The painful illusion

Our sense of incompletion comes not from lacking something, but from the stubborn and relentless act of comparing ourselves to others. The flower doesn’t look at its neighbor and think, I should be taller, or redder, or more like a rose. It just unfolds in the sun, moment by moment, wholly itself.

We, however, are caught in the painful illusion that we must be better than or different from who we are to be worthy of love. But the lesson of the flower is clear: There is no other. There is only this – this moment, this self, this blooming.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

Travelling

Happiness is not a destination but a manner of traveling.

It’s the willingness to see the gifts in what is, rather than longing for what isn’t.

Katrina Kenison, The Gift of an Ordinary Day 

Sunday quote: What we aim for

With what can I compare this life of mine?
A boat drifting aimlessly on the water
.

Ryōkan, 1758–1831, Zen poet,

trust the process

Alert to the needs of the journey

those on the path of awareness

like swans, glide on,

leaving behind their former resting places

Dhammapada 91

a real break

What you need,

what we all need, is silence,

Stop the noise in your mind,

in order for the wondrous sounds of life to be heard

Thich Nhat Hahn

No longer expecting

Sometimes when you no longer see yourself as the hero of your own drama, you know, expecting victory after victory, and you understand deeply that this is not paradise – we somehow embrace the notion that this vale of tears, that it’s perfectable – you’re not gonna get it all straight.

I found that things got a lot easier when I no longer expected to win….

You understand that, you abandon your masterpiece, and you sink into the real masterpiece…

Leonard Cohen