Blog

Like archeologists, we have to dig down through the layers of self-deception and denial to get to something that is deeply and brilliantly true.

– Martha Beck, WIL 2017

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

Practice from Strength

You lack nothing. You lack nothing, therefore you practice. Therefore you must realize and manifest this no-lack, this realized life, this awakened life that you are.

– Elihu Genmyo Smith, “No Need to Do Zazen, Therefore Must Do Zazen”

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

Right now, many of us feel an immense shift in the way humans live in this world. That shift, while benevolent, comes from within, rather than from our culture. That means your inner compass will inevitably tell you to break society’s expectations. Maybe that’s happening right now. If not, wait a few minutes. It’s coming.

– Compass v. Culture…Insight From Martha

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

Thoughts Are Idiosyncratic Visitors

When you stop to examine your thoughts you start to see that they have a life of their own, they come and go, generally in a random, idiosyncratic way. Recognizing the constancy of our endless thinking process is said to be one of the important early steps we take on the meditation path.

– Bob Sharples, “Do the Thoughts Ever Stop “

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

Abandoning Distraction

Even on a small scale in daily life situations, such as when we feel bored or ill at ease, instead of trying to avoid these feelings by staying busy or buying another fancy gadget, we learn to look more clearly at our impulses, attitudes, and defenses. In this way dukkha guides and deepens our motivation to the point where we’ll say, ‘Enough running, enough walls, I’ll grow through handling my blocks and lost places.’

– Ajahn Sucitto, “Commentary on the Buddha’s First Teaching”

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

What Love Is and Is Not

Love is not about getting what we want. Love is about how we live with what we are given.

– C. W. Huntington Jr., “Seeing Things As They Are “

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

Thanksgiving Dharma

Even the simple act of naming the things we love about being alive can help us as we move from gratitude to honoring our pain for the world.

– Joanna Macy and Sam Mowe, “The Work That Reconnects “

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand,
you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors.
All of them are alive in this moment.
Each is present in your body.
You are the continuation of each of these people.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

Letting Go

It is hard to let go of things, harder to let go of ideas, and even harder to let go of spiritual pretensions. Over time, as we familiarize ourselves with the many subtle twists and turns of letting go, we begin to be more savvy about how ego steps in to appropriate the entire process. In the millions of mini-decisions we make day by day and moment by moment, we are challenged each time either to let go or to re-solidify.

– Judy Lief, “Letting Go”

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks

8. As long as you’re alive, everything is possible.

“Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

Read More Mini Mindfulness Breaks