04/06/2026
Success on the Path: ( internet photo)
[ not her photo but a similar smile ]
On Saturdays , I teach a big buddhist dharma and meditation group.
Many people from different walks of life show up and sit. After we have a Dharma talk and discussion about their experience. One time, about a month ago, I was teaching about "taking refuge" in the dharma and the community and how that should feel like a place of safety and resource where they can just relax...And one woman shared:
" This is very difficult for me cause I come from violence and my nervous system never feels relaxed. Chaos feels normal for me. Sitting still just triggers potential vulnerability and danger. It's hard for me to take refuge in the moment."..😟
I have learned that we never deny people their feelings or their experience. We just remind them whatever their feelings are doing, right now in the moment, they're safe in our group. We honored her truth, and then I guided her attention back to her seat and her breath and told her that we would hold her in that difficult state without conditions. She would not be alone in the experience. She settled a little bit, but she still felt uncomfortable but still made a commitment to sit ( bravery).
Last night I saw her out in the community... She looked like a completely different person.😊
She was radiant and softer and she looked more empowered just by the way she was walking. She ran right up to me and gave me a big hug...Tears....
She told me that group helped her so much and she was beginning to feel safer in the world, as she was no longer in the life and was still working on her inner freedom..
I just started crying..😪
And before I could leave, she grabbed me and told me she needed to hug me again...(more tears)
This is why i'm here...period.🙏
All beings deserve support without conditions. Sometimes the medicine takes a little longer, but it's just as potent.
Blessed..