We don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
Howard Zinn, US Historian, playwright, and social activist
photo gordon hatton
To live wisely, we must recognize that there are two fundamental truths of a human life. The first is that we have a limited and undefined amount of time — it may be 100 years, it may be 30. The second is that in that limited and undefined amount of time we have an almost unlimited number of choices of how to use our time — the things we choose to focus on and put our energy into — and these choices will ultimately define our lives.
When we are born there is no owner’s manual provided, and the clock begins ticking the moment we arrive. We do not like the words “die” and “death.” Many human activities are designed to shield us from the truth about life; that it is limited, that at least here in this place, we do not have forever. Still, it is the fact that we die and that our time is limited that makes discovering the secrets to life important. If we lived forever, there would be little urgency to discover the true paths to happiness and purpose since given the luxury of eternity we would surely stumble on them sooner or later. This is a luxury we do not have.
John Izzo, The Five Secrets you must Discover before Your Die
photo AuntTT83
A long time ago three elders were talking about impermanence. One elder said “Of all those who attend this years party, who knows who will be missing next year”. Another elder said “What you are talking about is far away. When we take off our shoes and socks tonight, we don’t know if we will put them on again tomorrow.”. The third elder said “What you are talking about is still remote. When we exhale this breath, we don’t know if we will breathe in again”
photo markus michalczyk
One of the words in Tibetan for a person can be translated as “one who is on the go” or a “migrating being”. There is a deep truth in this and we do not have to be at an airport to realize that we’re always going somewhere or continually in transit. There is a tendency to be perpetually “on the go”, moving towards or moving away, always in the search of a perfect feeling.
As long as we chase the myth, trying to get happiness by attempting to manipulate and control life – whether through trying harder to succeed, trying to please others, seeking comfort and diversions or even using spiritual practice to become calm – we will continue to trap ourselves on the roller coaster cycle of personal happiness and unhappiness, And sadly we will never taste the true contentment that comes when we learn how to stay present with what is, exactly as it is.
Ezra Bayda, Beyond Happiness
photo Hans Stieglitz
Those who are willing to be vulnerable
move among mysteries
Theodore Roethke, American Poet, Straw for the Fire
It’s in the abstract, the assumed, the possible and ‘what others think’ that the mind holds its phobias – as life messages of abandonment or inadequacy … Those qualities aren’t there in specific direct experience: there’s painful and pleasant moments, but there are no life messages. However our daily world is commonly held in terms of non-specific generalizations, like its ‘another Monday,’ or, ‘a typical man’, or ,‘I dread meeting Janice, she’s always like this,’ or ‘I’m hopeless.’ In fact…. any sense of a lasting entity or state of being is an act of generalization. It’s a useful convention, but one that allows the mind’s neuroses and corruptions to be projected onto the here and now.
Ajahn Sucitto, The Low Point
