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For the freedom you deserve .. for the world we long for
Caitriona Reed Dharma Talk August 31, 2020
Dharma
and the Indigenous Wisdom
Zoom talk for Stone Creek Zendo
We learned to address every living creature as ‘Your Majesty‘, and to create a welcoming space in our hearts for each one – raven, mosquito, coyote, elm tree. It continues to deepen our sense of the magic of being a part of the web of live. It continues to inform us that each of us is one among many, none more ‘valuable’ than another.
The Diamond Sutra describes four ways we limit our relationship with the world:
- By making a distinction between what we perceive as our ‘self’ and everything else we experience around us
- By drawing a distinction human beings and all other living beings
- By making a distinction between what we perceive as living beings and all the other ‘non-living’ elements we experience in our life
- By making a distinction between life and death.
We often describe the way we relate to the world as ‘everything’s alive, everything’s connected, everything has consciousness, everything matters,’ not as tenets of belief, simply as a practical guide for relating to the world.
The present contains all there is It is holy ground. For it is past, and it is future — Alfred North Whitehead