Author: Posts

Practicing being gentle with yourself helps awaken your genuine heart.  This compassion, this clarity, this openness, is like something we have forgotten.  Lightening up in your practice, sitting there being gentle with yourself, you are rediscovering something.

We must understand how the past affects us, we should keep the present rich and full of satisfying experiences and devote some time each day to building the future.  We should consider the whole of our time when deciding how to spend our lives.

Don’t be totally absorbed in your own needs, take the needs of all people as your own.  Be good to those who are good, also be good to those absorbed in their own needs. Wise people trust those who trust, they also trust those who are not trustworthy.   

You can only judge what to expect by the consequences of your actions and the fruit of your labors, then when your work has ended good fortune will follow.  Look back on whether your conduct and the resulting consequences were good.

Quote: The heart is the soul locked up inside the body, the principle of light enclosed in the dark.

Things come together and they fall apart.  We think the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is things never really get solved.  The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen, room for grief, for relief, for misery and for joy.

When life presents an opportunity, we must be ready to seize it without hesitation or inhibition.  This action will be appropriate if it accords with the time and place.  Position is useless and opportunities will pass you by without awareness. 

By letting things go their own way, everything will happen as it should, nothing can be gained by interfering.  Accept things, freely extend your goodwill and virtue in every direction regardless of circumstances, you will be able to embrace all things as part of the harmonious oneness.

Increase and decrease come of their own time.  In a time of scanty resources, you must simplify.  This will give you the inner strength for further undertakings.  Draw on the strength of your inner attitude for what lacks externally.  Even with slender means the sentiment of the heart can be expressed.

Quote: Compassion is both a force in the universe as well as a human experience.

Some say our journey is up the mountain but, in reality, the mountain points down.  Instead of transcending suffering we explore the reality of unpredictability of insecurity and pain.  This awakens us from fear and there we discover the love and compassion that will not die.

We need to let ourselves go, enter freely into the process of nature and become absorbed in it.  This way we will have success, the sequence of things will be as evident as the coming of the sun and the moon and everything will be as it should be.  

We can know the world, but first we must know ourselves.  We can do this without going anywhere.  Live a quiet, simple life, free of ideas and concepts.  Find contentment in the practice of undiscriminating virtue.  This will become a sanctuary for yourself and all beings.

To create an influence, your words must have power and can only do so if they are based on something that is real.  Words have influence only when they are supported by your entire conduct, are pertinent and clearly related to definite circumstances. 

Quote: Compassion is what connects all things.

Ancient teachings keep reminding us of who we are and what we can do.  They help us notice we are in a nest of old food, excrement and stale air.  When we were young, we had longings to leave the nest and fly like an eagle, in order to fly.  You must let go of everything. 

As we shape the situations in our lives, we must be aware of the form we want things to take.  The closer it comes to completion, the harder it is to change and more definite it becomes.  Beauty or ugliness, utility or failure comes from this process of shaping.  

There is no greater illusion than fear, no greater wrong than preparing to defend ourselves, no greater misfortune than having an enemy.  Whoever can see through the fear will always be safe.  If you understand this, peace and harmony naturally arise.

If you have great obstacles to overcome, you can accomplish this by perseverance, even though it is arduous you will succeed.  If you know the difficulties and remain persevering, the difficult task is achieved in the end. 

Quote:  “We have nothing to fear but, fear itself”. I would say, “not even that”. President Roosevelt

The more you open your heart, the more challenges come along that make you want to shut it.  The more you practice loving kindness, the more you see something about yourself. You cannot do this work in a safety zone; you must go about living your life like everyone else.

In the midst of an extreme situation, the wise are patient.  Whether the situation is illness, calamity or your own anger, know that healing always follows upheaval, because no matter how extreme the situation is, it will change.

If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place, because the mind is the governing aspect of human life.  To correct your mind, stop thinking and clinging to things, avoid daydreaming and allow your original insight to emerge.  Then your mind will be clear.

Energy that is renewing itself must be allowed to reinforce itself by rest.  The return of health after illness, the return of understanding after estrangement, both must be treated tenderly and with care at the beginning so that the return may lead to flowering.

Quote: To simply say that we choose a new reality is not enough.

Do not shut anyone out of our hearts and don’t make the other into an enemy. When we open our hearts, we can’t make things completely right or completely wrong anymore.  Trying to find absolute rights and wrongs is a trick we play on ourselves to feel secure and comfortable.

When disaster strikes, we can do nothing other than accept it.  It alters the course of our actions and thinking.  Even though disasters will change us, they will pass. We must keep to our deeper convictions and remember our goals and not get caught up in the chaos.

Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are, realize nothing is lacking and the world will be yours.  Simply avoid being attached to what you see and think, relinquish the notion that you are separate from the universe.  Then you will be able to see through all illusions and be aware of everything.

When times are bad, submit to the times and remain quiet.  It may be impossible to counteract the conditions of the time, it is not cowardice but wisdom to submit and avoid actions.  A law of nature is at work, evil is not destructive to the good alone, but inevitably destroys itself as well.

Quote: The focus of our awareness becomes the reality of our world.

Meditation is the only activity that doesn’t add anything to the picture.  It is a totally nonviolent, nonaggressive practice.  Not filling the space, allowing for the possibility of connecting with unconditional openness; this provides the basis for real change.

We see activities as obligations and strain against our fate, but there is joy to working in harmony with the proper time.  When we do things at just the right occasion, those efforts will bear fruit later and the gratification is tremendous. 

True growth comes from meeting and solving the problems of life in a way that is harmonizing to yourself and others.  Serve others and cultivate yourself simultaneously.  If you can do this, you will be continually renewed.

Only collective moral force can unite the world.  Such times of unification will leave great achievements behind them.  Human woes usually come as a result of unexpected events against which we are not forewarned.  We should prepare ourselves for unforeseen events or unexpected change. This will lessen our worry.

Quote: We have all the power we need to create all the changes we choose.

The cause of confusion, pollution and violence are not someone else’s problems, it’s something we can come to know in ourselves. To do this, make friends with ourselves and rid ourselves of the mistaken idea that the way to be happy is to blame someone else.

We can all benefit from living according to seasonal circumstances.  Whether it’s the time or the action, living is half initiative and half knowing how to let things proceed on their own according to the times. 

There is nothing more futile and frustrating than relying on the mind.  We need to quiet our thinking, stop analyzing and making distinctions between one thing and another.  Simply see that you are one with the universe and accept all things as being part of you.

We must understand the demands of the times to find the necessary offset for its deficiencies and damages.  Fixing your eyes more closely on your responsibilities may appear petty to the outside world, but if you are conscientious in your actions and simple in your expenditures, you will be successful.

Quote: Without an understanding of who we are, we cannot truly advance.

When you fear something, rather than deal with it, you do whatever it tells you to do.  To defeat fear, don’t do what it tells you to do; then it has no power.  You can listen to it, even respect it and even be convinced of it.  But, if you don’t do what it tells you to do, it has no power over you.

If you are true to your inner nature, you will withstand the vicissitudes and adornment of life.  We may have great fortune or bad, but we should patiently bear both.  No matter what, we must be true to our inner selves.

We know that the manipulations of the mind are dreams, delusions and shadows.  This causes your life to become chatter and contradiction.  Hold one idea, another competes with it and soon these two will be in conflict with a third.  Instead keep your mind undivided and let ideas go; just be.

If one is sincere when confronted with difficulties the heart can penetrate the meaning of the situation and once we have gained inner mastery of the problem, it will come naturally that the action you take will succeed.

Quote: If the only prayer you say in your whole life is “Thank you,” that would suffice. —Meister Eckhart

Patience implies willingness to be alive, rather than trying to seek harmony.  Patience is not learned when everything is going well, but when things do not go our way.  Patience is learned when our expectations collide with the reality of the situation.

Winter storms may destroy some things, but they also prepare the way for new life.  If things are swept away, this makes room for new living things to emerge and begin their own cycle.  Things cannot remain in stillness, everything changes.

It is a universal law that what you say and do determines what happens in your life.  If you think this law is external to you, your desires will trouble your mind and you will be in constant turmoil.  Recognize that you and this law are one, therefore cultivate yourself, bring moderation to your life and clarity to your mind.

It is important not to get intoxicated by success.  Do not skip any stages in your progress; go slowly step by step as though hesitant.  It is important to remain mindful, conscientious and consistent, this frees one of blind impulse.  Only such calm steady progress, overleaping nothing, leads you to your goals.

Quote: You cannot build a reputation on what you are going to do. Henry Ford