With Metta, I am Sujata Awade from India. I choose to walk the path of peace, meditation, love, kindness, and reflection. I believe that when we pause and truly reflect on our life, we begin to see it from a different perspective. I firmly believe in the Buddha’s teaching of the law of impermanence—that everything changes, and nothing remains the same forever. Understanding impermanence has helped me look at life with greater awareness, acceptance, and gratitude. I practice Anapana, Vipassana and Metta meditation, which have become an important part of my journey of self-reflection and inner understanding. As a part of this journey, I started my channel, Ancient Wisdom Stories4U, where I share ancient wisdom, meaningful stories, and reflections that may inspire us to look within, understand life more deeply, and walk gently on the path of peace and kindness. These are simply my reflections from my journey. I hope they bring a little peace, wisdom, or a moment of reflection to someone who comes across them. 🔗 Ancient Wisdom Stories4U:

Hi Everyone 👋 We have learned to ground ourselves in the body. Now we must talk about something we have all but forgotten... the practice of radical, unapologetic rest. My dearest friends, I remember the first time I heard about the Buddhist concept of Uposatha, days of renewed commitment to the practice, to letting go of the usual distractions. But more than that, I think of the simple, profound teaching of the Noble Silence. It is not just about being quiet. It is about stopping. Completely. A rest that is not a luxury, but a form of deep listening to the universe, and to ourselves. In the Buddhist tradition, there is a deep understanding that we are not human doings; we are human beings. Yet we have lost this. We have traded the sacred pause for the endless scroll. We have forgotten that ceasing our striving is not a failure but the very ground of wisdom. If you are exhausted, and I mean the kind of tired that lives in your bones, the kind that makes your very cells feel heavy, it is not a sign that you are broken. It is a sign that you have been running on empty for far too long. It is a signal from your own true nature, begging you to come home to yourself. And the only cure is rest. But here is the hard truth...most of us have forgotten how. We have unlearned the art of simply being. Even when we stop moving, our minds are still churning, still planning, still worrying. We lie down to sleep and the day replays on a loop. We take a day off and spend it feeling guilty for not being "productive." Rest has become a forgotten language. And it is time we started to speak it again. 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆'𝘀 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲: 𝗡𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 - Choose a window of time. It might be an hour, a morning, or a whole day. Mark it as sacred. This is your retreat. A small monastery of one. - Build your container. Find a space where you will not be interrupted. Turn off the devices. Let the world buzz on without you. It will survive. Tell your loved ones you are stepping out of time for a little while. This is your permission slip. - Now, do nothing. This is the hardest part, isn't it? The mind will rebel. It will scream for a hit of dopamine. It will tell you that you are wasting precious time. It will try to convince you that you are lazy, that you are not enough. Your job is simply to sit with that noise. To let it pass through you like a storm. To practice, even for a few minutes, the profound art of letting the world be. - If you cannot do nothing, do something gentle. Do not mistake this for more productivity. This is about nourishment. Read a few pages of a book that feels like a hug. Walk outside and notice the way the light falls through the leaves. Drink a cup of tea as if it is the most important thing in the world. Cook a simple meal and feel the warmth of the stove. The only rule: it must feed your spirit, not your to-do list. - And just notice. What comes up when you finally stop? Is it guilt? A deep, unexpected sadness? Or a sudden wave of peace? Don't try to fix it. Don't try to push it away. Just sit with it. Let it be. This is the practice. - Then, return. When your time is up, come back gently. Notice how you feel. Has the world fallen apart because you stepped away? No. It's still turning. But maybe, just maybe, you are turning a little differently now. A little lighter. A little more whole.

Hi Everyone, please help me welcome @Sujata Awade to our lovely community 🙏

Hi Everyone 👋 In the last few days, we have sat with the fire, released the ancient vows, and learned to walk through a triggering world. But there is a deeper layer still—one that many spend a lifetime avoiding. Today, we address the weight that keeps the fire burning long after the original wound has healed. My dearest friends, there comes a moment on this path where we must face the truth that no amount of breathing, meditating, or releasing will fully set us free until we address the one thing we have been secretly avoiding.... The person we believe does not deserve our forgiveness. I have sat with thousands of tired souls, and I have seen the same pattern repeat itself like a broken prayer. We carry the wounds of others in our bodies—the parent who could not love us, the partner who betrayed us, the friend who abandoned us, the institution that failed us. We hold these betrayals like precious stones, polishing them with our thoughts, keeping them close because they have become part of our identity........ We say "I am the one who was wronged," and in that story, we find a twisted sense of safety. But here is the raw, unflinching truth that the ego does not want you to hear.... Your unforgiveness is not a weapon against them; it is a prison for you. Every time you rehearse the story of how you were hurt, you are drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. The one who harmed you may never acknowledge their actions. They may never apologise. They may never even remember. And yet you remain tethered to them, your energy bleeding into the past, unable to fully inhabit the present moment. Forgiveness, in the Buddhist tradition, is not about condoning what was done. It is not about saying "It was okay" or "It didn't matter." Forgiveness is the radical, courageous act of saying "I will no longer let this define me. I release the debt you owe me, not for your sake, but for mine." In Daoism, we understand that the Tao does not hold grudges. The river does not resent the rock that diverts its flow; it simply moves around it, carving a new path. The tree does not hate the wind that breaks its branches; it grows stronger, sending its roots deeper into the earth. Nature does not cling to its wounds; it transforms them into compost for new growth. You, too, are nature. You, too, are designed to transform your pain into wisdom, not to hoard it as evidence of your victimhood.