On limits and boundaries

RESPONSES FROM TWO READERS:

As many of you have mentioned 'boundaries' ... it's interesting how we often think of them as limiting. But in reality, setting boundaries can give us more freedom. When we create boundaries, we protect our time, energy, and well-being, which helps us focus on what truly matters.

Whenever I am starting to feel overwhelmed by something or someone, I pause, breathe, and say my mantra: 'My life is precious, my time is precious.' And I remind myself not to waste my energy on anything that doesn't align with my peace, purpose, or well-being. This simple shift helps me regain control and focus on what truly matters.❤💫🙏

Limits but not limitations. Limits on spending, consumption, and excess so that we don't fall prey to addictions. Limits so we avoid things that sap energy or lead to self-absorption and self-consciousness. Limits so that we can express ourselves, live, care for others, and love with abandon. 

Empowerment

STORM

I wasn't being real

I was faking

Didn't know how to give 

So I was taking

But I didn't take up space 

I was hiding

I shut down my heart 

I shut my guiding 

Didn't know how to say no

Yet I was fighting 

Fighting to hold back my power

It's like lightning 

I thought for so long, I was weak 

But I am frightening 

🌟

I say it like it is and I leave

when it's not right for me

I love, and generously give

To those who honor truth, who see the light in me

I surround myself with those who handle darkness, welcomes all of me

I live from guidance every day 

It's at the heart of me

I am saying yes to life

With healthy boundaries 

🌟

I am in my power

Yes, I finally stopped fighting me !

The noise was from the outside, what I let in, what I allowed to be

A thunder storm of saying no 

then washed completely over me

Now I have set boundaries 

-the keys to set me free

Oh God, I love the lightning 

This amazing storm inside of me

Siva- my original poetry 

02.05.24

(En)lightening Boundaries!

Tu Fu: Restless Night

 

Restless Night

As bamboo chill drifts into the bedroom,
Moonlight fills every corner of our
Garden. Heavy dew beads and trickles.
Stars suddenly there, sparse, next aren’t.

Fireflies in dark flight flash. Waking
Waterbirds begin calling, one to another.
All things caught between shield and sword,
All grief empty, the clear night passes.

28 Diamond Sutra Quotes — Niche Quotes 💬 on Boundaries and separation

28 Diamond Sutra Quotes — Niche Quotes 💬

“

A true bodhisattva is one who sees no demarcations between organic and non-organic, self and non-self, living beings and non-living beings, bodhisattvas and non-bodhisattvas.

”

”

Thich Nhat Hanh (The Diamond That Cuts Through Illusion: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Diamond Sutra)

28 Diamond Sutra Quotes — Niche Quotes 💬 on The Diamond Sutra

28 Diamond Sutra Quotes — Niche Quotes 💬

When we first hear about emptiness, we feel a little frightened. But after practicing for a while, we see that things do exist, only in a different way than we'd thought. Emptiness is the Middle Way between existent and nonexistent. The beautiful flower does not become empty when it fades and dies. It is already empty, in its essence. Looking deeply, we see that the flower is made of non-flower elements — light, space, clouds, earth, and consciousness. It is empty of a separate, independent self. In the Diamond Sutra, we are taught that a human being is not independent of other species, so to protect humans, we have to protect the non-human species. If we pollute the water and air, the vegetables and minerals, we destroy ourselves. We have to learn to see ourselves in things that we thought were outside of ourselves in order to dissolve false boundaries.

~thich nhat hanh

Thich Nhat Hanh (The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation)