The art of living…is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor fearful clinging to the past….on the other. It consists in being sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as being utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and fully receptive
Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity
To be rooted
is perhaps the most important and least recognized need
of the human soul.
Simone Weil, French Philosopher, 1909 – 1943
One of my meditation teachers used to end each of our interviews … and say to me, “Remember, Sylvia, be happy.” I actually for a long time thought it was a salutation, like “have a good day” or something that you say just in a routine kind of a way, and it took me a long time to realize that it was an instruction, “Be happy.” Not only that it was an instruction but that it was a wisdom transmission – that happiness was a possibility. I understand that happiness to mean, the happiness of a mind that’s alert, that’s awake to the amazing potential of being a person in a life, with a mind that’s opened, that sees everything that’s going on, and realizes what an amazing possibility this is, and with a heart that’s open, the heart that responds naturally as hearts do, in compassion, in connection with friendliness, with love, with consolation when it needs to: That that’s the happiness of life – a mind that’s awake, a heart that’s engaged.
Sylvia Boorstein, Stanford Keynote Speech, 2005
photo joe sarembe
How did the rose
ever open his heart
and give to this world all its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
against its being,
otherwise, we will remain too frightened
Hafiz
photo Amada44
Don’t look at your feet to see if you are doing it right.
Just dance
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life
photo quinn anya
Meditation is an experiment we are making, bringing us out of our normal habits of intense self-judgment, comparing, and impatience. Mindfulness isn’t about what is happening; it is about how we are relating to what is happening — how much awareness, balance and compassion we are bringing to this moment’s experience, whatever it is.
Sharon Salzberg
