…and when we are lost

Just before turning back, his mission unfulfilled, we read in the Torah, “a certain man found Joseph and behold he was wandering in a field.” That man asked Joseph a two-word question, ma t’vakesh, “What are you seeking?

….this great short question, ma t’vakesh, was not a question about the location of his brothers, but a question about the location of his life. And what happened to Joseph in the fields happens to us in our lives. We meet angels and they change everything. The man who met Joseph in the fields was of course not a man, he was an angel, or to say it more precisely, he was not only a man he was also an angel. Judaism has always taught that it is quite possible to be both at the same time.

In Hebrew, the word for angel is malach, which means “messenger,” and so for Judaism any person with a message from God is a malach, an angel. When we are about to lose our way it seems to me absolutely obvious and unarguably true that God will send someone into the fields of our lives to ask us, ma t’vakesh, “What are you looking for?”

Marc Gellman, What are You Looking For?

A mind like a river

The Buddha taught his students to develop a power of love so strong that their minds become like a pure, flowing river that cannot be burned. No matter what kind of material is thrown into it, it will not burn. Many experiences – good, bad, and indifferent – are thrown into the flowing river of our lives, but we are not burned, owing to the power of the love in our hearts.

Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

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Cultivate patience

Officially Springtime, and the clocks go forward this evening, but Ireland yesterday saw rain, hail and even snow in some places. Seek refuge indeed…

Cultivate your strengths, your patience, and take your refuge. Get established in your embodiment so your somatic energies know the place where it’s alright to not know, to be uncertain, to not have a clue. From there, good will arise, the good will come. This is the act of faith. The Dhamma field is a tremendous blessing that occurs when one takes that step in the dark with faith … and lingers and stays.

Ajahn Sucitto