The mind can create its own hell:
Hell is a state where everyone is perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement
and where everyone has a grievance.
C. S. Lewis
Hell
Tag: Meditation
Want, don’t want
The more likes and dislikes we have, the more physical and psycho-somatic problems we are likely to develop, worst of all, the more turmoil we will feel inside.
People with strong likes and dislikes go about with a sign that says ‘upset me.’
Everywhere they go, they meet a lot of other people wearing the same sign who are only to happy to oblige
Eknath Easwaran, 1910 – 1999, Indian-born spiritual teacher, author, The Bhagavad Gita for Daily Living
Just rest
Once there was a man who hated his own shadow.
When he walked and found that his shadow was close behind him, he began to walk faster and faster.
But every time he put his foot down, there was another step, while his shadow kept up with him without the slightest difficulty.
He attributed his failure to the fact that he was not running fast enough.
So he ran faster and faster, without stopping, until he finally dropped dead.
Those who do not understand the Dao are just like this man who hated his shadow. It is actually very easy to be rid of one’s shadow – just rest under a tree.
Just rest.
Chuang Tzu, 369 – 286 BC, Chinese Philosopher
[The Tao or Dao is the natural order of the universe. Health and happiness comes from being in harmony with this natural way]
Sunday Quote: Natural goodness
The sun, too, shines into cesspools, and is not polluted
Diogenes Laertius, 180 – 240 AD, Book VI: The Cynics
Mysterious
A man who has never experienced this has missed something important. He must sense that he lives in a world which in some respects is mysterious; that things happen and can be experienced which remain inexplicable; that not everything which happens can be anticipated. The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world. Only then is life whole.
For me the world has from the beginning been infinite and ungraspable.
Carl Jung
Activity Mind
The essence of meditation is training in mindfulness. This is done by resting the attention on an external meditation support, and returning to it every time it drifts away into thought. This action is possible because one part of the mind observes and identifies with thoughts and feelings as they arise. If we did not have this capacity for self-reflective awareness we would not know or realize we were thinking when thinking happens. We call the part of the mind that observes “observer consciousness” and the part that thinks and gets observed as “activity mind”
Rob Nairn, Diamond Mind: A Psychology of Meditation
