Happiness cannot be found through great effort and willpower,
But is already present
In relaxation and letting go.
Don’t strain yourself, there is nothing to do.
As soon as you relax this grasping,
there is space – open, inviting and comfortable.
So make use of it. Everything is already yours.
Search no more.
Don’t go into the inextricable jungle
looking for the elephant who is already quietly at home.
Lama Gendun Rinpoche, Happiness
We do not need to operate according to the idea of a pre-determined program or plan for our lives. Rather, we need to practice a new art of attention to the inner rhythm of our days and lives…Your soul knows the geography of your own destiny.
John O’Donohue
We think we need to hold everything close….to know where everything is going.
But probably, in life, the most important skill to learn is….
There are poets who learn from you
to say, what you, in your aloneness, are;
and they learn through you to live distantness,
as the evenings through the great stars
become accustomed to eternity.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Girls
The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach — waiting for a gift from the sea
Ann Morrow Lindberg, Gift from the Sea
When your eyes are closed, you can listen to the inner voices that “speak” in the mind. They say “I am this…”I should not be like that”. You can use those voices for bringing you to the space between thoughts. Rather than making a big problem about the obsession and fears that go on in your mind, you can open your attention and see those obsessions and fears as mental conditions that come and go in space.
Ajahn Sumedho, The Mind and the Way
Don’t waste time calculating your chances of success or failure.
Just fix your aim and begin
Chinese Master Guan Yin Tzu quoted in Stephen Cope, The Great Work of Your life
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