Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble.
You yourself make the waves in your mind.
If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm.
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Tag: Awareness
…and not in the present
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
Mary Oliver, Messenger
Where contentment comes from
Doesn’t contentment come from the heart rather than from having everything you want? This sense of gratitude and contentment creates a mental state that’s very pure and conducive for seeing clearly. Our society is very restless, very critical, very aware of what’s wrong. We’re always thinking of ways to make things better than they are…. We’ve developed the intellect — the ability to experiment, the wonders of modern science and so forth — but we’ve done it mostly out of curiosity and greed. If we had developed wisdom as well, then our intelligence would work in harmony with nature rather than by exploiting it.
Ajahn Sumedho, There’s No Place Like Here
Why looking for self is not needed
We all hope for success. We hope for health. We hope for enlightenment. We have all sorts of things we hope for. All hope, of course, is about sizing up the past and projecting it into the future.
However, anyone who sits for any length of time sees that there is no past and no future except in the mind. There is nothing but self, and self is always here, present. It’s not hidden. We are racing around like mad trying to find something called self, this wonderful hidden self. Where is it hidden? We hope for something that’s going to take care of this little self because we do not realize that already we are self.
Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen
Creating breaks in the chatter
When we cling to thoughts and memories, we are clinging to what cannot be grasped. When we cling to thoughts and memories, we are clinging to what cannot be grasped. When we touch these phantoms and let them go, we may discover a space, a break in the chatter, a glimpse of open sky. This is our birthright—the wisdom with which we were born, the vast unfolding display of primordial richness, primordial openness, primordial wisdom itself. When one thought has ended and another has not yet begun, we can rest in that space.
Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion
Our capacity for happiness
Whether success or failure: the truth of a life really has little to do with its quality. The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight.
The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.
May Sarton.
