Tag: impermanence

Who says that life should be straightforward?

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When uncomfortable things happen to us, we rarely want to have anything to do with them. We might respond with the belief ‘Things shouldn’t be this way’ or ‘Life shouldn’t be so messy.’ Who says? Who says that life shouldn’t be a mess? When life is not fitting our expectations of how it’s supposed to be, we usually try to change it to fit our expectations. But the key to practice is not to try to change our life but to change our relationship to our expectations — to learn to see whatever is happening as our path. “Our difficulties are not obstacles to the path; they are the path itself. They are opportunities to awaken. Can we learn what it means to welcome an unwanted situation, with its sense of groundlessness, as a wake-up call? Can we look at it as a signal that there is something here to be learned? Can we allow it to penetrate our hearts? By learning to do this, we are taking the first step toward learning what it means to open to life as it is. We are learning what it means to be willing to be with whatever life presents us.

Ezra Bayda, Being Zen: Bringing Meditation to Life

Everything comes and goes

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Often in meditation we speak of letting go of something: let go of thoughts, let go of emotions, let go of pain. Sometimes that is not exactly the right phrase, because letting go suggests that you need to do something. A better phrase to work with is “Let it be”. Let it be. Everything comes and goes by itself. We do not have to do anything to make it come or to make it go, or to let go. We just have to let it be.

Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation

Let them fade

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It’s helpful to remind yourself that meditation is about opening and relaxing to whatever arises, without picking and choosing. It’s definitely not meant to repress anything, and it’s not intended to encourage grasping either…  To the degree that we‘re willing to see our enmeshment or grasping and our repressing clearly, they begin to wear themselves out…. Up come all these thoughts, but rather than squelch them or obsess with them, we acknowledge them and let them fade.

Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty

Just notice, don’t blame

Karl Duffy2 Comments

Some people once brought a blind man to Jesus and asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’ They all wanted to know why this terrible curse had fallen on this man. And Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.’ He told them not to look for why the suffering came but to listen for what the suffering could teach them. Jesus taught that our pain is not punishment, it is no one’s fault. When we seek to blame, we distract ourselves from an exquisite opportunity to pay attention, to see even in this pain a place of grace, a moment of spiritual promise and healing.

Wayne Muller, Legacy of the Heart

Awareness is the refuge within

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Awareness is your refuge:
Awareness of the changingness of feelings, of attitudes, of moods, of material change and emotional change: Stay with that, because it’s a refuge that is indestructible.
It’s not something that changes. It’s a refuge you can trust in.
This refuge is not something that you create. It’s not a creation. It’s not an ideal. It’s very practical and very simple, but easily overlooked or not noticed.
When you’re mindful, you’re beginning to notice,
it’s like this.

Ajahn Sumedho,

Do not force things

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When there is sunshine,  it just shines across the land and it doesn’t try to  force the land to absorb its rays. The sun just shines. We too practice in a very non-violent, very loving way with our breathing. When you are sitting with a bent back you just recognise your back is bent and quite naturally your body adjusts itself to become a little straighter. There is no forcing. If you are agitated but you are mindful of this feeling of agitation you simply recognise,  ‘I have irritation.’ You should not say, ‘Irritation is very bad, I have to get rid of my irritation.’ No, you just be aware of your irritation. If there is irritation you simply recognise you have irritation.  You do not judge, you do not force, and you do not condemn them. You only look at your irritation with compassion. I go back to my body with non-violence, with care, with compassion.

When the sunshine falls on the vegetation, the vegetation itself becomes green. When your mindfulness is shining upon what is happening in you,  then you do not need to force but you know right away and you smile with compassion to your irritation and then your irritation will disappear. You know that everything changes including your irritation. If you are aware then your irritation becomes weaker, but if you are not aware then the irritation can grow very fast turning into anger and stress, and other negative feelings. If you are aware, it will weaken naturally, because it is impermanent.

Thich Nhat Hahn