Do not become annoyed when faced with difficulties.
To do so merely adds difficulty to difficulty and further disturbs your mind.
By maintaining a mind of peace and non-opposition, difficulties will naturally fall away
Sheng Yen, 1931 – 2009, Taiwanese Buddhist monk,
Mindfulness, the ability to bear witness, is a tremendously powerful and skilful factor of mind. The Buddha called mindfulness the flood-stopper. It stops the floods of greed, hatred and delusion. With mindfulness we give ourselves a choice with regard to following what arises in the mind; keeping that choice available is something you want to go on doing because the mind almost longs to get trapped – and there are plenty of sights, sounds, flavours and ideas that can sweep you away, out of aware responsibility.
And, as we carry a body with us all the time, we can use that as a base for mindfulness; a place where we can stop the floods. We can turn our attention to the body and just refer to the body in the body, as it is – that is – sensations, energies and form, rather than the impressions of beauty or ugliness that information imposes on it. With these impressions the body is always the source of anxiety and agitation… The body is the home base.
Ajahn Sucitto, “What you take home with you” in Seeing the Way, An Anthology of Transcribed Talks and Essays by Monks and Nuns of the Theravada Forest Sangha Tradition
The Feast of the Transfiguration.
Wherever you turn your eyes the world can shine like transfiguration. You don’t have to bring a thing to it except a little willingness to see. Only, who could have the courage to see it?
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.
If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.
Dhammapada, Yamakavagga (Chapter on the Pairs)
Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present
Albert Camus, French philosopher, 1913 – 1960
Repetition is not failure. Ask the waves, ask the leaves, ask the wind. There is no expected pace for inner learning. What we need to learn comes when we need it, no matter how old or young, no matter how many times we have to start over, no matter how many times we have to learn the same lesson. We fall down as many times as we need to, to learn how to fall and get up…. No one really likes this, of course, but we deal with our dislike in the same way, again and again, until we learn what we need to know about the humility of acceptance.
Mark Nepo, Book of Awakening
Mindfulbalance 