just listen

I don’t know anything about consciousness.

I just try to teach my students to hear the birds sing.

Shunryu Suzuki.

Acting wisely

The Gita emphasises a state of ‘action in inaction’ (naishkarmya karma)

We exhaust ourselves trying to control outcomes.

The [Bhagavad] Gita reminds us: surrender the illusion of control.

Do your duty impeccably, but let go of how things should turn out.

This is the secret of wise action


Stephen Cope,  The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker’s Guide to Extraordinary Living

Always here

Peace isn’t a thought or a feeling.

It’s the ground of being that’s always here

when you stop clinging to the noise in your head.

Ajahn Sumedho, The Sound of Silence

Like a mother

Almost no one is exempt from trauma. While some people have it in a more pronounced way than others, the unpredictable and unstable nature of things makes life inherently traumatic.

What the Buddha revealed through his dreams was that, true as this may be, the mind, by its very nature, is capable of holding trauma much the way a mother naturally relates to a baby.

One does not have to be helpless and fearful, not does one have to be hostile and self-reverential. the mind knows intuitively how to find a middle path. Its implicit relational capacity is hardwired

Mark Epstein, The Trauma of Everyday Life

Stuck in repeat

The Buddhists say there are 121 states of consciousness.

Of these, only three involve misery or suffering.

 Most of us spend our time moving back and forth between these three.

Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation

Acceptance and openness

When you combine acceptance with responsibility and defenselessness, your work becomes an expression of your higher purpose.

You stop wasting energy resisting office politics, stressing over deadlines, or obsessing over outcomes.

Instead, you focus on creative solutions, trusting that the universe will support your intentions when you act in alignment with truth and compassion.

Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success