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Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - January 13, 2019 💌

In aging, our minds are often permeated by memories of the past or worries about the future. What gets missed is the present - and right there in the moment is the doorway into timelessness.

-  Ram Dass -

Via Daily Dharma: A Moment of Stillness

Stillness in the midst of motion and commotion is free of will, direction, and time. It is a complete letting be of what is from moment to moment.

—Toni Packer, “Unmasking the Self”

Via Daily Dharma: Letting Go of the Story

Witnessed without judgment, the spasms of defense and aggression, the hint of a child’s tears behind the eyes, relax and dissolve. The story of injury and humiliation dies on the vine.

—Joel Agee, “Not Found, Not Lost”

Via Daily Dharma: Just Listen

Open yourself to the music of the world in this moment, in this place.

—Martine Batchelor, “Instructions for Listening Meditation”

Via Daily Dharma: Free To Question

When we ask an open question we have not yet found an answer. And this leaves the mind free, unobstructed, and ready for adventure… There is nothing ignorant or vague about this openness, because questioning actively engages the movement and fluidity of life.

—Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel, “The Power of an Open Question”

Via Daily Dharma: Transform Challenges Into the Path

Every meditator has challenges. Rather than taking the obstacles as problems or as unfortunate distractions, a more useful attitude is to patiently and contentedly learn the skills and insights that can transform them into stepping stones along the path of practice.

—Gil Fronsdal, “Evaluate Your Meditation”

Via Daily Dharma: Finding What You Need

The perfect student is you. You have within you all the ingredients you need to practice. You are in charge, and once you realize this, you will seek—and find—all the help you need.

—Michael Wenger, “Competing with the Incomparable”

Via Daily Dharma: Nonviolence Starts Within

Meditation practice and the cultivation of heart-mind awareness give us the opportunity to respond to our emotions in a very nonviolent and compassionate way.

—Gerry Shishin Wick, “The Great Heart Way”

Via Ram Dass / Words of Wisdom - January 6, 2019 💌

To us Maharaj-ji often repeated, "Sub Ek!" "It's all One!" He had a gesture in which he would hold up his index finger, almost in admonition, as if to say, "Can't you see it's all One?" Buddha, Christ, Moses, and Krishna are all just different aspects of the same being.

- Ram Dass -

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”