Illusions

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Arriving someplace more desirable at some future time is an illusion.

This is it.

Jon Kabat Zinn

photo thhe at english wikipedia

Grounded

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When you run after your thoughts, you are like a dog chasing a stick:

every time a stick is thrown, you run after it.

Instead, be like a lion who, rather than chasing after the stick, turns to face the thrower.

One only throws a stick at a lion once

Milarepa, Tibetan Buddhism, 1052 – 1135

photo calips

Choice

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Find a place where you can feel completely at ease

and say to yourself,

Only I can destroy my peace,

and I choose not to do so

Allan Lokos, Pocket Peace

photo abrget47j

Sunday Quote: Real riches

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The human body, at peace with itself,

is more precious then the rarest gem

Tsongkhapa, Tibetan Buddhism, 1357–1419

photo david monniaux

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Focus on the now

killeshin

We are endlessly offered into life: all time is ours.
And what any one of us might be worth,
death alone knows – and does not tell.

Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, II, 24

Stop, look, go

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It helps me to review my practice of gratefulness by applying … the rule I learned as a boy for crossing an intersection: “Stop, look, go.” Before going to bed, I glance back over the day and ask myself: Did I stop and allow myself to be surprised? Or did I trudge on in a daze? Was I too busy to wake up to surprise? And once I stopped, did I look for the opportunity of that moment? Or did I allow the circumstances to distract me from the gift within the gift? (This tends to happen when the gift’s wrappings are not attractive.) And finally, was I alert enough to go after it, to avail myself fully of the opportunity offered to me?

My simple recipe for a joyful day is this: Stop and wake up; look and be aware of what you see; then go on with all the alertness you can muster for the opportunity the moment offers. Looking back in the evening, on a day on which I made these three steps over and over, is like looking at an apple orchard heavy with fruit.

David Steindl-Rast, Awake, Aware and Alert