It isn’t the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer,
it’s what we say to ourselves about the things that are happening.
Pema Chodron
Tag: wellbeing
Such as we are
A Zen Master once said simply, “We are saved such as we are”. Mindfulness has been such a blessed relief because it has given me a way to hold everything in my life compassionately, just as it is. Over years of practice, almost invisibly, mindfulness has been slowly stitching the old wound of feeling not enough…. As we can bow to the wounds in ourselves and the wounds in others the wounds begin, in their own time, with grace to close. The great way is not difficult if we don’t pick and choose.
Gordon Peerman, Blessed Relief: What Christians can learn from Buddhists about Suffering
Image taken from The Kitsch and the Curious Blog
Sunday Quote: Everything is in the present
The past is a memory of a former Now;
the future is a mental projection of an expected Now.
Eckhard Tolle
Glancing around constantly
We did not survive in nature by ignoring incoming stimuli, and like birds or chipmunks are more accustomed to glancing around constantly, attentive to both threat and opportunity. But we are no longer crouching in a hostile, natural environment and the states to which our mind restlessly turns…are generally internally constructed threats and imaginary opportunities.
The cultivation of mental focus, the consistent return to a primary object, and the settling into ever greater states of tranquility has the effect of gradually reigning in the mind’s random wandering and settles it down in a way that gathers and consolidates the power of awareness. Awareness is the primary currency of the human condition, and as such it is inherently of immense value and deserves to be spent carefully. Merely sitting in a serene environment, letting go of the various petty disturbances that roil and diminish consciousness and experiencing as fully as possible the poignancy of the fleeting moment – this is an enterprise of deep intrinsic value, and aesthetic experience beyond words.
Andrew Olendzki, Unlimiting Mind
Always a good season
We are going through some days of unseasonable weather here, very mild, almost Spring-like. The leaves have not yet fully fallen from the trees, and the garden is still flowering. It reminded me today of this old poem on the changing seasons:
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
Wu-Men, 1183 – 1260
Giving up some positions
We tend to personalize everything. Why everything gets at us and makes us so angry is because of something our mind is doing – but to acknowledge that entails giving up some position of “me” and “my emotions” that are right and justified. Now, I’m not saying that abandonment means not feeling anything – that attitude really drives people into dangerously repressed places. The way is about seeing how things get under our skin ad chafe our heart. It’s about abandoning the action of taking in dukkha. We widen our perspective into being aware of how we are feeling and with that clear and steady awareness, we can watch the mental process very carefully.
Ajahn Sucitto, Turning the Wheel of Truth
Mindfulbalance 