grace

On July 9th, I had the incredible opportunity to hear His Holiness the Dalai Lama speak at the Peace Talk in Washington, D.C.. Ever since then, thoughts have been forming added to the thoughts and ideas that I already had mulling around in my mind. The main part of his message was how it all begins with inner peace.

I have been thinking about how developing inner peace creates grace. One definition of grace is to favor with kindness, love, and forgiveness. When you have cultivated peace within, you will radiate out grace. At the peace talk, everyone was trying to be peaceful and thus graceful. Here were thousands of people baking in the hot sun for several hours and we were all kind to each other.



Listening to His Holiness, he was favoring us with his love and compassion. As he says, he is only a simple Buddhist monk, however he is much more. There is greatness to who he is and what he does. Greatness is something I have also thought much about. I know that I meant to do great things. I can feel it in the very pit of my being at times. Of course, I have no idea what those great things will be or how to go about being great. On that bright morning, I was in the presence of a great person. A person full of grace. It clicked. Greatness is not about achieving something expansive, it is about cultivating the inner peace. By walking through life simply full of grace, I will do great things.

I depart July with these ideas walking along the Middle Way with grace. Tomorrow begins my birthday month and in 19 days I will turn 32. I am going to be mindful by participating in The August Break that is hosted by Susannah Conway. I will be focusing on the right view - the view of grace and peace.