Already there

Choiceless awareness is a quality of mind that is free from making judgments, decisions or generating commentary as it meets with sense experiences. It is a mind that responds to each new moment without the burden of its past history or of making future projections. When the mind no longer clings anywhere, not even to the idea of not clinging anywhere, we realize, either suddenly or gradually, that we truly already are that for which we have been searching

Matthew Flickstein, Meditation teacher, Cultivating Choiceless Awareness

Sunday Quote: Be silent

Be silent

only the hand of God can remove the burdens of the heart

Rumi

At peace

Peace can only exist in the present moment. It is ridiculous to say “Wait until I finish this, then I’ll be free to live in peace”. What is “this”? A diploma, a job, a house, the payment of debt? If you think that way peace will never come. There is always another “this” that will follow the present one. If you are not living in peace at this moment, you’ll never be able to. If you truly want to be at peace, you must be at peace right now. Otherwise there is only hope for peace “some day.” 

Thich Nhat Hahn, The Sun my Heart

A burning patience

Lastly, I wish to say to the people of good will, to the workers, to the poets: The whole future has been expressed in this line by Rimbaud: “Only with a burning patience can we conquer the splendid City which will give light, justice and dignity to all mankind“

Pablo Neruda, 1904 – 1973, Chilean poet

Tolerance

People take different roads seeking fulfilment and happiness.

Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.


The Dalai Lama

Not more, but less

When we seek happiness through accumulation, either outside of ourselves-from other people, relationships, or material goods-or from our own self-development, we are missing the essential point. In either case we are trying to find completion. 

Completion comes, not from adding another piece to ourselves,

but from surrendering our ideas of perfection

Mark Epstein, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective