Friday, 4 February 2011

a Moment for Wisdom…

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DAILY WISDOM:

“Our life’s work is to use what we have been given to wake up.“

Pema Chodron

Personal Wisdom:

Before you read this quote… what did you think of as your “life’s work”? What do you think now?

Do you have “awakening” moments?  When you do, are you fully using what you have been given?

Do you feel that you should have been given more, or given differently, in this life?

Societal Wisdom:

What do you perceive as the “life’s work” of our society?

How do we spend our time and resources?

What would our society look like if we actually devoted our time, talents and resources to the awakening of all?

a Moment with Sharif…

I see the Praxis we are engaged in as “emergent awareness”. I believe that, while it’s possible for us to “massively awaken” like the Buddha, most of us are going to take a more gradual path. For those of us in the Praxis, this awakening path includes the five or ten minutes we spend with this material.

If our purpose is awakening (our own and our society’s), there are many forces whose principal mission is to put us to sleep. Think about the purpose of television. For every one program that serves to awaken and inform, there’s a dozen to divert and titillate.

And now, think of the number of TV screens you encounter in an average day. If television is visual anesthesia, most of us are walking around doped up all day…

In the face of this, the job of “waking up” is daunting. But… it’s our primary mission, our life’s work… and, what’s the alternative? If we could stay unaware and asleep all the time… would we WANT to?

Peace,

Sharif

Signing up…

Simply CLICK HERE! to go to the sign-up form. Fill
it out, check the appropriate “Commonway Praxis” boxes, and click “submit”.

http://www.commonway.org/signupform

Acknowledgments:

Sharif Abdullah photo: Lisa Norton

All other photos by Sharif Abdullah, unless otherwise noted.

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