Life can only find you if you are paying real attention to something other than your own concerns, if you can hear and see the essence of otherness in the world, if you can treat the world as if it is not just a backdrop to your own journey, if you can have a relationship with the world that isn’t based on triumphing over it or complaining about it
David Whyte, The Three Marriages; Reimagining Work, Self and Relationships
Every moment’s experience of an object will come with a feeling tone, whether or not this feeling is accessed by conscious awareness. In response to a feeling of pleasure or pain, an emotional response or attitude of liking or not liking the object may also arise. Most of us conflate these two experiences much of the time, concluding that a particular object is liked or disliked. However, in fact the object is merely experienced, and the liking or disliking of it is something added by our psychological response to it. This difference is a subtle but important nuance… It is the difference between “I am an unworthy person” and “I am a person who is feeling unworthy just now.”
Andrew Olendzki, Unlimiting Mind
What is right in front of us we see the least. We 
take the plants in the room for granted. We pay no attention to the coming of night. We miss the look of invitation on a neighbour’s face. We see only ourselves in action and miss the cocoon around us. As a result, we run the risk of coming out of every situation with no more than we went into it. Learning to notice the obvious, the colours that touch our psyches, the shapes that vie for our attention, the looks on the faces of those who stand before us blurred by familiarity, blank with anonymity – the context in which we find our distracted selves – is the beginning of contemplation. Awareness of the power of the present is the essence of the contemplative life. “Oh wonder of wonders”, the Sufi master says, “I chop wood, I draw water from the well”.
Joan Chittister, Illuminated Life
It is very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus and find creative solutions to problems. We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.
Thich Nhat Hahn
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move
Tao Te Ching
In the deepest moments of insight we see that things change so quickly that we can’t hold onto anything, and eventually the mind lets go of clinging.
Letting go brings equanimity. The greater the letting go, the deeper the equanimity. In practice we work to expand the range of life experiences in which we are free.
U Pandita
