Freedom is not getting what you want;
it’s wanting what is here now.
Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special: Living Zen
How to be free
Tag: Mindfulness
Staying in bliss
The highest state you have ever experienced is the state of bliss – an expansive sense of oneness with all that is. You didn’t have to earn it. It was your natural state of being, and it came up inside of you when you weren’t blocking it.
The problem is that your mind is not interested in bliss. Your mind is interested in control, in security, in knowing. Bliss is not known – it is felt. It is beyond the mind. The mind cannot grasp it, so it resists it. It distracts you with thoughts, fears, and desires, pulling you away from the present moment where bliss resides.
If you want to remain in bliss, you must stop allowing the mind to dictate your experience. You must stop identifying with the voice in your head that says, ‘I need this’ or ‘I’m afraid of that.’ Bliss is already here. It is the energy of the universe flowing through you. But you must be willing to let go of the thoughts, the tensions, and the resistance that block it.
Michael Singer, The Untethered Soul
Don’t struggle
Wu Wei is like sailing a boat: you don’t push the river, you let it carry you. The skilled sailor adjusts the sails to the wind, but does not try to command the wind itself.
So too in life – true mastery comes not from struggle, but from harmonizing with the way things naturally unfold.
Alan Watts, Tao: The Watercourse Way
The choice is yours
You will come across obstacles in life – fair and unfair.
And you will discover, time and time again, that what matters most is not what these obstacles are but how we see them, how we react to them, and whether we keep our composure
Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way,
Monday: a new day
This morning, the sun rose without fanfare, yet it claimed the sky.
The light touches everything – the dew, the stone, the anxious heart – and whispers: You are seen. You are held.
It’s a beautiful day not because it’s perfect, but because within its hours lies the relentless, gentle persistence of grace.
Pádraig Ó Tuama, Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community
Sunday Quote: to the fullest
To those who will come after, I say
Life is not for waiting.
Rumi, Gnostic Donkeys (2)
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