Blake

To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour. William Blake, from "Auguries of Innocence"
Showing posts with label karuna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label karuna. Show all posts

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Moon in a Dewdrop


Dear Daughter,

Today I took Kaz to the airport, and I was sorry you did not have a chance to meet him. Perhaps another Time.

He did give me a DVD to share with you. It is of a performance that he did earlier this year in California, where he lives.

His daughter, Karuna, filmed it, and his son is helping out as well in the video. Karuna is from Sanskrit, and means “Compassion.” I told Kaz that it was a name I had actually once thought of for you before you were born as well. It is a very pretty name.

There is also a concept from one of Kaz’s books I would like to share with you. It is the idea of a “moon in a dewdrop.” I know how much you like to see the moon, so I thought you would enjoy hearing this one.

Although the moon is very large and far away, reflected in a single dewdrop can remind us that such things and Space can be quite relative. Just as you are learning about how to draw perspective by making things bigger or smaller in your drawings to show them close up or far away, if we look closely, we can see entire worlds in the smallest of things.

The most important thing is to always keep our eyes and our minds open to such wonders.

I Love You,
Papa

PS I was super proud of you today when you got your Penguin Brevet in Swimming! 

Friday, September 16, 2011

What I Learned in School Today

Dear Daughter,

Today at the school assembly, Papa had to speak in front of the entire school and there are about 2,000 students here, so it was a really big auditorium!

I talked about four important words in the school song, and they are Sanskrit: satya, karuna, dharma, chintana. I talked about how if you can learn lessons from these four words, then your education has been worth the while.

Satya means Truth, both looking for the truth and to be honest.
Karuna means Compassion, which means to care for all living beings as much as we are able to do so. It was something that was very important for the Buddha.
Dharma means our Duty, or those things that we need to do to be part of a community that helps each other.
Chintana means being Mindful of what you do and to not be careless.

Papa thought that these were very important words and was happy to see that they were in the School Song. If we can learn those four things, and adults can learn them to, then our world will be a better place.

I Love You,
Papa