If we realize that our greatest enemy is fear
and what it does to us, and how much it launches these automatic protective programs,
then we realize that there’s a kind of daily summons to stand up in face of our fears
and risk being who we are and risk potential loss of our comfort zones
and the consensual approval that every child needs,
but which becomes a kind of constrictive burden for the adult
James Hollis
In Ireland, Summer is officially over at the end of August, and, as if to acknowledge this, yesterday began foggy and grey. Typically, however, the rest of the day turned out better than most of the Summer. The fog passed through, the sun came out. Today, we are told to expect heavy rain. Small upsets or bigger storms…the sky can hold whatever passes through it.
It is essential to understand that an emotion is merely something that arises, remains and then goes away. A storm comes, it stays a while, and then it moves away. At the critical moment remember you are much more than your emotions. This is a simple thing that everyone knows, but you may need to be reminded of it: you are more than your emotions.
Thich Nhat Hahn, Healing Pain and Dressing Wounds
Do not speak to me of angels
unless you want to lie by
their side on the surface of emerald lake
and live forever with your eyes open.
My own angels take many forms.
Today they are trees.
Etel Adnan, born Beruit 1925 Lebanese-American poet
The forest is peaceful, why aren’t you?
You hold on to things, causing your confusion.
Let nature teach you.
Hear the bird’s song, then let go.
Ajahn Chah
The Buddha’s instructions to his son, Rahula, who was aged seven:
Rahula, develop your meditation so that it is like space,
for when you develop meditation that is like space,
the agreeable and disagreeable contacts that arise will not invade your mind and remain.
Just as space is not established anywhere, so too, Rahula, develop meditation that is like space.
Not only is life always in movement, but the mind is also.
So, in meditation as in life, how to deal with negative thoughts and difficult feeling states…
In zazen [meditation], leave your front door and your back door open.
Let thoughts come and go.
Just don’t serve them tea.
Shunryu Suzuki
Mindfulbalance 