Reflections: Angels of History

You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness
Have lain too long
Facedown in ignorance,
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.

 - Maya Angelou

Language must have evolved because of a longing to decrease our sense of separation from the rest of the Universe. When did words cease to function as what they were intended for?

Each one of us is ignorant in our own unique way. If we weren't, we wouldn't be human beings. It's good to remember even as I wish it weren't true.

Photo credit: Isolde Ohlbaum

"This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward." - Walter Benjamin 

* In honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day. It's a sunny 5oF with the wind out of the WNW at 13 mph. The photo and quote are from Carolyn Forche's book of poems: The Angel of History.

Reflections: A Personal Working Definition of Equanimity

Over the last couple of years I have been questioning myself about the nature of equanimity and have found that the following two responses, when combined, are allowing me to be more accepting, and even feeling free and alive, in the situations and circumstances I find myself in.

Equanimity is...

Simultaneously

— Turning into and fully engaging with whatever I encounter in myself in response to life, whether it is comfort or discomfort, fear, anger, joy or suffering. As opposed to denying, running away from, or evasive maneuvering that generates unwanted karma in the future.

And

— Maintaining a broader awareness. This is the awareness and attitude of zazen. This is the buddhas and bodhisattvas.


This is the definition of equanimity that I've been trying out and it seems to be working for me at least at the moment.

Offered with a smile.