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Dharma Seed - Extending Heart

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Widen the view

Extend the Heart

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“This is the heart affected by fear. Open around that. What’s needed ? Keep massaging it until there is the arising of goodwill— some tender open encouragement that allows us room to breathe. We’re young birds. This is the way we grow and learn, through this territory.” Ajahn Sucitto

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The Toad, Tortoise and the Hare: The toad and hare are fertility symbols that are unequivocally associated with the moon in many world mythologies, especially the Chinese. Toads are amphibious and spend the initial part of their lives underwater until they shed their skins, and then live on land or land and in water, speaking to the immortal and non-dual qualities of Xi Wangmu. The tortoise is an icon associated with earth, earth healing and emergence and creation of the world and all life. The peaches of immortality in the Western Paradise gardens were grown beside the Tortoise Pond symbolizing new creation and immortality. The hare or rabbit is a common symbol associated with Xi Wang Mu, and Chang-e the moon goddess. The rabbit is seen pounding the elixir of immortality, of life, with his mortar and pestle, holding the yin essence for eternity.

Peach - Symbolism

In China and Japan, the peach is associated with fertility, immortality and long life. It is one of the three Blessed Fruits in Buddhism. The other fruits are citrus (happiness) and pomegranate (fertility). A Chinese concept is that the peach is a world-tree, a Mother Goddess and the peach is her shen, her spirit, her life substance.

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When you sit and meditate and you feel that geyser bubbling up in the mind, don't even think, 'Oh, I'm too agitated now. I can't meditate.' Instead, go beneath the topic and be with its energy. Feel it in your body, and as you do so, breathe through it without aversion, but with a kindly and gentle attitude. There's all the time in the world to be with the mess of the mind. This is practice; this is letting go, isn't it? Ajahn Sucitto

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Buddha Touching the earth

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Lauren Halsey from reb

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Joan Didion