It's Not Easy to Practice Sacred Principles, Living at Home
Yesterday I had a delicious conversation with a friend, mentor and colleague at the School of Nursing where I teach.
We talked at length about the ways each our personal spiritual paths and practices guide our most tender choices (as well as choices associated with duty in all domains of daily life.)
You see we share a peculiar struggle to behave with integrity and generosity as we fulfill the role of sister in families of origin. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that too often the rest of the world persists in promoting "Pleasantville" models of family-life, leaving out folks living within real families, with real and complicated life circumstances.
My entry's not really intended to launch discourse about family, rather a curiosity within the spiritual lives of those who practice some sort of faith. I'd noted to my friend, that recently there was a video-clip on television news that presented a group of Sri Lankan buddhist monks brawling at a peace rally in Colombo! The spectacle disoriented me completely, as I've been in the presence of ochre-robed monks, most often when my husband (practices Buddhist meditation) and I started our courtship in the late 70's. My eyes were telling me something my brain simply wouldn't accept without a whole lot of rationalizing!
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2324549
Ellen laughed and reminded me that throughout religious history, warrior priests have had a role to play, and that indeed the martial arts utilize spiritual practices to sharpen capacity for combat in warfare. Yes, at a level I already knew this; I believe too that she herself is probably focused on world peace rather than warfare in her own practice (Zen Buddhism.)
Somehow the matters of family, compassion and right relationship are woven together for me in this post with a focus on faith practice. Ellen and I both think inwardly and out loud, about how easily we become confused about those situations that provoke the most personal and intimate concerns. Ultimately we agree that principles of justice somehow become signposts on this path, a path whereon we utilize spiritual practice and the golden rule to be good both to ourselves and to others - whether they are remotely significant or social intimates.
---
"For a long time, lord, I have seen the drawbacks in sensual passions, but the household life is crowded with many duties, many things to be done."
- Ven. Sona to the Lord Buddha, in the Vinaya (Mv.V.13.1-13)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.5.06.than.html
We talked at length about the ways each our personal spiritual paths and practices guide our most tender choices (as well as choices associated with duty in all domains of daily life.)
You see we share a peculiar struggle to behave with integrity and generosity as we fulfill the role of sister in families of origin. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that too often the rest of the world persists in promoting "Pleasantville" models of family-life, leaving out folks living within real families, with real and complicated life circumstances.
My entry's not really intended to launch discourse about family, rather a curiosity within the spiritual lives of those who practice some sort of faith. I'd noted to my friend, that recently there was a video-clip on television news that presented a group of Sri Lankan buddhist monks brawling at a peace rally in Colombo! The spectacle disoriented me completely, as I've been in the presence of ochre-robed monks, most often when my husband (practices Buddhist meditation) and I started our courtship in the late 70's. My eyes were telling me something my brain simply wouldn't accept without a whole lot of rationalizing!
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2324549
Ellen laughed and reminded me that throughout religious history, warrior priests have had a role to play, and that indeed the martial arts utilize spiritual practices to sharpen capacity for combat in warfare. Yes, at a level I already knew this; I believe too that she herself is probably focused on world peace rather than warfare in her own practice (Zen Buddhism.)
Somehow the matters of family, compassion and right relationship are woven together for me in this post with a focus on faith practice. Ellen and I both think inwardly and out loud, about how easily we become confused about those situations that provoke the most personal and intimate concerns. Ultimately we agree that principles of justice somehow become signposts on this path, a path whereon we utilize spiritual practice and the golden rule to be good both to ourselves and to others - whether they are remotely significant or social intimates.
---
"For a long time, lord, I have seen the drawbacks in sensual passions, but the household life is crowded with many duties, many things to be done."
- Ven. Sona to the Lord Buddha, in the Vinaya (Mv.V.13.1-13)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.5.06.than.html
posted by Andrea | 10:25 AM
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