Cultivating gentleness

Barbara Märtens at Sangha Retreat "Being brave, transforming our world":

“I think if we want to understand friendliness, kindness and why this is the core of our being, we also have to understand the pain and the fear and the suffering, and the function of it in our being. In moments of pain we very often open up if we lose our set system of concepts and ideas about who and what we are. In those moments we are connected with the openness of our heart, with the uncontrollableness of our human situation that we always want to avoid. Friendliness is not to be separated from this pain, this fear, this part where our existence feels like a burden, a threat or something we want to escape from. If we touch into this part we automatically connect with our inherent gentleness.“

Barbara Märtens is a senior teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist tradition. Sangha Retreat is a one week meditation programme.