Category: Be fully present

True freedom

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When you fall in love with the unknown,

you are free.

Byron Katie

Herding thoughts and emotions

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When I am not present to myself, then I am only aware of that half of me, that mode of my being which turns outward to created things. And then it is possible for me to lose myself among them. Then I no longer feel the deep secret pull of the gravitation of love which draws my inward self. My will and my intelligence lose their command of the other faculties. My senses, my imagination, my emotions, scatter to pursue their various quarries all over the face of the earth. Recollection brings them home. It brings the outward self in line with the inward spirit, and makes my whole being answer the deep pull of love that reaches down into the mystery of God.

Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island

Underneath

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Don’t base your identity on your imperfection.

You aren’t your imperfections,

you are the being that is aware of your imperfections.

Haemin Sunim

Sunday Quote: Listen

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Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.  

Anne Sexton, from Letter Written on a Ferry.

A certain lightness

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Fame or self: Which matters more?
Self or wealth: Which is more precious?
Gain or loss: Which is more painful?

He who is attached to things will suffer much.
He who saves will suffer heavy loss.

A contented person is never disappointed.
The person who knows when to stop will not find themselves in trouble.
They will stay forever safe.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 44

Turning people into trees

Karl Duffy2 Comments

This is a lovely idea…

When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees.

And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever.

And you look at the tree and you allow it. You appreciate it. You see why it is the way it is.

You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that.  And you are constantly saying “You’re too this, or I’m too this.”

That judging mind comes in.

And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.

Ram Dass, On Self-Judgment