I don’t want to be here

The ego loves to complain and feel resentful not only about other people but also about situations. What you can do to a person, you can also do to a situation: make it into an enemy.

The implication is always: this should not be happening; I don’t want to be here; I don’t want to be doing this; I’m being treated unfairly. And the ego’s greatest enemy of all is, of course, the present moment, which is to say, life itself.

Eckhart Tolle

How to work with agitation

When we try to settle, what we might notice is unsettledness.

Rather than go into the topic, recognize the energy.

Give attention to places in the body that are non-agitated.

Use the body and breath to change the speed of the mind, to steady it.

Once settled, then dilemmas and unfinished business can be related to, with dispassion, compassion and detachment.

Ajahn Sucitto

Sunday Quote: Just be present

Let the bird sing without deciphering the song.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Expectations

We try to be open to all possibilities, without turning them into expectations

Expectations are the greatest impediment to living

In anticipation of tomorrow, we lose today

Seneca

Miraculous things

Who cares about wealth and honour?

Even the poorest thing shines.

My miraculous power and spiritual activity:

drawing water and carrying wood.

Layman Pang, 8th Century lay Buddhist

Ocean depths

There is a Tibetan saying: ‘When things are difficult, then let yourself be happy.’ Otherwise, if happiness is relying on others or the environment or your surroundings, it’s not possible. Like an ocean, the waves always go like that but underneath, it always remains calm. So we have that ability as well. On an intellectual level, we may see things as desperate, difficult. But underneath, at the emotional level, you can keep calm.

The Dalai Lama