A man who has never experienced this has missed something important. He must sense that he lives in a world which in some respects is mysterious; that things happen and can be experienced which remain inexplicable; that not everything which happens can be anticipated. The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world. Only then is life whole.
For me the world has from the beginning been infinite and ungraspable.
Carl Jung
Direct knowing is one of the main purposes of meditation practice, dropping the filtering caused by busyness and distraction, regret and resentment, ideal worlds and future wishes
If you use your mind to study reality, you won’t understand either your mind or reality.
If you study reality without using your mind, you’ll understand both.
from the legendary, larger than life, Bodhidharma, 5th or 6th C, AD.
We in the West think that the mind is everything, but all Eastern practice is to get beyond the mind to the point of the silent witness, where you’re witnessing yourself, where you’ve gone beyond the ego, beyond the self. The Indian tradition rests on what the West has largely lost: that there are three levels. There is the level of the body and the level of the mind, which the Western world thinks is the end. But beyond the body is the spirit. It’s the Atman, the pneuma of St. Paul, another dimension where we go beyond the mind, the senses, and the feelings, and we’re aware of the transcendent reality. And that is the goal of life, to get to that
Bede Griffiths, 1906 – 1993, Catholic Benedictine/ Camaldolese monk who lived in the ashrams of South India.
Whatever wishes to grow within you —a curiosity, a talent, an interest —
is life seeking its expression through you. Our old desire for comfort, even happiness,
may prove an impediment. We are here a very short time.
Let us make it as luminous and as meaningful as we can.
Time to stop being afraid, and time to show up as yourself.
James Hollis, Living an Examined Life: Wisdom for the Second Half of the Journey
We arrive and we start again
Hazak, Hazak, Venithazzek [חֲזַק חֲזַק וְנִתְחַזֵּק ]
Be strong,
be strong,
Let us be strengthened
[or Let us strengthen one another]
The words traditionally chanted at the end of the reading of the books of the Torah
Does not just apply to people but to all experiences
When you do not block people from coming to you, when you do not stop people from leaving, and when your mind transcends both their coming and leaving, your spiritual practice is indeed accomplished.
Kim Jae Woong, Polishing the Diamond, Enlightening the Mind: Reflections of a Korean Buddhist Master
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