Compassion is Everywhere
Jarred from a reverie,
I do a double take
and ask to pull over.
There she is, Quan Yin,
Kannon, Avalokiteshvara,
on a small factory lot:
She of Compassion,
who feels and absorbs the wailings
of a world in pain and suffering,
who vows to remain here, among us,
until all this pain is eradicated.
She calls out like a beacon
on an ordinary countryside road
grey on grey, brightening
the very real world around her.
She reminds me:
I, compassion, am everywhere;
do not wait until the perfect time and place
to find me.
Do not wait for ideal conditions,
when everything is poised to take flight.
Look at where I am:
placed by the side of the road
by an artisan,
perhaps the most beautiful version
of who I can be right here, right now.
Carved from human hands,
but this is not what you see,
because we know the transcendent beauty
that comes from hope and aspiration;
we feel in our bones what is possible
and so beauty comes to find us.
Let us be nourished by the wisdom
we have already accrued
as we practice for the attainment of all wisdoms;
let us use the wisdom we already have
to light as many paths as we come across,
here, now, every moment.
There is nothing extraordinary
that does not come from
our ordinary, sublime, magical, birthright:
our human hearts.
Tammy Takahashi is a Canadian writer, photographer and chronicler of life as it passes through us.Always a wanderer, she's endlessly mesmerized by people, places and everything in between; the world is somehow so vast and so small. She feels so lucky to have been able to work, learn, live and travel far and wide, writing, photographing and wellness-practicing along the way. She invites you to see some of her recent photography here and to connect with her on her writer's page, twitter and blog, There's No War in World, here.
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I do a double take
and ask to pull over.
There she is, Quan Yin,
Kannon, Avalokiteshvara,
on a small factory lot:
She of Compassion,
who feels and absorbs the wailings
of a world in pain and suffering,
who vows to remain here, among us,
until all this pain is eradicated.
She calls out like a beacon
on an ordinary countryside road
grey on grey, brightening
the very real world around her.
She reminds me:
I, compassion, am everywhere;
do not wait until the perfect time and place
to find me.
Do not wait for ideal conditions,
when everything is poised to take flight.
Look at where I am:
placed by the side of the road
by an artisan,
perhaps the most beautiful version
of who I can be right here, right now.
Carved from human hands,
but this is not what you see,
because we know the transcendent beauty
that comes from hope and aspiration;
we feel in our bones what is possible
and so beauty comes to find us.
Let us be nourished by the wisdom
we have already accrued
as we practice for the attainment of all wisdoms;
let us use the wisdom we already have
to light as many paths as we come across,
here, now, every moment.
There is nothing extraordinary
that does not come from
our ordinary, sublime, magical, birthright:
our human hearts.
Tammy Takahashi is a Canadian writer, photographer and chronicler of life as it passes through us.Always a wanderer, she's endlessly mesmerized by people, places and everything in between; the world is somehow so vast and so small. She feels so lucky to have been able to work, learn, live and travel far and wide, writing, photographing and wellness-practicing along the way. She invites you to see some of her recent photography here and to connect with her on her writer's page, twitter and blog, There's No War in World, here.
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