Life
& Other Writings
It soon becomes clear that we cannot readily save anyone, much less ourselves, from the heart’s response to the pain of this world. If we are to remain open to life and capable of engaging with our world rather than succumbing to depression or cynicism, we must learn how to live with a broken heart. It is only through letting our heart break that we discover something unexpected. The heart cannot actually “break,” it can only break open.
What breaks when we are touched by life’s pain is the contraction around our heart that we have been carrying for so long. When we feel both our love for this world and the pain of this world, together, at the same time, the heart breaks out of this shell. Then the heart’s true character is revealed, as an openness, an acute sensitivity where we feel the world inside us and are not separate from it. This is like removing a bandage and exposing our flesh to the air. There is no way to avoid this rawness, except by living in a state of contraction. To live with a broken, open heart is to experience life full strength.
John Welwood
It soon becomes clear that we cannot readily save anyone, much less ourselves, from the heart’s response to the pain of this world. If we are to remain open to life and capable of engaging with our world rather than succumbing to depression or cynicism, we must learn how to live with a broken heart. It is only through letting our heart break that we discover something unexpected. The heart cannot actually “break,” it can only break open.
What breaks when we are touched by life’s pain is the contraction around our heart that we have been carrying for so long. When we feel both our love for this world and the pain of this world, together, at the same time, the heart breaks out of this shell. Then the heart’s true character is revealed, as an openness, an acute sensitivity where we feel the world inside us and are not separate from it. This is like removing a bandage and exposing our flesh to the air. There is no way to avoid this rawness, except by living in a state of contraction. To live with a broken, open heart is to experience life full strength.
John Welwood
Perspectives - Conversations - Understandings - Inspiration - Insight - Dialogue - Poetry
Wildness, Wilderness & David Whyte
Read time: 13 minutes Wilderness and wildness can be beautiful ways to recognize source made manifest, and to describe an enlivened earth as the larger terrain we and all of life are co-participants in. In this view or metaphor, wildness is understood to be the activity of wilderness, while wilderness is understood to be the manifest expression of awareness…
God does not “see” sin
Read time: 4 minutes True (radical) forgiveness and the mercy it seems to entail, at their deepest and most sublime levels, is not about what others are doing or not doing. Real forgiveness is meant first and foremost for ourselves. We forgive ourselves for seeing others through (and as) our own judgements, our own alienation, and all the many ways we have learned to project our learned and conditioned beliefs in separation onto a seeming world of “others…”
LOOKING FOR COMPANY IN LARGER & DEEPER WAYS
Arhats, Bodhisattvas, Friends, Wanderers, Nurturers, Healers, Warriors, Seekers & Others…
What Is MOST Important To You NOW…?
A Spiraling Journey Of Deepening, Broadening Movements…?
Sharing Experience, Familiarity & What Is Reaching To Come Through,
Within These Larger Terrains of Source, Silence & Awareness…?
A New Weaving Perhaps…?
If there become enough serious inquiries from sensible, experienced and/or truly motivated individuals
a virtual meetup is possible.
For people located in Southern Oregon a physical meetup is possible.
All Genuine Traditions, Experiences, Commitments, Spiritual Languages & Perspectives Welcome.
Do you realize that what is calling through us is also calling to itself in each of us, and that we and all life are actually on One Whole Journey together…?
Would you like some company in these ways…?
Well then this invite is for you...
Explore This Site & The Following Sites In Depth…
https://www.spiritawake.net/
https://www.johnfridinger.net/archive
And Speak To These Possibilities,
on this site via comments HERE, the Contact page, OR to
john@ashlandspirit.net
541.708.1451
If you believe you are a "teacher" this invite may not be for you...
A tricky balance yes, for it can sometimes be helpful to appear in such ways, in specific circumstances…
The crucial difference being of course, who is it you leave people with…
We are neither teachers, students nor followers… Instead people familiar and comfortable with their own unique ways, and who also seek companions in some of our larger common ways…
