15/02/2026
Enlightenment
is intimacy with all things.
— Dogen Zenji
To be intimate with all things is to not deny anything.
It is to regard all things with a loving, compassionate heart. A devotional heart, dare I say.
A tenderly blooming flower at the edge of springtime, with the most delicate of petals, the shine in your lover’s eyes, the kind gesture of a stranger. The way the morning dew glistens on the grass when you’re on your way to catch the train. Your child’s sticky fingers clasping your skin. The innocence of it.
But also those things that feel difficult. The inner turbulence that life might be causing you at any given moment. Your deepest shame, your unfathomable grief, your hurt. That painful remark your ex made that still stings, right there, at the centre of your stomach. The way your parent looked away, unable to cope with the intensity of your emotions.
Regard it all with the utmost compassion and curiosity. However difficult or overwhelming. Just stay with it, unwavering. Loving. Breathing. Feeling it contract and burn in your body. Become deeply intimate with all of it!
An unmeasurably beautiful gift is waiting to be discovered there.
I’ve only caught glimpses of that gift. But I carry the inner knowing that it’s always here. So close. Closer than my next breath. Closer than your next breath.
It is the ground of Being you can always fall back onto, right here, in the midst of the ecstasy and horror of life.
And you just bow to it all. As if it were all God. As if…!
Thank you, life, that I was made to feel.
Love you all,
Andrea
Artwork by .novac_
