Soulful Sadhak

Please call me by my true names So I can see that my joy and pain are one - Thich Nhat Hanh    For a while i struggled with this thought: How can i practice mindfulness and meditation and find peace and happiness, while there is so much peace and injustice in the world? This poem came out of that contemplation. It is dedicated to my brother in the Dharma and activist friend Tom. When i breathe, let me breathe for Eric Garner and all those suffocating under discrimination and oppression And when i breathe, let me breathe for the officer who only knows how to react to challenge with violence When i walk, let me walk for the child in Gaza who can no longer walk home as he lost both his legs in a bomb explosion And when i walk, let me walk for the soldier who does not know  how to walk in peace but sees enemies everywhere When i eat let me eat for the mother in Darfur going hungry to save the last scraps of food for her starving children And when i eat let me eat for the mult...

I have started playing the piano again, only this time I am unlearning instead of learning the piano. When I was a child, I studied the piano, but it was always quite stressful for me, as I was always afraid of making mistakes and never fully content with the way I played. Could I approach the piano in a totally different way? This had to be through improvisation, where there are no prescribed notes to follow, so it is also not possible to make mistakes. My goal in playing is not to create anything, rather to let go of all expectations and patterns while playing, and just play what comes up intuitively in the moment. The goal is not to perform well or write a nice piece of music, but to be fully present in the moment, with my own emotions and state of being, and play notes that resonate and interact with that and see where that leads me. The question is not: does this sound good? But rather: does this note that I play truly, honestly reflect how I feel in this moment? What is the note ...