Voice of BPF Staff:
Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel
On Water
Greetings. I joined the BPF staff in February 2008 as Membership Communications Coordinator. I am the current editor of BPF's e-newsletter. I would like to introduce myself to reveal a bit about the person behind the email!
Lately I have been thinking a lot about water. Water teaches us lessons on both compassion and wisdom. In Present Moment, Wonderful Moment, Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Water is the balm, or nurturance, of compassion which has the capacity to restore us to life. The Bodhisattva of Compassion is often depicted holding a vase of water in her left hand, and a willow branch in her right. She sprinkles down compassion, like drops of nurturing balm, to revitalize tired hearts and minds weak from suffering...Our respect and gratitude for this gift of water helps us heal ourselves and transform even a desert into an immense, green ocean.” Water's lesson on compassion is also in its flexibility: it is ever-yielding, yet this very quality allows it to wear down the hardest of rocks.
Water teaches us the wisdom of balance: its sweet presence nourishes all beings on earth, yet both its overabundance and absence cause great suffering. In Burma, hundreds of thousands of people are suffering from the devastating unleashing of wind and water from Cyclone Nargis. The irony is that in the midst of terrible flooding, there is no safe drinking water to be had, as it has been contaminated by salt water from the sea and the carcasses of dead people and animals.
Here in Berkeley, California, we just entered a period of water rationing to conserve our precious reservoirs, made meager by two winters of extremely low rainfall. Our limit on water usage is by no means comparable to the suffering in Burma. Rather it is an opportunity to practice the wisdom of balance between conservation and action. May we sustain our resources and act with flexible conviction to be the change we want to see in the world.
I offer my drawing of Water, Bodhisattva of Wisdom and Compassion:
|
