We all carry these interior lists and shoulds…
Dropping all we carry – all our preconceptions, our interior lists of the ways we’ve failed and the ways we’ve been wronged, all the secret burdens we work at maintaining – dropping all regret and expectations lets our mentality die. Dropping all we have constructed as imperative allows us to be born again into the simplicity of spirit that arises from unencumbered being
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Hiding is a way of staying alive. Hiding is a way of holding ourselves until we are ready to come into the light. Hiding is one of the brilliant and virtuoso practices of almost every part of the natural world: the protective quiet of an icy northern landscape, the held bud of a future summer rose, the snow bound internal pulse of the hibernating bear. Hiding is underestimated. We are hidden by life in our mother’s womb until we grow and ready ourselves for our first appearance in the lighted world; to appear too early in that world is to find ourselves with the immediate necessity for outside intensive care…..What is real is almost always to begin with, hidden, and does not want to be understood by the part of our mind that mistakenly thinks it knows what is happening. What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence….Hiding leaves life to itself, to become more of itself. Hiding is the radical independence necessary for our emergence into the light of a proper human future.
David Whyte, Consolations
I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures:
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 67, Stephen Mitchell trans,
My daughter, Gina, and I like to shop in consignment stores for vintage clothing. There are great finds in such shops, a silk paisley scarf, a retro leather jacket, sequined heels. Many of the clothes have a small stain, a missing button or a slight tear in the fabric. I noticed in one store, all the clothes carried a cardboard tag with the price and the disclaimer “As Is”
I like these tags. I think we should hang them on ourselves and each other like Christmas tree ornaments. What a beautiful gift to accept ourselves, others and our circumstances “As Is”, with all the beauty, imperfections and challenges that make up this very human life of ours.
Frank Ostaseski, The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully
The first noble truth of the Buddha is that when we feel suffering,
it doesn’t mean that something is wrong.
What a relief. Finally somebody told the truth.
Suffering is part of life,
and we don’t have to feel it’s happening because we personally made the wrong move.
Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart, Heart Advice for Hard Times
Apprentice yourself to the curve of your own disappearance
David Whyte
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