Getting stuck in how things “should” be

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Letting go means just what it says. It’s an invitation to cease clinging to anything — whether it be an idea, a thing, an event, a particular time, or view, or desire.

It is a conscious decision to release with full acceptance into the stream of present moments as they are unfolding.

To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome – 

which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction to or rejection of them,

in the intrinsic stickiness of wanting, of liking and disliking

Jon Kabat Zinn, Wherever you go, There you are.

photo paul Harrop

More stories

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Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening,

stories that get in the way of direct experience.

Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.

Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness, The Power of Meditation

photo frank kovalchek

The fear that stops us

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We are more often frightened than hurt;
and we suffer more from imagination than from reality
Seneca, Roman Stoic philosopher, 4 BC – 65 AD.
photo paul sapiano

In front of you

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Your life is your practice. Your spiritual practice does not occur someplace other than in your life right now, and your life is nowhere other than where you are. You are looking for answers, insight, and wisdom that you already possess. Live the life in front of you, be the life you are, and see what you find out for yourself.

Karen Maezen Millar, Momma Zen, Walking the Crooked path of Motherhood

photo of pedestrian bridge over the Drac near near the Lac De Monteynard-Avignonet, France,  by herby

A way will open

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Move and the way will open

Zen saying

Solvitur ambulando (“It is solved by walking”) Diogenes, 4th-century-B.C. Greek philosopher

photo 663highland

Just passing clouds

sun through clouds

The sun shines day after day without fail, yet if clouds appear to make the sky overcast, it can’t be seen. It still comes up in the east every morning and goes down in the west. The only difference is that you can’t see it because it’s hidden behind the clouds. The sun is your Original Mind, the clouds are your illusions. You are unaware of your Original Minds because they’re covered by illusions and can’t be seen. But you never lose them, not even when you go to sleep. The unborn Original Mind that your mothers have given you is thus always there, wonderfully clear and bright and illuminating.

Bankei