Tag: Joy

Getting out of the way

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Bernie Glassman, a Zen teacher, has a practice called ‘Bearing Witness.’ You go into a hard, complex situation with the mind of not knowing, of having no idea or opinion, and instead, feel, listen, and be in the actual situation, becoming one with it. This nonjudgmental state of mind can position you so that you might be able to find a way to help, not out of your own need to make something better so that you feel better or in order to alleviate your own fear, but so that you act when empty of yourself. You get yourself out of the way.

Natalie Goldberg, The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language

Sunday quote: Letting life flow

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Let life live you for a while

instead of trying to make yourself live life

Alan Watts

Enough

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Our whole spiritual transformation

brings us to the point where we realize

that in our own being,

we are enough.

Ram Dass

The privilege of this day

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Take a moment from time to time to remember that you are alive. I know this sounds a trifle obvious, but it is amazing how little time we take to remark upon this singular and gratifying fact. By the most astounding stroke of luck an infinitesimal portion of all the matter in the universe came together to create you and for the tiniest moment in the great span of eternity you have the incomparable privilege to exist.

Bill Bryson, 10 Simple Rules for Happiness, Graduate College Commencement Ceremony Address

Sunday Quote: Embrace

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Morning to night I am never done with looking

Looking, I mean not just standing around

but standing around as though with your arms open

Mary Oliver, Where Does the Temple Begin, Where Does It End?

No particular way

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The more things go “our way” for a while, the more we can believe that that is the way it is supposed to be. And when things don’t go “our way,” which sooner or later they will not, we can get angry, disappointed, depressed, devastated……… forgetting that it was never “supposed to be” any one way at all.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Arriving at your own Door