His Holiness the Karmapa gave a public talk in Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, in New York City on July 2011.
As Long As Space Endures, May We Too Be There For Beings
“In traditional Buddhist practice there are ways of talking about the practice of great compassion and great love for sentient beings in which we use the metaphor of the sky and the planets, the stars, the sun and the moon to illustrate our commitment to be there with a heart full of love and compassion for sentient beings. We aspire that for as long as space endures, for as long as the sun and the moon remain in the sky, may we too be there with the heart of loving kindness and compassion to help sentient beings. May this connection between us and sentient beings remain.”
“And in my own personal contemplation, I often think of the moon as the keeper of love. So the moon becomes the metaphor or the symbol of the enduring quality of love and the connection between beings of loving kindness and compassion. Even though one may not be physically present with other sentient beings, those beings can look up into the sky and see the moon, and through that connection be able to feel the love that you have for them. We mutually can feel the love that we have for each other regardless of whether we are physically present, regardless of how much time has passed since the last time we saw each other.”