Happiness is not the endless pursuit of pleasant experiences – that sounds more like a recipe for exhaustion – but rather the transformation of the mind to a state of inner peace and fulfilment.
It is about cultivating a way of being that allows us to weather life’s ups and downs with equanimity.
Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill
Every thought a present moment
In your practice it is important to make every thought a present moment. When you make every thought a present moment, there is no continuity of time, no carry over from moment to moment. Everything is continually fresh, like the water of a spring endlessly bubbling up into the open air. In this practice every moment is a rebirth.
Master Sheng Yen, Illuminating Silence
Its good to connect with the essence of things, rather than relying on abstract concepts, labels or interpretations.
When the bird and the book disagree,
Always believe the bird.
John James Audubon, 1785 – 1851, French-American artist, naturalist, and ornithologist, who attempted to make a complete pictorial record of all the bird species in North America.
During a lifetime of many small disappointments, betrayals, threats and the rest, we develop a tough skin over our sensitivity, and a feeling that happiness is something we have to seek out. Eventually, there is so much hide protecting the heart that the innate joy of being alive becomes inaccessible. Many people would not even guess that happiness is an innate state of being, independent of circumstances. The Buddha found that happiness in the purity of his heart, and called that innate purity of being ‘unconditioned’. It is unconditioned because it is not dependent on conditions.
Ajahn Sucitto
A baby has the same basic attitude of interest towards all things.
If you watch her, she will always be enjoying her life
We adults mostly are caught by our preconceived idea.
We are not completely free from the objective world, because we are not one with the objective world
Shunryu Suzuki roshi, Not Always So
Even the idea of being a ‘good meditator’ or a ‘wise person’ is just another ego-trip.
The Buddha didn’t teach us to replace ‘bad self’ with ‘holy self’ –
he taught us to let go of the whole business.
Ajahn Sumedho Dhamma talk
Mindfulbalance 