Via Daily Dharma: Turning Problems into Possibilities

The moment you notice it, take hold of that mental affliction with your attention and purposefully turn it into an aspiration. It’s as though you see the mental affliction as raw material, the way a potter would view clay. You don’t see clay as a problem; you see it as an opportunity to create something.

—Lama Kathy Wesley, “Your Mistakes Are Progress”

Via Daily Dharma: Dare To Drop Your Resistance Inbox x

If we slow down and drop our resistance to work’s unpleasantness, we discover that we are resourceful enough to be daring, free from fear and arrogance. Such confidence enables us to know instinctively which situations need to be confronted, which should be nourished, and which can be disregarded.

—Michael Carroll, “Mahakala at Work”

Via Daily Dharma: The Heart of True Happiness

Happiness is awakening to the question "Who is happy, who is unhappy, who lives, and who dies?" True happiness is uncaused, arising from the very nature of being itself.

—Adyashanti, “Conceptions of Happiness”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - January 9, 2019 💌

When you know how to listen, everybody is the Guru - speaking to you - it's right here, always.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Here’s Your Chance

Our true self has no idea of being separate, because it is before all ideas and thinking. Each bow is a chance to wake up from the illusion that we are somehow separate from the universe.

—Zen Master Bon Yeon, “Up and Down”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - January 2, 2019 💌

As I have gone from identity with ego to identity with soul or the witness, I have found a space and a way in relation to the mystery of the universe that allows me to be with the suffering that lives on this plane, mine and others, in a way that doesn't overwhelm me. I'm not overwhelmed by my impotence to take it all away and I don't have to look away from it, and I deal with it as it arises.

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Making Sense of the Moment

Buddhist practice is never about creating goals and trying to achieve them. It’s about learning to see clearly for ourselves our own real state in each and every moment. As we come to see what life really is, we begin to behave more logically and ethically, because that’s what makes sense.

—Brad Warner, “The Enlightenment Pill”

Via Daily Dharma: Enjoying the Journey

Whatever technique one is using, remember that the spirit of practice is more important than the technique. Finding a way to enjoy just sitting is key. Sitting meditation is a refuge, not a test.

—Narayan Liebenson Grady, “The Refuge of Sitting”

Via Daily Dharma: Transformational Potential

The same power that moves the universe exists within our lives. Each individual has immense potential, and a great change in the inner dimension of one individual’s life has the power to touch others’ lives and transform society.

—Daisaku Ikeda, “On Hardship & Hope”

Via Daily Dharma: Out with the Old, In with the New

Hope is a great tool when it comes to forming new habits and letting go of older, obsolete habits. Hope opens the door to possibility and allows us to envision change, particularly change that we desire.

—Andrew Mellen, “UnStuff Your Life”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - December 30, 2018 🌟

The predicament with loving is the power of the addiction of the practice of loving somebody; of getting so caught in the relationship that you can't ever arrive at the essence of dwelling in love.

When you say "I'm in love with you," what you're really saying is that you are the key stimulus that is opening me to the place in myself where I am love, which I can't get to except through you. Can you hear that one?

- Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: Relax into Understanding

Be quiet, be still. Let the mind rest. Discover who you really are.

—Nina Wise, “Sudden Awakening”

Via Daily Dharma: What We Really Are

Practice is about seeing, hearing, being aware of, and clearly knowing [that] our true nature is the emptiness of all things.

—Dharma Master Hsin Tao, “Listening to Silence”

Via Daily Dharma: One Continuous Life

With practice, one day we will recognize that all phenomena are composed of and dependent upon the interaction and merging of [the] four elements. We will realize that all of it—the entire universe—is just one continuous manifestation. And that we, ourselves, are no different.

—Ayya Khema, “The Elemental Self”

Via Daily Dharma: One Continuous Life

With practice, one day we will recognize that all phenomena are composed of and dependent upon the interaction and merging of [the] four elements. We will realize that all of it—the entire universe—is just one continuous manifestation. And that we, ourselves, are no different.

—Ayya Khema, “The Elemental Self”

Via Daily Dharma: Staying Steady

Buddhist practice can help us enormously in continuing to give our attention to what’s actually appearing, as opposed to being swept away by the drama of the process.

—Frank Ostaseski, “On What to Do When the Going Gets Rough”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - December 26, 2018 🌟

What is common to all forms is not another form. What is common to all forms is choiceless awareness, it is pure love, it is flow and harmony with the universe. It is the absence of clinging. How does it all come together? If you follow all of the forms to the apex, you are pushed beyond form and into the moment. The passing show of forms, being created and existing then disappearing into formlessness.

 - Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: How to Love

Being is the source of love because learning to love means learning to be content with the life you have been given. Being fully present to what is—without judging or evaluating or wanting something different—is the most basic act of love.

—C. W. Huntington Jr., “The Miracle of the Ordinary”

Via Daily Dharma: A Gift Beyond Value

When we stop being busy and productive and switch to just being still and aware, we ourselves will also feel support, intimacy, and happiness, even if no one else is around. These positive feelings are a product that is much desired but that cannot be bought.

—Jan Chozen Bays, “The Gift of Waiting”