Imagined

Imagined: 

perhaps the greatest value of my practice, meditation and yoga, has been an ever growing sense of empathy and compassion. It's seems that I'm simply unable to think the way I used to, my former life was too small for the inclusion it now holds and I find that it's expanding even further, holding more and so many to the point of bursting past its borders. 

there are no longer any clear lines between us. 

as if there ever were. 

I see now that they were always imagined. 

so really, the true value of my practice is in seeing the seamlessness of our connection, how the world is just a continuum of events and seeming objects, but without any real division. Empathy is the end result of this seeing and compassion is my own nature spontaneously arising to situations that demand my care. It's the natural conclusion to years of practice, my heart finally and fully broke open to now hold the entire world. 

with no exceptions. 

as if there ever were. 

I see clearly that there were always imagined. 

it's not that I didn't care before, there's always been a high degree of compassion. But through the years it's expanded past any point of containment, a tenderness exists that continuously draws my attention towards the smallest details of life that once escaped my notice. A flower's bloom is seen as a miraculous event of cooperation between seed, earth, rain, and sun - everything plays a part for it to blossom. What's seen is how life always operates for the miraculous to happen, everything is the outcome of a continuous story, never completely told, still unfolding even as it seems the world has moved on. 

perhaps the greatest value of my practice is in noticing these details. 

how life simply and always continues. 

there's never been a true ending to our story...

they've only been imagined. 

~

Peace, Eric