A personal blog by a graying (mostly Anglo with light African-American roots) gay left leaning married college-educated Buddhist Baha'i BBC/NPR-listening Professor Emeritus now following the Dharma in Minas Gerais, Brasil.
Self-pity is not the same thing as self-compassion. Self-compassion says, “May you be well,” and it reduces our suffering. Self-pity says, “Poor me, this is terrible,” and increases our suffering.
Rational explanations have their place, but irrational breakthroughs, like those that come out of koan practice, are invigorating because they alert us to capacities we do not know we have.
