How can we move out of what might be our usual way of doing things & into new territory? Not to escape what may seem or feel like a catastrophe looming around us… looming around the world… but to more fully & clearly meet what is occurring.
In order to be helpful & effective, we need to develop flexibility of mind & heart, an easy relationship with the unexpected & unknown, and an energetic, robust willingness to engage with life as we find it. I think most importantly, we need a really BIG VIEW.
In our day-to-day life & even in monastic life, our practice isn’t about getting ‘free from the world’… but rather it’s about BEING FREE IN THE WORLD.
So what does this mean… being free in the world? In order to be wholeheartedly part of this world… I mean HERE WE ARE… can we willingly fall into, step into, move & sit with this beautiful, tender, mysterious, challenging, frightened, explosive world just as it is…? Every moment, every circumstance, every experience, every relationship is another chance to experience things as they are, rather than as we wish or fear them to be. Can we put down our despair & also our hope… can we begin, so to say, from no fixed position… simply be fully present for what becomes possible when we do this?
METTA, GRATITUDE AND MUDITA PRACTICES are important, necessary & potent treasures… just what is needed now by each of us to help propel us towards living a more fully present, connected, free, useful & happy life.
With Metta practice, we begin with the attitude of loving, honoring & respecting ourselves. This allows our heart-mind to more clearly see/sense/know if we are motivated by feelings of caring for & cherishing ourselves, or by a sense of struggle & strain. A basic aspect of our Metta practice is not to seek for love, but to seek & find all the barriers within ourselves that we have built against it… to ‘see through’ these barriers & to let them dissolve.
With Gratitude practice our ‘task’, so to say, is to spend a bit of time at the beginning and/or at the end of each day bringing to our heart/mind ANYTHING… tiny or large… that we are grateful for. We allow the energy of gratitude to flow & expand through our whole body & heart/mind… not fixating on anything but rather creating a reservoir of gladness that brings a wholesome, healthy balance to the difficult challenges that we are sensing, experiencing & navigating.
With Mudita practice/Joy For/Joy With we begin to more clearly see & know how our habitual judgement & comparison sets us apart/separate from others. So, we begin Mudita practice by rejoicing in ourselves as a means of generating the respect, love, confidence, joy & sense of well-being that is essential & natural to the awakening heart/mind. And then we slowly & gently, with a heart/mind steeped in 
metta, begin to connect with a ‘true’ sense of joy for/joy with the success, joy, happiness & beauty of others. Mudita practice eventually moves the heart/mind towards being light, pliable, open, generous & relaxed.
METTA, GRATITUDE AND MUDITA PRACTICES are truly treasures that can propel us towards living with a BIG VIEW… more fully present, connected, effective, free and happy in the midst of the challenges of our times.
When fifth-century monk-scholars shaped a list of the heart-mind characteristics of the Bodhisattva’s path to buddhahood, these Paramis, or “Perfections,” began with generosity. The sequence was a reflection of the way the Buddha offered his teachings: the Buddha’s first talk in a new community was usually about generosity. Probably the Buddha began with generosity partly because he recognized that it is and has been so widely accepted as one of the most basic human virtues by so many cultures. But there was a more important reason: Generosity is a foundational building block of spiritual development and his most important teachings. 
clinging, an end to attachment, to stinginess, to greed to material things — even to our most cherished ideas and sense of self. 
different way. More like a field scientist gathering data. You start to see more clearly: When this happens, it leads to that. For example, when my kid starts screaming and throws herself on the floor then tightness arises in my chest, there is anxiety, and helplessness and frustration. Out of that, the urge to raise my voice, to do something to get this to stop is increasing. How interesting! If I am able to actually be aware of this process mindfully and with curiosity then the miracle of choice opens up. I can choose the response that is the most in alignment with my values, for example to not yell at my kids. Victor Frankl is quoted to have said that between the stimulus and the response there is a space. And in that space lies our freedom to choose. It can free us from the habit loop, from reacting on autopilot. 
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The patience gained from intensive or regular meditation at home will come in good stead in our daily life when we have to deal with the imperfections of ourselves & others. Others’ speech may be timely or untimely, true or untrue, gentle or harsh, connected with good or with harm, spoken with a mind of loving-kindness or with inner hate. Whatever others might be saying, we need to abide in patience, compassion, and loving-kindness.
Each of you reading this article are in this moment experiencing the gift, protection & the grace…the great blessing of having obtained a precious human existence. It’s rare, this precious human existence…& especially rare from the standpoint of the Dhamma. Those who have a precious human existence with all the conditions, opportunities & blessings in place to have connected with & to be able to practice the Dhamma are as rare as daytime stars. Just being in a human body is actually a remarkably rare occurrence in light of the amazing variety & numbers of all the various life forms that inhabit this planet. Shariputta, one of the Buddha’s chief disciples, once asked the Buddha about the difference in numbers between humans & other living beings. The Buddha compared this to the dust on his fingernail versus the dirt of the whole earth.
we have obtained a precious human birth & have decided to pursue the causes of happiness & not the causes of suffering. The great East Indian teacher Nisargadtha speaks about this as “being selfish in the right way”. Rejoicing in the fact that one is alive & connected to the Dhamma is truly a blessing that lightens the heart & helps to set a tone for practice that is one of the primary factors necessary for liberation…the heart/mind/ of joy. 
FROM JANANESE ZEN POET NANAO SAKAKI:
Long ago, the Buddha was born as a monkey. He was brave & clever, and became the leader of the whole troop. The monkeys lived in a mango tree next to a river, and were very happy eating the delicious fruits. The king of the monkeys told everyone to be careful not to let any of the fruits fall in the water, in case they should come into the hands of humans.
options, and using his immense strength he leapt across the river. Once on the further shore, he found a strong creeper & tied one end around his waist & the other around a sturdy tree. Then he took a huge leap back across the river & grabbed hold of a branch of the mango tree with his hands. There he stayed, making a bridge for his followers.
THE BUDDHA’S WISE WORDS ON ENLIGHTENED LEADERSHIP 
said was, “If beings knew, as I know, the results of sharing gifts, they would not enjoy their gifts without sharing them with others, nor would the taint of stinginess obsess the heart & stay there. Even if it is your last bit of food, you would enjoy its use more by sharing it, if there was anyone to receive it.” And a primary teaching that he offered his Monastic Sangha was, “Thus you must train yourselves: We will be thankful & grateful. Not even the least thing that is done for us shall be forgotten.” The great beauty of a way of life… the practice of the heart… a life of GIVING & RECEIVING.
May this holiday time & the upcoming new year be filled with warmth, kindness, love, gratitude, generosity, joy, and a sense of balance & equanimity for you, for your loved ones & for all beings everywhere.
We can study discourses and sermons, we can read countless books, we can hear hundreds or perhaps even thousands of talks. Although these secondary sources give us many clues about the nature of our world, only direct experience can give us true insight into the most essential aspects of our reality, especially impermanence.
A few mornings ago, I woke up & could fully take into my heart the reality that I am going to die. Usually, this feels like just a thought or idea, but this time, it landed deeply. I was struck by the Buddha’s recommendation to reflect on death daily, and this reflection brought a profound awareness of the poignancy of ordinary experiences—the routines that fill my day.
embodied mindfulness in everyday actions—walking, sitting, lying down, standing, reaching, eating, and even sleeping.
These practices disrupt the narrow, habitual ways we relate to life. They allow deeper ways of perceiving & being in the world to emerge. By tuning into the extraordinary in the ordinary, we touch something profound & mysterious that transcends the notion of “I” doing something. This insight into the selfless nature of experience can inform how we live these brief lives of ours.