Faith

As long as we remain on the surface of life, everyone and everything seems to exist as isolated entities.

U Pandita’s In This Very Life. Through it she had learned how to meditate, and it became her main source of spiritual support during those intensely difficult years. I was stunned when I heard that story. A Burmese teacher had come to Barre, Massachusetts, we created this book, and somehow it ended up back in Burma in the hands of a woman I admired

When we wake up in the morning and picture the dealings of our day as consequential, we tell ourselves a story that is based on our ultimate concern.

I watched as the masks I had used to hide my pain fell, and the boundaries of isolation that kept me from more fully connecting to others and to the wholeness of life crumbled.

Some people live internally as if they are in a war zone, even if they are living in material luxury, sometimes even if they are surrounded by caring family members or friends.

Our ultimate concern is the touchstone we turn to over and over again, the thread that we reach for to convey a sense of meaning in our lives. It is the glue that connects the disparate pieces, the frame that gives shape to the picture of our experiences.

reality. When we feel torn away from connection and purpose, we can end up so caught in our state of mind that the whole world seems to exist in reference to our pain.

This state of love-filled delight in possibilities and eager joy at the prospect of actualizing them is known in Buddhism as bright faith. Bright faith goes beyond merely claiming that possibility for oneself to immersing oneself in it. With bright faith we feel exalted as we are lifted out of our normal sense of insignificance, thrilled as we no l

I had a deeper knowledge of the vastness of connection in life, within which fear was arising. I realized that Poonja hadn’t meant fear wouldn’t come up again in my mind but rather that my relationship to it could transform.

Whenever I teach lovingkindness retreats in an urban setting, I ask the students to do their walking meditation out on the streets. I suggest they choose individuals they see and, with care and awareness, wish them well by silently repeating the phrases of the practice, “May you be happy, may you be peaceful.” I tell them that even if they don’t fe