Dharma Spring

Today, Crow asked me, "If you could be a bird what kind would you be."

A trick question likely--no a koan about one's true self. I was gone lost in thought.

“I already am,” I said boldly.

A “cah, cah,” he replied in a shrill dismissal.

"All birds fly in the same empty sky," I offered.

Cocking his head, "Same sky?"

"Okay, only sky."

"Each person is the owner of their deeds, heir to their deeds, their deeds are the womb from which they are born, their deeds are their kin for whom they are responsible, their deeds are their refuge, they are heir to their deeds, be they good or bad."
--The Buddha

("Aghatavinaya Sutta," adapted from the translation by Ñanamoli Thera)

Photograph by Michael Wood. Used by permission.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/.../an05/an05.161.nymo.html See less

A wonderfully moving post from Mark Nepo on Patheos.

Grief One of the great truths in this life is that if we know love, we will know loss. The more we love, the more the loss will hurt. Yet, if we don’t love,

"We breathe, we are alive, and because we love, we feel the pain of losing."-- Claire Willis

Welcoming the Life That’s Yours — Change Your Attitude... Change Your Life We grieve the loss of a soul mate, the person or people we have held tight. We grieve for neighbors and colleagues, for people behind the numbers and charts in the news, for strangers whose stories we know, even if we have never met. We grieve places that we love that are disappearing or being harme

It's not hard to imagine that the stress and dis-ease that we carry into our sleeping hours would benefit from even a short stint of mediation. There are some good pointers here.

Benefits of meditating before bed; especially now, as we endure lockdowns, meditation can help you relax and sleep - Buddha Weekly: Buddhist Practices, Mindfulness, Meditation ContentsReduce Anxiety And Stress LevelsRelax Your Muscles Before BedImprove REM Sleep CyclesTreat Sleep Disorders If you practice meditation, you can probably vouch for its wide array of health benefits, as meditation has the ability to improve your concentration, relieve stress, lower blood pressu...

What Is The Sound Of Grief? Osvaldo Golijov Puts It To Music In his newest work, Falling Out of Time, composer Osvaldo Golijov explores a painful subject — the death of a child. He was inspired by a unique literary work by Israeli writer David Grossman.

This is a time of year when many hit a wall.

We know depression and anxiety have been up as much as threefold since the start of the pandemic, and long months of darkness and winter remain ahead of us.

Radio Boston takes listener calls with Omar Ruiz, a marriage and family therapist and the owner of TalkThinkThrive counseling services in Wellesley, and Claire Willis, a clinical social worker and the co-founder of the Boston nonprofit "Facing Cancer Together." Willis's latest book is "Opening To Grief: Finding Your Way From Loss To Peace."

https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2021/01/05/mental-health-long-january?fbclid=IwAR3ZXRImUDvT_qtEYlFdjgcok5YwPJqGgHzRoVZn1RHyVrCPuQTc5TGW2Z0 =_

With A Long January Ahead Of Us, We're Facing A Pandemic Mental Health Crisis Depression and anxiety have been up as much as threefold since the start of the pandemic, and long months of darkness and winter remain ahead of us. We take listener calls.

On the Trail of Birth and Death “How many times have I felt that I couldn’t bear the heartbreak,” says Barbara Gates. “But here I am still hiking strong.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/style/grief-loss-covid-19.html

Opening to Grief: Finding Your Way From Loss to Peace

I’m Grieving for the First Time. Can I Talk About It? On losing a family member to Covid-19 and finding comfort in conversation.