Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Vulnerability is built into our hearts, which can be sliced open at any moment by some sudden shift in the arrangements, some pain, some horror, some hurt. We all know and instinctively fear this, so we protect our hearts by covering them against exposure. But this doesn’t work. Covering the heart binds and suffocates it until, like a wound that has been kept dresed for too long, the heart starts to fester and becomes fetid. Eventually, without air, the heart is all but killed off, and there’s no feeling, no experiencing at all.
To practice forebearance is to appreciate and celebrate the heart’s vulnerability, and to see that the slicing or piercing of the heart does not require defense; that the heart’s vulnerability is a good thing, because wounds can make us more peaceful and more real’ (Sailing Home)