Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands,
because if we are not grateful,
then no matter how much we have we will not be happy – because we will always want
to have something else or something more.
Br David Steindl-Rast
We continually move in and out of wholeness and fragmentation, in and out of clarity and confusion, and in and out of a largeness of heart and smallness of mind. When whole and clear and large of heart, we seem to be carried along, part of something larger. When fragmented and confused and small of mind, we seem to be tossed about, lost in ways we don’t quite understand. And so we continually search for tools that will free us to be lifted by life’s currents and not battered by them. One such tool is a frame of mind, an attitude by which we meet the world: it has to do with whether we are giving attention or getting attention. Giving attention steers us back to center, Giving attention is connective. On the other hand, getting attention is a form of drifting from center. If attention comes your way, well, enjoy, but cultivating and seeking it is paddling away from center. Getting attention is deceptively isolating. It ultimately leads to being seen but not held.
Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk
Just like the question “Can you see your own eyes?” Nobody can see their own eyes. I can see your eyes but I can’t see my eyes. I’m sitting right here, I’ve got two eyes and I can’t see them. But you can see my eyes. But there’s no need for me to see my eyes because I can see! It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? If I started saying “Why can’t I see my own eyes?” you’d think “Ajahn Sumedho’s really weird, isn’t he!” Looking in a mirror you can see a reflection, but that’s not your eyes, it’s a reflection of your eyes. There’s no way that I’ve been able to look and see my own eyes, but then it’s not necessary to see your own eyes. It’s not necessary to know who it is that knows — because there’s knowing.
Ajahn Sumedho
A thought is an object to be known
just as the absence of thoughts is an object to be known.
What is the difference?
Sayadaw U Tejaniya
Everything appears – in the present moment, right now. Things happen, right now, not in past or present. So practice should be the practice of “right now.” When we, you know, catch things, how you catch it? You cannot…..you cannot catch past or future. You can catch just the present moment, right now. If you want to catch someone, you should catch him right now, not past or not in future. So if you want to practice, you should practice right now. But because we are always, you know, involved in thinking mind, and because we try to understand teaching, you know, with seeking mind, in term of present or past or now or later, or always….. The wave and water, right now, it is – wave is water, water is wave. But if you think about it, you have the idea of water and idea of wave because you saw it, because you saw the wave and you have idea of water. And you may think: “But that is water. Water is something like this, you know.” But right now when you see waves on the water, wave is water and water is wave, right now, when you don’t think.
From a transcript of Suzuki Roshi talk, 1969, Emptiness is Form
In our ordinary, confused way of seeing, we tend to view our thoughts and mind as one. For example, if we think “I am an angry person,” or “I am a jealous person,” then we are identifying who we are with our angry or jealous thoughts. There is a sense of mixing up the relative with the ultimate. When we confuse our temporary, fleeting thoughts and emotions with mind’s genuine nature, it becomes difficult to see beyond that—to see who we truly are. This kind of misperception is like thinking that the ocean is just the waves. When we look at the ocean but notice only the waves, we may think that is what the ocean is all about. But that is not true; the ocean is not simply waves. In the same way, we usually misunderstand the nature of mind. We are not able to see through the confusion of our thoughts and emotions to recognize the true nature of our mind. However, when we look with penetrating insight, or prajna, then we can see clearly: This confusion, these fleeting stains, are not who I am. They are not what my mind is all about. My true nature of mind is beyond this.
Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche
