― Pema Chödrön
can make a proper cup of tea.”
― Chögyam Trungpa
These days, I don't try to avoid this feeling. I've come to know that these feelings are not mine alone. They are part of the lived experience of human beings throughout time. In fact, they are transpersonal. They are being felt by others at this very moment. I commit to open my heart to the emotional energy playing through my awareness, to serve as a conduit for all these feelings, and to embrace them in loving acceptance. I've seen that they are inseparable from the human condition.
As the in breath continues, I notice a sense of spaciousness re-emerge as first my belly, then my rib cage expand. My tender, warm, achy-breaky heart is comforted in the embrace of a calm, clear, expansive, open awareness as the in-breath continues.
As in-breath becomes out-breath, the words "May all beings be at peace" float on that breath as it radiates outward from my heart on the wings a visualization of the clear and brilliant eyes of countless beings gleaming in full awareness of their Buddha nature.
I continue breathing and Practicing for awhile, and my heart glows as a deep, calm, joy mingles with a soft melancholy. A pale lemon- orange dawn emerges outside the window.
All is calm, all is bright.
Although the Silent Night has passed and the sun has returned, the words of the Christmas carol ring through my consciousness, and becomes the title to this offering. In the lingering silence of dawn, I hear the whispering of the vast and expansive One Love which resides deep within us -- and infinitely beyond us. It's light glows in my heart.
As we turn toward his holiday season, honoring the many traditional celebrations that have emerged at this time of longest and shortest days, may we all rest in the embrace of One Love. May we know Peace.
(For more on Tonglen Practice, see Your Courtesy Wake Up Call: "Tonglen Practice: Taking It to Heart"
Originally posted December 2015. Revised.