Insights for February 2019
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Awakening:“Stillness in the midst of motion and commotion is free of will, direction, and time. It is a complete letting be of what is from moment to moment.” Toni Packer, “Unmasking the Self”
"A beautiful object has no intrinsic quality that is good for the mind, nor an ugly object any intrinsic power to harm it. Beautiful and ugly are just projections of the mind. The ability to cause happiness or suffering is not a property of the outer object itself. For example, the sight of a particular individual can cause happiness to one person and suffering to another. It is the mind that attributes such qualities to the perceived object." Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, The Heart of Compassion, Shambhala 2007
“If we study our own hearts, we’ll find that everything is written there. Everything.” Ayya Medhanandi Bhikkhuni, “The Dharma of Snow”, tricycle.com
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Maya Angelou
“The problem with denying any aspect of the self is that it persists as a shadow. Clearly it is not possible to eliminate desire by pretending it is not there.” Mark Epstein, Instagram.
“No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!” Nietzsche
“You must unlearn the habit of being someone else or nothing at all, of imitating the voices of others and mistaking the faces of others for your own.” Herman Hesse
“By breathing the sensations of loneliness into the heart, and by allowing ourselves to feel them fully, the experience of loneliness can gradually transform into something very different. Over time, although we may still be alone, we are no longer lonely. In this solitude there is equanimity, and a clearer sense of our place in the world.” Ezra Bayda, “At Home with Yourself” from Tricycle.
“Hope is not exactly located in space and time. Every breath can bring us to our true home.” Thich Nhat Hahn, Instagram.
“Time is a box formed by thoughts of the past and future. Dwelling in the moment is dwelling in the soul, which is eternal presence. When we’re outside of time, there’s no subject or object, it’ all just here. The thinking mind deals only with subject and object. But from within here now, you watch time go by. You are not being in time. You be, and time goes by, as if you were standing in a bridge and watching it all go by.” Ram Dass, Instagram.
Grief:
HOW IT SEEMS TO ME by Ursula K. Le Guin In the vast abyss before time, self is not, and soul commingles with mist, and rock, and light. In time, soul brings the misty self to be.Then slow time hardens self to stone while ever lightening the soul, till soul can loose its hold of self and both are free and can return to vastness and dissolve in light, the long light after time.“You may no see it now, but this very difficulty will strengthen you. Your heart will grow wiser, your spirit stronger. You already know this. You can even begin to see the ways that this is true.” Jack Kornfield, Instagram
Relationships:
“…love invariably does change us, deconditioning our painful pathologies and elevating us toward our highest human potential. It allows us, as Barack Obama so eloquently wrote in his reflections on what his mother taught him about love, “to break across our solitude, and then, if we’re lucky, [be] finally transformed into something firmer.” brainpickings.org
“Why is love rich beyond all other possible human experiences and a sweet burden to those seized in its grasp? Because we become what we love and yet remain ourselves.” Martin Heidegger, via brainpickings.org
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another but make not a bond of love:Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together, yet not too near together:For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow." Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, via brainpickings.org
“When we partner with others out of a scarcity mentality nothing lasting can come out of it. Not in love or business. Build with others only when doing so feels mutually abundant, satiating in its challenge, and on purpose for all involved.” Chani Nicholas, Instagram