Dharma Talks...

A Dharma talk is when we sit around and have a conversation that takes a look at a Zen way of being so to speak...teachings on the path so to speak.
Last night was my first and it started with the following poem:
Saint Francis And The Sow
by Galway Kinnel

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don't flower,
for everything flowers from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self blessing;
as St. Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of
the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from all fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking
and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.


Beautiful huh? But more importantly the message of self- blessing is such a necessary one in our world today. Something that we could all use a bit more of in this world.
The commitment to deep self acceptance...to "reteach a thing its loveliness" even if that thing is oneself.

Here are a couple of other pearls:

• One cannot reteach a thing its loveliness if one is trying to change them.
• A soul or heart will not open in the face of judgement.
• Love expands, but we as humans contract ( to remain safe even though it is an illusion), and then try and protect the contraction...this only proves to keep us separate from one another.
• Love the obstacles in your life. Love the thing that is hurting you. It has a fragrance of the truth in it.

Well that is what I got out of my day so far....how you doing?

I would even go as far as to say that the above could qualify as sparkles and glitter...wouldn't you?

Be kind to yourselves today...practice self-blessing.

I bow to you in love and acceptance,
lotus girl

P.S. I know I may sound different ( a bit) to my friends and family...but I promise I am not coming home with a shaved head, wearing a robe, and chanting. However, I do think I am coming home different, having arisen from down in the mud...transformed into a sparkling lotus flower...God and Buddha willing. Big ass smooch to you all.