Guanyin

Inspiration is a funny thing. You never know when it will strike or where it will come from. Our newest pattern ,Guanyin, is pictured above.

It is (for personal reasons) named after the goddess of compassion.

Compassion plays a major rule in buddhist practice. Pema Chodron says that "In order to have compassion for others, we have to have compassion for ourselves." She writes that in Tibetan Buddhism there is a practice called tonglen, which is a kind of meditation practice for helping us connect to our own suffering and the suffering of others.

"Tonglen reverses the usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure and, in the process, we become liberated from a very ancient prison of selfishness. We begin to feel love both for ourselves and others and also we begin to take care of ourselves and others. It awakens our compassion and it also introduces us to a far larger view of reality. It introduces us to the unlimited spaciousness that Buddhists call shunyata. By doing the practice, we begin to connect with the open dimension of our being."

Be kind to yourself and others.

Namaste