Avalokiteshvara

Invoking the Bodhisattvas' Names
from Chanting from the heart by Thich Nhat Hanh

We invoke your name, Avalokiteshvara.  We aspire to learn your way of listening in order to help relieve the suffering in the world.  You know how to listen in order to understand.  We invoke your name in order to practice listening with all our attention and openheartedness.  We will sit and listen without any prejudice.   We will sit and listen without judging or reacting.  We will sit and listen in order to understand.  We will sit and listen so attentively that we will be able to hear what the other person is saying also what is being left unsaid.  We know that just by listening deeply we already alleviate a great deal of pain and suffering in the other person.

Offering Joy

Dear Mark,
     One of Thich Nhat Hana's reminders is to offer joy to one person in the morning and to help relieve the grief of one person in the afternoon.  Epistolary Ecstasy has given me opportunities to live this more fully.  You encouraged me to share and give myself away with compassion and understanding through letter writing.  Your weekly plans invited the inspirations to think outside the box.  I have written my students, their parents, family members, and many friends and acquaintances. I have noticed smiles, responded to worries and risk taking, and received appreciation for the presence found in a handwritten letter sent by the USPS.  So thank you!  As always, you have enriched my life and I am so grateful for your willingness to give yourself away to me, one of your students.  May this letter writing continue!  

                                                                                Present moment, wonderful moment,
                                                                                Chris