Tag: inspiration

Don’t solidify your emotions into who you are

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Through tuning in to the steady flow of the body’s in- and out-breathing, how we actually are gets to feel good. With a steady bodily presence to relate to, the heart sense doesn’t get wound up in its emotions, and how we are doesn’t solidify into who I really am. And this is good news. Because then there can be empathy with others rather than projections and reactions. We’re less needy and therefore less disappointed by other people being the way they are. There is presence, empathy and clear thinking, and they support each other. That’s enough.

Ajahn Sucitto

Being truly in the present

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If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything.

When a child presents himself to you with his smile, if you are not really there – thinking about the future or the past, or preoccupied with other problems – then the child is not really there for you. The technique of being alive is to go back to yourself in order for the child to appear like a marvellous reality. Then you can see him smile and you can embrace him in your arms.

Thich Nhat Hahn

Mindfulness is simply being who you are

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The complete teaching …… is how to rediscover who we are. We are continuously distracted from coming to our natural state, our natural being. Throughout our day everything pulls us away from natural mindfulness, from being on the spot. We’re either too scared or too embarrassed or too proud, or just too crazy, to be who we are. This is what we call the journey or the path: continuously trying to recognize that we can actually relax and be who we are. 

So practicing meditation begins by simplifying everything. We sit on the cushion, follow our breath and watch our thoughts. We simplify our whole situation. What we’re doing is taming our mind. We’re trying to overcome all sorts of anxieties and agitation, all sorts of habitual thought patterns, so we are able to sit with ourselves. Life is difficult, we may have tremendous responsibilities, but the odd thing, the twisted logic, is that the way we relate to the basic flow of our life is to sit completely still. It might seem more logical to speed up, but here we are reducing everything to a very basic level.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

The dysfunctional myths that drive our lives

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People [have always] faced the same kinds of  issues we face now, but with different window dressing. In the time of the Buddha men and women were arguing, gossiping, judging others, losing their perspective, overreacting, sexualizing their experiences, chasing after greener pastures, obsessing about nonessentials, feeling lonely and creating too many pipe dreams. Nothing has fundamentally altered.

How many of us, for example, are still convinced, mature as we may be, that if our partner would only change, or if we could meet the perfect person, everything would be fine?  These are the dysfunctional myths and illusions that drive our lives in very dissatisfying directions.  How many people remember the song from the musical Fiddler on the Roof – “If I were a Rich Man…”  What is your “big if”?  The big “if” that leads you away from wisdom and reality?

Lama Surya Das,  Awakening the Buddha within

Sunday Quote: Where we seek

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All the suffering in the world comes from seeking pleasure for oneself. 

All the happiness in the world comes from seeking pleasure for others.

Shantideva

…by being compassionate towards your emotions

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All of our emotions are our babies.

Treat them tenderly, care for them.  Be with them. 

Understanding and compassion will ultimately transform them.

Thich Nhat Hanh,  Walking Meditation