Good morning, sangha. "I hope everyone here is in love" (Thich Nhat Hanh).
There are two primary uses for the word cultivating:
1) to prepare ground for crops or gardening
2) to try to acquire or develop a quality, sentiment or skill (in the self or others)
We might try to cultivate, for example, love, compassion, altruism, liberation, gratitude, and/or empathy in our personal gardens... along with strawberries.
(thank you, dictionary)
The Power of Empathy (Emma Collins)
So... I'm out here in the greenhouse at 6 a.m. doing both. I'm listening to/occasionally watching a dharma talk by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh called "Cultivating True Love," which he began by inviting his father to join. Thay, as he is affectionately called by his sangha, is 93 years old, so his father is long dead... the idea is that our ancestors are still part of our lives. When we want to see them, he says, we need only look into the palms of our hands. We can not only remember them, but develop empathy for them.
Cultivating Love
"Breathing in, I invite my mother to join me," and also in the breathing out, he instructs. "This body is mine, but it is also yours, mother." Yes. I've invited my mother to sit with me in the greenhouse this morning, and I know she is here. She laughs at my disorganized garden; she rejoices in wonder at how it grows and thrives.
"Breathing in, I invite Jesus to breathe with me. Breathing out, I invite the Buddha in me to breathe also."
The intention of loving is not enough -- we must know how, Thay reminds us. We must know how to cultivate the people we love. We cannot impose our idea of happiness on the other person. We have to understand a person before we can make him or her happy. We must develop compassion for that person and hope to remove his pain and suffering. This is a personal principle, but it is also a community principle, suitable for leaders of any community.
"As you think about the type of leader you are or hope to become- how often have you thought of yourself as a cultivator? Now that it is summer time and you may find yourself in a roof top, back yard or community garden, this metaphor might be particularly resonant. Even if you never let dirt run through your fingers, you can find value in thinking about how to create the ground conditions that will help your staff to thrive" (Pearl Mattenson).
Leaders Cultivate People
"The last element of true love," explains Thay, "is inclusiveness. There is no personal property in love." When we cultivate people, we have to release our possessiveness along with our judgments.
"Creating an environment that is free of judgment is the first step to actively understanding a person’s situation. Forming an opinion or conclusion about someone, in other words judging them, can create a barrier that makes it difficult to be in tune with their feelings. Doing so can be dismissive, and will further distance your position as a listener from their perspective" (UC Davis).
6 Ways to Cultivate Empathy
I wonder what I'm planting along with my beans and squash? This book is going on my reading list:
"The practitioner should be a true lover," Thay says. "If you think that the kingdom of God is just an idea," he continues, "that you will only experience when you die, you are wrong. It is available in the here and the now. If you are truly present, mindful, then you can touch the kingdom of God in everything, even your own body, or in a flower. The kingdom is there in every step, in every moment. You need a friend to remind you of that."
Gratitude is a good first step to cultivation. I want this book, too.
I've been out here in the blue light of my church in the greenhouse for a short time, and I'm already breathing easier, feeling calmer.
"To utilize our human intelligence fully, we need calmness. If we become unstable through anger, it is difficult for us to use our intelligence well. When we are overly influenced by negative thoughts, our intelligence becomes tarnished. Looking at human history over the last few thousand years, and particularly in this century, we see that human tragedies like the holocaust arise from negative emotions such as hatred, anger, fear, and suspicion. And we also see that the many positive developments of human history have all come from good mental states, such as compassion" (The Dalai Lama).
Cultivating Altruism
"When you look into the sun," explains Thay, "you see the father, you see the mother... as a biologist, you can look into the body of a person and see that he is the continuation of his parents... their cells, their imagination."
I see my mother today, and I know she cultivated everything good in me that I contain. I am grateful, and in my gratitude, I wish you everything good as well. What will you cultivate today?
Blessings,
Tamara
There are two primary uses for the word cultivating:
1) to prepare ground for crops or gardening
2) to try to acquire or develop a quality, sentiment or skill (in the self or others)
We might try to cultivate, for example, love, compassion, altruism, liberation, gratitude, and/or empathy in our personal gardens... along with strawberries.
(thank you, dictionary)
So... I'm out here in the greenhouse at 6 a.m. doing both. I'm listening to/occasionally watching a dharma talk by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh called "Cultivating True Love," which he began by inviting his father to join. Thay, as he is affectionately called by his sangha, is 93 years old, so his father is long dead... the idea is that our ancestors are still part of our lives. When we want to see them, he says, we need only look into the palms of our hands. We can not only remember them, but develop empathy for them.
Cultivating Love
"Breathing in, I invite my mother to join me," and also in the breathing out, he instructs. "This body is mine, but it is also yours, mother." Yes. I've invited my mother to sit with me in the greenhouse this morning, and I know she is here. She laughs at my disorganized garden; she rejoices in wonder at how it grows and thrives.
"Breathing in, I invite Jesus to breathe with me. Breathing out, I invite the Buddha in me to breathe also."
The intention of loving is not enough -- we must know how, Thay reminds us. We must know how to cultivate the people we love. We cannot impose our idea of happiness on the other person. We have to understand a person before we can make him or her happy. We must develop compassion for that person and hope to remove his pain and suffering. This is a personal principle, but it is also a community principle, suitable for leaders of any community.
"As you think about the type of leader you are or hope to become- how often have you thought of yourself as a cultivator? Now that it is summer time and you may find yourself in a roof top, back yard or community garden, this metaphor might be particularly resonant. Even if you never let dirt run through your fingers, you can find value in thinking about how to create the ground conditions that will help your staff to thrive" (Pearl Mattenson).
Leaders Cultivate People
"The last element of true love," explains Thay, "is inclusiveness. There is no personal property in love." When we cultivate people, we have to release our possessiveness along with our judgments.
"Creating an environment that is free of judgment is the first step to actively understanding a person’s situation. Forming an opinion or conclusion about someone, in other words judging them, can create a barrier that makes it difficult to be in tune with their feelings. Doing so can be dismissive, and will further distance your position as a listener from their perspective" (UC Davis).
6 Ways to Cultivate Empathy
I wonder what I'm planting along with my beans and squash? This book is going on my reading list:
"The practitioner should be a true lover," Thay says. "If you think that the kingdom of God is just an idea," he continues, "that you will only experience when you die, you are wrong. It is available in the here and the now. If you are truly present, mindful, then you can touch the kingdom of God in everything, even your own body, or in a flower. The kingdom is there in every step, in every moment. You need a friend to remind you of that."
Gratitude is a good first step to cultivation. I want this book, too.
I've been out here in the blue light of my church in the greenhouse for a short time, and I'm already breathing easier, feeling calmer.
"To utilize our human intelligence fully, we need calmness. If we become unstable through anger, it is difficult for us to use our intelligence well. When we are overly influenced by negative thoughts, our intelligence becomes tarnished. Looking at human history over the last few thousand years, and particularly in this century, we see that human tragedies like the holocaust arise from negative emotions such as hatred, anger, fear, and suspicion. And we also see that the many positive developments of human history have all come from good mental states, such as compassion" (The Dalai Lama).
Cultivating Altruism
"When you look into the sun," explains Thay, "you see the father, you see the mother... as a biologist, you can look into the body of a person and see that he is the continuation of his parents... their cells, their imagination."
I see my mother today, and I know she cultivated everything good in me that I contain. I am grateful, and in my gratitude, I wish you everything good as well. What will you cultivate today?
Blessings,
Tamara
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