Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different;
Enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will);
Being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).
James Baraz
We might think of the mind as being like clear, open space. All kinds of things arise there, but the space is not affected….In meditation and in our lives, it is not so important what particular experience arises. What’s important is how we relate to it. By learning to relate well with whatever arises, we open to the full range of human experience, to what the Taoists call “the ten thousand joys and the ten thousand sorrows”.
Joseph Goldstein, A Heart Full of Peace
photo chitrapa
To overcome perfectionism, you’d have to learn to accept reality for what it is at any given moment. I can imagine the objections: ” What? Accept the reality as it is? You must be kidding me!” Not at all. There are two reasons to accept reality as it is. First, there is no other reality at any given point in time than the one that there is. We can think of things being different from how they are at this period in time, but this hypothetically better, ideal reality exists only in our minds. In reality, there is just reality. So what is there to accept but this? The second reason for accepting the present reality as it is? It’s already perfect.
Pavel Somov, Present Perfect
Breath is the bridge that connects life to consciousness, the bridge that unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again
Thich Nhat Hanh
photo: chixoy
You do not need to know precisely what is happening,
or exactly where it is all going.
What you need, is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment,
and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.
Thomas Merton
photo: strobilomyces
We must not portray you in king’s robes,
you drifting mist that brought forth the morning.
Once again from the old paintboxes
we take the same gold for scepter and crown
that has disguised you through the ages.
Piously we produce our images of you
till they stand around you like a thousand walls.
And when our hearts would simply open,
our fervent hands hide you.
Rilke, Book of Hours, I 4
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