Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening,
stories that get in the way of direct experience.
Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.
Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness, The Power of Meditation
photo frank kovalchek
The secret of the mountain is that the mountains simply exist, as I do myself: the mountains exist simply, which I do not. The mountains have no “meaning,” they are meaning; the mountains are. The sun is round. I ring with life, and the mountains ring, and when I can hear it, there is a ringing that we share.
Peter Matthiessen, the Snow Leopard
In the midst of this vast, unfathomable, ever-changing, dying, and renewing flow of life, the human brain ceaselessly engages in trying to fix for itself a state of permanency and certainty. Having the capacity to think and form pictures of ourselves, to remember them and become deeply attached to them, we take this world of pictures and ideas for real. We thoroughly believe in the reality of the picture story of our personal life. We are totally identified with it and want it to go on forever. The idea of “forever” is itself an invention of the human brain. Forever is a dream.
Toni Packer, The Work of this Moment
photo helgi halldorsson
We think that accomplishing things will complete us,
when it is experiencing life that will.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Photo from the beautiful site http://www.judesphotography.wordpress.com
Your life is your practice. Your spiritual practice does not occur someplace other than in your life right now, and your life is nowhere other than where you are. You are looking for answers, insight, and wisdom that you already possess. Live the life in front of you, be the life you are, and see what you find out for yourself.
Karen Maezen Millar, Momma Zen, Walking the Crooked path of Motherhood
photo of pedestrian bridge over the Drac near near the Lac De Monteynard-Avignonet, France, by herby
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