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Loving Kindness Tour

The Loving Kindness Tour came to Des Moines last weekend and I went each day the exhibit was open. It is a traveling educational experience about buddha relics and an offering of the key principles of Buddhism - nay most major religions of the world - to show love and kindness to all. There was a video to explain the process of collecting relics and how the tour came to be. There's room to meditate and receive a blessing. You can see the relics and practice different techniques like writing in gold the words of the Buddha, singing bowls, prayer wheels, etc. I went the first night thinking that would be my one time visiting the tour. But the moment I came close to the building housing the exhibit, the energy called me and enveloped me. I was at home there. I was surrounded by a couple hundred people I didn't know but I was at home. I was connected to the relics of the historical first buddha and the buddha we all know and understand. I was connected to the relics and life force of all of the enlightened beings. I was connected to every one there and I was connected to myself. The energy that welled up within me was powerful and overwhelming. It tapped into my core and a mantra came from within me: love within, love without. There was a clear reminder that I must work on love: loving myself and loving the world around me. The energy in the world went right to the core and say straight to my most inner self, through the ego stuff, through the other layers of baggage I carry around and forced me to look at myself. This exhibit was not a fix but it did show me parts of myself and the world around me in different ways. I was recharged and refreshed by the energy and that is what kept me going back for more and to ground myself. If you have the opportunity to go to this exhibit in your area, please go. Let the love and kindness spread to you as it has spread to me.
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