Frank Ostaseski, Founder & Director Metta Institute, Five Precepts
The First Precept: Welcome Everything. Push Away Nothing
In welcoming everything, we don’t have to like what’s arising. It’s actually not our job to approve or disapprove. It’s our task to trust, to listen, and to pay careful attention to the changing experience. At the deepest level, we are being asked to cultivate a kind of fearless receptivity.
This is a journey of continuous discovery in which we will always be entering new territory. We have no idea how it will turn out, and it takes courage and flexibility. We find a balance. The journey is a mystery we need to live into, opening, risking, and forgiving constantly.
2 comments:
Frank Ostaseski is a Zen chaplain who has developed five precepts as companions on the journey of accompanying the dying. The precepts are also deeply meaningful in other aspects of life.
This precept invites me to let go of my judging mind that is always sorting everything into good and bad and pushing away the things I decide are bad. How exciting and adventurous life would be if I could allow myself to be receptive to everything!
Loving God, please help me to open to all that is, greeting with courage and flexibility all that appears, accepting as blessing even that which does not at first appear to be blessing.
"The journey is a mystery we need to live into, opening, risking, and forgiving constantly." I pray to learn forgiveness fully, even in the case of forgiving Jesus for not giving Martha what she needed too.
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