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Dear Ojai Friends,
The gentle rain continues to fall on our valley after the short break over this past weekend. The photo above is from Saturday morning looking eastward. Dwelling in the present moment, we can breathe and smile to the beauty. Dwelling in the present moment, we can be completely free.
Our inward practice can support our outward action. The practice points us in the direction of understanding and compassion. Being able to cultivate this will relieve our suffering and the suffering of others. It is also from this place of understanding and compassion that we can take action in our lives and in our communities.
A dear friend recently shared the practice of writing of love letters as introduced by Thich Nhat Hanh. Recently I also had the opportunity to read a love letter written to a business leader encouraging him to continue moving in a direction of right action and right speech. It was a beautiful expression of our practice and a demonstration of how we can cultivate our compassion and understanding to create loving speech and deep listening in order to take direct action.
Thich Nhat Hanh wrote in the book Being Peace, “In the peace movement there is a lot of anger, frustration, and misunderstanding. The peace movement can write very good protest letters, but they are not yet able to write a love letter. We need to learn to write a letter to the congress or to the President of the United States that they will want to read, and not just throw away. The way you speak, the kind of understanding, the kind of language you use would not turn people off. The President is a person like any of us.
Can the peace movement talk in loving speech, showing the way for peace? I think that will depend on whether the people in the peace movement can be peace. Because without being peace, we cannot do anything for peace. If we cannot smile, we cannot help other people to smile. If we are not peaceful, then we cannot contribute to the peace movement.
I hope we can bring a new dimension to the peace movement. The peace movement is filled with anger and hatred. It cannot fulfill the path we expect from them. A fresh way of being peace, of doing peace is needed. That is why it is so important for us to practice meditation, to acquire the capacity to look, to see, and to understand. It would be wonderful if we could bring to the peace movement our contribution, our way of looking at things, that will diminish aggression and hatred. Peace work means, first of all, being peace. Meditation is meditation for all of us. We rely on each other. Our children are relying on us in order for them to have a future.”
This Saturday, February 11 at 9:00am we will begin to explore some of these themes of understanding, compassion, loving speech, deep listening, and the practice of love letters. Please join us.
Peace.
Kenley
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