Seeing, not judging

If we are feeling unhappy, what is called for is a willingness to simply be with that unhappiness. If we’re not careful, we say something’s wrong, though it doesn’t really help to say that. We say it either inwardly or outwardly. This projecting of blame is a consequence of having made an inner mistake of misperceiving our unhappiness, sadness or suffering as being something wrong. We don’t receive it just as it is. We don’t acknowledge it and feel it, allowing it to happen; we don’t have the ‘knowingness’ to see it as activity taking place in awareness. Because we don’t have that perspective, we struggle to do something about our suffering, to deal with it in some way. To say that something has gone wrong and that it’s somebody’s fault is a heedless way of dealing with our unpleasant experiences. The habit of consistently doing this is a symptom of what I call the compulsive judging mind.

Ajahn Mumindo, Unexpected Freedom

Awareness of good and bad

 

The difference between misery and happiness

depends on what we do with our attention

Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

…is direct knowing

The years to come — this is a promise — will grant you ample time

to try the difficult steps in the empire of thought where you seek for the shining proofs you think you must have.

But nothing you ever understand will be sweeter, or more binding,
than this deep affinity between your eyes and the world.

Mary Oliver,  Terns

The heart of practice….

 

One learns only one thing,

how to rejoice in life.

Osho

Trust in awareness

We really have to determine to recognize and open to that which is emotionally challenging, that which is very powerful, overwhelming, frightening or threatening. Yet through the confidence of awareness, we begin to observe how these difficult situations affect the mind, the heart. What is the feeling? It’s not right or wrong. A feeling is what it is, and only we can know it. If we trust our awareness, we know it’s like this. We don’t need to have a word for it or define it in any way, because it is what it is. This is not cultural conditioning or the ego. It is direct knowing.

Ajahn Sumedho

Noticing the difference today

 

It isn’t the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer,

it’s what we say to ourselves about the things that are happening.

Pema Chodron