The mind is constantly trying to figure out what page it’s on in the story of itself.
Close the book. Burn the bookmark.
End of story.
Now the dancing begins.
Ikko Narasaki, roshi, died 1996
Close the book
Tag: mind
Settle
When the uncertainty of the current situation leads us to feel uprooted and we find our minds pulled in all directions by the latest news:
Settle the self on the self
and let your life force blossom
Blanche Hartman, Seeds for a Boundless Life: Zen Teachings from the Heart
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What thoughts
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
Henry David Thoreau
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Over and over
There are no new stressful thoughts.
They’re all recycled.
Byron Katie
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Making the weather
It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
Dr. Haim G. Ginott, 1922 – 1973, School teacher, Child psychologist and psychotherapist, Teacher and Child: A Book for Parents and Teachers.
Sometimes falsely attributed to Goethe. Thanks to Kim for pointing this out.
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A new month, a clear mind
Our news these days has a continual fearful, – or as we see this week – an angry or resentful tone. We have to work to ensure that it does not become the dominant energy of this day or this new month.
The water of the mind, how clear it is!
Gazing at it, the boundaries are invisible.
But as soon as even a slight thought arises,
ten thousand images crowd it.
Attach to them, and they become real.
Be carried by them, and it will be difficult to return.
How painful to see a person trapped in the ten-fold delusions.
Ryokan, Sōtō Zen Buddhist monk, 1758 – 1831
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