The Age of Love in the Reign of Pain

The Age of Love in the Reign of Pain
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2020
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There is so much loss to process, how can we?

My niece, an out of work nurse, and single mom,

Tells me she feels sick. She hasn’t the courage to

Go to a hospital. Who will take care of Mikey, my

Five year old son, the love of my life, she asks?
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I’m eight thousand miles away and forty years

Older, but I’ve loved her and her sister and

Brother, since I loved their mom, Nadja, the

Sister I never had, so long ago. It’s been twelve

Years since she overdosed, and passed away.
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I have no answers for her, nor the legion of

Other good, loving people who must now

Suffer with losses too staggering to process.

The pain of each of those losses will define

This age. The age of love in the reign of pain.
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Forgive Yourself for Failing

Forgive Yourself for Failing


Falling down is what we humans do.

If we can acknowledge that fact, judgment softens and we allow the world to be as it is, forgiving ourselves and others for our humanity.


—Lin Jensen, “An Ear to the Ground”

Getting Along with People Who Bother You

Getting Along with People Who Bother You


A Buddhist practices nonattachment to views.

If we human beings are going to stick around on this earth, we need to learn to get along not just with the people who share our views, but also, and more to the point, with the people who get our goat.

And remember—we get their goat, too.


—Susan Moon, “Ten Practices to Change the World”

The Time To Love

The Time To Love
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2020
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In the midst of this cacophony of fear,

Ignorance, anger and hatred will try

To misdirect our hearts away from love.
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We are much stronger than that. The love

We offer strangers as we do what little

We can, minus the touches of reassurance;
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Is somehow less than what we all need,

A human touch, a hug, and yes, kisses

Beyond number, and even shared tears.
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But when the natural-born love we hold

For mothers, and fathers, and sisters and

Brothers, and the dearest we’ve wedded;
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Or the dearest we’ve just discovered in our

Hearts, and so, gladdening lonely minds,

Opens wider than glad smiles and teardrops.
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It will be then, that we will know, that the

Times are more right than ever before, to

Open our fearful hearts and minds to love.
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Life is fickle at the best of times, and now

Perhaps more so than we’ve imagined it

Could ever be. Now is also the time to love.
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How to Respond to Anger

How to Respond to Anger


If you are angry and you meditate to get rid of your anger, you will only frustrate yourself.

Meditate because you are angry, not to eliminate it.


—Mark Epstein, “I’ve Been Meditating for Ten Years, and I’m Still Angry. What’s the Matter with Me?”

Diluting Your Ego

Diluting Your Ego


Each deepening of refuge is a lessening of ego.


—Dharmavidya David Brazier, “It Needs Saying”

The Humble Mouse

The Humble Mouse
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2020
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The dirty little brown mouse pokes her nose

Out of her city burrow and takes a whiff.
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It’s nighttime so she can see shapes better

Than in daytime when all’s bright and loud.
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Her babies are hungry, she’s on a mission.

On dry nights she does dumpster diving;
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But it isn’t easy to find a loose lid she can

Fit through to forage for some tasty leavings.
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Her babies won’t be too particular after three

Days of torrential rains have kept her inside.
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I admire her. She does her best, when she can,

To keep safe so she can take care of her young.
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If some of the arrogant humans I hear about

Would follow her example and stay safe at home,
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They’d have a better chance to survive the times

When torrents of disease or flood ravage the land.
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What an inspiration she is. She never complains.

Quick when needs must, but she’s never greedy.
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And if those torrents won’t let up, she’ll share, as

Best she can. At least that way, some will survive.
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You Are Enough

You Are Enough


The ground of renunciation is realizing that we already have exactly

what we need, that what we have already is good.


—Pema Chödrön, “Renunciation”

Pema Chödrön, Bhikṣuṇī (fully ordained nun)
Born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown
July 14, 1936 (age 83)
New York City, New York, United States
Religion Buddhism
Lineage Shambhala Buddhism
Education University of California, Berkeley
Occupation resident teacher Gampo Abbey

Teachers: Chögyam Trungpa, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
Website pemachodronfoundation.org

Pema Chödrön (born Deirdre Blomfield-Brown, July 14, 1936) is an American Tibetan Buddhist. She is an ordained nun, former acharya of Shambhala Buddhism and disciple of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.

Chödrön has written several dozen books and audiobooks, and is principal teacher at Gampo Abbey in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Contents

Chödrön began studying with Lama Chime Rinpoche during frequent trips to London over a period of several years. While in the US she studied with Trungpa Rinpoche in San Francisco. In 1974, she became a novice Buddhist nun under Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa.

In Hong Kong in 1981 she became the first American in the Vajrayana tradition to become a fully ordained nun or bhikṣuṇī.

Trungpa appointed Chödrön director of the Boulder Shambhala Center (Boulder Dharmadhatu) in Colorado in the early 1980s.

Chödrön moved to Gampo Abbey in 1984, the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in North America for Western men and women, and became its first director in 1986.

Chödrön's first book, The Wisdom of No Escape, was published in 1991.Then, in 1993, she was given the title of acharya when Trungpa's son, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, assumed leadership of his father's Shambhala lineage.

In 1994, she became ill with chronic fatigue syndrome, but gradually her health improved. During this period, she met Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche and took him as her teacher.

That year she published her second book, Start Where You Are and in 1996, When Things Fall Apart. No Time to Lose, a commentary on Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, was published in 2005.

That year, Chödrön became a member of The Committee of Western Bhikshunis. Practicing Peace in Times of War came out in 2007. In 2016 she was awarded the Global Bhikkhuni Award, presented by the Chinese Buddhist Bhikkhuni Association of Taiwan.

In 2020 she retired from her acharya role from Shambhala International saying, "I do not feel that I can continue any longer as a representative and senior teacher of Shambhala given the unwise direction in which I feel we are going."

Chödrön teaches the traditional "Yarne"retreat at Gampo Abbey each winter and the Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life in Berkeley each summer.

A central theme of her teaching is the principle of "shenpa," or "attachment," which she interprets as the moment one is hooked into a cycle of habitual negative or self-destructive thoughts and actions. According to Chödrön, this occurs when something in the present stimulates a reaction to a past experience.

The Present That Few Are Grateful To Receive

The Present That Few Are Grateful To Receive
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2020
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What a long title. It’ll sure take some doing to

Make sure I explain it to you adequately.
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Let’s start with an idea that is seldom given

Much thought. We’re usually too busy doing.
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Think of this now time, this present moment.

For all living organisms, each moment is a gift.
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No earthly organism is immune. Life can end

In the moment that follows this now moment.
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If not for our participation in this moment,

We’d be dead. Full stop. Last frame played.
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The final sentence of our story would have

Been written. A story few will care to hear.
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I like to think that this moment needs to be

Celebrated with recognition of its presence.
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I like to think that this moment needs to be

Given its due: some gracious heartfelt thanks.
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So whatever it is you’re doing as you read

This piece, focus! Come back to the moment.
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Be happy! You got a moment that many

Organisms didn’t get. For you it’s a present.
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A short query to shake up time as it flies,

How will you use your moment present?
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You Are Always in the Present Moment

You Are Always in the Present Moment


You are always here now.


It is only a matter of whether you know it or not.


—Loch Kelly, “When Am I?”