Day of Mindfulness

I would like to renew a blog tradition that I have let fall by the wayside. For a while, I made it a point to treat Saturday as a Day of Mindfulness, and limited my blogging to a single post updating my section on Zen and Buddhism. I think I will take a more ecumenical approach from now on, as I continue to find new wisdom among many other faiths and practices as well.

In light of this week's events, several Buddhist websites have seen fit to reprint the Metta Sutta, often referred to as Buddha's Teaching of Loving-Kindness. I think it is wonderfully fitting in these difficult times.

This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness
And who knows the path of peace:

Let them be able and upright, straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited, contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skilful,
not proud and demanding in nature.

Let them not do the slightest thing that the wise would later reprove.
They should wish:

In gladness and in safety
May all beings be at ease.
Whatever living beings there may be,
Whether they are weak or strong, omitting none,
The great or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those living near and far away,
Those born and to-be-born,
May all beings be at ease!

Let none deceive another, or despise any being in any state,
Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another.

Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings,
Radiating kindness over the entire world,
Spreading upwards to the skies, and downwards to the depths,
Outwards and unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down,
Free from drowsiness, one should sustain this recollection.