Nothing outside yourself can cause any trouble.
You yourself make the waves in your mind.
If you leave your mind as it is, it will become calm.
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi
Tag: Life
…and not in the present
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
Mary Oliver, Messenger
Not in control
A phrase that dominates much of the self-help jargon of our society is “take control of your life.” To be in control of one’s destiny, job, or finances is an unquestionable moral value today. It even sounds mature and spiritual. On a practical level it is true, but not on the big level. Our bodies, our souls, and especially our failures, teach us this as we get older. We are clearly not in control. It is amazing that we have to assert the obvious. This is not a negative discovery but, in fact, the exact opposite. It is a thrilling discovery of one’s fate, divine providence, being led, being used, one’s life having an inner purpose, being guided, having a sense of personal vocation, and owning one’s destiny as a gift from God. Learning that you are not in control situates you correctly in the universe. You cannot understand the joy and release unless you have been there.
Richard Rohr, Adam’s Return
Where contentment comes from
Doesn’t contentment come from the heart rather than from having everything you want? This sense of gratitude and contentment creates a mental state that’s very pure and conducive for seeing clearly. Our society is very restless, very critical, very aware of what’s wrong. We’re always thinking of ways to make things better than they are…. We’ve developed the intellect — the ability to experiment, the wonders of modern science and so forth — but we’ve done it mostly out of curiosity and greed. If we had developed wisdom as well, then our intelligence would work in harmony with nature rather than by exploiting it.
Ajahn Sumedho, There’s No Place Like Here
Creating breaks in the chatter
When we cling to thoughts and memories, we are clinging to what cannot be grasped. When we cling to thoughts and memories, we are clinging to what cannot be grasped. When we touch these phantoms and let them go, we may discover a space, a break in the chatter, a glimpse of open sky. This is our birthright—the wisdom with which we were born, the vast unfolding display of primordial richness, primordial openness, primordial wisdom itself. When one thought has ended and another has not yet begun, we can rest in that space.
Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty: 108 Teachings on Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion
Not needing to journey
We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started… and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land
Salvation, if we can talk about it at all, is the end of ambition, which is when you become completely one with your experience. Knowledge becomes one with wisdom…. You realize that you never needed to make the journey at all, because the journey and the goal are there already. It’s not so much that you are achieving liberation, but it is more that you realize that liberation is right there and that you needn’t have sought for it.
Chögyam Trungpa, Transcending Madness: The Experience of the Six Bardos
