Soothe the anguish of your soul.
Nobody is destined only to happiness or to pain.
The wheel of life takes one up and down by turn.
Kālidāsa, Sanskrit poet and dramatist, 4th–5th century
Tag: balance
Stand up
The current of life requires us to stand up, again and again, and we are not defeated when we are worn down, just exposed anew at a deeper level. We are meant to live in between the two. In this way, life keeps getting more and more precious. It is a natural law like gravity or osmosis: Stand up to be worn bare. It is how everything in the way is thinned, so that we can feel just how thoroughly alive we are.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Keep going
Life goes on.
No mountain peak actually impales the sun.
If you come to a gap in your path, jump across.
Han Shan, Chinese Chan (Zen) poet, 9th Century.
Essential and non essential
Each person naturally receives his allotted share in his life.
He need not concentrate on it, he need not search for it; the allotted portion is there.
You may rush around in search of riches, but what happens if death suddenly comes?
You should clear their minds of these non-essential things and concentrate on studying the Way.
Dogen, Shobogenzo Zuimonki
Being content
When you have no desire, everything is sufficient.
But when always seeking, then a lot of things seem impoverished.
However, plain vegetables can soothe hunger.
A patched robe is enough to cover this bent old body.
Alone, I hike with a deer. Cheerfully I sing with village children.
The stream beneath the cliff cleanses my ears.
The pine on the mountain top fills my heart.
Ryokan, 1758–1831
Getting out of the way
Bernie Glassman, a Zen teacher, has a practice called ‘Bearing Witness.’ You go into a hard, complex situation with the mind of not knowing, of having no idea or opinion, and instead, feel, listen, and be in the actual situation, becoming one with it. This nonjudgmental state of mind can position you so that you might be able to find a way to help, not out of your own need to make something better so that you feel better or in order to alleviate your own fear, but so that you act when empty of yourself. You get yourself out of the way.
Natalie Goldberg, The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language
Mindfulbalance 