The wish to know oneself is often a wish for certainty, for a fixed identity.
But the self is more like a conversation than a monument -shifting, contradictory, and alive in ways we can’t always grasp.
Adam Phillips, Monogamy
Fluid
Tag: Present moment
Not personal
When you stop taking experience personally,
the whole drama of ‘I, me, mine’ unravels.
What remains is just life, happening.
Andrew Olendzki, The Buddha’s Medicine
Sunday Quote: being content
Contentment is the crown of the spiritual life.
It’s not about having what you want but wanting what you have.
Ajahn Amaro, from a 2015 talk
Doing Nothing
We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal. […] The practice of doing nothing is very important. It is the foundation. If you cannot stop, you cannot be.
Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Relax
The next branch
Birds don’t carry their perch with them – they trust the next branch will appear.
So often, we exhaust ourselves clinging to what’s familiar, afraid to fly without guarantees.
But life, like the sky, is always changing. Trust the next branch.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Unbecoming
We take ourselves so seriously- our opinions, our achievements, our failures -as if they were monumental, eternal things. But really, they’re just fleeting conditions, like bubbles in a glass of soda. Pop! And they’re gone.
The ego wants to be somebody special, to be remembered, to leave a mark. But the Dhamma isn’t about becoming – it’s about unbecoming. It’s about letting go of the illusion that you’re this grand, separate self. When you see through that, life becomes playful.
The Buddha’s enlightenment wasn’t some solemn, pompous event. It was the ultimate release – from all the heaviness of self. So why cling to your burdens? Why not lighten up?”
Ajahn Sumedho, The Sound of Silence
Mindfulbalance 