Approximate Agenda for
(Meeting #8)
DINNER (
LIGHTING OF THE
CHALICE (
"The Buddha said, the practice of Maitri, or loving-kindness, brings us beauty, beauty that
makes life meaningful. He also said that
if you practice Karuna or compassion, what you
feel is infinite space.
Karuna is the kind of energy that helps you to suffer less, that helps people around you to suffer less. Karuna is the kind of energy that helps to transform the
suffering in us. Suffering is like the compost, the garbage. And love is like
the flower. While the compost or the garbage is not beautiful, love and the
flower are beautiful. The role of
suffering and the role of compost are clear. If we know how to make use of suffering,
if we know how to make use of the compost, we can bring about the flower and
beauty.
Understanding the suffering of other people
around us and understanding our own suffering is very crucial. Because only by
understanding suffering can we know how to transform the suffering into love. When beauty is there, when love is there, when
compassion is there, you begin to feel a lot of space inside and around you.
When we speak of love, compassion, we tend
to believe that the person, who profits from that love, and from that
compassion, is another person. We tend to forget that right in the moment when
love is born in our heart, compassion is also born in our heart. We are the
first person to benefit from it. Because
love and compassion, when they are born immediately they bring beauty and
happiness right away to us."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, lecture on
"Love"
“A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection to a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
-
Albert Einstein
CHECK-IN (<2
minutes each à
MAIN TOPIC (
What is compassion, what is empathy, and what place do/should they play in my life?
CHECK-OUT (<1
minute each à
CLOSING WORDS (
“And
when I rise, let me rise
Like
a bird, joyfully-
And
when I fall, let me fall
Like a leaf, gracefully, without regrets.
And
when I stand, let me stand
Like
a tree, strong and tall-
And
when I lie, let me lie
Like
a lake, peacefully, calm and still.
And
when I work, let me work
Like
a bee, wholeheartedly-
And
when I play, let me play
Like
a breeze, refreshingly, light and clear.”
(From "A
Basket of Plums" Parallax Press)
1. ANY CONCERNS?
2. PREPPING THE NEXT TOPIC
3. SERVICE