We have all kinds of ways of imagining the future that distract us from actually living in the present.
What sitting practice is really about, is living in the present so that we can actually manifest this precious life in a way that feels right.
Blanche Hartman, Soto Zen teacher, This life which is wonderful and evanescent
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle,
and the life of the candle will not be shortened.
Happiness never decreases by being shared.
The Buddha
Seeing beginnings and endings is a vital step in developing the understanding that nothing exists apart from interdependent, cause-and-effect relationships. To see the beginnings and endings is also, in my experience, a great support in difficult times. Early on, as I began to trust in the fiber of my being that nothing lasts, I became less afraid of pain. The fact that everything has an end comforted me. “One way or another,” I would say to myself, “this too will pass.” I was glad I saw that…the end of the day is the beginning of the night, and that the dead rose becomes compost for new growth.
Sad and wistful and lonesome are what human beings feel when they are parted from what they love. They are difficult emotions, but they aren’t problems. They become suffering when we resent them, or resist them, or pretend that they aren’t there. I know that when I struggle with the pain of any loss, the struggle preoccupies my mind and leaves no room for hope. When I recognize the pain I feel as the legitimate result of loss, I am respectful of its presence and kind to myself. My mind always relaxes when it is kind, and around the edges of the truth of whatever has ended, I see displays of what might be beginning.
Sylvia Boorstein
The goal of mindfulness practice is to increase the conditions which lead to our happiness and our freedom. However, the major world wisdom traditions seem to have come to an awareness that full happiness may not be possible in this world and propose different perspectives based on that. The Buddhist tradition’s fundamental teaching is that life has ultimately an unsatisfactory quality to it and that our suffering comes from not recognizing that. The Old Testament believes that we are on this world with a timeless longing deep inside us, which means that we can never fully find a complete contentment here. As the author of the Book of Ecclesiastes puts it He has also set eternity in their heart. From this perspective therefore, there will always be an restless quality to our life here, because there are (eternal) desires in our hearts which cannot be satisfied by the (finite) experiences which we have. This goes against a lot of what advertising and modern society like to tell us, as they place in front of us a succession of created needs. Although both the Buddhist and the Judeo-Christian traditions differ in the way they resolve the problem, they agree in telling us that no person or no thing can ultimately satisfy our deepest longings and that we will not be fully happy unless we realize that. There is an unfulfilled quality which can manifest itself in our relationships, in disappointments in our families, in a job which does not live up to our dreams, in the place where we live seeming poor in comparison to other places and other lives. To be unfulfilled in this way is to be human. Realizing that it has to be so is the first step to genuine peace.
In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we finally learn that here in this life all symphonies must remain unfinished.
Karl Rahner
The goal of attention practice is to become aware of awareness. Awareness is the basis, or what you might call the “support,” of the mind. It is steady and unchanging, like the pole to which the flag of ordinary consciousness is attached. When we recognize and become grounded in awareness, the “wind” of emotion may still blow. But instead of being carried away by the wind, we turn our attention inward, watching the shifts and changes with the intention of becoming familiar with that aspect of consciousness that recognizes “Oh, this is what I’m feeling, this is what I’m thinking”.
As we do so, a bit of space opens up within us. With practice, that space—which is the mind’s natural clarity—begins to expand and settle.
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Mindfulbalance 