Via Daily Dharma: Quenching the Fire of Anger

Like a forest fire, anger tends to burn up its own support. If we jump down into the middle of such a fire, we will have little chance of putting it out, but if we create a clearing around the edges, the fire can burn itself out. This is the role of meditation: creating a clearing around the margins of anger.

—Mark Epstein, “I’ve Been Meditating for Ten Years, and I’m Still Angry. What’s the Matter with Me?”

Via Daily Dharma: Compassion’s Rule of Thumb

As self-compassion grows, compassion for others naturally follows.

—David Rome, “Focusing”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - August 8, 2018

I am still a person with an ego and in form, in which there is a little bit of stuff in which I’m somebody. So I’m in training to become nobody. And this is my training field, right here. I have to sit day after day with hundreds and thousands of people looking up at me, like this, saying ‘Yes, oh yes, oh Ram Dass yes, oh yes, ah thank you, ah Ram Dass.’
That is my fire. It’s all those mind nets saying, ‘This is who you are, this is who you are, this is who you are, this is who you are.’ And if I get stuck in being the actor, in being somebody who’s doing good, watch it! Then my mind creates a reality in which everybody that comes into my mind field is somebody for whom good needs to be done…
We can play the roles, but let’s not get stuck in them. …it’s so seductive to get caught in roles.

- Ram Dass - 

Via Daily Dharma: Synergy in Presence

In the Buddhist path we are bringing together our actions, our view, and our practice. It is a balance of awareness, insight, and action, working harmoniously together.

—Judy Lief, “Is Meditation Enough?”

Via Daily Dharma: Step into Self-Forgiveness

It will come as no surprise that one of the most difficult people to forgive can be yourself. Yet with patience and gentle determination, it can be done.

—Allan Lokos, “Lighten Your Load”

Via Daily Dharma: The Pure Happiness within Us

When it is warm with tenderness and affection toward others, our own heart can give us the most pure and profound happiness that exists and enable us to radiate that happiness to others.

—Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, “Opening the Injured Heart”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - August 5, 2018

If you’re involved with relationship with parents or children, instead of saying, "I can’t do spiritual practices because I have children," you say, "My children are my spiritual practice." If you’re traveling a lot, your traveling becomes your yoga.

You start to use your life as your curriculum for coming to God. You use the things that are on your plate, that are presented to you. So that relationships, economics, psychodynamics—all of these become grist for the mill of awakening. They all are part of your curriculum.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Where Compassion Comes Naturally

When you have a deep, deep friendship with someone, you don’t only care, “Is this good for me?” You care for them naturally . . . [This] is vital to developing the deep heart of lovingkindness in the context of dedication to dharma.

—Interview with Ayya Tathaaloka and Thubten Chodron, “The Whole of the Spiritual Life”

Via Daily Dharma: Practice Is Simple

You only have one shot at this moment—don’t miss it.

—Andrew Olendzki, “This Moment Is Unique”

Via Daily Dharma: Consider the Consequences

The efficacy of our actions will be determined by the quality of the contemplation that precedes them.

—Lama Surya Das, “Why Sit?”

Via Daily Dharma: A Love That Sees Clearly

Real love comes with a powerful recognition that we are fully alive and whole despite our wounds or our fears or our loneliness. It is a state where we allow ourselves to be seen clearly by ourselves and by others, and in turn, we offer clear seeing to the world around us. It is a love that heals.

—Sharon Salzberg, “Real Love”

Via Daily Dharma: Take a Fresh Look

When we trust with our open heart, whatever occurs, at that very moment that it occurs, can be perceived as fresh and unstained by the clouds of hope and fear.

—Dr. Jeremy Hayward, “First Thought”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - August 1, 2018

The interesting question is, how do you put yourself in a position so that you can allow ‘what is’ to be? The enemy turns out to be the creation of mind. Because when you are just in the moment, doing what you are doing, there is no fear. The fear is when you stand back to think about it. The fear is not in the actions. The fear is in the thought about the actions.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Don’t Be Afraid to Reach Out

When we smile and welcome the newbie or allow ourselves to be welcomed, we act out of our recognition that belonging is a common human need, one that is not an obstacle to, but in service of, waking up.

—Kate Johnson, “Making the First Move”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - July 29, 2018

The truth is everywhere. Wherever you are, it’s right where you are, when you can see it. And you can see it through whatever vehicle you are working with, you can free yourself from certain attachments that keep you from seeing it.

The scientist doesn’t stop being a scientist, nor does anybody stop being anything. You find how to do the things to yourself which allow you to find truth where you are at the moment. I’d say we never find out anything new; we just remember it.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Explore Your Resistance

Rather than resist our resistance, we can allow ourselves to explore it in intimate detail, like a bug traveling across a flower, petal by petal. Examined at close range and without judgment, each form of resistance reveals its own rich texture.

—Noelle Oxenhandler, “Twirling a Flower”

Via Daily Dharma: How to Approach Pain

When pain arises, instead of immediately thinking, “How can I get rid of this?” we can say “Hello” to it, and ask, “What can I learn from this?” It’s not always easy to do this, but when possible, it turns the whole experience upside down.

—Ezra Bayda, “More than This Body”

Via Daily Dharma: The Key to Awakening

Although there are many different descriptions of the enlightened mind, there is one reference point of understanding that illuminates them all: the final uprooting of greed, hatred, and ignorance.

—Joseph Goldstein, “The End of Suffering”

Via Daily Dharma: A Fearless Journey

As we individuate, we learn to remain open to the nature of uncertainty in the journey, allowing ourselves to fearlessly unfold.

—Rob Preece, “The Solace of Surrender”