Where is your attention?
We live in a complex world, one that, unfortunately, doesn’t consist only of beauty and fairness. Some people are blessed with wealth, vitality, and happiness, while others struggle in poverty and hardship.
Whether it’s seeing the victims of war and crime, or young orphans forced to earn a living by selling goods on the street, many people experience great emotional discomfort and anxiety when faced with the hard and ugly realities of this life.
It’s normal to feel guilty and somehow responsible. A common reaction is to close in and to feel ashamed and powerless because you can’t change the way things are. Compassionately, people feel the urge to help, but realize they can’t help everybody and again feel powerless.
We so often see hardship and feel guilt in our lives, but we must stay open in the face of humanity and let life be as it is. This can be scary, even liberating, as well as heartbreaking and heart opening, too. When the heart is entirely open it is seen as the cycle of life.
In places like Varanasi, the Spiritual Capital of India and one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world, we often think we are giving something, but actually there is so much there that we learn from.
People often feel compelled to throw money around, hoping this will ease their mind and heart. It seems like an easy solution, yet it often ends in disappointment because material means can't fill an emotional vacuum.
We cannot play God by thinking we can solve everyone’s material concerns. Instead, love is what we can give.
In the video satsang below, Brandon talks about the difference between material and emotional giving. She shares how to allow yourself to look at the world with love instead of gulit, how to see beauty where you used to see pain and suffering, and how our inner fears and doubts make us see the outer world as distorted and scary.
Whether it’s seeing the victims of war and crime, or young orphans forced to earn a living by selling goods on the street, many people experience great emotional discomfort and anxiety when faced with the hard and ugly realities of this life.
It’s normal to feel guilty and somehow responsible. A common reaction is to close in and to feel ashamed and powerless because you can’t change the way things are. Compassionately, people feel the urge to help, but realize they can’t help everybody and again feel powerless.
We so often see hardship and feel guilt in our lives, but we must stay open in the face of humanity and let life be as it is. This can be scary, even liberating, as well as heartbreaking and heart opening, too. When the heart is entirely open it is seen as the cycle of life.
In places like Varanasi, the Spiritual Capital of India and one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world, we often think we are giving something, but actually there is so much there that we learn from.
People often feel compelled to throw money around, hoping this will ease their mind and heart. It seems like an easy solution, yet it often ends in disappointment because material means can't fill an emotional vacuum.
We cannot play God by thinking we can solve everyone’s material concerns. Instead, love is what we can give.
In the video satsang below, Brandon talks about the difference between material and emotional giving. She shares how to allow yourself to look at the world with love instead of gulit, how to see beauty where you used to see pain and suffering, and how our inner fears and doubts make us see the outer world as distorted and scary.
