One must bear in mind that there is a considerable difference between perfection and completeness…. The individual may strive after perfection, but must suffer from the opposite of his [or her] intentions for the sake of ….. completeness.
Jung
Tag: Life
Be Happy
Today is the Third Sunday of Advent, traditionally known as Gaudete Sunday, or “Be Happy” Sunday. In practical, day-to-day terms, this starts from a mind that stops struggling with reality and one that realizes that it a moment does not have to be perfect for it to be complete. We do not need everything sorted out in our lives for them to be happy.
When we are using this term ‘basic goodness,’
we are talking about our inherent completeness.
Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Happiness is accepting and choosing life, not just submitting grudgingly to it. It comes when we choose to be who we are, to be ourselves, at this present moment of our lives; we choose life as it is, with all its joys, pain, and conflicts. Happiness is living and seeking the truth, together with others in community, and assuming responsibility for our lives and the lives of others….We are not just seeking to be what others want us to be or to conform to the expectations of family, friends, or local ways of being. We have chosen to be who we are, with all that is beautiful and broken in us. We do not slip away from life and live in a world of illusions, dreams, or nightmares. We become present to reality and to life so that we are free to live according to our personal conscience, our sacred sanctuary, where love resides within us and we see others as they are in the depth of their being.
Jean Vanier
Sunday Quote: Where wisdom lies
Besides the noble art of getting things done,
there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
Lin Yutang, Chinese writer, 1895 – 1976
Developing inner resources
A full life is not made up of an uninterrupted succession of pleasant sensations, but really comes from transforming the way we understand and work through the challenges of our existence. Training our mind makes it not only possible to cope with mental toxins like hatred, obsession and fear that poison our existence…..but also gives us the inner resources to successfully face the highs and lows of life, without being distracted or broken by them, and allows us draw deep lessons from them.
Matthieu Ricard, The Art of Meditation
Support
We are all substantially flawed, wounded, angry, hurt, here on Earth. But this human condition, so painful to us, and in some ways shameful – because we feel we are weak when the reality of ourselves is exposed – is made much more bearable when it is shared, face to face, in words that have expressive human eyes behind them.
Alice Walker, Letter to President Clinton
A way of seeing things today
By letting it go it all gets done.
The world is won by those who let it go.
But when you try and try.
The world is beyond the winning.
Lao Tzu
