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A Tempered Response

In Buddhism, we say yes, there is an ocean of suffering. So it’s not bad to show that there’s anger, hatred, delusion, and greed in the world. In a way, the media are presenting some very important facts. Given that, we can look for different emotional responses

– In Buddhism, we say yes, there is an ocean of suffering. So it’s not bad to show that there’s anger, hatred, delusion, and greed in the world. In a way, the media are presenting some very important facts. Given that, we can look for different emotional responses

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Living Fully

The problem with our life does not lie in the individual circumstances or occurrences of our day-to-day existence. It’s not that they’re inherently meaningless and boring. The problem is that we make them meaningless and boring; because we are so invested in maintaining our own sense of self, we actually don’t relate to anything in a direct way. Unwilling to fully live the life that is arriving in our bodies moment by moment, we find ourselves left with no real life at all.

– Reggie Ray, “Touching Enlightenment”

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Touching Enlightenment

My sense is that there is a very real problem among Western Buddhist practitioners. We are attempting to practice meditation and to follow a spiritual path in a disembodied state, and our practice is therefore doomed to failure. The full benefits and fruition of meditation cannot be experienced or enjoyed when we are not grounded in our bodies.

– “”Touching Enlightenment, ” Reggie Ray

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The Paradox of Practice

The weird thing is that the only way one really gets any of the most important benefits of meditation practice is by giving up on the notion that there are any benefits to meditation practice.

– Brad Warner, “Goalless Practice”

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The world will tell you there are pyramids you must climb to feel successful. Pay no attention. Your life’s joy isn’t at the apex of a pyramid. It comes from a well of creativity that flows from your very center.

– Martha Beck

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If you’re trying in vain to quit something you do compulsively, like overspending or smoking or macramé, try quitting the effort to quit. As therapists like to say, “What we resist, persists,” and this is especially true of bad habits. Imagine trying not to eat one sinfully delicious chocolate truffle. Got it? Okay, now imagine trying to eat 10,000 truffles at one sitting. For most of us, the thought of not-quitting in this enormous way–indulging ourselves beyond desire–actually dampens the appetite. It’s a counterintuitive method, but if the “I will abstain from…” resolutions you make each year are utter, depressing failures, you might quit quitting and see what happens.

– Martha Beck, Knowing When to Quit

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Facing Challenges and Obstacles

When challenges or obstacles arise for us, we don’t have to get so intimidated; we can say, ‘Yes, it’s an obstacle, but it is not intrinsically bad; it’s not going to destroy me.’ To create a relationship with the obstacle, learn about it, and finally overcome it is going to be a helpful thing to do. It gives us a chance to cultivate wisdom and skillful means. It gives us confidence. We cannot eliminate all of the challenges or obstacles in life–our own or anyone else’s. We can only learn to rise to the occasion and face them.

– Dzigar Kongtrul, “Old Relationships, New Possibilities”

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Coming, Going

Empty-handed I entered the world
Barefoot I leave it.
My coming, my going–
Two simple happenings
That got entangled.

– Kozan Ichikyo, “Coming, Going”

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Pain is like a life coach in your body. It’s what made me a life coach because I started paying a lot of attention to what made me hurt and what didn’t. It turned out my body was trying to steer me away from a life that was absolutely wrong for me and into a life that was absolutely wonderful.

– Martha Beck

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From Suffering to Beauty

Suffering leads us to beauty the way thirst leads us to water.

– Jane Hirshfield, “Felt in Its Fullness”

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