More and more I have come to admire resilience.
Not the simple resistance of a pillow, whose foam
returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous
tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side,
it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true.
But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers,
mitochondria, figs – all this resinous, unretractable earth.
The ache for home lives in all of us,
the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
Maya Angelou
The subtle suffering in our lives may seem unimportant. But if we attend to the small ways that we suffer, we create a context of greater ease, peace, and responsibility, which can make it easier to deal with the bigger difficulties when they arise.
Gil Fronsdal Living Two Traditions
Although this is as true as the sky is blue, we keep trying to make gain permanent in order to try to bring about happiness for “me.” We think, “If only So-and-So would love me, I would be happy,“ “If only things would change, I would be happy,” “If only things would stay the way they are, I would always be happy,” and it only leads to heartache. This kind of wanting involves a lot of hope and fear, all based on denial of a simple truth: all the pleasure the world can offer eventually turns to pain. Trying to hold onto pleasure only causes more pain.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, Easy Come Easy Go
photo Lewis Collard
Our attitude is frequently one of wanting to get it done, wanting to have it finished in order to be peaceful, to relax, or to enjoy ourselves….
We want to be a feeling.
Rushing along to be something in the next moment, we fail to open and appreciate this moment.
Ajahn Sucitto, Turning the Wheel of Truth
The only reality we know is our concept of it.
Life is nothing till we call it something, and this is where mind training comes in.
Through it we learn to hold our concepts loosely, particularly those that allow unhelpful emotions to take over and cause us problems.
Karuna Cayton, The Misleading Mind
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