Open your eyes

One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself

“What if I had never seen this before?”

What if I knew I would never see it again?

Rachel Carson, 1907 – 1964, American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist 

Threatened

The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises.

Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.

Pema Chodron, Taking the Leap, Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears

Simple truth

No amount of anxiety

makes any difference

to anything that is going to happen

Alan Watts

Comparing

The real essence of good is found only within things under your own control.

If you keep this in mind, you won’t find yourself feeling jealous or lonely, pitifully comparing yourself and your accomplishments to others. 

Epictetus, died 135 AD, Stoic philosopher, Enchiridion, Chapter 19

Ever perfect

We are made, the scriptures of all religions assure us, in the image of God. Nothing can change that original goodness. Whatever mistakes we have made in the past, whatever problems we may have in the present, in every one of us this ‘uncreated spark in the soul’ remains untouched, ever pure, ever perfect. Even if we try with all our might to douse or hide it, it is always ready to set our personality ablaze with light.

Eknath Easwaran, Original Goodness

Simply sit

Some people think that it always takes time

for the mind to arrive in the space of silence.

How about simply dropping this idea,

simply feeling how you are sitting right now,

in contact with the ground and thus with the earth

in this earth contact that knows neither here nor there.

Simply letting yourself feel how you are sitting right now

in contact with the space above your head and thus with the sky

in this sky contact which knows neither yesterday not today.

Silvia Ostertag, It Takes No Time [extract]