Jack Kornfield, a Buddhist teacher, author and founding teacher of Spirit Rock Meditation Center, talks about tending to yourself and the world by caring for each other. He tells a story about a student desperate to get home to his Mom.
By tending to ourselves, we tend to the world, and vice versa. Contrary to this deeper truth of our interconnectedness, much of our world is woven on threads of fear rather than on the truth of love. By harnessing our capacity for loving-kindness and compassion, we can strengthen our ability to tend to the bonds that bind us, those that underlie our connectedness rather than our separation.
Tending Yourself
We can first practice tending to ourselves by harnessing self-love, compassion, acceptance, and forgiveness. Negative self-talk often stands in the way of our seeing our innate divinity and worthiness; however, as we commit to mindfulness practice and meditation, we may start to unravel these conditioned beliefs that keep us back from embracing ourselves with love.
Tending the World
We tend to the world through mindful action and compassionate thought; however, there is a common tendency of our human kind to project our fears and concerns onto the world around us. In doing so, we inadvertently work against the vitality and wellbeing of both our individual selves and our communities. By cultivating compassion, loving-kindness, and mindfulness, we may come to better understand our deep interconnectedness and our human vulnerability, and grow better able to be present with fear and pain. In this way, tending to ourselves and tending to the world can go together.
More from: Jack Kornfield
