Tag: Awareness

Adapt the pace of nature;

her secret is patience

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s easy to identify with all the places we’ve been hurt and 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 really risk really living

Sensei Bonnie Myotai Treace,

We depend on change in order to live, so acquaint yourself with the fact that it’s all inconstant

Pleasure isn’t for sure; pain isn’t for sure; happiness isn’t for sure; stillness isn’t for sure; distraction isn’t for sure.

Whatever arises, you should tell it: Don’t try to fool me. You’re not for sure

Ajahn Chah

The mind is naturally spacious.

It can hold anything – joy, sorrow, fear, excitement—without being destroyed or overwhelmed. The trouble begins when we forget this capacity and start to believe that our thoughts and emotions are solid, permanent, or bigger than the mind itself. We contract around them, tightening our mental grip, as if holding on could somehow make life more secure. But the truth is, the mind is like the sky—vast, open, and inherently calm. Clouds (thoughts, worries, pleasures) pass through, but the sky remains unchanged.

Meditation is the practice of remembering this.…This spaciousness isn’t something we need to create; it’s already here. Our practice is to recognize it. When we do, life becomes lighter. Difficult emotions don’t disappear, but they no longer define us. 

Sylvia Boorstein, It’s Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness