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Catastrophe is the essence of the spiritual path, a series of breakdowns allowing us to discover the threads that weave all of life into a whole cloth.

Joan Halifax

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Joan Halifax
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: July 30
Activist
Anthropologist
Religious Writer
Hanover
New Hampshire
Joan Jiko Halifax
Series
Threads
Essence
Cloth
Path
Weave
Spiritual
Breakdown
Soul
Catastrophe
Whole
Thread
Life
Allowing
Discover
Breakdowns

More quotes by Joan Halifax

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To work with Kaz on this kind of project is a fascinating process...He seems to be Dogen himself when offering the translations that we Western collaborators then refine with him.
Joan Halifax
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Buddhist practice is the grounding for this work, this life, this way.
Joan Halifax
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I met Kaz in the mid 1980s when we invited him and other artists to the Ojai Foundation with Thich Nhat Hanh. I felt an instant connection with him, and since that time we have collaborated on many projects and have become good friends and allies in the work of nonviolence.
Joan Halifax
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Kaz's art is a powerful example of discipline and freedom. His classical calligraphy captures the inner movement and stillness of the brush and mind.
Joan Halifax
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Developing our capacity for compassion makes it possible for us to help others in a more skillful and effective way.
Joan Halifax
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Most of us are shrinking in the face of psycho-social and physical poisons, of the toxins of our world. But compassion, the generation of compassion, actually mobilizes our immunity.
Joan Halifax
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There is the in-breath and there is the out-breath, and too often we feel like we have to exhale all the time. The inhale is absolutely essential - and then you can exhale.
Joan Halifax
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Yes, creation is moving toward us life is moving toward us all the time. We back away, but it keeps pushing toward us. Why not step forward and greet it.
Joan Halifax
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My work has been in the field of engaged Buddhism. That is my own practice, which began in 1965 that formed the base for the work I was doing in the civil rights and anti-war movement.
Joan Halifax
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All are interconnected...the environment rights of the dying care of caregivers education and medical care for peoples of the Himalayas prison work those living on the margins of society, particularly kids.
Joan Halifax
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Compassion has enemies, and those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear.
Joan Halifax
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We live in a time when science is validating what humans have known throughout the ages: that compassion is not a luxury it is a necessity for our well-being, resilience, and survival.
Joan Halifax
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We have even done a weekend on Japanese grammar! Not that I know anything about Japanese grammar, but it was Kaz's idea, and it was a bit of an adventure, to say the least.
Joan Halifax
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Don't ever think compassion is weak. Compassion is about strength.
Joan Halifax
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For me, Buddhism is a psychology and a philosophy that provides a means, upayas, for working with the mind.
Joan Halifax
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How about Burma, Somalia, Afghanistan, Libya, our streets, our neighborhoods, our own minds. We don't have to look far - and we should look far as well.
Joan Halifax
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I am always cautious about naming the known, as we often forget to hold in regard those whose names will never be known to anyone outside of their close circle.
Joan Halifax
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[I'm inspired by ] courageous young people who take a stand and go into the field to serve really old people who see that every minute of life is to be lived fully and compassionately and so many between this world and that world.
Joan Halifax
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Cease consuming, practice generosity.
Joan Halifax
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May I see my own limits with compassion, just as I view the limits of others.
Joan Halifax