“As soon as you pick up the hot-coal (become angry or vengeful) it burns you before you to hurt your “enemy” with it and you quickly drop it out of pain. Meanwhile, the person who wronged you is untouched, and you’re the one left with an even greater, deeper, throbbing-pain. No one gets hurt by our anger except ourselves. Buddhism helped me realize that by not forgiving others, I was giving them control over my peace and happiness. I had inadvertently tied my mental and emotional stability to the whims of their egos. I had surrendered my sense of happiness to, ironically, the very people that had hurt me initially!!”
An excerpt from Hesse’s Siddhartha…
Hesse‘s Siddhartha captured my imagination when I was a graduate student and has continued to stimulate my thinking for over 30 years. Here is an excerpt from the conclusion of the book…
Continue reading “An excerpt from Hesse’s Siddhartha…”Change Your Life In 2 Seconds
Pema Chodron writes:
One of the lines that I really like in Gaylon Ferguson’s book Natural Wakefulness is “Distraction is married to discontent.” You could test this out in your own experience. There’s nothing as real and direct and counterhabitual as being present with yourself, just as you are, with your emotions just as they are.
As difficult as that can be, the result of that training is nonstruggle: not rejecting your experience, fully engaged with yourself, with the world, there for other people. Another result of coming back to being with yourself, just as you are, is that emotions don’t escalate. Continue reading “Change Your Life In 2 Seconds”
I Have Learned So Much
I
Have Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call Myself
A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
a Buddhist, a Jew.
The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even a pure
Soul.
Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me
Of every concept and image
my mind has ever known.
From: ‘The Gift’
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky
Open heart, open mind…
I really enjoyed this talk from Tara Brach‘s meditation series featuring Tsoknyi Rinpoche; perhaps you will as well…
In case you are wondering, I am not a Buddhist — I am a recovering Catholic if you must know! It’s just that lately, the Uni-verse has been using people who are Buddhist to teach me. Keeping an open mind to the wisdom of their message has helped me to open my heart…
Which wolf will you feed?
For most of my life, I have been a bitter, resentful, angry person. The story that I tell myself is that I came by it honestly. I’m a classic case of a person who suffered early childhood trauma around abandonment and rejection issues and much of my life has been spent in trying to get the people in my life now to make up for the things done by the people in my past. When this plan didn’t work [for reasons that are obvious to me now] I reacted with resentment and anger; first toward myself and then toward others… Continue reading “Which wolf will you feed?”
Thanking a Monkey
Kaveri Patel writes:
There’s a monkey in my mind
swinging on a trapeze,
reaching back to the past
or leaning into the future,
never standing still.
Sometimes I want to kill
that monkey, shoot it square
between the eyes so I won’t
have to think anymore
or feel the pain of worry.
But today I thanked her
and she jumped down
straight into my lap,
trapeze still swinging
as we sat still.
via Kaveri Patel – Buddhist Poetry Review.
On these days when our world slows down just a little bit, think about thanking YOUR monkeys…
ARE YOU BLIND?
Tara Brach shared this story in a recent podcast:
“Imagine walking along a sidewalk with your arms full of groceries, and someone roughly bumps into you so that you fall and your groceries are strewn over the ground. As you rise up from the puddle of broken eggs and tomato juice, you are ready to shout out, ‘You idiot! What’s wrong with you? Are you blind?’ But just before you can catch your breath to speak, you see that the person who bumped into you is actually blind. He, too, is sprawled in the spilled groceries, and your anger vanishes in an instant, to be replaced by sympathetic concern: ‘Are you hurt? Can I help you up?’
“Our situation is like that. When we clearly realize that the source of disharmony and misery in the world is ignorance, we can open the door of wisdom and compassion.”
— B. Alan Wallace in Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up
via Spirituality & Practice: Book Review: The Buddha Is Still Teaching, by Jack Kornfield.
I heard this story in Tara Brach’s weekly meditation which you can hear here… :-D
You are not your story
Every negative experience or thought is an opportunity to awaken. What thoughts are holding you back from connecting to your inherent love and light?
Working With Difficulties
Tara Brach writes:
About twelve years ago, a number of Buddhist teachers began to share a new mindfulness tool that offers in-the-trenches support for working with intense and difficult emotions. Called RAIN (an acronym for the four steps of the process), it can be accessed in almost any place or situation. It directs our attention in a clear, systematic way that cuts through confusion and stress. The steps give us somewhere to turn in a painful moment, and as we call on them more regularly, they strengthen our capacity to come home to our deepest truth. Like the clear sky and clean air after a cooling rain, this mindfulness practice brings a new openness and calm to our daily lives.
I have now taught RAIN to thousands of students, clients, and mental health professionals, adapting and expanding it into the version you’ll find in this chapter. I’ve also made it a core practice in my own life. Here are the four steps of RAIN presented in the way I’ve found most helpful:
R Recognize what is happening
A Allow life to be just as it is
I Investigate inner experience with kindness
N Non-Identification
RAIN directly de-conditions the habitual ways in which you resist your moment-to-moment experience. It doesn’t matter whether you resist “what is” by lashing out in anger, by having a cigarette, or by getting immersed in obsessive thinking. Your attempt to control the life within and around you actually cuts you off from your own heart and from this living world. RAIN begins to undo these unconscious patterns as soon as we take the first step.
Full story at: Tara Brach – Working With Difficulties.
Slow Down!
“Beware the barrenness of a busy life.” ~Socrates
via We Are All Creative: Slow Down to Connect with Yourself | Tiny Buddha.
The Top 10 Tiny Buddha Insights from 2012
Lori Deschene at Tiny Buddha is one of my favorite bloggers. Here’s her ‘best of 2012’ post: The Top 10 Tiny Buddha Insights from 2012 | Tiny Buddha.
Connecting with Friends: Faster Isn’t Always Better
“When we get too caught up in the busyness of the world, we lose connection with one another and ourselves.” ~Jack Kornfield
via Connecting with Friends: Faster Isn’t Always Better | Tiny Buddha.
The True Meaning of Patience: Let Go and Take Your Time
“Patience is not passive; on the contrary, it is active; it is concentrated strength.” ~Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Full story at: The True Meaning of Patience: Let Go and Take Your Time | Tiny Buddha.
Why Forgiveness Doesn’t Work and How to Change That
“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.” ~Paul Boese
Get the answer here: Why Forgiveness Doesn’t Work and How to Change That | Tiny Buddha.
Being Both Strong and Hurt
“Pain is not a sign of weakness, but bearing it alone is a choice to grow weak.” ~from my book, Tiny Buddha via Tiny Wisdom: Being Both Strong and Hurt | Tiny Buddha.
Lasting Change Starts from Within: Transform Your Life
“All meaningful and lasting change starts on the inside and works its way out.” ~Anon
Get the rest here: Lasting Change Starts from Within: Transform Your Life | Tiny Buddha.
When You Fear Making the “Wrong” Decision
“Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth.” ~Pema Chodron. Get more here: When You Fear Making the “Wrong” Decision | Tiny Buddha.
The Power of Acceptance: Stop Resisting and Find the Lesson
“Of course there is no formula for success except, perhaps, an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.” ~Arthur Rubinstein. Get more here: The Power of Acceptance: Stop Resisting and Find the Lesson | Tiny Buddha.
Do What You Cannot Do!
“There is no one in the universe more dear to us than ourselves. The mind may travel in a thousand directions, but it will find no one else more beloved. The moment you see how important it is to love yourself, you will stop making others suffer.”
Thich Nhat Hanh. via Today’s Quotes: Do What You Cannot Do!.
Bright, shiny objects! 
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