All that we are looking for in life – all the happiness, contentment, and peace of mind – is right here in the present moment.
Our very own awareness is itself fundamentally pure and good.
The only problem is that we get so caught up in the ups and downs of life that we don’t take the time to pause and notice what we already have.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, In Love with the World: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying
When there is no way out, there is still always a way through. So don’t turn away from the pain.
Face it. Feel it fully. Feel it — don’t think about it! Express it if necessary, but don’t create a script in your mind around it. Give all your attention to the feeling, not to the person, event, or situation that seems to have caused it. Don’t let the mind use the pain to create a victim identity for yourself out of it. Feeling sorry for yourself and telling others your story will keep you stuck in suffering. Since it is impossible to get away from the feeling, the only possibility of change is to move into it; otherwise, nothing will shift. So give your complete attention to what you feel, and refrain from mentally labeling it.
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
As we grow we tend to increasingly live in the future, and what “may” happen.
A baby smiles between fifty and seventy times a day
and a toddler six hundred times, according to research.
I’m sure some of us have asked ourselves where that smile goes.
What robs us of it?
Goldie Hawn, 10 Mindful Minutes
The natural mind is already complete, like the sky -limitless and unconditioned.
The practice is not to acquire but to uncover, to relax into what has always been.
Anne C. Klein, professor of religious studies at Rice University
“Not knowing is most intimate”.
It is a place of genuine meeting, where life is not obscured by our ideas about life. When you don’t know, you are free to discover. The mind that doesn’t know is open, curious, and ready for surprise. It doesn’t rush to conclusions or cling to old stories. Instead, it allows the world to speak in its own voice.
We often think of not knowing as a weakness, but it’s a kind of strength – a willingness to encounter reality without armor. When you admit you don’t know, you step into a space where something new can happen. This is where creativity begins, where love flowers, where the deepest insights arise.
John Tarrant, Bring Me the Rhinoceros: And Other Zen Koans That Will Save Your Life
Freedom is not getting what you want;
it’s wanting what is here now.
Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special: Living Zen
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