Therefore, whatever feeling, past, future or present, internal or external, ….. must be regarded with proper wisdom, in this way:
‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’
The Buddha, Anatta-lakkhana Sutta: The Discourse on the Not-self Characteristic
We are encouraged to drop the storyline and simply pause, look out, and breathe. Simply be present for a few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours, a whole lifetime, with our own shifting energies and with the unpredictability of life as it unfolds, wholly partaking in all experiences just exactly as they are. What I’m advocating is that in that precious moment we start to make choices that lead to happiness and freedom rather than choices that lead to unnecessary suffering and the obscuration of our intelligence, our warmth, our capacity to remain open and present with the natural movement of life.
Pema Chodron
We must learn to hold the tension between the reality of the moment and the possibility that something better might emerge. The insight at the heart of nonviolence is that we live in a tragic gap – a gap between the way things are and the way we know they might be. It is a gap that never has been and never will be closed. If we want to live nonviolent lives, we must learn to stand in the tragic gap, faithfully holding the tension between reality and possibility in hopes of being opened to a third way.
Parker J. Palmer
To find the Buddhist law, drift east and west, come and go, entrusting yourself to the waves.
Ryokon, 18th Century Zen poet
The “Buddhist law” refers to the truth of how things really are. We can’t understand the nature of reality until we let go of controlling our experience.There’s no way to see clearly what’s going on if on some level we’re attempting to ignore or bypass the stormy weather.
By not resisting, by letting the waves wash through me, I began to relax. Rather than fighting the stormy surges, I rested in an ocean of awareness that embraced all the moving waves. I’d arrived in a sanctuary that felt large enough to hold whatever was going on in my life.
Tara Brach, Entrusting Yourself to the Waves
Keep asking “What idea of self have I dreamed up today?
Zenkei Blanche Hartman,1926-2016, Soto Zen teacher
If we live everything,
life will be faithful to us.
John O’Donohue
