I wonder if we do not waste most of our energy
just by spending every waking minute saying hello to ourselves.
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Our endless stories
Tag: Be fully present
Facing our conflicts
To experience conflicts knowingly, though it may be distressing, can be an invaluable asset. The more we face our own conflicts and seek out our own solutions, the more inner freedom and strength we will gain. Only when we are willing to bear the brunt can we approximate the ideal of being the captain of our ship. A spurious tranquillity rooted in inner dullness is anything but enviable. It is bound to make us weak and an easy prey to any kind of influence.
Karen Horney, Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis
Make of yourself a light
In times of deep darkness, we not only need light — we need to be light for one another. That’s a message we must take to heart as we find ourselves lost once again in the all-too-familiar darkness of America’s culture of violence. Who better to deliver that message than Mary Oliver, in a powerful poem that re-tells the story of the Buddha’s last words. Before he died, she tells us, “He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd” and said, “Make of yourself a light.”
We are the frightened crowd the Buddha looked into as he drew his last breath. We are the people who need to be light for one another.
Parker Palmer
Not leaning forward
Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
Where you are
You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell.
You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sandheap.
You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain.
Thoreau
Not trying to become
Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become
enlightened.
When you sit, let it be. When you walk, let it be.
Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.
Ajahn Chah, A Still Forest Pool
Mindfulbalance 