Category: Be fully present

Rehearsing and evaluating

Karl Duffy3 Comments

It’s interesting to notice that we spend so much of our time rehearsing what we are going to say or do… we construct our reality by the stories we tell about it.

The evaluation I have in mind is ego centered: “Is this next episode in my life going to bring me something I like, or not? Is it going to hurt, or isn’t it? Is it pleasant or unpleasant? Does it make me important or unimportant? Does it give me something material?” It’s our nature to evaluate in this way. To the extent that we give ourselves over to evaluation of this kind, joy will be missing from our lives. 

Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special, Living Zen 

You don’t have to drown

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In fully allowing conditions to be what they are, we stabilize our hearts and find peace. It’s like putting a boat into water. We make an ark of truth: ‘Conditions are like this,’ and in that truth, we don’t adopt the conditions as our own. This is important: you can’t drain the sea, but you don’t have to drown.

Why we feel overwhelmed, as if we’re drowning, is because the heart is‘leaky.’ When it isn’t secure, perceptions and feelings flood in and cause it to sink

Ajahn Sucitto, Parami

Gifts each day

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A habit is a sure cell of predictability; it can close you off from the unknown, the new, and the unexpected. You were sent to the earth to become a receiver of the unknown. From ancient times, these gifts were prepared for you; now they come towards you across eternal distances. Their destination is the altar of your heart.

John O Donohue, Eternal Echoes

Where you are

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We can only be where we are: Right here, right now.

Zen practice is to accept that place with calm.

We cannot always be master of the situation, but we can always be master of ourselves.

Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen 24/7: All Zen All the TIme

 

Sunday Quote: Contentment comes from within

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 Every moment is an opportunity to come home…

Make an island of yourself,
make yourself your refuge;
there is no other refuge.

Digha Nikaya, 16

Embrace

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Today try taking some time to explore the possibility of sitting with yourself as if you were your own best friend.

Dwelling in the awareness of the breath, allowing thoughts and feelings to come and go, experiment with the possibility of embracing yourself as you would embrace another person who is dear to you and needs to be held.

 Saki Santorelli