"We are all longing to go home to some place we have never been — a place half-remembered and half-envisioned we can only catch glimpses of from time to time.
Community.
Somewhere, there are people to whom we can speak with passion without having the words catch in our throats. Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us whenever we come into our own power.
Community means strength that joins our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free."
Quotation from Starhawk - an American woman feminist, earth warrior and activist.
I wish I had written those words. I have sung, lived and dreamed those words for as long as I can remember. This small quote makes my heart sing.
There is a Japanese practice of gratitude that I have recently found out about.
Japanese Naikan means looking inside. It is a process of self reflection, originally created by a Yoshimoto Ishin, a businessman and Buddhist practitioner of the Jodo Shinshu sect in Japan. He lived from 1916-1988.
The core practice of Naikan is to ask yourself three questions, while contemplating your interdependence with the world around you. The questions can be anything related to family, friends, pets, work, things, our higher self, etc.
Question one will help you to reflect on the gifts you receive every day from people and the universe.
Question two will enable you to practice gratitude for those gifts, however small they are. This question also helps us to remember that we shouldn’t take gifts for granted. Instead we should stop and pay forward, wherever we can.
Question three reminds us that we should not dwell on the misfortunes we experience but rather seek to find solutions on misfortunes we have helped to cause for others. Naikan’s founder Ishin recommends we spend some 60% of our Naikan practice with the third question.
It is meant to make us more humble and appreciative of other people - a bit like a Zen approach to paying forward and practice an attitude of gratitude.
Seems such a small thing to do when the gratitude in my heart is so big and overflowing. Time to begin this work....
The core practice of Naikan is to ask yourself three questions, while contemplating your interdependence with the world around you. The questions can be anything related to family, friends, pets, work, things, our higher self, etc.
- Question 1: “What have I received from … ?
- Question 2: “What have I given to … ?
- Question 3: “What troubles or difficulties have I caused...?
Question one will help you to reflect on the gifts you receive every day from people and the universe.
Question two will enable you to practice gratitude for those gifts, however small they are. This question also helps us to remember that we shouldn’t take gifts for granted. Instead we should stop and pay forward, wherever we can.
Question three reminds us that we should not dwell on the misfortunes we experience but rather seek to find solutions on misfortunes we have helped to cause for others. Naikan’s founder Ishin recommends we spend some 60% of our Naikan practice with the third question.
It is meant to make us more humble and appreciative of other people - a bit like a Zen approach to paying forward and practice an attitude of gratitude.
Seems such a small thing to do when the gratitude in my heart is so big and overflowing. Time to begin this work....
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