Summary: Chapter 16 - Celebrating with Everyone from Cultivating Inner Peace by Paul R. Fleischman, M.D. A peaceful heart celebrates with everyone. “Nature” is a construct, the imposition of a category over the living, vibrating, collections of atoms and molecules, shaped into hearts and minds that are swaying, flying, and yodeling around us today. When even the concept of “nature” is removed, rivers and bears are seen to be as consanguineous as spouses and store clerks. The process of impermanence and change unites the world. Nature and people have no clear demarcation. We are all tumbling on together. What we subsume under the rubric “nature” is the screen onto which we project our own love and compassion—or lack of them—and when we say “love of nature,” we refer to our capacity to pour out nurturant and fond delight toward all or any “others.” “Nature” is inner peace flashed back and forth between a human being and any other kind of cloud. Dr. Paul Fleischman Massachusetts, USA 2020 8 minutes Listen to Streaming Audio Your browser does not support the audio element. Download Audio (4 MB) Copyright, 2020 Paul R. Fleischman There is more information about vipassana meditation at Dhamma.org, and books and audio resources available for purchase in the Pariyatti bookstore.
