#541 Letting Go AND Gaining

     It's easy to become focused almost exclusively on letting go of unskillful habits & tendencies. Peeling away layers upon layers of the onion of our "self" is natural and healthy, but it can start to feel like subtle diminishment or loss. Mercifully, it's only one aspect of mindfulness practice.
     The counterbalancing image (to peeling away layers of an onion) is that of Russian nesting dolls - starting from tiny ones, then progressively enlarging, until the doll is the size of - becomes - the entire universe. This imagery refers to our expanding awareness & growing empathic interconnection ("interbeing").
     As our fear-based self-centeredness diminishes, we progressively open our heart-mind, ever more completely, to embrace all of reality. No loss, real gain.

Nurishing rain, Umbria, Italy