Barbara: Some of my ancestors come from the Ukraine. I looked on a map, the city of Brod. “Brodsky” means “city of Brod”. I’ve known where Brod is; there in the middle of Ukraine, a small city.
I suspect I must have a thousand or more cousins in that area, just going back to greatgreat-great-grandparents, those who stayed there. I’m just finding my heart connecting to those people with love. And whether they’re actual cousins or not, they’re all cousins. Everyone in the world is our cousin.
But it was easier to begin with those people who I can think of literally as cousins, just holding them in my heart. Then I began looking at those people in subways, in bomb shelters, and just taking one person, watching them for a minute, and then closing my eyes and holding that person in my heart. Coming back to this human connection that we have. This person is also my cousin, my brother or sister, really. Not just human—mammal connection. Not just mammal—sentient being connection. Coming back to this.
芭芭拉: 我的一些祖先来自乌克兰。我在地图上看到了布罗德市。“Brodsky”的意思是“city of Brod”。我知道布罗德在哪儿;在乌克兰中部,一个小城市。
我想我在那个地区肯定有上千个或更多的表亲,只要追溯到曾曾曾祖父母,他们就住在那里。我只是正在发现我的心通过爱与那些人紧紧相连。不管他们是不是真正的表亲,他们都是表亲。世界上的每个人都是我们的表亲。
但从那些我可以认为确实是表亲的人开始,把他们放进我的心,这会更容易。然后,我开始看着那些在地铁里、在防空洞里的人们,找到其中一个人,注视一分钟,然后闭上眼睛,把那个人放进我的心。返回我们所具有的这个人类联系。这个人也是我的表亲,我的兄弟或姐妹,是的。不仅仅是人类-哺乳动物的联系。
I think my question to spirit is, is this a useful way to support what’s happening in Ukraine and the whole world? What can we really do, as individuals?
I know it doesn’t help me when I get into helpless fear, lack of control. What can I control? I’m meditating a lot. Sitting here at my altar, meditating; looking at these pictures of beloved past teachers, friends, and family, mostly, asking, how can I help—right now?
It’s interesting for me— as soon as I say, “How can I help?”, there’s the certainty that I can help, and that reduces the feeling of helplessness and the fear of helplessness. And then I can look at the fear that comes up, “I’m helpless. I can’t do anything,” —ah, no, we’re not helpless.
我想我要问灵性朋友的问题是,这是支持乌克兰和全世界正在发生的事情的有用方式吗?作为个人,我们到底能做些什么?
我知道当我陷入无助的恐惧,失去控制时,这对我没有帮助。我能控制什么?我经常冥想。坐在我的圣坛前,冥想;看着这些敬爱的老师、朋友和家人的照片,大多数时候,我都在问,现在——我如何提供帮助呢?
对我来说,这很有趣——只要我说,“我如何提供帮助呢?”,我就确信我可以提供帮助,这减少了无助的感觉和无助的恐惧。然后我就能正视出现的恐惧,“我很无助、无力。我什么都做不了,”——哦,不,我们不是无助的。
Fear is one of the things that gets in the way—not fear but getting caught up in the stories of the fear is one of the things that gets in the way of our actual helping. We get pulled into that trap, and it blocks our ability to do what we can do, which is just to hold loving space in our hearts.
So, I don’t know any of my ancestors’ names back then. I know the great-greatgrandfather who came here from the city of Brod had the last name, Brodsky, but I don’t know any first names.
My heart is just going out to these people and saying, “I love you, and I will live here with as much stability as I can, to hold space for you, who are living there right now in such instability. And we can do that without being a rescuer and adding to the triangle Julian describes below.
恐惧是造成阻碍的因素之一——不是恐惧,而是陷入恐惧的故事是阻碍我们真正提供帮助的因素之一。我们被拉进了那个陷阱,它阻碍了我们去做我们能做的事情的能力,那就是在我们的心中保持爱的空间。
因此,我不知道那时我任何祖先的名字。我知道从布罗德市来到这里的曾曾祖父姓布罗茨基,但我不知道他的名字。
我的心只想对这些人说,“我爱你们,我会尽可能稳定地生活在这里,为现在生活在如此不稳定环境中的你们保留爱的空间。” 我们可以这样做,而不必成为一个拯救者以及加入朱利安下面所述的三角关系。