You Are IT

Mindfulness practice offers the restraint necessary to overcome the tug of desire upon the senses.

As we notice the mind wandering off to explore a gratifying train of thought, or as we notice the body’s urging to nudge ourselves into a more comfortable position, we gently abandon the impulse and return attention to the primary object of awareness.

We do this again and again, until the mind becomes content with being fully present with what is manifesting here and now in the field of experience, rather than rushing off for some other form of stimulation.

As the mind settles down it becomes considerably more powerful, and thus more empowered.

– Andrew Olendzki, “The Ties that Unbind”

Sages since time immemorial have explained the problems of pollution. If one does not have all that false consciousness, emotional and intellectual opinionatedness, and conceptual habituation, one is clear as autumn water, pure and uncontrived, placid and uninhibited.

Such people are called Wayfarers, or free people.

– Kuei-Shan (771-854)

Let me be a student, humble as can be,

Or the proud house holder of a fancy home,

An ascetic, standing stiffly like a gnome,

Or any other form, as it pleases Thee.

What use is this on the path to liberty?

Oh Bhagavan, when my Heart-lotus is Thine,

I become yours, no longer ‘me’ or ‘mine’;

One’s burden of life is Thy responsibility.

Whether I dwell in town or in mountain cave,

My mind will still go wandering along with me;

The solution that Lord Ramana gives to save,

Is rest at peace, and be eternally free,

Just surrender monkey mind to one’s dear Self,

And slay that sad ghastly ghostly ego elf.

– Alan Jacobs

Only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core into the other person, without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without creating “the other,” reducing the other into a thing, and without becoming addicted with the other.

They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other.

– OSHO

There is no path or way you must walk and there is no gate through which you must pass. That is why they speak of the “gateless gate” in Zen.

Throw off the terrible burden of your own salvation!

There is a moment when all seeking comes to an end and the seeker is seen as a notion or concept with no substance or reality.

That moment is NOW.

– Richard Young

Staying awake means continually reevaluating the ground on which we walk. Buddha wasn’t trying to be humble when he told us to think for ourselves; it’s the very essence of his teaching:

Do not be satisfied with hearsay or with tradition or with legendary lore or with what has come down in scriptures or with conjecture or with logical inference or with weighing evidence or with liking for a view after pondering over it or with someone else’s ability or with the thought, “This monk is our teacher.” When you know in yourselves, “These things are wholesome, blameless, commended by the wise, and being adopted and put into effect they lead to welfare and happiness,” then you should practice and abide in them.—From the Kalama Sutra

– Stephen Schettini, “A Sense of Belonging”

If we lack inner freedom, any intense sensory experience can generate strong attachments that entangle us. On the other hand, if we know how to perfectly maintain our inner freedom, we can experience all sensations within the pristine simplicity of the present moment, in a state of well-being that is free from grasping and expectation.

When desire is particularly intense and is experienced as an affliction, we begin by using antidotes. Two diametrically opposed mental states cannot arise at the same time toward the same object.

For example, we cannot wish to harm and benefit another person at the same instant, just as we cannot shake someone’s hand and give him a punch in the same gesture. The more we generate inner freedom from attachment, the less “room” there will be for craving in our mental landscape. If we use the antidote of non-attachment each time a craving arises, not only will it be effectively counteracted, but also the very tendency to crave will gradually erode until it eventually disappears.

– Matthieu Ricard, “Working with Desire”

Frequently, our natural impulse to do good deeds is confused with other motives. This is not surprising, considering how often we’re given the message, especially in our early years, that to do good means to be good.

In being told we’re good when we’re helpful, we receive the praise we crave. Yet once we confuse helpful behavior with our own needs, we’re locked into a pattern that undermines our genuine desire to do good.

– Ezra Bayda, from The “Helper” Syndrome

We are one with God when we are born and remain so until we leave this material world. The only thing truly special that can happen while we’re here is if we wake up to these truths and directly experience the love and light of God which is within all of us. Sometimes we wake up to this bliss and beauty, but more often we don’t.

But, if we don’t wake up, that’s OK, too. Because, we’re each manifestations of the universe (God) being aware of itself, whether it’s awareness of good or bad. And, more importantly, whether we are aware of that awareness or not.

Life can’t be love and bliss exclusively for the same reason everything can’t be up and white. The world has to have down and black, too. Both the physical and the metaphysical require the positive AND the negative. This world requires the unaware as well as the aware.

Sadly (at least to our egos) we can’t ALL be angels or “enlightened”. If that were to happen, there wouldn’t be anything to keep the universe in motion! Just like an electric motor won’t spin if it doesn’t receive both positive and negative currents.

I suppose the world needs spiritual ditch diggers, too. I’ve got a strong back, so I’m cool with that.

Saṃsāra

(Sanskrit; Pāli, flowing on)  The cycle of repeated birth and death that individuals undergo until they attain nirvāṇa.  The cycle, like the universe, is believed to have no beginning or end and individuals transmigrate from one existence to the next in accordance with their karma or moral conduct.  Blinded by the three roots of evil (akuśala-mūla), namely greed, hatred, and delusion, beings are said to wander in saṃsāra until such time as they are fortunate enough to hear the Dharma and put it into practice.

– Oxford University Press