Healing & Nurturing

     Practicing “compassion-infused attention” makes sense and feels good, feels right. Our entire intelligence knows & resonates with the quality of loving awareness with which a wise grandparent "holds" her beloved grandchild. This holding is one of safety, unconditional love & nurturing. This wondrous ability, this ultimate superpower we all can not only access, but is our natural state, our basic fundamental nature - who/what we are without the added traumas & reactive defenses.
     Our authenticity is intimacy - the awakened state. Self-compassionate awareness of our traumas & defenses allows us to "re-parent" ourselves (by holding ourselves in safety, unconditional love & nurturing), & then, we are able to have the same compassion for the traumas & defenses of others. With very patient, skillful, wise meditation practice, and trauma therapy as needed, our personal drama becomes less & less of an emotionally-charged, quick-sand-filled swamp, freeing up a tremendous amount of energy & attention for us to thrive in a much, much healthier, more interesting, more productive & joyous life. 
     To the degree we are unable to awaken, we perpetuate suffering - our own & others' (the plague of inter-generational trauma, bullying, racism, ... genocide). To the degree we are able to awaken, we embody a "beneficial presence" perpetuating true happiness - our own & others' (the blessings of inter-generational nurturing, kindness, generosity, ... justice).
     "Cracked Up - The Darrell Hammond Story" is a powerful documentary about the devastating effects of early childhood trauma: https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/81162153

 
      “Any time you feel an intimate connection, there is always a
quality of compassion, caring, and love that comes with it.” Adyashanti

      “Compassion for others begins with kindness to ourselves.” Pema Chodron

      "Social transformation is about touching the heart of our own suffering, out of which arises an organic understanding that we would not want anyone else to experience such suffering and, therefore, we wish for their well-being." Rev. angel Kyodo williams

“Love & justice are not two.
Without inner change,
there can be no outer change;
without collective change,
no change matters." Rev. angel Kyodo williams