Be patient

In Tibetan Buddhism there’s a set of teachings for cultivating compassion called mind training, or lojong. One of the lojong teachings is, “Whichever of the two occurs, be patient.” This means if a painful situation occurs, be patient, and if a pleasant situation occurs, be patient.

This is an interesting point. Usually, we jump all the time; whether it’s pain or pleasure, we want resolution. So if we’re happy and something is great, we could also be patient then, and not fill up the space, going a million miles an hour —impulse shopping, impulse talking, impulse acting out.

Pema Chodron

Crossroads

When we find ourselves at a crossroads it is often better to stop, wait a while at the lights and check the map. After all, movement isn’t progress if we are heading in the wrong direction.

Matt Haig, The Comfort Book

Our narrative

Everyone gets sick sometimes,

feels bad sometimes. 

This is not a hindrance to Dhamma practice.

The hindrance is to take it personally. 

Ajahn Sucitto

Every step today

If you look for the truth outside yourself

It gets further and further away

Today, walking alone, I meet him everywhere I step

He is the same as me, yet I am not him

Only if you understand it in this way

will you merge with the way things are.

Dongshan, 9th Century China, Chan Buddhist monk (Stephen Mitchell translation)

Sunday Quote: Always changing

This dewdrop world –
Is a dewdrop world,
And yet, and yet

Kobayashi Issa, 1763 – 1828, Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest, after the death of his daughter

Regrets

Most people think they will regret foolish actions more than foolish inactions. But studies show that nine out of ten people are wrong. Indeed, in the long run, people of every walk of life seem to regret not having done things much more than they regret things they did.

Dan Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness