Month: February 2019

Letting go of expectations

Karl Duffy1 Comment

 

Equanimity balances the giving of your heart’s love with the recognition and acceptance that things are the way they are.

However much you may care for someone, however much you may do for others, however much you would like to control things (or wish that they were other than they are) equanimity is a reminder that all beings everywhere are responsible for their own actions, and for the consequences of their actions. Equanimity will allow you to open your heart and offer love, kindness, compassion, and joy, while letting go of your expectations and attachment to results. Equanimity gives you the energy to persist, regardless of the outcome, because you will be connected to the integrity of the effort itself.

Frank Jude Boccio, Calm Within

Silent watcher

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Only one thing is harassing you: your own idea of achieving things as quickly as possible.

But meditation is not to be achieved; it is already there.

It has only to be discovered.

And discovery needs only one thing: a silent watcher.

Osho, Watch and Wait

Problems and inconveniences

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One of life’s best coping mechanisms is to know the difference between an inconvenience and a problem. If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you’ve got a problem. Everything else is an inconvenience. Life is inconvenient. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference.

Robert Fulghum, American author and Unitarian Minister, Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door

Necessary for beauty

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More wisdom from Dogen. I really like this saying: 

Without the bitterest cold that penetrates to the very bone,

how can plum blossoms send forth their fragrance all over the world?

Dogen, Buddhist monk and philosopher, founder of the Soto school of Zen, 1200 – 1253,