Be gentle and patient both with yourself and with others, no matter what comes along. In this way, waiting becomes a fulfilling, very meaningful experience. If you live gently, honorably, focusing on the cultivation of your heart, good things are sure to follow. Try to live as purely and as simply and as gently as you can. Relax. Be flexible. Be forgiving. Be creative. Be loving. Those who cross your path may need you.
Robert Lax, The Way of the Dreamcatcher.
The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that Love is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, Love is under the porch as well as on the top of the mountain, and JOY is both in the front row and in the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
All religions point to the fact that being fully present is the only state in which you can wake up—not by somehow leaving.
So you have to find your own simple, grounded language to say that to yourself, and that’s a beautiful way to express it: What is this moment, this situation, or this person trying to teach me? Another one that I love is “This is a unique moment. Maybe I’m not so glad about it because it’s painful, but I don’t want to waste it, because it’s never going to happen again this way. So let’s taste it, smell it, experience it”.
Pema Chodron
I really like this poem and think there is a great truth in it. Real commitment to one another has a depth which is learned in times of difficulty. Love is talked about a lot today but what we seek deep down is a real kindness which is more than just words, but proves itself in deeds:
Before you know what kindness really is you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.
Naomi Shihab Nye, The Words Under the Words
When reality is formed through our personal view, we attempt to think our way out of pain, which simultaneously maintains our story and perpetuates the pain. The sense-of-self only knows how to handle problems and proceed using its story, which is composed of thoughts and emotions that have formed around past failures and successes. We prefer to tackle one problem at a time, resolving the first before moving onto the next. This strategy is derived from the storyteller who attempts to perpetuate his purpose and meaning by resolving the difficulties of his story. Each resolved problem or failure confirms a growing self-image and adds a new chapter to our tale of woe or sense of nobility.
Rodney Smith, Stepping out of Self-Deception
Our task is to find a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overextend ourselves with extra activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more. The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity
Sogyal Rimpoche, Glimpse after Glimpse
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