The way of Wisdom is not the way of why, but the way of what. The Hebrew word [for wisdom] “chochma” can be read as choch mah, “what is”. Wisdom will not tell you why things are the way they are, but will show you what they are and how you can live in harmony with them
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature
Underneath our nice, friendly facades
there is great unease. If I were to scratch below the surface of anyone I would find fear and anxiety running amok.
We all have ways to cover them up.
We overwork, over-drink, overeat;
we watch too much television,
we look for relationships.
We are always doing something to cover up our basic existential anxiety.
Charlotte Joko Beck
It is natural to look for things you want outside of where you are now. That is the whole point of a journey. Yet this moment is all anyone has. So if freedom, love, beauty, grace, and whatever else is desirable are to appear, they must appear in the now. It would be nice if they appeared in the now you have now. And if they are to appear and endure they will have to be found in ordinary circumstances, since ordinary circumstances fill most of life.
John Tarrant, Bring me the Rhinoceros and other Zen Koans
More on naming our experiences, which we saw in the Sutta yesterday. It is good to pay attention to this spontaneous tendency, as it lies at the root of a lot of our everyday suffering:
When we look outward, we solidify the world by projecting onto it attributes that are in no way inherent to it. Looking inward we freeze the flow of consciousness when we conceive of an “I” enthroned between a past that no longer exists and a future that does not yet exist. We take it for granted that we see things as they are and rarely question that opinion. We spontaneously assign intrinsic qualities to things and people “thinking this is beautiful, that is ugly” without realizing that our mind superimposes these attributes upon what we perceive. We divide the world between “desirable” and “undesirable” and see independent entities in what is actually a network of ceaselessly changing relations.
Matthieu Ricard, Happiness
Everyone wants to use happiness as a fix for problems, yet happiness is its own, very big thing, and it is selling happiness short to make it a fix for problems. To be happy is to experience life not as a series of struggles but as a gift, one that has no known limit. When you get the hang of being more interested in life than in agreeing with your thoughts, then you will get the life you get. And you will be able to have as much happiness as you want with almost no effort whatsoever. When you stop believing your thoughts, you look around just for you, just because it is interesting to look around. Some people call that enlightenment. But you won’t call it that. You’ll be too interested in the new view.
John Tarrant, The Paradox of Happiness
When you possess light within, you see it externally, Anais Nin.Yesterday was the Summer Solstice, the northern hemisphere’s longest day of sunlight, the official start of Summer in this part of the world, when the northern polar axis of the earth tilts most sunwards and longer days of sunlight follow. Traditional cultures knew the significance of this date and marked it by lighting bonfires. This tradition passed into the Christian era with the lighting of bonfires and fireworks on Midsummer’s Day or in some European countries on the eve of the feast of Saint John, le feu de la Saint-Jean.
Fire, light, festivals. They remind us that our lives need moments of joy and celebration. We can forget this when we are in a difficult place, like when we are faced with new challenges. Our mind switches into danger mode and narrows its focus, dominated by thoughts of the difficulty. The Chinese Proverb “When you only have two pennies left in the world, buy bread with one and a lily with the other” reminds us that even in hardship, we need to create reminders of beauty and warmth. Our circumstances are always changing. Life can at times be difficult or dark. It it how we live in those dark moments which determines whether we suffer. Even with little means we can decide to celebrate, we can choose to notice the beauty in our lives. It is true that we can certainly be cheered when the sun shines outside. However, largely our sense of contentment is determined by what we do within. “Difficulties are inevitable, suffering is optional” the phrase reminds us. To paraphrase that in the light of the start of summer – a lack of sun may be inevitable from time to time, but darkness within is optional.
Mindfulbalance 