Each person naturally receives his allotted share in his life.
He need not concentrate on it, he need not search for it; the allotted portion is there.
You may rush around in search of riches, but what happens if death suddenly comes?
You should clear their minds of these non-essential things and concentrate on studying the Way.
Dogen, Shobogenzo Zuimonki
When you have no desire, everything is sufficient.
But when always seeking, then a lot of things seem impoverished.
However, plain vegetables can soothe hunger.
A patched robe is enough to cover this bent old body.
Alone, I hike with a deer. Cheerfully I sing with village children.
The stream beneath the cliff cleanses my ears.
The pine on the mountain top fills my heart.
Ryokan, 1758–1831
The ancients are right: the dear old human experience is a singular, difficult, shadowed, brilliant experience that does not resolve into being comfortable in the world. The valley of the shadow is part of that, and you are depriving yourself if you do not experience what humankind has experienced, including doubt and sorrow. We experience pain and difficulty as failure instead of saying, I will pass through this, everyone I have ever admired has passed through this, music has come out of this, literature has come out of it. We should think of our humanity as a privilege.
Marilynne Robinson, The Art of Fiction, No. 198
Emptiness refers to the fact that things are not as solid and real as they seem. something that we hold in our hands might appear completely solid and unchanging, but that’s an illusion. Whatever it may be, it is changing all the time, and when we investigate, we find change and fluidity where before we assumed permanence and solidity. This does not make the phenomenal world nothing; at the same time, its essential nature is not what we usually think it is.
Yongey Mingpur Rinoche, In Love with the World
Our whole spiritual transformation
brings us to the point where we realize
that in our own being,
we are enough.
Ram Dass
Mindfulbalance 