghosananda, during the Cambodia genocide, where we were hidden away in remote jungle monasteries. All nineteen members of his family had been murdered, his temple was burned, his village in ruins. As soon as Maha Ghosananda was able, he hurried back to work in the refugee camps and to address the hundreds of thousands people who poured out. Upon arriving to one camp, he rang the bell as 25,000 people filled the square. These were the faces of trauma—what could Maha Ghosananda possibly say to them?
As he looked out at the crowd of refugees, he put his hands together and began to chant the powerful verse from the Buddha, “Hatred never ceases by hatred, but by love alone is healed. This is the ancient and eternal law.” Soon everyone began to chant along with him, weeping as they sang. When it was time for them to return to their villages, he advised, “Don’t go by bus or train, you have to reclaim your land with a bell and a gong, chanting loving kindness with every step.” Thousands of people followed him to reclaim their land and their hearts. In the midst of so much sorrow, Maha Ghosananda had spoken a truth that was bigger than all the suffering that was being held.
“Truthfully will I speak. With good intention will I speak. For the benefit of all will I speak.” – Vinaya Pitaka
Maha Ghosananda embodied the way of the Bodhisattva. A Bodhisattva is a being who sets the compass of their heart in the direction of compassion, no matter what happens in the world. “Even if the sun rises in the West, no matter the changes, I will bring compassion and care to alleviate suffering for the well-being of all who surround me.” You too can trust your own resonance with the stream of Bodhisattvas past and your own heart’s natural caring. Otherwise, it’s easy to get lost in despair these days. Honestly, if you look at the news narrative, they want you despairing and feeling powerless.
But amidst these trying times, I recall the great words of Gandhi, “When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. Yes, there have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.”
My friend, Deena Metzger, a wonderful poet and activist writes—
Give me everything mangled and bruised,
And I will make a light of it to make you weep,
And we will have rain,
And begin again.
Allow this poem to open you to its timeless reality. When you quiet your mind and open your heart, you realize that there is a beautiful way you can live in this world: planting seeds of kindness and generosity, and standing up for what matters in your own life with it’s measure of tears, joy, and wonder. And standing up for others. The work you do inwardly cannot be separated from the gifts that you offer with every breath as you move through this world. May these gifts be of benefit to all beings.
With metta,
Jack
*This article is from my podcast, Heart Wisdom – Ep. 276 – Healing With Love: Hopeful Wisdom for Difficult Times. Download/stream on Apple, Spotify, Youtube, and JackKornfield.com
