In our actual experience of life, our life is not plural, not only plural, but also singular. Each one of us are independent and dependent. We…after some years we will die. That will be the end of our life but if we think that is our end of life, that is wrong understanding. And if we think we do not die, that is also wrong understanding: we die and we do not die and that is right understanding.
Suzuki Roshi, Lecture on posture
photo Ian Capper
A flower falls, even though we love it;
a weed grows, even though we do not love it.
Dogen
photo: pixie from he
It is easy enough to see that all through our lives we are faced with the task of reconciling opposites
which, in logical thought, cannot be reconciled
E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful
photo: pjposullivan
For there is a boundary to looking.
And the world that is looked at so deeply
wants to flourish in love.
Work for the eye is done, now
go and do heart-work
on all the images imprisoned within you.
Rilke
photo llias81
We must cultivate the ability to hold tension in life-giving ways. Our lives are filled with contradictions — from the gap between our aspirations and our behavior to observations and insights we cannot abide because they run counter to our convictions. If we fail to hold them creatively, these contradictions will shut us down and take us out of the action. But when we allow their tensions to expand our hearts, they can open us to new understandings of ourselves and our world, enhancing our lives and allowing us to enhance the lives of others. We are imperfect and broken beings who inhabit an imperfect and broken world. The genius of the human heart lies in its capacity to use these tensions to generate insight, energy, and new life.
Parker Plamer, Healing the Heart of Democracy
photo gocheganas
It’s not impermanence per se…. that is the cause of our suffering. Rather, it’s our resistance to the fundamental uncertainty of our situation. Our discomfort arises from all of our effort to put ground under our feet, to realize our dream of constant okayness.
Pema Chodron, The Fundamental Ambiguity of Being Human
