Day Thirty-Nine: Understanding

Word of the Day: understanding

Image of the Day: snow angel at the labyrinth

Token of the Day: little notebook with pink flower on cover; also another mini-tile

Day 39's entry was written on Day 40 on Fairy Hill, Samye Ling Tibetan Buddhist Monastery

it is sitting on an old tree stump
knowing one has arrived
there is a sense of coming home
understanding because one is understood

there is knowledge, comprehension
yes
but
more
there is that familiarity,
empathy,
trust

so, as i sit on this old tree stump
i become the tree
i feel my roots bedding down
in the moss
and the pine needles
and i sense my heart
warming, opening
to the hearth of,
no the very fire of
the wonder of understanding.

So it turns out that understanding comes not from books, learned people, years of academic study but from finding that place of knowing that is within one's own being. It has elements of trust and intuition, not simply head knowledge. The "educated heart" is the key.

Gail found the snow angel on one of her regular visits and walks at the labyrinth - a place and a practice that she finds very helpful as a spiritual practice. Gail has taught me that all the parts that make up my self are actually acceptable (see entry on acceptance!), to be embraced and understood. I am starting to understand myself better by finding what resonates with my soul - and Fairy Hill is a very good place to begin!