Here, Ajahn Sucitto, who gave a talk last evening in Geneva, sums up the whole of practice in an insightful way: Getting to know the mind, and the unskilful habits which lead to suffering:
We are all in this together
— wanting peace and harmony – but disappointing and irritating each other nonetheless.
‘It shouldn’t be this way, there shouldn’t be any suffering.’
But then isn’t understanding and letting go of suffering what it’s all about.
What else are we here for?
Ajahn Sucitto, Parami
At times, I guess we all see life through our fears and our conditioning. In these moments we fail to relate to what is actually here, but filter life through our ideas of where things should be, or how others are out to get us and who is to blame and how we should defend ourselves.
The aim of our practice is to release the mind from suffering and stress. This is best achieved by dropping these judgmental filters and by being willing to be here with whatever is arising, in an open way. The day as it unfolds is always within our reach. We just have to stay connected to it.
The great blessings of humankind are within us and within our reach;
but we shut our eyes,
and, like people in the dark,
we fall foul upon the very thing we search for, without finding it.
Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher, 4 BC – 65 AD
The whole of life lies in the verb seeing
Teilhard de Chardin
Identification with the mind gives it more energy;
observation of the mind withdraws energy from it.
Eckhart Tolle
The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin
Parker Palmer
When we do not expect anything we can be ourselves.
That is our way, to live fully in each moment of time.
Shunryū Suzuki, 1904 – 1971, Shikantaza: Living Fully In Each Moment
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