It's a wise thing to keep your heart open. To see and to feel, and then to understand in some deep way. And then to act, and be changed. If we're not changed by what happens around us, we do a kind of disservice to ourselves.

Buddhist practice kind of expects that there's going to be all kinds of loss and tragedy. They've been expecting it for 2500 years, and there's a good track record of predicting it. These things will happen and they're gonna continue to happen. It's not exactly a surprise. Not like an offense to our sense of life that these things happen. It doesn't mean that these things are right or that they should happen. It's more like, yes, how terrible, there it is again.

And then Buddhist practice has taught me how important it is not to close down, not to turn away. Because to close down closes some part of ourselves. We shut down, we become numb. And I've seen people in these kinds of tragedies begin to shut down and not be willing to let their hearts break, and sometimes it takes the form of railing against life, where is the justice in society and the world, what good is karma, something is wrong, where's god in this picture, kind of an abstracted philosophical way and looking outside.

Buddhism tends not to want to philosophize about these things, tends not to want to make the grand conclusions about the nature of life and justice and all these things, but rather to allow ourselves to feel these things and notice where we get hung up, to notice where we get caught and closed down and contracted. And then Buddhism has practices for releasing the contraction, to open up when the heart is all fisted up, and to release it. But not just so we can go whistling down the street happily as if it has nothing to do with us, but so that our heartbreaks can be pure, so our heartbreaks can be open, so our heartbreaks can have a sort of freedom in them, a willingness in them, a rightness to them. Then we can understand and meet each other in real ways. And then we can act. How do we want to act? How do we want to change? What do we want to do that's different?

How do we let this stuff come in, and how do we do it so we don't get weighed down by it, how do we do it so we don't get closed down, how do we do it so we don't get caught up in the sorrow of it? That's really the art and the essence of it. I really hope that the Buddhist practice we do, the mindfullness practice that we do, is preparing us to be ready for these things, to be prepared, to be witnesses, to be responders, to be a compassionate presence for this world, because we've learned to take it in, we've learned not to let it get stuck, not to close down, not to get angry, not to get hostile, because it's going to keep happening. And as it gets closer to us, if it gets closer to us, we need people who are prepared and ready, who are not gonna put their head in the sand like an ostrich or not run away or freeze or also not quickly get into the fight.

So, finally the response. One of the things I've learned from Buddhist practice is that so much hinges in a wise life on how we respond. The past is only important to the degree in which we learn from the past. Learning from our mistakes, learning from what goes on, learning from what happens, but not to be weighed down by the past but to look into the future and see how we can do better in the future, how we can act. And to have the freedom to respond, and to respond with wisdom and compassion and friendship and goodwill, and to keep coming back from that. Because, Buddhism understands that the world begins with you and the world begins anew each time you wake up, each time you blink your eyes, each time you breathe in and you breathe out. There's a whole cycle of life and death that goes on. And there's really a fresh beginning that goes on every moment. And we don't have to be weighed down by what happened, or contract because of it, but rather we can be motivated by it, it can fuel our freedom, it can fuel us in our practice, fuel us in our desire to create a better world. And we can be forward-looking. And the courage and the inspiration and the dedication, devotion, to create a better world for ourselves, for our neighbors, and people all over the world - this forward-looking movement starts with us, starts here. What difference are you gonna make, how are you gonna be a better person, how are you gonna make a difference in this world, how are you gonna improve it for the people around you. So when bad things happen, because of your freedom and because of your not being caught in the past, not being caught in concepts and caught in self, to have the ability and motivation to respond, to let the hope, let the goodness that exists in this world begin with you. Maybe it means that you can live in such a way that you make a difference to the people around you that you wouldn't do if you closed down because of it.

So, to see, to be willing to be a witness, to feel it and let your heart break while still having a lot of respect and care for yourself, to be present, to understand more deeply and then to figure out what your response is - it's very important for all of us to try to improve the lives of others and support each other. And in doing so, we become ready for the next time and the next time and the next time. And in doing so, we also prepare ourselves for those times when our hearts don't break, but when our hearts can sing. And our very capacity to really have our hearts break in a clean way, in a full way, is also the same capacity that allows our hearts to sing fully, glow fully when the circumstances call for that. To be really free is to be able to respond fully to the circumstances of the time you're in. Freedom does not mean in Buddhism that we end up sitting in a cloud of bliss, unconcerned, unconnected, to the dust of the world that happens somewhere else. It's to become fully human so we can live in this world with all of what it is in a wise and caring way.

- Gil Fronsdahl

I love this poem. It's weird, sad and funny all in one.
 

normal is just a setting on a washing machine Whoopie Goldberg

I am tired, beloved,
of chafing my heart against the want of you;
of squeezing it into little ink drops, and posting it.
And I scald alone, here, under the fire of the great moon.


This is cool (to me, the history nerd) because by 'posting' it she meant writing it. This poem sounds like it could have been written recently..

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I found this this quote in the opening of 'The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane' which is supposedly a kid's book though it seems too dark. It's a really good book though...

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"WILD GEESE" by Mary Oliver
 

Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
 

There is Value in the Struggle by Will "Story" Rivera
 

“You must let what happens happen. Everything must be equal in your eyes, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, foolish and wise.”
― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

Torn Torn between thoughts
famished in doubt
I hold in my hand
my soul bleading out
\Torn in confusion
famished in pain I look around
as my life feels so plain
\Torn between worlds
famished in guilt
I hold in my hand
your soul to rebuild
\Torn between lives
famished in sleeplessness
I hold in my hand
my soul for which to rebuild
\Torn between love
famished from thought
we hold in our hands
each others hearts.

I love this poem and it bugs me that when I see it online it almost always has the first two stanzas missing. I think some people don't get it.

Bukowski is not referring to a literal knife. He's expressing his grief over the end of a relationship and saying that he won't blame her for hurting him. When he calls her 'little dark girl' he's referring to her mood/personality not her coloring, but she is probably much younger than him...

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true..