Tag: Meditation

Be happy

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One of my meditation teachers used to end each of our interviews … and say to me, “Remember, Sylvia, be happy.”  I actually for a long time thought it was a salutation, like “have a good day” or something that you say just in a routine kind of a way, and it took me a long time to realize that it was an instruction, “Be happy.”

Not only that it was an instruction but that it was a wisdom transmission –  that happiness was a possibility. I understand that happiness to mean,  the happiness of a mind that’s alert, that’s awake to the amazing potential of being a person in a life, with a mind that’s opened, that sees everything that’s going on, and realizes what an amazing possibility this is, and with a heart that’s open, the heart that responds naturally as hearts do, in compassion, in connection with friendliness, with love, with consolation when it needs to:  

That that’s the happiness of life –  a mind that’s awake, a heart that’s engaged... I want to say that really what I think about when my teacher said to me, “Be happy,” is be awake, be alert, stay in your life, stay present to it. She said at another point, “It’s your life, Sylvia, don’t miss it.” That’s been a very important thing.

Sylvia Boorstein’s keynote speech Stanford University 2005

Decide how to behave

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Sometimes the situation calls for change behaviours and other times it calls for letting go behaviours, sometimes to act, sometimes to not act, sometimes to hold on, sometimes to let go.

If you can’t stop the world,

Stop your mind.

Ajahn Amaro’s summary of Ajahn Chah’s teaching

See your value

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Prophets come and go for one reason, to say:

“Human beings, you have a great value inside your form, a seed.

Be led by the rose inside the rose“.

Rumi, Inward Sky

Sunday Quote: Let things be

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If the eye never sleeps, all dreams vanish by themselves.

If the mind stops making discriminations,

The ten thousand things are as they are.

Seng T’san, The Third Zen Patriarch, 529 – 606,  The Hsin Hsin Ming.

we prefer to look outside

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One day God got tired of being pestered by people asking for this and for that, so God calls a meeting of the most trusted angels and asks for suggestions as to where one can hide from pestering people. One angel advises God to hide on the highest peak of the highest mountain because no one will search there. Another angel says, “No, hide in the depth of the deepest ocean in the world and no one will search for you there.” Finally, God turns to the most trusted angel and asks: “Where do you suggest I should hide?” And the angel responds: “Hide in the human heart! No one will search for you there.”

Anthony de mello, sj

I’m very busy

Karl Duffy1 Comment

Speed gives life a frantic quality. It is an anxious state of mind that keeps us from settling into whatever we are doing. There is always something more important than what we’re doing now. We’re double-parked outside a store, trying to find what we need, while talking to our mother on the cell-phone. Rather than accomplishing our activity well, we are nullifying it, because we aren’t really there for it. That self-generated speed creates its own power and momentum, which begin to rule us. It’s a form of small-mindedness that blinds us to what life really offers – the opportunity to develop wisdom and compassion.

Wisdom tells us that we are meant to enjoy our life and use it in a meaningful way. A successful life is not determined by the speed with which we live. If we’re always flapping our wings, endlessly trying to get what we need with aggression, we will always be exhausted. We’ll never find what we’re really looking for, which is our own contentment. 

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche