The Season of CompassionSeason’s greetings from Lion’s Roar! As we embrace this holiday season, let’s celebrate the values we all hold dear: peace, goodwill, joyful giving, family, friendship, and kindness — universal treasures that unite us all.
The three teachings below delve into these principles, offering a Buddhist perspective on cherishing the festive season. May they each bring cheer and warmth to your hearts and homes.
Your readership and support this year mean the world to us. Wishing you all a holiday season filled with happiness and light. Happy Holidays! |
|
In the spirit of the holidays, six Buddhist teachers share why generosity is the starting place of all the virtues.
Jan Chozen Bays: Is there a gift we can give to anyone, anywhere, anytime? The greatest gift is the gift of dharma, the gift of relief from suffering. Who would not receive this gift gladly? We give this gift first to ourselves, studying and practicing it, transforming our own suffering into a greater measure of ease and happiness. As we do this, we pass this gift along to whomever we encounter. It could be a smile for the grocery-store checkout lady still reeling from an angry customer’s words, a nutrition bar and a look into the eyes of the homeless man asking for recognition on the corner at the stoplight, a hug for our child distressed by bullying, a refusal to bomb our far-away enemy. We naturally know what to give. We don’t have to work to produce generosity. We just have to practice deeply. True and accurate generosity is the natural outcome of practice.  |
|
Joy, giving, family, and peace — people of all faiths can celebrate these values of the holiday season. Seven Buddhists offer their take on yuletide dharma.
Kate Johnson: I still see Christmas as a time to celebrate the shared wish for a better world. It seems like we all want peace and for everyone to be safe and fed. Yet we have all contributed to a system in which these things seem impossible, and that truth is breaking our hearts. At Christmastime, believers and others seem a little more willing to try to love each other, to welcome the stranger, to share what we have, and to slow down enough to appreciate our blessings. This is a kind of magic, an ordinary miracle that is absolutely worth celebrating. |
|
Author and interfaith spiritual director Janice Lynne Lundy explains how a simple question helps her to keep her heart open – to others, and to herself.
The holidays we celebrate — Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa — invite us to examine our own hearts; to open them wide, offer wishes of well-being to others, and engage in acts of generosity. But what if we’re feeling too busy or overwhelmed, resentful or Scrooge-like, at what the holiday season demands of us? What then? We can begin by cultivating compassion. |
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment