Philosophy 04 (Jan 25 - Dec 26)

[winston]

Let Go and Be Mindful

Let go of everything but don’t be indifferent.

Let go with reason. Be neutral with mindfulness and wisdom.

Whatever can be done, we do it but our hearts harbor no attachment or aversion to them because attachment is one kind of suffering and aversion is another.

- Ajaan Suchart Abhijāto, “A Spoiled Child”

[winston]

Pain Is a Fact of Life

The pain of our own bodies, hearts and minds and the pain in the world, is not going away.

It’s just a fact of life.

We’re not going to outrun the pain but we can learn to actually practice with mitigating that pain if that’s possible.

- Sebene Selassie, “Finding Belonging in the Body”

[winston]

Accepting What Is

All of us have wanted things to be otherwise at some point in our lives.

All of us have wished for different choices, different stories, different results.

Yet there’s enormous strength — and infinite possibility — in learning to love what is, instead of what should have been and one way to do this is to learn to attend, allow and accept.

- Vanessa Goddard, “The Gift of Contemplation”

[winston]

Never Just One Mind

Consciousness itself is arising and passing away in each instant.

There is not one mind that is observing all phenomena; at every instant “mind” is created and destroyed.

- Joseph Goldstein, “The Nature of Concepts”