Look up

We have so many allies in this world,

including just the colour blue in the sky. 

David Whyte

Sunday Quote: Contentment

I have a room all to myself;

it is nature. 

Henry David Thoreau 

A simple wish

Lovingkindness is a feeling that blesses others and oneself with the simple wish, “Be happy.”

The Japanese poet Issa [1763–1828] expresses this open-hearted feeling so well:

“In the cherry blossoms’ shade, there’s no such thing as a stranger.”

Joseph Goldstein, Triumph of the Heart

Trust the magic

Surrender to the way things want to happen next,

even though this often involves a vast and terrifying loss of control.

Trust the magic that was born into your soul.

Martha Beck

Fears

I’m never free of fear,” some people say, implying that there should be a state of mind and body that is free of fear.

How can we possibly be free from fear when we live in the conditioned mode of the me-story most of the time? We’re deeply programmed to believe in this separate me by inaccurate language and by growing up in a world of other mes, all of whom think of and experience themselves as separate entities. . . . With separation inevitably goes fear and pain.

Toni Packer, Touching Fear

Underlying wholeness

It’s easy to identify with all the places we have been hurt or abandoned,

but can we identify with the timeless wholeness that weathers every condition?

If we can’t, we may spend this life protecting ourselves

and never risk really living

Bonnie Myotai Treace Sensei