The four Immesurables

Hi, my goal this year for 2020 is to live by these words of  Arundhati Roy, from her essay The End of Imagination.  I am not sure how or if I will live up to them but my goal is to try. Roy wrote that she would like to:

"Live while you're alive and die only when you are dead...[adding that this meant] To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you.  To seek joy in the saddest places.  To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power.  Above all to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget."

My goal is to meditate upon these words as often as I can and hope they inspire me to act with more compassion, equanimity, joy, and kindness.  Buddhists call these four qualities the "four immeasurables", and I'm going to stop trying to measure those qualities in myself or others, but just live them.  I teach at Williams College (most recently classes on applied Mindfulness), and live in town with my partner Robin, kids Tashi, Krishan, Yeshe. We keep busy with paddling, being outside, and building a tiny house/garden studio in our backyard.   Thanks to you all for building this group with these aspirations!