Insights for May 2018
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Awakening:“Look at the real nature of the harm that is done to you. It is as elusive as a drawing on water. Let your resentment subside by itself. When the stormy waves of thoughts have vanished, the mind becomes like the cloudless sky that has nothing to win or lose.” Shechen Gyaltsap, theg pa chen po'i blo sbyong gi man ngag zab don sbrang rtsi'i bum bzang, pp. 441-444.
“Until you choose, you are living your non choice.Until you choose your way, you are living the way of your non choice.When you are not choosing, you are living in non choice. “ Margaret Gervais
“One of the most exquisite of Japanese terms, ‘mono no aware’, expresses an aesthetic sensibility, that’s challenging to translate. It speaks to a gentle sadness - to being deeply moved by a transient, finite nature of things. It doesn’t deny loss or bypass grief but it reminds us that the beauty of things and our appreciation of those dear to us is heightened by our awareness of their ephemeral nature.” Frank Ostaseski, “A Friend Until the End,” Lion’s Roar, July, 2018.
“Most people will view you solely through their own paradigm.That’s pretty much all that most people can do; so that’s ok.With this awareness, we can decide how to view ourselves - through their lens or through our own lens?” Margaret Gervais 5.15.18 pdx
“The ego is not an innocent bystander. While it claims to have out own best interests at heart, in its relentless pursuit of attention and power it undermines the very goals it sets out to achieve. The ego needs our help if we want a more satisfying existence, we have to teach it to loosen its grip.” Mark Epstein, “Advise Not Given,” page 2.
“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of distress and anxiety;
If I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without any pain.
From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me.There is a great secret in this for anyone who can grasp it.” Rumi
“Do not let a cloudy mind trick you into doing things you are done with.” Yung pueblo
Healing:
“Breathe in and bring earth energy up through your root chakra and the bottom of your feet and into your whole body.
Breathe out and bring cosmic energy down through your crown chakra and into your whole body.Keep repeating.” Margaret Gervais, 5.2.18 pdx
Meditation:
You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” Timber Hawkeye
“Repeated thoughts and stories are almost always fueled by an unacknowledged emotion or feeling underneath. These unsensed feelings are part of what brings the thought back time and again. Future planning is usually fueled by anxiety. Remembering of the past is often fueled by regret, or guilt, or grief. Many fantasies arise as a response to pain or emptiness. The task in meditation is to drop below the level of the repeated recorded message, to sense and feel the emotional energy that brings it up. When we can do this, and truly allow and come to terms with the feeling, the thought will no longer need to arise, and the pattern will naturally fade away.” Jack Kornfield, “The Path With Heart.”
Grief:
“Actually, rebirth takes place every moment, every instant. Every instant is death; every instant is birth. It’s a changing process: there’s nothing you can grasp onto; everything is changing. But there is some continuity, of course - the change is the continuity.” ~ Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Lion’s Roar, May 2018.
“A Friend Until the End,” Frank Ostaseski is a beautiful article about offering care to someone who is dying. Check it out https://www.lionsroar.com/a-friend-until-the-end/amp/