No Moment is the same as any other. Each is unique and contains unique possibilities.
Beginners mind reminds us this simple truth.
The next time you are seeing someone who is familiar to you, ask yourself if you are seeing this person with fresh eyes, as she or he really is,
or if you are seeing only the reflection of your own thoughts about this person
Jon Kabat Zinn, Full Catastrophe LIving
photo EEIM
Always our rationalization is the same –“Once this situation is remedied, then I will be happy.”
But it never works that way in reality: The goal is achieved, but the person who reaches it is not the same person who dreamed it.
The goal was static, but the person’s identity was dynamic.
Philip Moffitt
photo twilightsojourn
Mindfulness also means to remember… what? Mindfulness pulls us back to a greater living reality, reminding us that life is more than our own repetitive thoughts or fears or desires. Rooted in the present tense world of the body rather than the thoughts, the strangely named mindfulness (bodyfulness? Lifefulness?) delivers us from the hellish centrifugal force of our own egos.
Tracy Cochran, The Open Door
photo justin 1569
There’s a story that Ed Brown, the Zen chef , tells about his early days with his teacher, Suzuki Roshi. Ed was the head cook at Tassajara Zen Mountain Centre in California in the 1960s and was well known for his volatile temper. Once, in a fury, he went to his teacher and complained about the state of the kitchen: people didn’t clean up properly; people talked too much; people were distracted and unmindful. It was chaos on a daily basis. Suzuki Roshi’s reply was simple: “Ed, if you want a calm kitchen, calm your mind”
Found in Pema Chodron, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change, with thanks to Bianca for the loan of the book
photo jeppestown
If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished;
but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.
Montesquieu, French lawyer and philosopher, 1689 – 1755
photo michael johnston
Often we find it easier to think our way around things
rather than to feel our way through them
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
photo rudi winter
