Wednesday Thought: Beyond Our Minds

From the Spiritual Literacy Blog: "Boundless Qualities of Mind--Joan Halifax, author of (The Fruitful Darkness, A Buddhist Life in America) is Founder and Abbot of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

As Director of the Project for Being with Dying, she counsels dying people and teaches health-care professionals about the dying process. In the first of a series of essays for Gratefulness.org, she ponders the Four Boundless Abodes taught by the Buddha: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

These qualities of mind and heart can be directed to yourself, a benefactor, a friend, a loved one, a difficult person, or a person about whom you feel neutral or all beings. Halifax gives examples of phrases that can be used to generate vital energy from these practices. For example, you can nourish compassion by saying: "May you be free from pain and suffering. May you take care of yourself. May you be open to feel the pain in and around you. And may all beings be free from suffering."