Psychology 02 (Feb 14 - Dec 25)

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Ego’s Hidden Defenses

Resistance and fear can be signs.

You’re getting closer to the truth (of egolessness and emptiness), and ego’s hidden defenses spring into action.

- Andrew Holecek, “The Lost Art of Contemplation”

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Understanding Desire

Many of our desires are not obsessive but they still may be a driving force behind many of our actions.

The object of craving or desire can be small, even insignificant but the power of desire, is deeply rooted in our minds, almost like a primal energy.

- Joseph Goldstein, “Peeling Away the Promise of Desire”

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Resilience

Remember resilience just demands we respond in this moment for this moment.

It’s not the same as a long-term self-improvement plan.

- Sharon Salzberg, “Forever Connected”

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Don’t Fight Your Thoughts

Having thoughts is a natural consequence of having a mind.

Since it isn’t really possible to block thoughts, when we meditate, we don’t struggle against our thoughts by suppressing or blocking them.

Instead, we use an object to rest our attention on, neither pushing thoughts away nor engaging them further.

- Phakchok, “Creating a Confident Mind”

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Whatever Arises

By developing the ability to remain peaceably with whatever is arising in the moment, without judgment or reacting, you’re releasing the ropes that keep the mind stuck in the tug of war of dualistic clinging.

- Pamela Gayle White, “Simply Hear, Simply Here”

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Stopping the Downward Spiral

When we get really angry, resentful, fearful or selfish — we start to go a little unconscious.

We lose our awareness of what we’re doing with our body, speech and mind.

In this state, it’s all too easy to let ourselves spiral downward.

- Pema Chödrön, “On Not Losing Heart”

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Overcoming Divisions

If we can see more clearly through the lens of awareness, we recognize that while we are trained for division in so many ways, we are also inherently capable of experiencing connection with one another.

- Rhonda Magee, “Making the Invisible Visible”

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Inner Freedom

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.

- Matthieu Ricard, “Working with Desire”

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“It is by suffering that human beings become angels.”

- VICTOR HUGO

[winston]

Anger as a Revealer

We work to illuminate the fundamental truth of our self-nature.

When anger arises, it is pointing to something.

Our anger is a clue to our underlying beliefs about ourselves.

It can help to reveal our constructed sense of self-identity.

- Jules Shuzen Harris, “Uprooting the Seeds of Anger”