In the Buddhist tradition the ability to be happy is often translated into English as ‘equanimity,’
roughly meaning to be equal to things,
to be large enough for the drama in which we find ourselves.
David Whyte, The Three Marriages
photo oxyman
The way things are
Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of the self.
When we don’t hold strongly to the self as self, what do we have to fear?
Have faith in the way things are.
Love all things that happen as your self; then you can care for all things.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
photo : julio nohara
How to train the mind
Consider all phenomena to be dreams.
Don’t be swayed by outer circumstances.
Be grateful to everyone.
Don’t brood over the faults of others.
Explore the nature of unborn awareness.
At all times simply rely on a joyful mind.
Don’t expect a standing ovation
Atiśa, 980 – 1054, Seven Points for Training the Mind and Heart
photo Ed Yourdon
Able to hold contradictions
Contradictions have always existed. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.
Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude.
Greek figure, c. 510 BC
Sunday Quote: Mystery
The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved;
it is a reality to be experienced
Jacobus Johannes van der Leeuw Dutch author, 1893 – 1934
photo rennett stowe
Fear-driven stories
The quality of our lives depends heavily on whether we assume a world of scarcity or a world of abundance.
By embracing the scarcity assumption, we create the very scarcities we fear. We create scarcity by competing with others for resources as if we were stranded on the Sahara at the last oasis. In the human world, abundance does not happen automatically It is created when we have the sense to choose community, to come together to celebrate and share our common story. Whether the “scarce resource” is money or love or power or words, the true law of life is that we generate more of whatever seems scarce by trusting its supply and passing it around. Authentic abundance does not lie in secured stockpiles of food or cash or influence or affection, but in belonging to a community where we can give those goods to others who need them – and receive them from others when we are in need.
Parker Palmer, The Active Life and Let Your Life Speak
photo john liu
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