What our heart wants to see in the world

If we had to live with the impact of our choice, how would our actions change? It’s not a to-do list – how many of us have things on our to-do list that fall off our to-do list? We don’t want transforming the world to fall off the to-do list. We must get things off our to-do list and into an automatic expression of what our heart wants to see in the world. That’s a much better way to change our actions.

So, I invite you, start with a daily practice. But instead of being about, “oh, I’m not going to cut down a tree for my cup or my plate”, or “I’m not going to destroy the planet for plastic”, it’s more like, “I’m going to bring my own mug today, and I’m going to offer that like a sacred alter”.

My drinking cup, the one that goes with me everywhere, this is my sacred offering. My portable to-go containers, my reusable utensils, I take them with me everywhere I go – it’s all part of my sacred offering. Through this practice, we get to experience how amazing it feels to live our lives as a sacred offering, beginning as a daily practice. Imagine if we all could start each day when we first pop open our eyes in the morning and have our first thought be: where can I be and do with my life to make the world a better place – to live life as a sacred offering to this gift of every breath that I get to take?…. With meditation practice, we have this commitment to doing the inner work.

When we offer our commitment to life as a sacred practice in the world, we bring that out as outer work as well. And this will shine a light that will draw others in, and they will feel that you are not only doing peace but being peace, that you are not only doing something loving but being something loving. People are hungry for this, even if they’re not aware of it. It is in the way we show up that makes a huge difference, in how it touches others in ways they don’t often expect.

From Spiritual Activation with James Baraz, Insight Meditation Center of Berkeley, September 2010