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The Pizza Precept & More From Rev Heng Sure

Aug 01, 2021, 8 smiles “If you have no obstacles in your own mind, then outer obstacles will not hinder you or cause you to worry” – Master Hsuan Hua Two Buddhist Monks, Jin Wei Shi, and Jin Chaun Shi anchored weekly bowing sessions to dedicate merits to all beings during the global Covid crisis. In the final session, last week, we had a special guest Rev Heng Sure who along with Marty, former Heng Ch'au, bowed in peace, and for peace, touching their foreheads to the ground across 800 miles across. Below is an excerpt from the call. I really recommend that people bow outdoors. Sometimes, if you live on the twelfth floor of a high rise or live in a concrete jungle, it is hard to find grass. But if you can find even a patch of grass to bow on, what it does is it puts you much closer to all the other living ... Read Full Story

Michael Penn: Hearing In The Dark

Jun 05, 2021, 3 comments, 14 smiles [During a palpable Prayer Circle for India last month amid India's escalating Covid crisis, Prof. Michael Penn shared these heartfelt words of wisdom and hope, transcribed below.] [View here in the browser window.] It is such a high honor to have the chance to participate in this beautiful gathering. When Drishti opened the gathering with that chant, it just sailed right into my heart. I am so delighted to participate in this commemoration, for the sake of those who are suffering, for the sake of those who have passed away, and for the sake of those who are at the threshold of the next world. One of my very favorite writings from the Bahá'í faith says, know verily that the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem, whose reality the most learned of men had failed to grasp and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel. If ... Read Full Story

Bloom Where You Are Planted

May 15, 2021, 9 smiles I have been working at a government shelter home for women for a few years. While some are waiting for a hearing from the court, others are on the mental health spectrum. Some of them were children when they came here. Their parents, guardians, or a cop dropped them at the shelter home, as there was no one to take care of them. Life/existence can feel purposeless and powerless with a history of difficult life circumstances, and staying in a place like this that is hardbound with barbed wire fences, high walls, and rules, life/existence can feel purposeless and powerless. In the Devotion and Purpose Pod, I went through an inner churning process with daily prompts and reflection, which helped me crystalize my personal value and refine my purpose in my being and doing. I was inspired to hold space in the shelter home, the same way space was held for ... Read Full Story

Two Gifts Of Devotion

Apr 18, 2021, 12 comments, 18 smiles "What's an experience of devotion that has stayed with you?" While reflecting on these questions in our Devotion Pod orientation yesterday, two stories came to my mind. In my primary school years, our science teacher would start her class with a prayer. It felt unusual as none of the other teachers would do that. And as children, some of us resisted and use to make fun of her, but she would continue doing it day after day. Like everyone around me, I would also stand up, fold my hands, and listen to her singing. As a child, I did not realize what was happening, but I distinctly remember tears flowing while listening to some of the words from the prayer. As I grew up, I realized that I was finding strength from those prayers as the meaning unfolded. My teacher seeded as a child was something intangible yet omnipresent, like the goodness ... Read Full Story

Giving Away Your World To Share Smiles:))

Oct 30, 2020, 1 comments, 13 smiles Yesterday while I was leaving for work, I saw an old grandma sitting under the shade of an almond tree at the start of our lane. She was short, had boy-cut hair, a faint smile with no teeth, and a few wrinkles near her eyes :) I stopped and asked her if she was hungry as it was almost lunchtime; she mumbled something I failed to understand. Meanwhile, she showed me her empty water bottle, so I went to Mayank’s home to refill the bottle. Mayank is one of the kids who makes sure to chop the vegetables before every Awakin circle. Mayank’s father gave me a clean bottle of freshwater. Just then, seeing me, Mayank came to inquire about where I was going. I told him that I am going to the office but stopped to get some water for the old grandma. With a mix of innocence and mischief in ... Read Full Story

Between A Monk, A Forest, And PG&E Workers

Sep 28, 2020, 9 comments, 26 smiles [A touching story that Buddhist monk, Jin Wei, shared, as 46 of us began a "Sacred Space" Laddership Pod yesterday!] What's a time when you experienced the whole as greater than the sum of its parts? I am sitting here in the courtyard of Redwood Vihara, in a redwood forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains. And what I want to share with you is something that happened yesterday in this very place and how we created a sacred space spontaneously where we felt, at that moment, some wholeness and deep connections with few strangers and with nature. Some of you might have heard about the wildfires in California that have been happening in recent weeks. It was a very, very difficult time here. And this land was very affected. Seventy thousand people had to be evacuated from this area and, more than a thousand structures and homes were burned to ashes. People will ... Read Full Story

HeART Circle London: "How Is Your Heart Doing?"

May 23, 2020, 1 comments, 8 smiles Art offers sanctuary to everyone willing to open their Hearts as well as their Eyes Last Sunday, Vidhi and I were invited to do our first HeART circle with the London community through art. It was a family circle, so we had kids and adults coming together. With the uncertainty hovering around us, this was an opportunity to come together and ask how each one's heart was doing. Before the circle started, we could see the kids ready with their art material and ready to jump in the pool of paints. It was an opportunity for us to learn from the little teachers to shed inhibitions and bring authenticity. Trishna di started the circle with a minute of silence. They warmly welcomed Vidhi to lead us through a super fun icebreaker where we mentally painted different parts of our faces one by one with our favorite colors. This opened up the doors of ... Read Full Story

Matrutva & Maitri: Celebrating Motherhood & Friendship

May 11, 2020, 3 comments, 18 smiles Every week a few friends of the Vadodara ecosystem come together to cultivate stillness, community, and service. What started as a one time call in the first week of lockdown, has now become a weekly offering of love by Jaimit and Krunal. It is an evolving online circle for us to engage, share, spread joy, and rise through collective consciousness. The anchors have been beautifully holding the space exploring a different theme every week, pouring their love in writing the invitation, and also creating heArt offerings for every circle! As 10th May was Mother’s Day, this week our circle was a tribute to Motherhood. With that Krunal and Jaimit invited us to a heartfelt circle to presence/celebrate/hold space for Mother's Day and reflect on the experiences of “àª®àª¾àª¤à«ƒàª¤à«àªµ” (motherhood) in our everyday life. Krunal wrote: “We experience motherhood in many forms. One of the forms in which it comes to us is ... Read Full Story

Maitri Warriors @ Surat:)

Aug 10, 2019, 11 smiles “Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”- M.K.Gandhi One day while Angulimala was on his way to the village to ask for alms, he saw a pregnant lady in a lot of labor pain. The condition was either the child or the mother might not survive. Angulimala’s heart was moved after looking at the suffering, so he went to Buddha and asked what he can do to support them? With a compassionate smile, Buddha asked him to retrospect all the good that he has done in this lifetime and share the merits of it. Angulimala took a few moments to retrospect his past life and realized that he has only afflicted pain and has done no good to humanity. When Angulimala shared this with ... Read Full Story

14 Quotes From Kindness Essays

Jul 30, 2019, 2 comments, 15 smiles About two dozen of us have been evaluating essays as part of a "Kindness Jury" for a youth essay contest on the theme: Creating a Society Full of Kindness. While reading, I was inspired by some of these quotes that different youth cited in their essays and couldn't help but share the inspiration! “We need ‘strength’ while doing the possible, but we need faith while doing the impossible.” -- Daleep Thakur “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” -- â€ŠDesmond Tutu “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have ... Read Full Story

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