Tag: Life

Sunday quote: What to aim for

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Try not to become a person of success.

Rather become a person of value.

Einstein

The past is gone…

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Without a doubt, the past is gone. Unfortunately, when we carry it with us every day, our hurt feelings, judgments and anger keep recycling within us. We try to put a stop to it through pronouncements about the future, declaring, “I will never let _____ happen again!” These efforts at controlling our life are largely wishful thinking. So, unless you feel totally at peace with yourself, make it a daily or weekly routine to ask yourself these questions:

  • What unresolved pieces of my past am I carrying with me today?
  • Why am I still carrying that?
  • What do I need to do to let it go?

Make it a priority in your life to lighten the load you carry by letting go of what has happened in the past.

Judith Johnston, The problem with the Past and the Future

Our mistakes are precious

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Frequently, in the journey of the soul, the most precious moments are the mistakes. They have brought you to a place which you would otherwise have always avoided. You should bring a compassionate mindfulness to your mistakes and wounds. If you visit this configuration in your heart, it will fall into place itself. When you forgive yourself your inner wounds begin to heal. You come in, out of the exile of hurt into the joy of inner belonging.

John O Donohue, Anamchara

Bring your heart to each moment today

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The Chinese character for “mindfulness” is nian. It is a combination of two separate characters,  each with its own meaning. The top part of the character means “now” and the bottom part of the character means “heart” or “mind”. Literally, the combined character means the act of experiencing the present moment with your heart. So mindfulness is the moment-to-moment awareness of what is occurring in and around us. By being present and mindful of the present moment, we can accept what is at that moment as it is, allowing change to happen naturally, without struggle, without the usual resistance and judgment that cause us to suffer more.

Thich Nhat Hahn and Dr Lilian Cheung, Savor

First Steps in Mindfulness Day 9: Noticing thoughts as thoughts

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“This is boring” or “This is not working”, or “I can’t do this”.

These are judgments. Actually they are just thoughts.

It is important to recognize them as judgmental thinking and remind yourself that the practice involves suspending judgment and just watching whatever comes up, without pursuing them or acting in any way

Jon Kabat Zinn

Finding the gap

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In our ordinary mind we perceive the stream of thoughts as continuous, but in reality this is not the case. You will discover for yourself that there is a gap between each thought. When the past thought is past, and the future thought has not yet arisen, you will find a gap in which the nature of the mind is revealed: so the work of meditation is to slow down, to make that gap become more and more apparent.

Sogyal Rinpoche,  Glimpse after Glimpse