After a certain amount of sitting, the world looks brighter, sounds are sharper,
and there’s a richness of sensory input,
which is just our natural state if we are not blocking out experience with our tense worrying minds
Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special
Sometimes you do your best but you are met with mistrust, or things don’t quite work out as planned:
Somebody says something to you that is designed to hurt. Instead of going into unconscious reaction and negativity, such as attack, defense, or personal withdrawal, you let it pass right through you. Offer no resistance. It is as if there is nobody there to get hurt anymore. That is forgiveness. In this way, you become invulnerable. You can still tell that person that his or her behavior is unacceptable, if that is what you choose to do. But that person no longer has the power to control your inner state. You are then in your power — not in someone else’s, nor are you run by your mind. Whether it is a car alarm, a rude person, a flood, an earthquake, or the loss of all your possessions, the mechanism is the same.
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now.
The last sentence in this quote has become quite famous as a way of navigating the inevitable ups and downs of this life:
All life is sorrowful; there is however an escape from sorrow; the escape is nirvana – which is a state of mind or consciousness, not a place somewhere, like heaven. It is right here, in the midst of the turmoil of life. It is the state you find when you are no longer driven to live by compelling desires, fears, and social commitments, when you have found your center of freedom and can act by choice out of that. Voluntary action out of this center is the action of the bodhisattvas – joyful participation in the sorrows of the world.
Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
We like to live in our heads – our thinking minds – and we presume that this gives us the best information about the world, However, our refuge should be in moment-to-moment direct sensing of experience. We are patient, not rushing to interpret or make judgments as to how our life is going:
The instruction and teaching of the actual body is the harbour and the weir.
This is the most important thing in the world.
It is beyond explanation
We just accept it with respect and gratitude
Dogen
A way that can be articulated is not a permanent Way,
and names that can be designated are not permanent labels.
Wen Tzu, Daoist text attributed to follower of Lao Tzu, pre 55 BC
In order to change our mode of action,
we must change the image of ourselves that we carry within us.
Moshe Feldenkreis
Mindfulbalance 