There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment.
A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment.
If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and
nothing else to pursue.
Live being true to the single purpose of the moment.
Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Samurai, 1659 – 1719, Hagakure
photo of our cat Barney doing his meditation practice.
There’s not a good way to come into meditation or a bad way to come into meditation. It might feel preferable to show up feeling calm and spacious, but really meditation is about being awake and present to whatever is going on. You can’t critique your meditation in terms of good and bad. The only thing you can measure your meditation against is the question: “Was I present or not?” And even then, to say to yourself that you weren’t present is a result of the fact that you’ve been meditating and you recognized that fact. There’s some sense of awareness about what is actually happening.
Pema Chodron, How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with your mind
I have discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something which has no form and no color – something which exists before all forms and colors appear. This is a very important point. No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea… But if you are always prepared for accepting everything we see as something appearing from nothing... then at that moment you will have perfect composure.
Suzuki Shunryū, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
All is always now,” says T. S. Eliot. This statement implies a profound insight: Not only is the now not in time; time is in the now. When the future comes, it will be now, and any past event becomes now as we remember it. There is only one now. It cannot be multiplied; it simply is. The now is the opposite of time. In fact, this is Augustine’s definition: “Eternity is the now that does not pass away.” A happiness anchored in the now is eternal. This precisely is the happiness our heart desires — eternal, and unassailable, because it is beyond the reach of “time the destroyer”
David Steindl-Rast, A Basic Human Approach to Happiness
The quality of mind we are talking about……. is a mind which responds to something with attention and then returns to its own natural state. It doesn’t elaborate on it, doesn’t get caught up in it, doesn’t get excited about it. It just notes that this is what is happening. Every time it happens, it notes it. It doesn’t get blasé. It doesn’t become conditioned. In this way, it is like a child’s mind.
Tenzin Palmo, Reflections on a mountain lake
With our cell phones and PDA’s we are now able to be in touch with anyone and everyone at any time.
In the process, we run the risk of never being in touch with ourselves.
Jon Kabat Zinn
Photo theeerin
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