Turn your Kleshas into Lakshmis

Many years ago I received a teaching from Douglas Brooks, my philosophy teacher. which was to turn your Kleshas into Lakshmis.

We might say it another way as turn your wounds into wisdom. Or turn the ugly into the beautiful.

This is the essence of Restorative Justice. Which we can practice both internally, collectively, and between us. It is the essence of welcoming into the center of the circle of our mind and feeling that which is the most painful. Those who have betrayed us. That which is terrifying. We must transmute what is toxic into eloquence and elegance.

To take what has been painful and scarring and turn those same experiences and marks on and through our body-minds into the fabric of dignity and beauty that smells like the intoxicating scent of healing. To learn how to wear ourselves and our life’s hand well.
To live fully in the vibrant, near blinding light of the high sun.

As we enter solstice time. May our darkest shadows be flooded with the golden light.

XO
L