Therefore, whatever feeling, past, future or present, internal or external, ….. must be regarded with proper wisdom, in this way:
‘This is not mine, I am not this, this is not my self.’
The Buddha, Anatta-lakkhana Sutta: The Discourse on the Not-self Characteristic
We are encouraged to drop the storyline and simply pause, look out, and breathe. Simply be present for a few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours, a whole lifetime, with our own shifting energies and with the unpredictability of life as it unfolds, wholly partaking in all experiences just exactly as they are. What I’m advocating is that in that precious moment we start to make choices that lead to happiness and freedom rather than choices that lead to unnecessary suffering and the obscuration of our intelligence, our warmth, our capacity to remain open and present with the natural movement of life.
Pema Chodron
To find the Buddhist law, drift east and west, come and go, entrusting yourself to the waves.
Ryokon, 18th Century Zen poet
The “Buddhist law” refers to the truth of how things really are. We can’t understand the nature of reality until we let go of controlling our experience.There’s no way to see clearly what’s going on if on some level we’re attempting to ignore or bypass the stormy weather.
By not resisting, by letting the waves wash through me, I began to relax. Rather than fighting the stormy surges, I rested in an ocean of awareness that embraced all the moving waves. I’d arrived in a sanctuary that felt large enough to hold whatever was going on in my life.
Tara Brach, Entrusting Yourself to the Waves
Joy is the happiness
that doesn’t depend on what happens
David Steindl-Rast
It’s natural for us to fall apart in the face of loss. No need to stop it. Often our old coming mechanisms simply don’t work in this new context. However, finding our ground or recalling what has been most meaningful can help us stay present with what we are experiencing. We don’t have adequate language to describe this sort of incomprehensible experience, so we name it Mystery with a capital M.
Over the years, I have found that what we can experience or know directly may be much more important than our ability to explain or measure it.
Frank Ostaseski
Authentic God experience is always “too much”! It consoles our True Self only after it has devastated our false self.
We must begin to be honest about this instead of dishing out fast-food religion, which only wants consolation – and largely about non-essentials.
Richard Rohr, The Container and the Contents
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