a way of peacefulness

Holding onto the world lightly is peacefulness

There is nothing that you need to hold on to

There is nothing that you need to push away

Sutta Nipata 1097

No add-ons

Neither planning ahead nor reminiscing about the past need obscure the clarity of our present awareness.

The Buddha would say “If you are planning ahead, just plan ahead. If you’re remembering, just remember”

We can look forward or back without fretting or obsessing, or allowing concerns about the future to constrict freedom in the present.

Think about it: even contemplating the future or the past is a function of present awareness

Lama Surya Das, Buddha Standard Time

Here, now

You do not play a sonata in order to reach the final chord

and if the meaning of things were simply in ends,

composers would write nothing but finales.

Alan Watts

When you rise

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light in your life, for your strength.

Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.

If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault is in yourself.

Chief Tecumseh, Leader of the Shawnee, 1768 -1813

Sunday Quote: Simple

It is very simple to be happy,

but it is very difficult to be simple.

Rabindranath Tagore

Understanding the world

When we convene again
to understand the world,
the first speaker will …
point silently out of the window
at the hillside in its season,
sunlit, under the snow,
and we will nod silently,
and silently stand and go.

Wendell Berry , Those Awake