Tag: Present moment

Offer no resistance

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Sometimes you do your best but you are met with mistrust, or things don’t quite work out as planned: 

Somebody says something to you that is designed to hurt. Instead of going into unconscious reaction and negativity, such as attack, defense, or personal withdrawal, you let it pass right through you. Offer no resistance. It is as if there is nobody there to get hurt anymore. That is forgiveness. In this way, you become invulnerable. You can still tell that person that his or her behavior is unacceptable, if that is what you choose to do. But that person no longer has the power to control your inner state. You are then in your power — not in someone else’s, nor are you run by your mind. Whether it is a car alarm, a rude person, a flood, an earthquake, or the loss of all your possessions, the mechanism is the same.

Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now. 

This day (this month) contains all

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Drink your tea slowly and reverently,

as if it as the axis on which the world revolves

Thich Nhat Hanh

Zen teaches that our approach to today determines our whole approach to life.

The Japanese call this attitude Ichi-nichi issho:

‘Each day is a lifetime.’

Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen 24/7

Our only teacher

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File:Makizushi Tekkamaki 1.jpg

Each Moment

life as it is

the only teacher.

Zen Center of San Diego, Practice Principles

photo tobosha

Never enough

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File:You are here.jpg

One of the more persistent forms of suffering, the sense that we have to do more, have more:

One of the deepest habitual patterns that we have

is to feel that now is not enough.

Pema Chodron

Every step is a good step

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File:Barfusslaufen.jpg

Every time we make a mindful step, we are engaged in an act of enlightenment.

We can be enlightened about the fact that we are making a step.

Each step can have beauty in it.

Thich Nhat Hanh

A yes to life

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Aligning with your ‘yes!’ is about feeling nourished on every level – feeling deeply alive. I’m not talking about the shallow, quick-fix kinds of comfort that make us feel good only temporarily. The kind of feeling good that I’m talking about, which comes from aligning with your ‘yes!,’ is about listening for the deeper truth underneath all of that. It’s that knowledge that ‘I’m in the right place, at the right time, doing what I’m here to do.’ You feel grounded and at home in yourself. Your life becomes rooted in a deep ‘yes!’ You feel alive and grateful to be in direct contact with life. You are in touch with how exquisite it is to feel and be with the raw truth of all that is moving through you. This kind of alignment includes difficult emotions, pain, and tension. It can include illness and struggle. It is about being in direct, authentic contact with the wholeness of life. Nothing is denied. It is your truth and you are awake to it.

Deborah Zucker, The Vitality Map