My religion is very simple.  My religion is kindness.  Dalai Lama

Years ago when I heard the Dalai Lama’s comment about his religion being kindness, it struck me like a Zen arrow, straight to the heart.  In some of my better moments, I’ve even tried to consciously apply myself to the practice of it.  As I would leave the house, I would set my intention to be unusually kind to those I encountered that day.

I found that being consciously kind is a practice that has invariably led to encounters and interactions that would not have come otherswise.  I also learned that the habit of kindness can be nurtured and developed.  Kindness muscle can be built through repeated use.  We’re all capable of small words and acts of kindness that can transform our life.

Be easy about all this; you’re doing very well indeed.  Abraham

We’re harder on ourselves than we would allow others to be.  We judge others in the reflection of the light of how we judge ourselves.  A life found wanting will project that lack out onto those closest to us and those who will allow it.  Lack of ease means I’m on edge all the time.  If I miss a goal or fail at anything, I am intensely harsh with myself.

On the other hand, ease allows.  What is, is what is.  Ease allows the unexpected, the mysterious to occur.  Walled in by judgment about how things must be creates just that, a walled in life.  The walls I build by my definitions of right and wrong, good and bad, close me off from serendipity and life loses some of its glow.

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you
cannot make yourself as you wish to be.  Thomas à Kempis

As  à Kempis tells us, why would I get angry about something I can’t change in another when I can’t change it in myself?  And if I can see it in the other, I must, by definition, have it in myself.  This leads me to understand, when I take the time, that only being the best “myself” that I can be will ever lead me to joy.

Be kind, be at ease and be yourself, KEY, 3 steps on the path to a more joyous and  meaningful life.