Be True to Your Heart
Day 3
Do not betray your heart
Resources for Day 3:
Sunday 8 am
Welcome to Day 3
Poem
45 min meditation with bells marking 5 stages.
Awake my dear
Be kind to your sleeping heart
Take it out to the vast fields of light and let it breathe
Hafiz (1315-1390)
Sunday 10.30am
Talk by Bodhilila – Do not betray your heart.
Buddha Puja
Poem
Just Sitting
Our Deepest Fear
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other
people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
Marianne Williamson
What if there is no need to change?
What if there is no need to change?
No need to try and transform yourself
Into someone more compassionate, more present, more loving, more wise?
How would this affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better?
What if the task is simply to unfold,
To become who you already are in your essential nature:
Gentle, compassionate, and capable of living fully and passionately present?
What if the question is not
“ Why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be? ”
But, “ Why do I so infrequently want to be the person I really am? ”
What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying
But by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practices
That are for us the warmth of encouragement we need to unfold?
How would this shape the choices you make about how to spend today?
What if you knew that the impulse to move in a way that creates beauty in the world
Will arise from deep within
and guide you every time you simply pay attention
And wait.
How would this shape your stillness, your movement,
Your willingness to follow this impulse
To just let go
And dance?
Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Maitri mantra led by Maitripushpa
Q & A with Bodhilila and Maitripushpa
Standing Metta Bhavana led by Maitripushpa
Mantra – led by Maitripushpa
Buddha Puja
(from the Dhammapada)
1. Praise
He is calm like the earth that endures
He is steady like a column that is firm
He is pure like a lake that is clear
He is free from samsara – the endless round of suffering.
In the light of his vision
He has found true freedom.
His thoughts are peace,
His words are peace,
And his work is peace.
Shakyamuni mantra
2. Salutation
By what earthly path could you lead the Buddha astray,
He who can wander the pathless ways of the Infinite?
The Buddha, who is awake, whose victory cannot be reversed,
Is a being none can conquer.
One of true vision is not easy to find.
Freed from craving, hatred and delusion,
A Buddha is a guide to be treasured.
3. Going for Refuge
People in fear flee for refuge to mountains or forests,
To groves, sacred trees or shrines.
But these are not a safe refuge.
They are not a refuge that frees from sorrow.
One who goes for refuge to the Buddha,
To the Truth teachings, and to the community he taught,
They go indeed to a great refuge.
That is a safe refuge, a haven of wisdom and compassion.
Those who go to that refuge will eventually be free from sorrow.
4. Acknowledging Unskilfulness
Hold not a fault of little matter
Thinking, ‘this is minor to me’.
The falling of drops of water will in time fill a water jar.
In the same way, foolish people become full of delusion,
Though they gather it little by little.
Focus not on the flaws of others,
Nor on their deeds and misdeeds.
Focus instead on what we ourselves regret,
What we have done, or not done.
Neither in the sky, nor deep in the ocean,
Nor in a mountain cave, nor any worldly place,
Can we avoid our unskilful actions.
5. Rejoicing
Oh, let us live in joy,
Kindly among those who blame.
Among those who hate, let us live in love,
Among those who fight, let us live in peace,
Among those who crave, let us live content,
Among those who slumber, let us live awake.
When we know the balm of solitude,
And experience the relief of silence,
Then we are free from fear and sorrow,
And feel the joy of the Dhamma.
It is a delight to see the noble and ethical;
Contact with them inspires and gladdens us.
6. Awake and Watchful
The followers of Buddha Gotama
Are awake and ever watchful.
And ever by night and by day
They remember the Buddha, their teacher.
The followers of Buddha Gotama
Are awake and ever watchful.
And ever by night and by day
They find joy in deep contemplation.
Reading:
This being, that becomes,
From the arising of this, that arises,
This not being, that does not become,
From the ceasing of this, that ceases.
7. Transference of benefit
As from a large garden of flowers
Many garlands and wreaths can be made,
So, by a human being in this life,
Much good can be achieved.
May any merit gained through Dhamma practice
Be shared equally among all beings.
The perfume of flowers goes not against the wind –
Not even the finest perfumes
Of sandalwood, of rose, or of jasmine.
But the perfume of virtue
Does travel against the wind,
And it can reach right to the ends of this world.
Shakyamuni mantra
Tree
It is foolish
To let a young redwood
Grow next to a house.
Even in this
One lifetime,
You will have to choose.
That great calm being,
This clutter of soup pots and books –
Already the first branch tips brush at the window.
Softly, calmly, immensity taps at your life.
Jane Hirschfield
