What Happens to the Heart

“What do you practice? Whatever you practice, you’ll get very good at it. Some people become more fearful or cynical; some more arrogant or vain; some greedier; some needier; some more combative and close-minded. That’s what’s what they practice. 

And then there are a few who grow as solid as a mountain and as wide-open as the sky. They are strong and yet tender. Steady yet yielding. Powerful yet gentle. You will recognize them because they resemble the earth you can touch and the sky you cannot contain. It’s not that they are superhuman; they are more completely human than most of us ever allow ourselves to be.” 

~ Paradise in Plain Sight” by Karen Maezen Miller 

Leonard Cohen spent several years living in a monastery as a Zen Priest and Buddhist principles inform many of his later works. This video of one of his last works What Happens to the Heart vividly illustrates the journey many of us take as we gradually shed the pretense of specialness, come face-to-face with our basic human nature and learn that we are, after all, the same soul cast and recast in every sentient being. We all recoil from pain, we are all capable of love and compassion. To live a full and rich life we must learn to love fearlessly and extend compassion to all, beginning with ourselves.