Today again I meet a day, a well of mystery.
Like a drop of that river extends to
a spring of a valley and then to
the faraway blue sea, for this day
the past, the future, and the present are one.
So does my today extend to eternity,
and right now I am living the eternity.
So, starting from today, I should live
eternity, not after I die,
and should live a life that deserves eternity.
I should live the life of a poor heart.
I should live the life of an empty heart.
(Ku Sang was a very popular Korean poet)
What often get's left out when we hear news about North Korea is the famine which is ravishing the country to the point that people are eating their own children because they are so hungry. This starvation means that even more people will be trying to cross the border between North Korea and China. China still employs a strict policy of sending back the people who cross over "illegally", not giving them assilum or letting them go to South Korea. People forced to return to North Korea face being placed in prison camps which have been described as death camps.
This issue has been happening now for such a long time. The faces of the families sent back and their stories are heartbreaking. Sending love and kindness to the victims and families stuck in North Korea until this brutal regime is a start to bring our awareness to this issue. All people are our family and I hope we will find some way to help our sisters and brothers in North Korea.
This type of suffering really gives me a reality check. Here I am pondering what next to do with my life (my graduation puja from yoga school was yesterday) and I am forgetting just how lucky I am, how blessed my life has been so far. I have never had to worry about where food is coming from or if I will have a warm place to sleep. It hurts to think about this descrepancy between me and the 40,000 children who die each day from starvation. Why me? Why was I chosen to live with this luck, this blind luck which I don't deserve more than anyone else. For my birthday recently, I received a very beautiful gift from my mother. It was the book Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. I used it today with a Eating Disorder patient and I found myself reading in out on a pier during my lunch break. I was touched by the mindfulness practices in each chapter and I wanted to share some wisdom from this book when looking at our food placed in front of us and thinking about how truly blessed we are.
"Before each meal, we can join palms in mindfulness and think about the children who do not have enough to eat. Doing so will help us maintain mindfulness of our good fortune, and perhaps one day we will find ways to do something to help change the system of injustice that exists in the world." (pg 109)
This type of suffering really gives me a reality check. Here I am pondering what next to do with my life (my graduation puja from yoga school was yesterday) and I am forgetting just how lucky I am, how blessed my life has been so far. I have never had to worry about where food is coming from or if I will have a warm place to sleep. It hurts to think about this descrepancy between me and the 40,000 children who die each day from starvation. Why me? Why was I chosen to live with this luck, this blind luck which I don't deserve more than anyone else. For my birthday recently, I received a very beautiful gift from my mother. It was the book Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. I used it today with a Eating Disorder patient and I found myself reading in out on a pier during my lunch break. I was touched by the mindfulness practices in each chapter and I wanted to share some wisdom from this book when looking at our food placed in front of us and thinking about how truly blessed we are.
"Before each meal, we can join palms in mindfulness and think about the children who do not have enough to eat. Doing so will help us maintain mindfulness of our good fortune, and perhaps one day we will find ways to do something to help change the system of injustice that exists in the world." (pg 109)
Awomen. Amen.
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