Awareness is completely simple; we don’t have to add anything to it or change it. It is unassuming or unpretentious; Awareness is not a thing, to be affected by this or that. When we live from pure awareness, we are not affected by our past, our present, or our future. Because awareness has nothing it can pretend to, it’s humble. It is lowly. Simple. Practice is about developing or uncovering a simple mind.
Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, Living Zen
One part of meditation practice is not holding on too strongly to the past or leaning too far into the future. This allows us to savour the present fully.
And if happiness should surprise you again, do not mention its previous betrayal.
Enter into the happiness, and burst.
Mahmoud Darwish, 1941 – 2008, Palestinian poet and author, Journal of an Ordinary Grief
What must be increased is the ability to observe.
What we observe is always secondary
Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen
Calming allows us to rest, and resting is a precondition for healing. When animals in the forest get wounded, they find a place to lie down, and they rest completely for many days. They don’t think about food or anything else. They just rest, and they get the healing they need. When we humans get sick, we just worry! We look for doctors and medicine, but we don’t stop. Even when we go to the beach or the mountains for a vacation, we don’t rest, and we come back more tired than before. We have to learn to rest. Lying down is not the only position for resting. During sitting or walking meditation, we can rest very well. Meditation does not have to be hard labor. Just allow your body and mind to rest like an animal in the forest. Don’t struggle. There is no need to attain anything.
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Buddha’s Teaching,
There is a whole drama department in our head, and the casting director indiscriminately handing out the roles of inner dictators and judges, adventurers and prodigal sons, inner entitlement and inner impoverishment. ….When we see how compulsively these thoughts repeat themselves, we being to understand the psychological truth of samsara, the Sanskrit word for circular, repetitive existence…..Samsara also describes the unhealthy repetitions in our daily life. On a moment-to-moment level, we can see our samsaric thought patters re-arise, in unconscious and limited ways. For example, we see how frequently our thoughts include fear, judgment, or grasping. Our thoughts try to justify our point of view. As an Indian saying points out: “He who cannot dance claims the floor is uneven.”
Jack Kornfield, The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology
If you are doing something to avoid pain, then pain is running your life. All of your thoughts and feelings will be affected by your fears.
Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul
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