Neither planning ahead nor reminiscing about the past need obscure the clarity of our present awareness.
The Buddha would say “If you are planning ahead, just plan ahead. If you’re remembering, just remember”
We can look forward or back without fretting or obsessing, or allowing concerns about the future to constrict freedom in the present.
Think about it: even contemplating the future or the past is a function of present awareness
Lama Surya Das, Buddha Standard Time
You do not play a sonata in order to reach the final chord
and if the meaning of things were simply in ends,
composers would write nothing but finales.
Alan Watts
When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light in your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault is in yourself.
Chief Tecumseh, Leader of the Shawnee, 1768 -1813
It is very simple to be happy,
but it is very difficult to be simple.
Rabindranath Tagore
When we convene again
to understand the world,
the first speaker will …
point silently out of the window
at the hillside in its season,
sunlit, under the snow,
and we will nod silently,
and silently stand and go.
Wendell Berry , Those Awake
Nature teaches us simplicity and contentment,
because in its presence we realize
that we need very little to be happy
Mark Coleman
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