Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - March 18, 2018

  If I am in my soul, when I look at others, I see their souls. I still see the individual differences – men and women, rich and poor, attractive and unattractive, and all that stuff. But when we recognize each other as souls, we are seeing each other as aspects of the One. Love is the emotion of merging, of becoming One. Love is a way of pushing through into the One.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: You Are Not Your Thoughts

Simply see the natural phenomena of physical and mental events as they arise and pass away. They’re not you. They’re not really yours. You don’t have any real control over them.

—Upasika Kee Nanayon, “Tough Teachings to Ease the Mind”

Via Daily Dharma: Breathing Is an Anchor to Awareness

The breath changes and you change. Nothing stays the same, yet there is constancy. The breath reminds us that we are here and alive: let it be your anchor to the present moment.

—Elana Rosenbaum, “Guided Meditation: Awareness of Breathing”

Via Daily Dharma: Embodied Enlightenment

In its most ancient Buddhist form, meditation is a technique for letting go of the objectifying tendency of thought and of entering deeply and fully into communion with our embodied experience. And hence it leads to “touching enlightenment with the body.”

—Reggie Ray, “Touching Enlightenment”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - March 14, 2018

After one progresses in his or her sadhana, after meditation gets deeper, he or she lets go of the model of themselves more and more, and begins to touch and enter deeper into that space of love. One begins to experience love toward more and more people.

Sooner or later you are going to be in love with just the universe. You’ll be sitting in that place that is love where all is One. Then when you look at another being, you are looking at love. You are love, you are with love. You are then in the state of love with all beings. At this point you’ve given up all the stuff that’s going to pull you out of this place. At this point, all of the fear in a love relationship is dissipated.

- Ram Dass -

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Via Daily Dharma: Listen Closely

A useful technique for developing inner silence is recognizing the space between thoughts. Attend closely with sharp mindfulness when one thought ends and before another begins—there! That is silent awareness!

—Ajahn Brahm, “Stepping towards Enlightenment”

Via Daily Dharma: The Paradox of Practice

The weird thing is that the only way one really gets any of the most important benefits of meditation practice is by giving up on the notion that there are any benefits to meditation practice.

—Brad Warner, “Goalless Practice”

Via Daily Dharma: Wise Mindfulness

In the Buddhist path to nibbana, mindfulness is not about becoming a happier, better person. It’s not about “happiness” at all—at least not if “happiness” is understood as the fulfillment of desire. Mindfulness is, rather, about wisdom rooted in insight, renunciation, and unqualified self-surrender.

—C.W. Huntington, Jr., “Are You Looking to Buddhism When You Should Be Looking to Therapy?”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - March 11, 2018

Our human forms are composed of and surrounded by an infinite myriad of forms, all in constant motion, from the subatomic to the cosmic in scale. This is the lila, the enchanted dance of existence, the divine interplay of consciousness and energy. Amid this divine play we seek fulfillment, perfection, flow, freedom, enlightenment, Oneness.

The dominant quality of form is change, because all forms are in time. That’s another way of saying we don’t know what will happen from one instant to the next. Or, as one of my guru brothers are fond of saying, “Don’t be surprised to be surprised!” For instance, I didn’t anticipate I’d be living in a wheelchair today. The way to live with change is to be completely present in the moment (remember, Be Here Now).

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Find Your Refuge

A spiritual practice can be an island, a place where opening to uncertainty and doubt can lead us to a refuge of truth.

—Joan Halifax, “The Lucky Dark”

Via Daily Dharma: Relax and Let Be

When the thinking mind takes a break for even a few seconds, a kind of relaxed awareness replaces the usual stream of thoughts. We need to encourage this and not fill this space with anything else; just let it be.

—Tsultrim Allione, “Feeding Your Demons”

Via Daily Dharma: Embrace Impermanence with Mindfulness

When the winds of change reach hurricane force, our inner refuge of mindfulness, concentration, and discernment is the only thing that will keep us from getting blown away.

—Thanissaro Bhikkhu, “What We’ve Been Practicing For”

Via Daily Dharma: Creating Your Karma

With your reaction to each experience, you create the karma that will color your future. It is up to you whether this new karma is positive or negative. You simply have to pay attention at the right moment.

—Trungram Gyalwa Rinpoche, “The Power of the Third Moment”

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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - March 7, 2018

Over the years we develop strong habits of perceiving the universe, and we come to be very secure within these habits. We selectively perceive our environment in ways that reinforce them. This collection of habits is what we call ego. But meditation breaks the ego down. As we begin to see through it we can become confused as to what reality is. What once seemed absolute now begins to seem relative.

When this happens, some people get confused; others fear they may be going insane. The best strategy for dealing with this disorientation is to note it and let it be. The path to freedom is through detachment from your old habits of ego.

Slowly you will arrive at a new and more profound integration of your experience in a more evolved structure of the universe. That is, you will flow beyond the boundaries of your ego until ultimately you merge into the universe. Until then you must break through old structures, develop broader structures, break through those, and develop still broader structures.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Independence Is No Longer an Option

In an increasingly interconnected and transparent world, no form of Buddhism can afford to be an island.

—Stephen Batchelor, “Lessons of History”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - March 4, 2018

People often say to me, “I would really like to do sadhana, but…I’m a teacher now. If I could only finish being a teacher, I could do sadhana.”

BALONEY! You’re either doing sadhana or you’re not. Sadhana is a full time thing that you do because there is nothing else to do. You do it whether you’re teaching, or sitting in a monastery…whether you’re lying in bed, going to the toilet, making love, eating…EVERYTHING is part of waking up. Everything is done without attachment. Another way of saying it is: It’s all done as consecrated action….it’s all dedicated…it’s all sacred.

- Ram Dass -