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SadhanaOriental Meditation and Christian Prayer

Contemplation in action
 ーLandscape in my heartー

[4] Feeling affinity with many things

 When we have the mentality of not holding onto things too much, opening our heart as much as we can, and wishing to serve people, we sometimes tend to feel affinity and affection for many things.
 We eventually receive favorable impression from many things we come into contact with in our daily life. We start feeling less discomfort, and receive good feelings instead.
 A pair of shoes that you wear every day, for example. If you often wear them to places you don’t like, you may come to dislike the shoes. If you wear them to exciting, joyous places, you feel affection for the shoes as well.
 If you are a peaceful sleeper, you may have affection for the bed and pajamas that you have been using for a long period of time.
 If you use your computer for exchanging emails, aiming to attain good life based on blessing, it becomes a tool that you use with affection. It may not be too much to say that you can regard it as your “best friend” who “conveys good messages.”
 Likewise, you feel affection for trains, experienced travelers that you take when you go out, and also for train drivers who operate trains as scheduled. And for postal trucks and motorcycles that “convey good messages” and postmen as well…
Also for nature… For flowers of course, but also for vegetables and fruits. And sometimes for the wind, clouds, and water. For little birds and butterflies.
 St. Francis of Assisi developed a unique connection with nature. While he worshiped God through nature, he even called natural objects “brothers” and “sisters.” In his prayer titled the Canticle of the Sun, he directly called the sun, moon, stars, wind, water, and fire as brothers and sisters. (And he even added “bodily death.”) This is accompanied by affection, nostalgia, and appreciation for spiritual enrichment.
 In a way to synthesize the above, we develop affection for “our city.” We feel the same for the “nation” we belong to. And also for the “world” where human beings live.
 When we feel affection for many things, we naturally come to handle things carefully... When we see a tragedy, chaos, or hostility, we feel painful. As we feel close ties, we wish that these situations are “healed.”
 Such mentality is fostered in people who always try to eliminate evil and wickedness inside them. The Japanese have a classic spiritual saying by the Zen master Dougen, “Following and learning Zen means following and learning yourself.” Only when we try to make ourselves better, we can work hard and change our spiritual landscape. We will be able to feel more keenly that God cherishes everything.

 

 

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