Tag: impermanence

Everything that arises passes away.

This is not a pessimistic truth, but a liberating one –

when we stop demanding permanence from a world that cannot provide it, we find peace.

Andrew Olendzki, Unlimiting Mind: The Radically Experiential Psychology of Buddhism

What does seeking look like?

If it seeks an external object, we focus our attention on becoming something. We look for something pleasant or unpleasant to focus our attention on, to generate a view or an opinion about, to generate a sense of importance around the sense of “I,” “me,” and “mine.” Or, the becoming mind seeks an internal object, a subjective sense of “me” being something, me being a success, me being a failure, or at least me being somebody. But all of this – internal or external—is in the
realm of becoming.

We need to able to let go of the fear of letting go, the fear of not being something, not getting what one wants, not being what one thinks one should be or would like to be or have to be, have to get, have to become. There’s a tremendous, almost primal fear, of actually being peaceful, of really letting go, of putting stuff down, of putting identity down, of putting the compulsions down. We want to be able to watch the fear, to see it, and to identify it, to know “that is the source of suffering” the becoming towards, the pull towards becoming and being.

Ajahn Passano, On Becoming and Stopping

Happiness is our natural state.

Happiness is the natural state of little children, to whom the kingdom belongs until they have been polluted and contaminated by the stupidity of society and culture.

To regain happiness, you don’t have to add anything; you’ve got to drop something.

Life is easy, life is delightful. It’s only hard on your illusions, your ambitions, your greed, your cravings. Do you know where these things come from? From having identified with all kinds of labels!

Anthony de Mello sj, Awareness