Great wealth consists in living on a little with a contented mind;
for of a little there is never a lack.
Lucretius, Roman poet c 99 BC – 55 BC, On the Nature of Things Book 5, 1118-1120
photo Suriya Donavanik
Tag: Life
A wise path
Do your work, then step back
The only path to serenity
Lao Tzu
photo AlastairG
Where the heart is…
Here is one simple exercise to help us discover what we love. Looks to see where we give our time and attention. Attention is the physical manifestation of love. If I keep pushing my children away when they want me to play with them, they do not feel loved. I may have love in my heart; I may feel joy when I see them, and want only the best for them. But they will feel my love only when I turn around and give them my undivided attention. Through my attention, they experience my love. Attention is a tangible measure of love. Whatever receives our time and attention becomes the center of gravity, the focus of our life. This is what we do with what we love: We allow it to become our center.
Wayne Muller, How then Shall We live: Four Simple Questions that Reveal the Beauty and Meaning of Our Lives
photo joao pimentel ferreira
Placing demands on ourselves
What shuts down the heart more than anything is not letting ourselves have our own experience, but instead judging it, criticizing it, or trying to make it different from what it is. We often imagine there is something wrong with us if we feel angry, needy, dependent, lonely, confused, sad, or scared. We place conditions on ourselves and our experience: “If I feel like this, there must be something wrong with me. . . . I can only accept myself if my experience conforms to my standard of how I should be“. Psychological work, when practiced in a larger spiritual context, can help people discover that it is possible to be unconditional with themselves — to welcome their experience and hold it with understanding and compassion, whether or not they like it at any given moment.
John Welwood, Toward a Psychology of Awakening
photo Sheila Sund
In the present
The past is not clinging to you; you are clinging to the past.
Once you are not clinging, the past simply evaporates
Osho
photo arquiwhat
Ideas of perfection
When we seek happiness through accumulation, either outside of ourselves – from other people, relationships, or material goods – or from our own self-development, we are missing the essential point. In either case we are trying to find completion. But according to Buddhism, such a strategy is doomed. Completion comes not from adding another piece to ourselves but from surrendering our ideas of perfection.
Mark Epstein, Going to Pieces without Falling Apart
photo wingchi poon
