Philosophy 04 (Jan 25 - Dec 26)

[winston]

Each Breath a Goodbye

You part from things with every in-and-out breath.

You can’t base the meaning of your life on these things — and you don’t have to.

You can simply tell yourself that this is the way things are all over the world. The world offers nothing lasting.

- Phra Ajaan Fuang Jotiko, “Realization”

[winston]

Finding Freedom

Within formality, we can find our perfect informal freedom.

As our practice matures, we are able to find that freedom in every circumstance and make it available to others as well.

- Mel Weitsman, “Beyond Form and Emptiness”

[winston]

Growing Over Grasping

Some people have the idea that practicing Zen or any religion, is becoming God or Buddha, or even “becoming a good person.”

But if you are grasping to become “enlightened,” it’s like putting icing over a mold of cow manure.

Instead, we need to let our cow manure become compost.

- Barbara Rhodes, “Composting Our Karma”

[winston]

Touch Vulnerability

Breathe in for all those who are suffering and allow yourself to be touched by their current vulnerability.

Breathe out, letting the heartbeat transform their sorrow: “May all beings be free of suffering.”

- Devin Berry, “Love in Action”

[winston]

Don’t Hold Back

There are no guarantees — except the guarantee that holding back from life is a recipe for anguish.

- Oliver Burkeman, “It’s Worse than You Think”

[winston]

Take a Step, then a Breath

Mindfulness emphasizes stopping and pausing in daily life so that we can be fully present in each moment.

Through pausing, we can learn to release tension in the body, embrace our experience and cultivate happiness and joy.

- Valerie Brown, “‘The Teachings Are Alive in Us’”

[winston]

Play Is the Goal

Studying, working, driving, cooking or any other activity, so long as it only aims to get somewhere else, to achieve something else, cannot be the goal of life.

When we have achieved a goal, reached a destination or resolved a problem and have some free time, what do we do?

We play. Play is its own end.

- Bret W. Davis, PhD, “Acting in the Zone of Zen”

[winston]

The Joys and the Sorrows

If we can recognize and accept our pain, without pushing it away or clinging to it, we’ll be better able to see that joys and sorrows, are truly the same.

- Jessica Angima, “The Not-Knowing of Our Time”

[winston]

Just Being

It turns out that life doesn’t need a purpose to simply be what it is.

Does a tree need to find its purpose to grow? Does the wind need a reason to blow?

- Santiago Santai Jiménez, “Returning to Our Original Nature”

[winston]

The Mark of a True Practitioner

The mark of a true practitioner, is not what arises in your life and mind but how you work with what arises.

- Dzigar Kongtrul, “The Path of Patience”