Tag: impermanence

Recognize this

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The mind is naturally spacious.

It can hold anything – joy, sorrow, fear, excitement—without being destroyed or overwhelmed. The trouble begins when we forget this capacity and start to believe that our thoughts and emotions are solid, permanent, or bigger than the mind itself. We contract around them, tightening our mental grip, as if holding on could somehow make life more secure. But the truth is, the mind is like the sky—vast, open, and inherently calm. Clouds (thoughts, worries, pleasures) pass through, but the sky remains unchanged.

Meditation is the practice of remembering this.…This spaciousness isn’t something we need to create; it’s already here. Our practice is to recognize it. When we do, life becomes lighter. Difficult emotions don’t disappear, but they no longer define us. 

Sylvia Boorstein, It’s Easier Than You Think: The Buddhist Way to Happiness

The weekend: unplug

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A lot of our day is spent going around in a drama where we are the main protagonist.

All we need to do is unplug.

Then a sweet shift can happen in our sitting. We go from sitting there plugged into “our life” to a state where we can notice what that actually means

We might have seen images in the mind – of people, of a city, a room, whatever. We might have been hearing a kind of running commentary, like a sports reporter commenting on the action.

Henry Shukman

Promised freedom

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One evening, I sat on the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean, watching the waves roll in. Each one rose, peaked, and dissolved back into the sea—countless waves, never the same, yet always the ocean. It struck me then: this is how life is. Our bodies, our thoughts, the world itself – all are like those waves, rising and passing in endless flux.

We often live as if we’re solid, permanent beings navigating a stable world. But the truth is closer to that ocean: a flow of changing conditions, with no fixed ‘self’ at the center.

The heart that understands impermanence becomes like the sky: things pass through it – joy, sorrow, gain, loss -but the sky isn’t harmed. This is the freedom the Buddha promised

Ajahn Amaro, Small Boat, Great Mountain

Don’t add anything

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Choiceless awareness is pure observation without the observer.

When you look at a tree, a face, or your own reactions without naming, judging, or comparing, then there is no division between the observer and the observed – there is only seeing.

Jiddu Krisnamurti, The First and Last Freedom

Lemons

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Some people say that suffering is a fixed part of the mind, that it will be there forever.

I was talking to someone about this just today. I tried to explain that suffering is not intrinsic to the mind. It arises in the present moment.

Think about a lemon. If you leave it alone, is it sour? Where is the sourness then? It’s when the lemon contacts the tongue that sourness occurs. If you aren’t experiencing it, it’s as if it isn’t there. When there is contact with the tongue it arises at that moment. And from there arise dislike and afflictions. These tribulations are not intrinsic to the mind, but are momentary arisings.

Ajahn Chah, Being Dharma

Happiness lies in a healthy mind

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Happiness is not the endless pursuit of pleasant experiences – that sounds more like a recipe for exhaustion – but rather the transformation of the mind to a state of inner peace and fulfilment.

It is about cultivating a way of being that allows us to weather life’s ups and downs with equanimity.

Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill