Drop into the moment that is now.
No need to judge, no need to have an agenda as to what will be, no need to say, “I am meditating”.
Just be here, drink in all that this moment has to offer as if it is the only one that you have – because it truly is.
Creatures of a day, what is anyone? What are they not?
We are just a dream of a shadow.
But when there comes, as a gift from heaven, a gleam of sunshine
Then rests on the heart a light of glory,
And blessed are the days.
Pindar (518-438 BCE)
We should always remember that meditation is the cultivation and practice of nonattachment….Mindfulness is nothing but the middle way. It is neither an intense practice, nor can it be done without effort. It must be done with balance. Properly done, it is neither detached pushing away nor egoistic clinging. Be very careful about sitting down with ideas like, “I am sitting, I am watching, I am breathing, I am meditating, I am this, that is mine”.
Afflictive mental states begin with self-centeredness, with an increase in the gap between self and others. These states are related to excessive self-importance and self-cherishing associated with fear or resentment towards others, and grasping for outer things as part of a hopeless pursuit of selfish happiness. A selfish pursuit of happiness is a lose-lose situation: you make yourself miserable and make others miserable as well. Inner conflicts are often linked with excessive rumination on the past and anticipation of the future. You are not truly paying attention to the present moment, but are engrossed in your thoughts, going on and on in a vicious circle.
This is the opposite of bare attention. To turn your attention inside means to look at pure awareness itself and dwell without distraction, yet effortlessly, in the present moment. If you cultivate this mental skill, after a while you won’t need to apply contrived efforts anymore. You can deal with mental perturbations like the eagles I see from the window of my hermitage in the Himalayas deal with crows. The crows often attack them, diving at the eagles from above. But, instead of doing all kinds of acrobatics, the eagle simply retracts one wing at the last moment, lets the diving crow pass, and then extends its wing again. The whole thing requires minimal effort and causes little disturbance. Being experienced in dealing with the sudden arising of emotions in the mind works in a similar way.
Matthieu Richard
Those who just read books cannot understand the teachings and, what’s more, may even go astray. But those who try to observe the things going on in the mind, and always take that which is true in their own minds as their standard, never get muddled. They are able to comprehend suffering, and ultimately will understand all the teachings. Then, they will understand the books they read.
Buddhadasa Bhikku
We should not merely expend all our energy collecting pieces of information, but make an effort to experience their validity through insight in our daily life.
Geshe Rabten
We all hope for success. We hope for health. We hope for enlightenment. We have all sorts of things we hope for. All hope, of course, is about sizing up the past and projecting it into the future.
However, anyone who sits for any length of time sees that there is no past and no future except in the mind. There is nothing but self, and self is always here, present. It’s not hidden. We are racing around like mad trying to find something called self, this wonderful hidden self. Where is it hidden? We hope for something that’s going to take care of this little self because we do not realize that already we are self.
Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen
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