Waterlilies are symbols of growth to our higher selves... sprouting from mud and muck rising to water's surface as a clean, pristine flower ...It's time for a change. I'm tired of the negativity that I have let into my life ... I can choose to continue holding on to the hurts my adopted family inflicted on me ... or I can let them go. It's time for them to go .... will it be easy? Not hardly ... but they need to go for me to heal and be the person I was meant to be.
One way is through the Buddhist tradition of "Four Limitless Qualities." The practice is to aspire to loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. They are as follows:
May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
May we be free from suffering and the root of suffering.
May we not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.
May we dwell in the great equanimity free from passion, aggression, and prejudice.
The bodhichitta practices is just one way to sow the seeds of well-being, not only for ourselves, but for others. Everyone has to choose the religous belief that is right for them ... I put none down, all have value.
To me this is a way of thinking, not so much a religious practice. But like all things, it will take practice in learning to want for others as much as myself. It's like moving a river ... the channel has been cut for such a long time and now you are trying to get the water to go another way -- creating a new channel. Thus we atay in the patterns of behavior that keep us unhappy. Maybe -- just maybe ... this is a way to start healing my inner self.
First, I must start with myself and those I love the most.
Express the wish that I enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
Next expand the wish for someone I love.
Using the thought that they enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
Continue expanding it to a greater and greater circle of those in my life.
Start with self, moving out to those you love (where love and kindness is already felt) and then on to those that we neither like nor dislike and finally to those we dislike before expressign at long last good wishes for those unknown ... think of what a change could be felt in the world ....
It won't be easy to open my heart and act on my fears. The mediation teacher I had in San Diego warned that these activities had power to cut away useless habits and patterns of behavior. By acknowledging love, compassion, joy and equanimity and nurturing them --- they will strengthen.
Happiness is being free of anger, resentment, guilt, greed, envy, the list goes on. It is through our thoughts that our reality is constantly forming. Learning to train our thinking is fundamental to creating the kind of world we want -- this sounds like a plan. Am I ready for it? I have to be ...
This is a Bodhisattva's vow ... "However innumerable beings are, I vow to save them." A Bodhisattva is anyone who is motivated by pure compassion and love -- seeking enlightenment not only for him/herself but also for everyone. Most people are self-motivated and work primarily to solve their own problems, keeping others a distant second. Should one do an act of kindness, repayment of some type is generally expected be it as a thank you, further praise or other action.
A Bodhisattva is motivated by by genuine concern and love for all living things.
