'Coming to our Senses'
All of us, no matter who we are or where we live, have certain things in common.For the most part, we we share the desire to live our lives in peace, to pursue our private yearnings and creative impulses, to contribute in meaningful ways to a larger purpose, to fit in and belong and be valued for who we are, to flourish as individuals and as families, and as societies of purpose and of mutual regard, to live in individual dymanic balance, which is health, and in a collective dynamic balance, what used to be called the "commonweal," which honors our differences and optimizes our mutual creativity and the possibility for a future free from harm and from which threatens what is most vital to our well-being and our very being.
Such a collective dynamic balance, in my view, would feel a lot like heaven, ar at least like being comfortably at home. It is what peace feels like, when we really have peace and know peace, inwardly and outwardly. It is what being healthy feels like. It is what genuine happiness feels like. It is like being at home in the deepest of ways. Isn't that somehow what we are all claiming we really want?
Ironically, such balance is already here at our fingertips at all times, in in little ways that are not so little and have nothing to do with wishful thinking, rigid or authoratarian control, or utopias. Such balance is already here when we tune in to our own bodies and minds and to those forces that move us forward through the day and through the years, namely our motivation and our vision of what is worth living for and what needs undertaking.
It is here in the small acts of kindness that happen between strangers and in families, and even in times of war, between supposed enemies. It is here everytime we recycle our bottles and newspapers, or think to conserve water, or act with others to care for and protect our dwindling wilderness areas and other species with whom we share this planet.
This capacity for paying attention and for intelligent action can be cultivated, nurtured, and refined beyond our wildest dreams if we have the motivation to do so!
By: John Kabat-Zinn from the book 'Coming to our Senses'
Views: 77
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Comment by Jonas Cain on September 28, 2008 at 7:38pm
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As Ghandi would say, we must be the change that we wish to see in the world. How can we ever have world Peace if there is no inner Peace? It starts with the individual. I too believe that we are here to create HOPE (Heaven On Planet Earth). A world free of hatred and war, where everyone works together, would be just what I image Heaven to be. This physical life separates us from devine love, and only in death do we get to feel the loving embrace again. But to create a physical representation of Heaven here on Earth would allow us to never be away from that which we so long for always. But you are right, we have the ability right now to have this world that we've always dreamed of...so what is holding us back?
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"Why should there be hunger and deprivation in any land, in any city, at any table, when man has the resources and the scientific know-how to provide all mankind with the basic necessities of life?"
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
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