Nurturing
Nurturing: nourishing or nursing; tender care.
We are most true to our nature, most authentic, when we wisely, lovingly care for another human being, animal or plant so that they may flourish, enjoying the best possible quality of life.
Our shared core value as human beings is this unconditional-love-based nurturing.
“Your task is not to foresee the future, but to enable it.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery
“When a flower doesn't bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” Alexander Den Heijer
"Every smallest stroke of virtue or of vice leaves its never so little scar. … Nothing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, wiped out.” William James
“Start with practices which you can truly assimilate – developing determination to be free of ordinary concerns, nurturing love and compassion – and as you gain stability in your practice you will eventually be able to master all the higher teachings.” Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
"In psychotherapy, the holding environment comprises the trusting, secure, empathic milieu created by the caring therapist. An indirect benefit of these techniques is the capacity to create a nurturing safe space in any relational context: with a mentor, in a conversation with a dear friend, or in a beautiful natural setting. When we are in a holding environment, we feel alive, connected, and relaxed. ... meditators (are encouraged) to cultivate an internal holding environment that results in an attitude of relaxed curiosity and exploration toward their meditation practice, leading to greater success and staying power.
The meditator ... needs to learn how to create an inner nurturing landscape.
Most failed experiences with meditation stem from the absence of a comfortable, safe, and engaging inner holding environment for the heart and mind.
Relaxing the body is therefore neither indulgent nor peripheral, but the starting point in developing a nurturing holding environment for meditation.
Relaxation (ease) helps set the stage, and playfulness (delight) mitigates the intensity that most of us bring to meditation. Accessing a sense of gratitude and wonder (spacious and tenderhearted qualities) further deepens the nurturing qualities of the holding environment for meditation.”
Bill Morgan. "The Meditator's Dilemma: An Innovative Approach to Overcoming Obstacles and Revitalizing Your Practice." Shambhala, 2016.
“the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things ... as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value.” Teilhard de Chardin
“We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” Mother Teresa
"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." Dalai Lama
