Via Daily Dharma: How Present Are You?

There are many degrees to being present. Just because my eyes are open doesn’t mean I’m awake. It’s possible to look right at someone and still not truly see them.

—Erik Hansen, “Moving Target”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - December 17, 2017

 

When I start to get angry, I see my predicament and how I’m getting caught in expectations and righteousness. Learning to give up anger has been a continuous process. When Maharaji told me to love everyone and tell the truth, he also said, “Give up anger, and I’ll help you with it.” Maharaji offered me a bargain: “You must polish the mirror free of anger to see God. If you give up a little anger each day, I will help you.” This seemed to be a deal that was more than fair. I readily accepted. And he’s been true to his end of the bargain.

I found that his love helped to free me from my righteousness. Ultimately I would rather be free and in love than be right. 

 

-  Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Strengthen Skillful Desire

This is how a mature and healthy mind works: conducting a dialogue not so much between reason and desire as between responsible desires and irresponsible ones.

—Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “Pushing the Limits”

Via Daily Dharma: No Ego, No Guilt

Relief comes when we can be honest about what we’re thinking, feeling, saying, and doing. We take responsibility for our actions without feeling guilty about them because we don’t attach a big-ego “I.”

—Thubten Chodron, “The Truth About Gossip”

Via Daily Dharma: When Jealousy Dissolves

As jealousy dissolves, universal compassion and unconditional love become more easily available.

—Jorge Ferrer, “What’s the Opposite of Jealousy?”

Via Daily Dharma: At-home Practice

As you walk from room to room in your own home, try to really experience the transition of traveling from one place to another. Notice the differences between motion and stillness. Sense how you relate to various enclosures and open spaces.

—Gary Thorp, “Crossing the Threshold”

Via Ram Dass / 9 of 43 Words of Wisdom - December 13, 2017

You have to be very honest about your spiritual predicaments. You can’t be phony. Phony Holy isn’t going to get us there, in other words, you don’t go dramatically changing everything once you get a new value in your head, because you’re doing it with a certain kind of attachment of mind that’s going to cause you to have a reaction to it anyway. So don’t get voluntary-simple too soon. Let it be something that naturally falls away, rather than you ripping it away. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Discovering Nature within You

Nature, earth, the world—whatever you call it—is not simply something I am on but something I am. It is not outside of me: it is me, and I am it. There is no outside.

—Paul Kingsnorth, “The Witness”

Via Daily Dharma: Inexhaustible Generosity

When out of gratitude we use our candle to light other people’s candles, the whole room gets brighter. This is why we transfer merit to others. This kind of light is continuous and inexhaustible.

—Master Sheng-Yen, “Rich Generosity”

Via Daily Dharma: Sharing Stress and Happiness

Compassion is not condescension, but a leveling of the playing field, a recognition of yourself in others and an acceptance that their stress is your stress, that their happiness is your own.

—Stephen Schettini, “What to Expect When You’re Reflecting”

via nobhilllife

“I love you

I want to fall asleep with you,
and I could care less
whether it is in
layers upon layers
of clothing
or only our skin -
all I really want is to wake up
not knowing
where I end and you begin. ”

Coco Goes to Costco

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - December 10, 2017

A lot of people try to counteract the ‘I am not good enough’ with ‘I am good enough.’ In other words, they take the opposite and they try to invest it. That still keeps the world at the level of polarities. The art is to go behind the polarities. 

So the act is to go not to the world of ‘I am good’ to counteract ‘I am bad,’ or ‘I am lovable’ as opposed to ‘I am unlovable.’ But go behind it to ‘I am.’ I am. I am. And 'I am' includes the fact that I do crappy things and I do beautiful things and I am. That includes everything and I am.

As you start to rest in the I am-ness, from that place, you can start to set boundaries on the way you play the game and become more impeccable in the way you play it. 

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Waking Up to What Matters

Cleaning the bathroom or chopping the onions is no less important than sitting in deep meditation. Grasping this and acting on it is called waking up.

—Janet Jiryu Abels, “Participate Fully”

Via Daily Dharma: The Power of Ritual

The process of giving oneself over to the beauty of ritual and tradition allows entry into transcendence, thus alleviating the suffering of daily life.

—Myokei Caine-Barrett, “The Great Divide”

Via Daily Dharma: Finding Clarity in Discomfort

You eliminate an enormous amount of suffering by concentrating on the suffering that is actually present instead of creating more with your thinking.

—Larry Rosenberg, “When the Student Is Ready, the Teacher Bites”

VIa Daily Dharma: Our Life’s Work

Life is precious, and so death must be precious too. Our job is to figure out why.

—Shozan Jack Haubner, “Consider the Seed”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - December 6, 2017

 

Bearing the unbearable is the deepest root of compassion in the world. When you bear what you think you cannot bear, who you think you are dies. You become compassion. You don't have compassion - you are compassion. True compassion goes beyond empathy to being with the experience of another. You become an instrument of compassion.

- Ram Dass  -

Via Daily Dharma: You’re Already Whole

The great Buddhist truth is that we have been whole from the very beginning: we need only realize it.

—Taylor Plimpton, “Expressing the Inexpressible”