Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘This poison is not just our personal misfortune, our fault, our blemish, our shame—it’s part of the human condition. It’s our kinship with all living things, the material we need in order to understand what it’s like to stand in another person’s shoes. Instead of pushing it away or running from it, we breathe in and connect with it fully. We do this with the wish that all of us could be free of suffering. Then we breathe out, sending out a sense of big space, a sense of ventilation or freshness. We do this with the wish that all of us could relax and experience the innermost essence of our mind.’

I don’t have a source for this quote, and it doesn’t seem to appear in my blog archive, but I found it as I was reviewing my notes from the last time I offered a class on the Bodhisattva Vows. I was going to say that thankfully the notes are very comprehensive, but I hope I don’t just stick to them, instead finding new ways to express things.