Principle #1: see the inner nobility and beauty of all human beings.

I am loving reading everyone’s posts and encourage everyone to continue to post free form with whatever and however it occurs. I love what’s developing here.

The organizing idea behind this blog is to read the The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology by Jack Kornfield over the course of this year,  do the practices in each chapter. and write about it. I’ve already read the book once, and my thought was, that if I read this book slowly, very consciously do the practices, write about my experience, and surround myself with people who will hold my feet to the fire, that would support my wish to improve my “way of being with the world” (Kornfield 7).

Anyway, I don’t want to get all project-y about it, but imposing some structure as a way to keep me honest seemed to me to be a good idea. So I did develop a schedule (don’t let that word freak you out) and will be posting the milestones (principle, chapter, practice) here every two weeks throughout the year. My fellow bloggers may or may not follow this same schedule.

The Milestone: Starting today,  I’m reading chapter one, learning about the first Buddhist principle, and doing the first practice which calls on me to “look for the inner nobility” in other people, including strangers and difficult people, and note how this perception affects my interactions, my heart, and my work.