Beautiful…luminosity and kindness

by

Today sees the rising of the new moon…

and here to complement that are two poems shared by Shambhala Publications from a book of poetry: The First Free Women – Poems of the early Buddhist nuns.

This collection  of poems was composed around the time of the Buddha and called the Therigatha, which translates as ‘verses of the elder nuns’.  It has been revived by Matty Weingast.

Buddahadarma notes that these were written long before it was safe to utter the words ‘women’ and ‘liberation’ in the same sentence… we are now so very fortunate.

The open heart is not ‘gender biased’ in nature, nurture… nor availability

“Punna ~ Full”
Fill yourself
with
the Dharma.
When you
are as
full
as the
full
moon—
burst open.
Make the dark night shine.
“Grandma Sumana”
After
all those years
looking after others,
this old heart
has finally
learned
to look
after
itself.
Each act of kindness
a stitch in this warm blanket
that now covers me
while I sleep.

Emptiness and fulness – the kindness ahhh…

James is speaking on the potential depth of that tomorrow…

Our true kindness, arising from our openness, is of a very different quality from our intentional and conceptualised efforts.

If you  are not able to listen tomorrow no doubt it will be up on the website shortly… but you may find the transcript of an earlier talk on this topic – Emptiness equanimity and kindness  illuminating…like the full moon bursting through the clouds!!!

New Moon image:wikipedia uploaded to Flicr byQuimGil license: creative commons