Springing up and falling back

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Happiness is not to be found through great effort and willpower.

It is already present in open relaxation and letting go.  Don’t strain.

There’s nothing to do or to undo. Whatever momentarily arises in body–mind has no real import at all, has very little reality whatsoever.

Why identify with it and become attached to it, passing judgment on it and on yourself and others?

Far better simply to let the entire play just happen on its own,  springing up and falling back again like waves, without ‘rectifying’ things or manipulating things.

Just noticing how everything vanishes and then magically reappears, again and again and again. Time without end.

It’s only our searching for happiness that prevents us from seeing it.

Lama Gendun Rinpoche, Free and Easy

Touch

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Being aware of subtle emotional qualities you may be embodying at various times of the day. Pay particular attention to your hands.  See if you don’t become more mindful by becoming more “bodyful.” Everything from opening a door to making love involves touch. It is possible to open a door so mindlessly that your hand doesn’t know what your body is doing and you hit yourself in the head with it. Imagine the challenge of touching another person without automaticity, with no gaining idea, just presence and caring.

Jon Kabat Zinn, Wherever you go, There you are

photo agustin ruiz

Security from letting go of it

Falling

The bad news is: you are falling through the air,

nothing to hang on to, no parachute.

The good news is: there’s no ground

Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

Birds make great sky-circles of their freedom.
How do they learn it?

They fall, and falling, they’re given wings.

Rumi

 

Developing a refuge

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As I age I am grateful to find that a silence has begun to gather in me,

coexisting with my tempers and my fears,

unchanged by my joys or my pain. 

Rachel Naomi Remen

photo of monastery garden Bolton Abbey Kildare

The secret

livenow

The present moment
contains past and future.
The secret of transformation,
is in the way we handle this very moment.

Thich Nhat Hahn, Understanding Our Mind

Gatekeepers

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The words of the tongue should have three gatekeepers:

Is it true?

Is it kind?

Is it necessary?”

 Sufi Proverb