Not turning away

This isn’t a journey about becoming something. This is about unbecoming who we are not, about undeceiving ourselves. We don’t end up anywhere other than where we have always been, except that we perceive where we have always been completely differently. We realize that the heaven everyone is seeking is where we have always been.  We are already as much as we will ever be. But the question is – do we know it? …….And so one of the most important steps is to come into agreement with your life so that you’re not turning away from yourself in any way. And the amazing thing is that when we are no longer turning away from ourselves, we find a great amount of energy, a great capacity for clarity and wisdom, and we start to see everything we need to see.

Adyashanti, The End of Your World

…..and Hope

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake,

not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Henry David Thoreau

Sunday Quote: Give in to joy

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. ….

Whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty.

Joy is not made to be a crumb.

Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems

All around

All has been consecrated.
The creatures in the forest know this,

the earth does, the seas do, the clouds know
as does the heart full of love.

Strange a priest would rob us of this
knowledge 
and then empower himself
with the ability

to make holy what
already was.

St Catherine of Siena (1347–1380),

in Daniel Ladinsky, Love Poems from God:Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West 

Look within

Now,  more than ever,  we need to develop our own inner resources:

Every man has his own courage,

and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

Emerson

Being thankful

Years ago I had a Buddhist teacher in Thailand who would remind all his students that there was always something to be thankful for. He’d say, “Let’s rise and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we may have learned a little. And if we didn’t learn even a little, at least we didn’t get sick. And if we did get sick, at least we didn’t die. So let us all be thankful”.

Leo Buscaglia, Born for Love: Reflections on Loving.