Based on the writing by Jay Litvin, here is my reflection:
According to my understanding of empathy, sympathy, and compassion, they all are threads of the texture of spirituality. I do not think of these spiritual qualities in my mind but feel them in my heart and manifest them in my daily life.

There are two aspects of these qualities: self and other. Two sides of the same coin. Self-care, self -empathy, self -sympathy and self-compassion and empathizing, sympathizing and feeling compassion for others. I cannot give others what I don't have within myself. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, " Loving oneself is the foundation of loving others." Others regardless of caste, color, race, gender and religion. These spiritual qualities are like seeds in the soil of consciousness. They need to be cultivated and nurtured. When I am that state of consciousness I feel uplifted, enriched, and fulfilled.

Being alert and aware of my thoughts, feelings, emotions and actions helps me to walk on this spiritual path. It is a blessing. May we all cultivate and nourish such spiritual qualities in our life.
Namaste!

Based on George Saunders article, below is my reflection to it:

"Yatha drushti tatha srushti" is an old wise saying in Sanskrit. As is my vision so is my world.
What is my vision made of? Is it made up of my self interest, self- serving purpose then my world view will be narrow. If my vision of the world is shaped by going beyond my self-serving purpose, then a transformation takes place in my outlook, actions and ways of living my life. I transcend my ego-what is in for me, and I go beyond my self-serving narrow world. I feel others are me. My consciousness becomes larger and higher. I go thriving beyond surviving. I feel a part of the lager world, a citizen of the unaverse. A universe in which we relate to each other as brothers and sisters. Going beyond oneself is a spiritual journey. It has not been easy for me to go beyond myself.
My parents were good role models for me. I learned from them how to live spiritually, how to serve others unselfishly, how to go beyond my self -serving thinking and behaving. How not get attached to my egoistic desires, thinking and behaving. It took time for me to internalize this teaching. I slowly and gradually acquire these spiritual qualities and I am very grateful to them for helping me to walk on this less traveled road. Spiritual practices like Mindfulness Meditation and Mindfulness living have been very helpful to me for staying on the course. My inner life is getting filled with kindness, compassion, contentment and joy.

Namaste!

Here is my reflection to Chuang Tzu's poem:

​"Emptiness is Fullness" sounds paradoxical. This is the Tao - the way of living with no burdens of possessions, power, prestige, pride and prejudice. As I was growing I used to get messages from elderly people to work hard to outshine others, to earn name and fame. My boat of life was loaded with aspirations and ambitions without realizing that I was becoming my own enemy.
Self-awareness, open-mindedness and cultivating courage to be my real and authentic self opened the doors to be my self. I felt light as the boat of my self was slowly getting empty of self-created burdens and feeling the fullness of living a simple but fulfilling life. It is indeed paradoxical: By renouncing we rejoice; by emptying we become full. I know knowing is one side of the door and living is another side of the door. We need to open both sides of the door to walk freely, to live fully. What helps me walk and stay on this path? Non-judgemental Self-awareness, openness, humility, loving kindness and remaining awake have been very helpful to me. It is a slow journey. No need to hurry. Follow the Tao gratefully!
Namaste!

Based on the excerpt from "Winnie the Pooh" by A.A. Milne, below is my reflection:
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The dialogue between Pooh and Piglet offers many lessons to me. When someone is anxious, worried and fearful like Pooh, it does not need advice but the authentic and solid nonjudgmental presence and whole hearted support. The wise words of Piglet are worth paying attention to. "I will be always be here to listen and support you and for you to know that you are heard. I can't make these anxious feelings go away, not really, but I can promise you that all the time I have breath left in my body, you won't ever need to feel those anxious feelings alone."
There have been times when I felt worried, fearful, and anxious like Pooh. Advice that I should not be anxious, worried and fearful did not help me. But when someone heard me empathetically, patiently, and lovingly I felt deeply supported and relieved from anxiety, helplessness and hopelessness. I learned the value and power of authentic presence and support.  Experiential learnings is a great tool for deep change and transformation.
​Namaste!

This reading is very important not only for the young generation but also for the old generation. The traditional conventional orthodox and dogmatic religions are not relevant to the young generation. The great ship of the fundamentalist religion seems to be sinking and as Laurence Freeman says," the resurgence of on an unprecedented scale on the contemplative scale of the contemplative dimension -indeed heart-of religion." Though I am of the old generation, I am on the same wave length. We all have hunger to walk on the spiritual path, a path of awakening and actualizing of human potential - self-actualization, self-realization.
The traditional dogmatic religions cannot quench or fulfill our hunger and quench our thirst. Spirituality light up our inner light. It is beyond praise and blam, and has no space and time boundaries. It dwells in all of us. Contemplative practices open the inner door to see it. It brings all people together and creates brotherhood and sisterhood- harmony. Contemplation by itself is not enough. It has to join hands with action. I know it and try to live my life by implementing contemplative practices. It is an everyday practice. I experience heartfelt joy and contentment.

I love how Dalai Lama responded to a question asked by a reporter, "What is your religion?" Dalai Lama answered, "Compassion and loving kindness is my religion and I live by it." This reminds me of Mahatma Gandhi's response to a question, "What is your message?" And he said," Life is my message." As the author says, "We all seek wholeness". We all feel longing for wholeness. I relate to these wise statements by doing selfless service, by holding a hand of a someone feeling pain, by relating to someone compassionately and kindly who is suffering, and by unconditional positive regard. By practice it gets easy, effortless, and natural. And I feel fulfillment and gratitude. Life is a blissful journey, a pilgrimage.

​Namaste

Here is my reflection to a thought provoking article by Ella Cara Deloria:

Speech is silver. Silence is golden. I love this wise saying. I hope and wish talkative people know it and put into practice. Sadly, it is mostly reversed. Speech has become golden and silence has become silver. One of the hall marks of effective communication is listening with full and quiet attention and then respond. When someone talks, the poor listener is not interested in listening; he is interested in talking. It is vey frustrating experience for the listener. There is an ancient wise saying in Sanskit: " Guorostu maunam vakhyanam Shishtastu chinna samshayaha." Student's doubts are shattered by the silence of the Guru. The Guru teaches by silence. The teacher becomes a role model. The Guru observes the student with full attention and reads the mind of the student. The student learns a lesson of silence by fully paying attention to his Guru.
I am a teacher, counselor, and grandfather. I always listen to my students, clients, and grandchildren by listening empathetically what is going in their mind and heart. When I do this, they open up their heart and mind. Remaining mindfully silent empathetically and compassionately by listening, they feel understood and connected. There are many ways we communicate besides verbally- we communicate though our sensory channels such as eyes, ears, brows, hands, and touch. In order to understand the other person I need to be a silent observer, a silent listener with empathy and compassion. If we do not relate to other person this way, the bridge of communication and relationship breaks down. It is challenging for me as a listener how to relate to someone who has a strong urge to talk about himself without stopping for listening. Then it becomes a unipolar communication. As I had mentioned before, when I encounter such situations I empathetically and compassionately relate to such a person. And ask him to think about how he would he feel if he were in my position. This role reversal technique helps him. What helps me to relate to such people in my life is mindfulness practice, to relate to them with empathy and loving kindness, patience, and perseverance. I keep a beginner's mind and do not let me bound by the past events and be fearful or anxious about the future. And that provides modelling for them. Accepting we are not perfect and there is hope for making a shift is comforting.

Namaste!

Below is my reflection after reading the excerpt of Brother David Steindl Rast:
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As I understand from my heartfelt experience of gratefulness, it arises from my heart, not from my head. When a moment of gratefulness arrives, it surprises me and it makes my heart filled with awe and joy. And the beauty of this wonderful arrival of the gratefulness is that it comes without formal invitation and without looking for it. It is spontaneous. I love one of Rabindranath Tagore's short poem. He was looking for beauty in the colorful clouds on the Himalayas, and in the flowing water of Mother Ganga, the Ganges. A blooming flower in his front yard looks at the poet and says. " O Great poet, you're looking for beauty far away though it is so close to you smilingly looking at you!" These are moments of gratefulness. I experience gratefulness in small things such as dust of snow falling on my head, sparrows looking for seeds and feeding their little baby birds, a child in a grocery store smiling and waving his hand, and someone taking care of me as I am getting old and weak. They are Divine blessings and my heart is filled with joyful gratitude. Keeping my heart open to receive gifts of gratitude and without seeking gratitude helps me grow in gratefulness. I am blessed to having handful of gracious people in my life and I am vey grateful to them.

Namaste! 

Based on the reading by Bonnie Rose, below are my thoughts:

What is real me? Real me is "inner greatness" which nobody can destroy or diminish it. When I accept myself fully and not my egoistic self, When I take care of me and others selflessly, I feel deep peace in me, deep joy in me, and deep fulfillment in me.
Everybody is unique. There is no need to compare oneself with others. When I do that I lose my real self. What a loss!
Selfless love, self-acceptance, loving others unconditionally. and accepting others as they are opens the portal of peace, and joy, and happiness.
Namaste!

The title of Mark Nepo's book The Endless Practice: Becoming Who You Were Born To Be is like a mirror for me to see the reflection of the spiritual journey of my life. We are pilgrims of light to discover the purpose of life. It's a long journey. It requires the practice of knowing where I'm going and the practice of remaining awake, alert and steadfast as I'm walking on the path. As the author says "I need to meet life head-on and heart-on" and "reveal the gift." It took time for me to figure out the purpose of my life. Why am I here? I had read about it by reading spiritual books and talking with advanced spiritual seekers and teachers. I sincerely walked on the path head-on and heart-on. I took two steps forward on the the path of spirituality and one step backward. As I had seen the glimmers of light I continued my journey. The light of my faith never got extinguished. Patience and perseverance, practicing meditation, and seeing the light coming from within have been very helpful to me in the pilgrimage of my life.
Namaste!

Here is my reflection to the article written by Rick Rubin:
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Each one of us has our unique vessel or container, mind which gets filled with our thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and dreams and aspirations. The content in the container-in the mind- changes as we grow. Sometimes we hold on to the contents in the container and restrict our freedom to grow. We may be bound by the past contents and hold on to the worn out impressions. The challenge for us is to let go of the past impressions and keep our mind free, flexible, and open. It is up to us to be tethered for survival and utility or let go of our self-created bondage and expand our consciousness.
As far as my self is concerned, I have gone through understanding my self, my world, and understanding and relating to other's view points by learning from myself and learning from others whom I trust and admire. They were my role models. As I grew up I expanded the window of my world view and the views of other people with an open mind and open heart and learned how to discriminate between right, wrong and in-between. I get rid of either- or- mindset like either you are with me or not with me. Living this way has expanded and enriched my life. As I mentioned before role models like my father and mother, reading books authored by writers like Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Thich Nath Hanh, Leo Tolstoy and the Bhagavad Gita and many spiritual books have helped me to deepen and expand my world view. Living what I learn is very crucial for my mental, emotional, social and spiritual development. I deeply value the gift of Meditation which I received from my father and some great teachers of Mindfulness Meditation. I am very grateful to them.

Namaste!