Insights for August 2023
Awaken:
"As we walk the path, let us not look up so much at the destination, high above in the mist, but carefully place one foot in front of the other." Andrew Olendzki
“Sometimes you are just being asked to be little bit brave.” The Insight Center
"Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not." Deepak Chopra ™
Seven Lessons for a Lifetime of Well-Being:
· The belief that things can get better (We all have our own learning curve.)
· How acceptance supports agency (Be with what is.)
· Being thoughtful about what we consume, and where we place our attention (Look at all types of consumption.)
· Bodily awareness and taking care of the body (1.eat real food, 2. Sleep quality, 3. Move throughout the day, 4. Do something physical each day.)
· Developing and appreciating strong social connections (We are all in this together.)
· Identifying our wants and needs (What you need and what you nerf rom others and manage this well.)
· Identifying key values, setting goals, and letting those goals shape our lives (to live a life of purpose.”
From Forrest Hanson and Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Being Well Podcast
“The journey is a journey of love and wisdom.” The Insight Center
“The water becomes stagnant when it stops flowing and loses all its freshness.
The caterpillar will never be able to become a butterfly if it lives its entire life inside the cocoon.
Life is a process of constant change, let evolution unfold through your being by keep moving forward in alignment.
It’s not about the speed, it’s about the direction.
Just hold a vision of your highest self and keep up with that frequency every single day and trust the Universe. Embrace change, you are not supposed to stay at the same place forever.
Change is life, life is change.” Pawan Nair, the_higher_self
“You get to choose.” The Insight Center
“Don't be afraid to distance yourself from everyone & everything & recoup. Sort out your thoughts. Listen to your heart. Breathe. Read a book. Write about how much your life has sucked - then write about how much you can't wait to see the positive changes. Relearn yourself. Accept all the hurt you've been through. Forgive anyone & everyone who's hurt you. Even if that means doing it within, & never physically or verbally reaching out.
Let go & rejuvenate. Take a step away from the chaos, & find peace within.” Reyna Biddy, the.sattva.life
“When you start outgrowing your past it's really rare that people from your past understand you. As you start evolving your highest self requires you to move into the unknown but the old relationships or friendships would want you to stay the same. If someone really loves you they will embrace your growth and support you in your journey, they won't ask you to stay in your past because of their attachment. You can't live life for the role you play in other people's life, you have to be the centre of your Universe. Never feel guilty for making your growth and highest self a priority.” Pawan Nair, the_higher_self
“But to attend to the inner silence of your being is what being itself calls you to do. In many ways, silence is the greatest teacher and most wise teaching.” Adyashanti
“TRUTH: TRUST
TRUST: TRUTH” The Insight Center
“Whatever is showing up for you with some movement, move with it.” The Insight Center
“Leave the mind to do what it is best at, namely calculating and describing things, and look to the wisdom born of silence for inner guidance relating to things of the spirit.” Adyashanti
“Spiritual work takes time: nonlinear time.” The Insight Center
Astrology:
“The retrograde periods remind us to reflect, recede, renew, revisit, and renew. Be aware. Be attuned. See what is rising and allow your awareness and consciousness to shift.” The Insight Center
“Be a believer not a doubter. And - it’s harder to be a believer during a Pluto retrograde in Capricorn!” The Insight Center
“A core practical principle of astrology is that slower-moving planets tell a deeper story than the fast ones. Pluto, for example, has a lot more time to develop depth and complexity of meaning in your life than does a firefly transit of Mercury.” Steven Forrest
“The Black Moon Lilith archetype is often seen in terms of a cast-out feminine sexuality and power, but we can also frame this archetype more as a general principle of shadow-work and reclaiming of our own inner potency and power. In other words, Lilith is symbolic of the parts of self that we shut away because of early conditioning in our family and/or culture, and the process of reclaiming those aspects of Self as we come into greater acceptance and love of all aspects of our own true nature.” timepassagesapp
Vipassanā Meditation:
“The Buddha takes dukkha as the starting place for the spiral to freedom. This is the condition that we find ourselves in. We take that existential condition-the way that we find ourselves ordinarily in the world-and ask: what do we have to do to create freedom in our lives?" John Peacock
Grief:
“Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love,” Rainier maria Rilke
Rilke writes:
The great secret of death, and perhaps its deepest connection with us, is this: that, in taking from us a being we have loved and venerated, death does not wound us without, at the same time, lifting us toward a more perfect understanding of this being and of ourselves.
“Sometimes the face of love is sweet and sometimes it is fierce, but the full capacity to love without measure is contained within each of us. Love is the blood, bones, and marrow of our humanity-it is always found in the still, quiet places within us where the silent intuition of our connectedness breaks through into the living present, reminding us once again that each moment of life contains all living and all dying, and everything that ever has been or will come to be.” Adyashanti
“Allowing your grief and sadness to be felt can be very heal-ing. Simply allowing these emotions to flow through the body-mind without attaching to painful thinking is the way your body purifies itself of sorrow. You are an expanse of conscious compassion and love that liberates any and all suffering.” Adyashanti
“When you look at the surface of the ocean, you can see waves coming up and going down.
You can describe these waves in terms of high or low, big or small, more vigorous or less vigorous, more beautiful or less beautiful.
You can describe a wave in terms of beginning and end, birth and death.
That can be compared to the historical dimension. In the historical dimension, we are concerned with birth and death, more powerful, less powerful, more beautiful, less beautiful, beginning and end and so on.
Looking deeply, we can also see that the waves are at the same time water.
A wave may like to seek its own true nature.
The wave might suffer from fear, from complexes.
A wave may say, 'I am not as big as the other waves, ‘I am oppressed’ ‘I am not as beautiful as the other waves,' 'I have been born and I have to die.'
The wave may suffer from these things, these ideas.
But if the wave bends down and touches her true nature she will realize that she is water.
Then her fear and complexes will disappear.”
Thich Nhat Hanh, in "No Death, No Fear".
“Sooner or later we will all experience the tragic quality of life. Perhaps this quality of life is brought to us through illness, or the death of a loved one, or losing a job, or an unexpected accident, or having your heart broken. We will all experience this tragic quality of life in both small and overwhelmingly large ways over the span of our lives. Whether we want to face it or not, life, with all of its beauty, joy, and majesty, also has a tragic element to it. This is exactly what the Buddha saw, and it inspired his entire spiritual search.
It seems that most people look for various ways to escape from this tragic quality of life, ultimately to no avail- there is no escaping it. It must be faced sooner or later. The question is, when we are faced with this aspect of life, how do we respond? Surely, to avoid it only leads to denial, fantasy, life-numbing withdrawal, cynicism, and fear. It takes great courage to face the totality of life without withdrawing from it or trying to protect ourselves from it. Paradoxically, to face the totality of life we must face the realities of death, sorrow, and loss as well. We must face them as unavoidable aspects of life. The question is, Can we face them directly without getting lost in the stories that our mind weaves about them? That is, Can we directly encounter this tragic quality of life on its own terms? Because if we can, we will find a tremendous affirmation of life, an affirmation that is forged in the fierce embrace of tragedy.
At the very heart and core of our being, there exists an over-/ whelming yes to existence. This yes is discovered by those who have the courage to open their hearts to the totality of life. This yes is not a return to the innocence of youth, for there is no going back, only forward. This yes is found only by embracing the reality of sorrow and going beyond it. It is the courage to love in spite of all the reasons not to love. By embracing the tragic quality of life, we come upon a depth of love that can love "in spite of" this tragic quality, Even though your heart may be broken a thousand times, this unlimited love reaches across the multitude of sorrows of life and always triumphs- it triumphs by directly facing tragedy, by relenting to its fierce grace, and embracing it in spite of the reflex to protect ourselves.
In the end, we will either retreat into self-protection or acknowledge the reality of sorrow and we love anyway. Such love not only transcends life and death, it also is made manifest in life and death.
You give yourself to life out of love, and it is to love more fiercely that you walk through the fires of sorrow that forge the heart into boundless affection.” Adyashanti
Healing:
“Don't just move on from the people that hurt you, move on from the version of you that gave people power over you.” Pierre Jeanty
“You will act with wisdom after healing your wounds.” The Insight Center
“I am healing who I am so I can be who I am.” The Insight Center
Anxiety:
Anxiety says:
It feels like everything is falling apart
Trust says:
Maybe a
Better plan
Is falling
Into place
Anxiety says:
I'm afraid of the unknown
Trust says:
Facing
Uncertainty
Expands my
Comfort zone
Anxiety says:
I feel like a failure
Trust says:
I'm still
Growing and learning
Anxiety says:
I need to
Micromanage
The process
Trust says:
The universe
Is my
Collaborator
Anxiety says:
It feels like everything is falling apart
Trust says:
Maybe a
Better plan
Is falling
Into place
James McCrae, wordsarevibrations
Relationships:
“The type of love that has gentle honesty at its center.” yung pueblo
“How willing are you to receive love?” The Insight Center
“Selfless love is unconditional. It does not turn away from im-perfections, whether they are our own or someone else's. And in this not turning away, we and the world become healed, undivided.
This is the power and potential of love. If we only loved perfection, we would never love at all.” Adyashanti
“Forgiveness is not amnesia. “Sylvia Boorstein
“Find a partner who is emotionally aware enough to have a calm and honest conversation when you two are experiencing conflict. Seeking to understand each other instead of winning the argument makes it easier to find a common ground that you both feel good about. The two of you accept the truth that love is not easy and that being imperfect is natural. Even during storms, you don't forget your love for each other and how much you value your connection. yung pueblo
“Saying less is incredibly helpful.
every thought is not valuable.
every feeling does not need to be voiced.
what is often best is slowing down to spend time developing a clearer and more informed perspective.
ego rushes and reacts, but peace moves intentionally and gently.” yung pueblo
Parenting
“A loving parent gets down to the child's level - at times literally, dropping to their height when addressing them - in order to see the world through their eyes.” The School of Life