Dear Common Ground Friends,
What draws us to Buddhist practice at different times in our lives might be a healthy desire to want to feel better or do better with the people and circumstances of our lives, to live out our values in a deeper, more intentional way. Sometimes desire can be healthy! We can learn to feel the deep roots of ethics and care in a moment of healthy desire. Often these moments have a direct connection with the experience of dukkha, a real and intuitive sense that something is off and that maybe there is another way… another way to be in relationship with ourselves, with each other, with the circumstances of our lives. We can learn to pause with these moments of healthy desire, and feel into the affective quality of the heart. We can learn to honor the wholesome currents that move us to do, to live and to practice even with what feels hard to bear.
Given the gravity of life’s many challenges, at a glance pausing in this way may hardly seem a strong enough medicine. But this is because we don’t understand the inevitable power of wise awareness to steady and shape us. Wise awareness is subtle and simple and exposes how it is right now. Wise awareness is also honest and inclusive, setting in motion a deeper connection with life than we could have imagined. With our hearts rooted in ethics and care, we can learn to take care of awareness, to look for it, recognize it, and trust it, because with awareness, life becomes a great learning opportunity.
With Kind Care,
Shelly Graf
Co-Guiding Teacher