 Whose Presence Do You Value?
Many of us have a mind that measures self-worth in terms of productivity. . . . We give ourselves no credit for just being present. And yet, if you asked the people you care about what they would like most from you, their answer is likely to be some version of “your presence.” – Jan Chozen Bays, “The Gift of Waiting” Click here to learn how you can receive a 30 minute Mindfulness Break in your home. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for August 11, 2019
 On Not Elevating Oneself
One of the worst kinds of elevation of the self is playing the victim. There are times when we actually are victims, when actual blame is appropriate, but to take on the identity of a victim and be stuck blaming is something else. Surprisingly, it is actually a subtle form of elevation–I’m not responsible, you are. This is giving up all freedom. I think the reason that remarkable stories of forgiveness take our breath away is that we instantly feel the liberation in the lifting of boundaries, the end of separation, of ‘inside’ and ‘outside.’ – Nancy Baker, “The Seventh Zen Precept” Click here to learn how you can receive a 30 minute Mindfulness Break in your home. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for July 20, 2019
 “Anger is considered a poison when it’s self-motivated and self-centered. But take that attachment to the self out of anger and the same emotion becomes the fierce energy of determination, which is a very positive force … Drop the self-orientation from ignorance, and it becomes a state of unknowing that allows new things to rise.”
– Roshi Bernie Glassman and Rick Fields, Instructions to the Cook Click here to learn how you can receive a 30 minute Mindfulness Break in your home. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for May 30, 2019
 Put Ourselves in Other’s Shoes
Our compassion has to go beyond illusion of separation between self and other. We have to put ourselves in the other’s shoes, not just see it from our perspective and talk at them. – HH Karmapa 17, Princeton U., April 1, 2015 Click here to learn how you can receive a 30 minute Mindfulness Break in your home. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for May 26, 2019
 Grief is overwhelming only when it’s left in the “hands” of egocentric karmic conditioning/self-hate. It’s no different from any other life experience. If we approach it from center, it brings richness to our lives. If we turn it over to ego, as with anything turned over to ego, it becomes a source of suffering.
– Cheri Huber Click here to learn how you can receive a 30 minute Mindfulness Break in your home. |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for April 18, 2019
 The First Glimpse of Prajna
It is as if we were entering a school to study a certain discipline with great, wise, learned people. The first self-conscious awareness we would have is a sense of our own ignorance, how we feel extraordinarily stupid, clumsy, and dumb. At the same time, we begin to get wind of the knowledge; otherwise, we would have no reference point to experience ourselves being dumb. The first glimpse of prajna is like that. – Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, “A Very Practical Joke” |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for April 17, 2019
 Awakening to Ourselves
Buddhism is really about awakening from the illusion about ourselves and the world, and realizing reality–who we are and what is real and how things are interconnected through karma and causation and so on. In a Dzogchen text it says, “From the beginning we are all Buddhas by nature, we only have to realize that fact.” So in Dzogchen the whole practice of what we call the view, meditation, and action is about awakening to–not just our momentary personality–“self” with a small s–but our true Buddha nature, our original nature. – Lama Surya Das, “Old Wine, New Bottles” |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for April 12, 2019
 Wisdom Arising
We train the mind to see things as they happen, neither before nor after. And we don’t cling to the past, the future, or even to the present. We participate in what is happening and at the same time observe it without clinging to the events of the past, the future, or the present. We experience our ego or self arising, dissolving, and evaporating without leaving a trace of it. We see how our greed, anger, and ignorance vanish as we see the reality in life. – Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, “Wisdom Arising” |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for April 10, 2019
 Beyond the Self
Buddhism asks us to go beyond the self, not to perfect the self. – Dharmavidya David Brazier, “Living Buddhism” |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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Mini Mindfulness Break for April 06, 2019
 Bare Awareness
What we regard as the self appears to be a solid, personal identity that perceives things. But in truth there is no metabeing who unifies the parts. All our actions happen without an agent, or self, performing them. There is no seer, just the seeing; no hearer, just the hearing. – Cynthia Thatcher, “Disconnect the Dots” |
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May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! All my best,
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