“Directly experiencing our sorrow and grief is not easy. It requires fearlessness and a willingness to be open and vulnerable.”
“Life is impermanent, and death happens to us all. . . . Know you are not alone in your grief.”
Canadian sangha member Patti Fraser writes about being with a grieving friend, “To act skillfully is to drop the idea of skillful action as a set of preordained behaviours. I let go of thoughts of how to be useful, or help, or prevent suffering. In their stead, I tried to be just present.”
Sangha member Alicja Bardin writes from Poland: “I have often thought about people I know but don’t have daily contact with. We are connected, interconnected by circumstances, places, other people . . . After all, being connected is not the same as being in constant touch.”
Sangha member Ben Mikolaj challenges us to look closely at our path: “The dharma has never been about pleasing people. It’s about waking up. And waking up can mean walking away.”
“When I can relax and let go, when I can cease clinging to myself as being independent and separate from the environment, I see that everything is alive with interconnection,” writes Nick Vail. “There is no ‘me,’ and there is no ‘out there.’ There is only vibrant, spacious interdependence.”
