"The only thing that ever dies is the model you have in your mind of who you think you are. That’s what dies." - Ram Dass
We teach what we have learned. We act as we have been acted upon. A person who is not loving has not experienced love. It is not his fault. Realizing this gives rise to forgiveness.
"We’re all distracted by phenomena, everything that’s going on all the time.
Mindfulness is one of the practices for slowing down our lives, for
finding a way inside, for concentrating self-awareness. It can help us
to quiet down and find our way into who we are.
Finding our true self is a lifelong search. It’s not called practice for
nothing. You actually have to tread on the path to get somewhere. Not
that there’s anywhere to go, it’s just about becoming more here, being
more present in this moment.
Once we begin to explore our own psyche and mind and heart, we begin to
appreciate that everybody else is in the same situation. We’re not so
different. Each of us is an individual awareness living with our
particular karma or family situation or what we do, our cultural milieu.
Awareness itself is something that we all share. It’s what makes us
human and divine.
When you take away the content or the objects of awareness, thinking
about the weather or what you’re going to do today, and just stay with
the awareness, awareness is the same. That sense of interconnectedness
happens as a corollary to mindfulness practice or any kind of meditation
practice because awareness is a universal experience.
Interconnected consciousness is real. How we come to that experience
happens through many different avenues for different people. When we
realize our consciousness exists beyond our mind and senses, then we can
go about finding our true nature as the Zen Buddhists would put it.
Different traditions call the reality of consciousness so many different
things, from soul to pure mind, Buddha mind, but once we accept that
reality, it makes sense to embark on a practice that includes developing
awareness. That is the first step, having a new perspective outside the
constant I, me, mine of the ego. Once there is a movement beyond that
very self-centered point in time and space, then there is opportunity
for real change."
- Ram Dass -
The Dharma is the mind, not merely the brain, or the human spirit... It is vast and fathomless, pure and clear, altogether empty, and charged with possibilities. It is the unknown, the unnameable, from which and as which all beings come forth.
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When we choose to use mindfulness and meditation not only to become aware of our own grief and how it impacts our life but also to accept the inevitability of loss and of failure, we open ourselves up to new possibilities. We open ourselves up to beauty.
Liberation comes not by believing in the right set of tenets or of dogmatic assertions, or even necessarily by behaving in the right way. It’s insight, it’s wisdom, it’s knowing the nature of reality. It is only truth that will make us free.
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