We try to be open to all possibilities, without turning them into expectations
Expectations are the greatest impediment to living
In anticipation of tomorrow, we lose today
Seneca
Expectations
Month: February 2024
Miraculous things
Who cares about wealth and honour?
Even the poorest thing shines.
My miraculous power and spiritual activity:
drawing water and carrying wood.
Layman Pang, 8th Century lay Buddhist
Whole hearted
Never rely on a second arrow. If you rely on a second arrow you will be careless with the first.
Every time you must be convinced that you have only one choice, and that you must hit your target with your one and only arrow.
Kenko-Khosi, 1283–1350, Japanese author and Buddhist monk, Essays in Idleness
Ocean depths
There is a Tibetan saying: ‘When things are difficult, then let yourself be happy.’ Otherwise, if happiness is relying on others or the environment or your surroundings, it’s not possible. Like an ocean, the waves always go like that but underneath, it always remains calm. So we have that ability as well. On an intellectual level, we may see things as desperate, difficult. But underneath, at the emotional level, you can keep calm.
The Dalai Lama
A sweet thing
People who practice mindfulness find that they don’t have to trust the narrative self –
that its lost its hold over them as the primary reference of truth and reality.
It’s such a sweet thing
To go from having been habitually convinced by this narrative self, to no longer being convinced by it, is a huge shift.
Henry Shukman, Mountain Cloud Zen Center
Always leaning forward
We rarely contact this simple moment,
so used to constant input and excitement,
we lack fine-tuning into all the subtleties of this instant, the ability to register a quiet aliveness without the stirring of expectation.
Toni Packer, 1927-2013, teacher and writer.
Mindfulbalance 