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#2490 -
Sunday, June 4, 2006 - Editor: Gloria Lee
Everything is impermanent, except the love of God.
It's better to see God in everything than to try to figure it
out.
-- Neem Karoli Baba
Xan posted on MillionPaths
When you dwell in stillness, the judging mind can come through
like a
foghorn. "I don't like the pain in my knee...This is
boring...I like this feeling
of stillness; I had a good meditation yesterday, but today I'm
having a bad
meditation...It's not working for me. I'm no good at this. I'm no
good,
period..." This type of thinking dominates the mind and
weighs it down. It's
like carrying around a suitcase full of rocks on your head. It
feels good to
put it down. Imagine how it might feel to suspend all your
judging and instead
to let each moment be just as it is, without attempting to
evaluate it as
"good" or "bad." This would be a true
stillness, a true liberation. Meditation
means cultivating a non-judging attitude toward what comes up in
the mind,
come what may.
--Jon Kabat-Zinn, from Wherever You Go, There You Are
Two Activities: One at the Beginning, One at the End
At the beginning of your day when you wake up, express your
aspiration: "May I
practice the three difficulties. May I see what I do. When it
happens, may I do
something different, and may that be a way of life for me."
At the beginning of
your day, using your own language, you could encourage yourself
to keep your
heart open, to remain curious no matter how difficult things get.
Then at the end
of the day when you're just about to go to sleep, review the day.
Rather than
using what happened as ammunition for feeling bad about yourself,
about how the
whole day went by and you never once remembered what you had
aspired to do in
the morning, you can simply use it as an opportunity to get to
know yourself better
and to see all the funny ways in which you trick yourself, all
the ways in which
you're so good at zoning out and shutting down. If you feel like
you don't want to
practice the three difficulties anymore because it's like setting
yourself up for
failure, generate a kind heart toward yourself. Reflecting over
just one day's
activities can be painful, but you may end up respecting yourself
more, because
you see that a lot happened; you weren't just one way.
As Carl Jung said at the end of his life, "I am astonished,
disappointed, pleased
with myself. I am distressed, depressed, rapturous. I am all
these things at once
and cannot add up the sum."
From Start Where You Are : A Guide to Compassionate Living by
Pema Chodron,
Copyright 1994, Shambhala Publications.
To take refuge in the Buddha means acknowledging the seed of
enlightenment
that is within ourselves, the possibility of freedom. It also
means taking refuge in
those qualities which the Buddha embodies; qualities like
fearlessness, wisdom,
love and compassion.
Taking refuge in the Dharma means taking refuge in the law, in
the way things
are; it is acknowledging our surrender to the truth, allowing the
Dharma to unfold
within us.
Taking refuge in the Sangha means taking support in the
community, in all of us
helping one another towards enlightenment and freedom.
--Joseph Goldstein, in The Experience of Insight
from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book
To take refuge in the Buddha is to take refuge in someone who let
go of holding
back just as you can do. To take refuge in the dharma is to take
refuge in all the
teachings that encourage you and nurture your inherent ability to
let go of holding
back. And to take refuge in the sangha is to take refuge in the
community of
people who share this longing to let go and open rather than
shield themselves.
The support that we give each other as practitioners is not the
usual kind of
samsaric support in which we all join the same team and complain
about someone
else. It's more that you're on your own, completely alone, but
it's helpful to know
that there are forty other people who are also going through this
all by
themselves. That's very supportive and encouraging.
Fundamentally, even though
other people can give you support, you do it yourself, and that's
how you grow up
in this process, rather than becoming more dependent.
--Pema Chodron
"The continual stream of new discovery, revelation and
inspiration which
arises at every moment is the manifestation of our clarity. We
should
learn to see everyday life as mandala - the luminous fringes of
experience which radiate spontaneously from the empty nature of
our
being. The aspects of our mandala are the day-to-day objects of
our life
experience moving in the dance or play of the universe. By this
symbolism, the inner teacher reveals the profound and ultimate
significance of being. Therefore we should be natural and
spontaneous,
accepting and learning from everything.
...Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now,
with our
whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is
enlightenment."
--H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche
From the teaching, "Dzogchen Practice in Everyday
LIfe."
http://www.nyingma.com/dzogchen1.htm
posted to Daily Dharma