Tag: Be fully present

All make mistakes

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I often think of the way the Dakotah Indians responded to a small wrong. When, for example, a young person walked between an elder and the fire – an act of profound impoliteness in their culture – the young person said, simply, “Mistake”. It was an honest acknowledgement of an error of judgment, devoid of any self-recrimination or self-diminution. All present nodded in assent, and life went on.

How healthy such an attitude seems. We all commit mistakes in judgment and we all need forgiveness. If we had the option of making a simple acknowledgement of our mistake and then going on with affairs, how much clearer and gentler life would be. And how healthier would our own hearts be if we looked on the injuries caused us by others as  simply the mistake of human beings who, like us, are struggling to get by in a complex and mysterious world.

Kent Nerburn, Make me an Instrument of Your Peace

Our choices

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In life our first job is this, to divide and distinguish things into two categories: externals I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them I do control.

Where will I find good and bad?

In me, in my choices.

Epictetus, Greek Stoic philosopher, 55 – 135

Stop comparing

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The power of life that is buried deep inside you will never rise up

until you have become convinced that you’re walking the only path open for you

Kosho Uchiyama, Soto Zen priest, 1912 – 1998

Kindness towards oneself

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Sylvia Boorstein’s wise way of working with her heart when she’s worrying or anxious

“Sweetheart, you are in pain. Relax. Take a breath.

Let’s pay attention to what is happening.

Then we’ll figure out what to do”

The sun always rises

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The sun shines day after day without fail, yet if clouds appear to make the sky overcast, it can’t be seen. It still comes up in the east every morning and goes down in the west. The only difference is that you can’t see it because it’s hidden behind the clouds. The sun is your original mind, the clouds are your illusions. You are unaware of this mind because it’s covered by illusions and can’t be seen. But you never lose it,  not even when you go to sleep.

The unborn mind that your mothers have given you is thus always there, wonderfully clear and bright and illuminating.

Bankei Yōtaku (1622-1693), Rinzai Zen master, 

who emphasized our original nature or inner aliveness,  which he terms the Unborn 

Wide enough

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The peace that we are looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises.

Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.

Pema Chodron