I have a room all to myself;
it is nature.
Henry David Thoreau
Lovingkindness is a feeling that blesses others and oneself with the simple wish, “Be happy.”
The Japanese poet Issa [1763–1828] expresses this open-hearted feeling so well:
“In the cherry blossoms’ shade, there’s no such thing as a stranger.”
Joseph Goldstein, Triumph of the Heart
Surrender to the way things want to happen next,
even though this often involves a vast and terrifying loss of control.
Trust the magic that was born into your soul.
Martha Beck
To a disciple who begged for wisdom the Master said,
“Try this out: Close your eyes and see yourself and every living being thrown off the top of a precipice.
Each time you cling to something to stop yourself from falling understand that that is falling too.”
The disciple tried it out and never was the same again.
Anthony de Mello, sj., One Minute Wisdom
“I’m never free of fear,” some people say, implying that there should be a state of mind and body that is free of fear.
How can we possibly be free from fear when we live in the conditioned mode of the me-story most of the time? We’re deeply programmed to believe in this separate me by inaccurate language and by growing up in a world of other mes, all of whom think of and experience themselves as separate entities. . . . With separation inevitably goes fear and pain.
Toni Packer, Touching Fear
It’s easy to identify with all the places we have been hurt or abandoned,
but can we identify with the timeless wholeness that weathers every condition?
If we can’t, we may spend this life protecting ourselves
and never risk really living
Bonnie Myotai Treace Sensei
Mindfulbalance 