Tag: Joy

Steering the mind

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For each and every one of us, the most important thing is our state of mind.  That which feels joy or sorrow, pleasure or pain, is just our mind.  But our mind doesn’t have to simply react to things around us.  It can be steered in different directions.  You can direct yourself toward what is good, and by doing so, you get accustomed to positive thoughts.  If you direct yourself toward being negative, that also can become a habit.  If you allow yourself to become apathetic and not care much, you become insensitive and dull.  The word spiritual refers to directing or steering our mind toward something good, something noble.  Simply that.  One of the most important factors in accomplishing that goal is to know how to let ourselves be completely at ease.

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Recognizing Our Natural Mind State

We discover as we go along

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Walking on the country roads near my house early yesterday.  It is nice walking the same paths each day or each week – we see the changes that the seasons bring, and the colours which follow those changes. The fields demonstrate a constant succession of decay and growth. However, we also see what does not change and how the path stretches out in front of us each day, not matter how many things have moved on.

We don’t receive wisdom;

we must discover it for ourselves after a journey

that no one can take for us, or spare us.

 Marcel Proust

Making time for our better health 3: Arrive Early

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For the next seven days, see if you can arrive early for scheduled appointments. Notice how this impacts upon your state of mind. Do meetings feel more spacious? Do you feel more relaxed and better prepared? Do you feel that more is actually accomplished? Sub-rule to this practice: If you are late, relax. Just be late. Don’t punish yourself

Marc Lesser, 3 practices to shift your relationship with time

The knowledge we get through experience

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Only knowledge gained through experience, the fruit of living and suffering, fills the heart with the wisdom of love, instead of crushing it with the disappointment of boredom and final oblivion. It is not the results of our own speculation, but the golden harvest of what we have lived through and suffered through, that has the power to enrich the heart and nourish the spirit. And all the knowledge we have acquired through study can do no more than give us some little help in meeting the problems of life with an alert and ready mind.

Karl Rahner

The highest point

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Most of us have learned to live, or have been encouraged to live, in a manner where we get love.

We want to be loved, and we think that being loved is the highest point.

But actually, loving is the highest point.

Stephen Levine

One step at a time

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Keep walking, though there is no place to get to.

Don’t try to see through the distance.

That’s not for human beings.

Move within

but don’t move the way fear makes you move

Rumi