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How to Be Engaged without Becoming Entangled

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Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

 

Highlights

The great work of all the bodhisattvas now is continuing to nourish our stillness, our mindfulness, our equanimity, so that as we engage in systems of oppression and injustice, we are not destroyed by touching the trauma they contain. And we don’t bring our unfinished business to the table. The work itself is already hard enough.

I touch the wonders of life every day, throughout the day, so that I can hold more suffering. So that I can hold it without clinging to it, and then I can hold it and see it at its root without getting caught.

Our only planet, and all our sources and forms of life, are in desperate need for love without fear, without confusion, and without clinging to self. We are not being asked to solve all the mysteries of life. We are being asked not to live superficially, not to be satisfied with simply a materialistic life, a life of acquisition, a life in which things are more important than people. We are more than that.

Do not be confused by different appearances of persons. I have been in so many places around the world. You have no idea how remarkable, how many different manifestations there are of everything: plants, animals, people.

A transcript of this talk can be found here.

Picture of Larry Ward

Larry Ward

Dr. Larry Ward is a senior teacher in Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition. He brings twenty five years of international experience in organizational change and local community renewal to his work as director of the Lotus Institute and as an advisor to the Executive Mind Leadership Institute at the Drucker School of Management. He holds a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and the neuroscience of meditation. Larry is a knowledgeable, charismatic and inspirational teacher, offering insights with personal stories and resounding clarity that express his dharma name, “True Great Sound.” He is a co-founder, with Dr. Peggy Rowe Ward, of The Lotus Institute.  Peggy and Larry are co-authors of the book, Love's Garden: A Guide to Mindful Relationships. Larry is the author of America’s Racial Karma.
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