Faith

The first step on the journey of faith is to recognize that everything is moving onward to something else, inside us and outside.

Even when we don’t know what to do to make things better for someone, or when whatever we do seems likely to be of little consequence, we can have faith that we are not isolated individuals in a fragmented world. We can have faith that the power of intention links our actions to a vast web of interconnection.

When our intention is to do good for others, and we nurture that intention, we can have faith that in some way, often unknown to us, it ripples out.

When we are in despair, whether with a distinctly impressive cause or not, we feel devastated and alone. Anyone who has ever been in this state of mind, for whatever reason, will recognize the statement “We all became completely separate human beings.”

It is in the nature of our existence that we can’t, by decree, or effort of will, or fervent desire, or even by all-consuming love, make the pain go away for someone.

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

One of the best depictions of awareness comes from Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In a class he was teaching he drew a loose V shape in the center of a large white sheet of paper. “What is this a picture of?” he asked. The students all responded, “It’s a bird.” “No,” Trungpa Rinpoche said. “It’s a picture of the sky, with a bird flying through it.” Like

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.

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