Mia Livingston

There are just a few things which I have known in my bones for as far back as I can remember. They are constants, like the water which remains unchanged through raging storms and calm seas, through the changing of time. One of these constants is that I was always attracted to Buddhism. Before I knew its name, on my own I sought its resonance and created drawings and rituals which expressed it. It was like knowing someone “backwards”, to learn someone’s name only after I had already gotten to know them. And the other thing I have similarly always known in my bones is that I am meant, in this life and world, to have a romantic relationship.

From the inside, romantic relationships don’t look anything like I feared they would. I had tried to run from them, because I thought that they were a deluded navel-gazing love-in which would make my eyes turn away from spiritual practice. I am delighted to report however that there are different kinds of romantic relationships, and one of those kinds – in my view the truest one, which doesn’t operate from fear and base desire – actually helped me practice, rather than tempting me away.

Issue: only available as part of Journal, Autumn 2018 pdf to download

Published as part of the Journal of the OBC. Please ask permission to reprint. OBC Copyright Policy