Here is my reflection based on the poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox: 

Life is not always a bed of roses. It has also painful thorns. The Buddha makes a wise reflection on suffering. He calls it a noble truth. Why do we suffer? What or who causes suffering? Once we know the cause of suffering, we can learn about suffering and when we apply this knowing, we can be free from our self-created suffering. Then there's is no blaming, no fighting, no denying. We free ourselves from the grip of suffering. This is the way of being enlightened. Knowing the cause of suffering is the way of reducing or becoming free from the self-caused suffering. Knowing is one thing. Practicing and implementing is another thing. I know the path of ending the suffering. However, there are times when I have missed the mark and caused suffering to me and to others who have loved me unconditionally. I have related to my suffering compassionately and this knowing has helped me not to create my own suffering and that way I do not cause suffering in others who love me. Being honest and authentic with my own self, being loyal to my own self, and relating to my self and others who might have caused suffering to me compassionately has been liberating me from my pain and suffering.

Namaste! 

Below is my reflection after reading the excerpt from Joanna Macy's book - World as Lover, World as Self :

Nature has no hierarchical external power. There is an intrinsic order in nature like the rising and setting of the sun or ebb and flow of the water of the ocean. Nature has her own rhythms. Seasons of nature change naturally. Our bodies and minds change as we grow though life cycles. There is an implicit order. If we shake our welcoming hands with
natural changes life moves gracefully.
When I hold the tired hand of someone with empathy and compassion I feel deeply connected with that person and feel empowered to help. My helping hand is filled with joyful energy for helping someone who needed help. There is an alignment of head, heart and hand. We are no more strangers. We are brothers and sisters. We are soul mates. And that is the synergy of grace.
Namaste!

Roger Keyes, was a highly respected scholar of Japanese print who studied the works of Katsushika Hokusai -- a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period in Japan (mid 1800s) who practiced single-pointed attention, perseverance, exploration through his art. Keyes brings out the spiritual voice of Hokusai through the poem here. Below is my reflection to the poem:

A child's mind is open and curious to know and explore. A child's mind is not stuffed and stuck with the past which is gone and the future which is yet to come. Living fully in the present moment is the way of living freely. Each one of us has the potential to live life with contentment. This is an eternal message given and lived by ancient wise and enlightened people. The door of living this way has been always open. We need to have an open and unbound mind to walk through it and embrace life fully. I feel fulfillment and deep contentment when my mind is free from self-created noises; when my mind is not hijacked by what happened in the past or thinking about future. I pay single-pointed attention to the present moment when I am reading, writing, walking, listening, and observing. It is called The Beginner's Mind, the mind which is open, free, fresh and awakened. I realize that this is the way of living. However, there are times when my mind dwells in the past or worries about the future. Mindfulness helps me to walk on the path. Wakefulness helps me not to go back to "sleep". Awakening, awareness and acceptance are my ever helping friends and I am grateful for keeping me on the spiritual path.

Namaste!

Based on the article by Pierre Pradervand, below is my reflection:

Who am I? Am I my authentic self? Am I my real self? Do I know myself and reveal myself as I am ? Or I am projecting my image to be liked, appreciated or admired by others? I value myself as I am. Integrity is core of my being. Integrity is the core quality of my being. It is the important fiber of my being.
I do not have difficulty in accepting myself as I am. There have been times when I keep quiet about speaking the truth because I do not want to hurt feelings of people close to me. I am learning how to tell the truth without sugarcoating it. It's a challenge to tell the truth as it is without hurting the other person. I have learned to tell the truth in an empathic and compassionate way. I speak the truth gently and softly.
Namaste!

After reading the excerpt from Sharon Salzberg's book, 'A Heart As Wide as the World', below are my thoughts:
It is indeed an irony that we lose ourselves by our ownselves. We lose our own freedom by letting our hands be tied by our own addictions to certain objects and experiences that can never bring deep and lasting satisfactions in our life. We are chasing the shadows to find our original self. I love what Rumi says, " How long we fill our pockets like children with dirt and stones? Let the world go. Holding it, we never know ourselves, never are airborne." It is difficult to wake up and see the light. It is difficult to break the chain of addictions or unwholesome attachments to things and experiences that bring superficial and short lived pleasures. I have been working on my self to get rid of those temptations and to be from those self-limiting attachments. Recognizing and accepting my own limitations and working on them to overcome has been very helpful to me. Seeing the rays of light diminishes the self-created darkness. Such awakening and awareness removes the dust covering my vision to see the purity and treasure of my original nature. Daily practice of mindfulness meditation has been one of the most effective and helpful ways for me to break the self-created chain of attachments to objects and experiences. Daily practice of meditation helps me discover the treasure of original nature and be airborne and free.
​Namaste!

Below is my reflection to the article written by Drew Lanham:
Usually we are in the world filled with agenda of what to do. We hardly find a space of aloneness, a place of noiselessness and a place of quietness. We live in the world of having more, doing more, talking more, hearing more and going after more. There is hardly any place where the mind is not buzzing and where the mind is empty and is in the present moment. I love to be in a place where the worldly noises fade away and there is the presence of the present moment. Head is for intellectual knowing and heart is for emotional being. We need both, head and heart. We need to have a dynamic balance between head and heart. When I want to know something new, something unknown I use my head. When it comes to genuine caring either for myself or for others I get connected with my heart. Intellect is the language of the head. Loving and caring is the language of the heart. When I read something new I use my mind to get it. When I listen to poems or music or walk in nature or see the smile of a child I feel joyful feelings and a sense of deep connectedness. When I meditate I feel the flow of blissful energy or blossoming of a flower or hear the sound of silence.
Namaste! 

I love the way James O'Dea expresses the spiritual way of filling the empty well of original or Divine bliss. As Gautam Buddha announces his awakening and attaining the original bliss: Gate, gate, paragate, parasangate, Bodhi swaha: Gone beyond, gone beyond, gone beyond the beyond. What an awakening? What a bliss? When we go beyond, what binds us to the material things and what we get attached to, we taste the freedom, unconditional love, and bliss.
I have learned the for Noble Truths of Buddha's teachings. The first noble truth is suffering. The second noble truth is there is a cause of suffering. The third noble truth is that suffering is transitory. It comes and goes. The fourth noble truth is there ia way to end suffering and be liberated. Whenever I have gone through deep emotional suffering I have accepted it with self-compassion and self-work. This way I have gone through darkness and go beyond it to be blessed by the Divine Light. In that light I see the oneness where nothing and everything are one. It is where the self becomes the Self. Where individual consciousness becomes Unitive Consciousness.
Namaste! 

I like what Dr. Dale Turner used to hand out little green cards with two simple words printed on them: "Extend yourself." Going beyond oneself and helping someone who needs help without any expectation in return is kindness. Kindness comes from the caring heart. Being nice is superficial and not deep like kindness. It is easy to be nice. It does not require genuine efforts to be nice. In kindness, we offer our hand to someone to lighten his heavy emotional burden and soften his heavy heart. We all go through suffering. When I see agony of pain and suffering in someone's eyes I compassionately listen to him and reach out to do whatever I can do to reduce his suffering. Such actions enrich my heart with deep gratification. I would like to conclude my reflection with the words of the author Donna Cameron:" That's when the need is greatest and transformation dances on the edge of possibility. That is the time to take a deep breath and invite kindness to dance"
​Namaste!

Who is running your life chicken or you? Are you like a chicken running around with your head cut off or are you a head running around with your chicken cut off? Who runs your life? Does your desire run your life or your thinking clear mind runs your life?
From my own experience, when I let my desire run my life, I get into trouble. This is the way I relate to the metaphor of chicken and head. My nervous system gets disturbed when my desire, intention and action are not in harmony or in sink with my thinking. I do not like this tug of war within myself. Life teaches us lesson if we are aware and open to see when I get off the track. I know I am not perfect. I have learned not to get imprisoned by my unrealistic desire and that way suffer. Since I am not fighting with my own self, I feel more free and do the best I can. I do not want to be my own enemy. I want to be my friend and live in harmony, in accord with my desire, intellect and actions. Self-examination and following the inner voice of wisdom have helped me live a harmonious life.
​
Namaste. 

Above is my reflection to the article by Jon Bernie

Wakanyi Hoffman has written a wonderful article and here is my reflection to it:
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I like the way the mother of the three year old daughter relates to her daughter welcoming the strangers. She is supporting her open-mindedness and open heartedness. She is also concerned about strangers taking advantage of her daughter's welcoming the strangers. Her concern is valid as we know there are people who may take advantage of her innocence. She came up with a compromise. She found a way to teach her to "read" the room inside her heart, to tap into her natural intuition to sense real safety versus real danger. I trust my intuition for making the right choices in relating to strangers in my life. I do not either naively trust strangers or shun them and stay away from them. I become aware of what kinds of vibrations I feel in my body and mind and act accordingly. Have I been always successful in relating to strangers? Of course not. My philosophy of relating to strangers with an open mind and an open heart has caused suffering in me. I have learned valuable lessons from my suffering: Not to trust strangers blindly. I trust my intuition in relating to strangers and it has helped me to enrich my life. Authenticity, intuition, open mindedness and open heartedness have helped me to truly welcome the stranger at the door of my heart with no strings or judgements attached. There is a joy in welcoming strangers.
Namaste!