I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand….
I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.
David Whyte, Fire in the Earth
Joy is the happiness
that doesn’t depend on what happens
David Steindl-Rast
Some traditions, East and West, hold that everyone, deep down, has an original perfect quality, a clear or luminous, natural, true state and potential. This gets covered over by the constructions and labels which we adopt as we conform to our environment, or as we change ourselves in response to people around us or the circumstances of our lives.
In some Buddhist traditions, we simply should get in touch with our already present, buddha-nature, underneath all our daily agitations.
All beings are full with buddha-nature.
It is only due to their agitations that they do not know or perceive it.
Thus, diligently work with those experiences which lead you to eradicate getting agitated.
Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Mahayana Buddhist sutra, c 2nd Century CE
God ..[is].. more a verb than a noun, more a process than a conclusion, more an experience than a dogma, more a personal relationship than an idea.
There is Someone dancing with you now, and you are not afraid of making mistakes.
Richard Rohr
Authentic God experience is always “too much”! It consoles our True Self only after it has devastated our false self.
We must begin to be honest about this instead of dishing out fast-food religion, which only wants consolation – and largely about non-essentials.
Richard Rohr, The Container and the Contents
Your notions of happiness may be very dangerous. Happiness can only be possible in the here and now. Go back and examine deeply your notions and ideas of happiness. So let go of what you believed yesterday. Let go of what you thought last week you needed to be happy. The conditions of happiness that are in your life now are enough.
Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulbalance 