Philosophy 04 (Jan 25 - Dec 26)

[winston]

Let Go of Results

Sitting 10,000 hours on a cushion does not entitle you to any kind of insight or enlightenment.

We have to be open to the fact that we may not achieve anything that corresponds to our preconceived idea of what the goal of the practice might be.

- Stephen Batchelor, “Waiting for Something to Happen”

[winston]

Determination to Be Free

In Tibetan, one of the main terms for renunciation — nge jung — can be translated as “the determination to be free.”

“Free of what?” you might wonder.

Free of the suffering that comes when we depend on circumstances outside our control to be content — like a job, another person or a certain status.

- Susan Kaiser Greenland, “Letting Go and Letting Be”

[winston]

No Absolute Truth

There’s nothing wrong with conceptualization per se; but when we take our opinions about any event to be some kind of absolute truth and fail to see that they are opinions then we suffer.

- Charlotte Joko Beck, “To Totally Be Under”

[winston]

Realizing Interconnectedness

When we realize that being fully alive is to be fully alive with and through others, the distinction between selfishness and altruism falls away.

- Christian Dillo, “Ecological Compassion”

[winston]

The Liberation Bandwagon

The only person we can lead to liberation is ourselves.

Everybody has to go alone.

Anybody who would like to come along is welcome.

The bandwagon is big, and yet there aren’t enough people on it.

- Ayya Khema, “Love Is a Skill”

[winston]

A Breath Away from Home

We are never more than a breath away from the home we share with the entire universe.

Meditation is just us checking back in.

- Jack Haubner, “Consider the Seed”

[winston]

Effort and Honesty

To meditate effectively, all we need to put forward, is our effort in following our immediate experience and our honesty in acknowledging it.

- Winton Higgins, “Ask Whether It Works, Not Whether It’s True”

[winston]

Be an Empty Vessel

An empty vessel refuses nothing and receives everything that is coming at it from all directions.

By practicing in this way, you can create more space to accommodate your own reactivity and the points of view of others.

- Wendy Egyoku Nakao, “Hold to the Center!”

[winston]

Your Mother in a Former Life

All beings have been your mother in a former life.

This is the concept my teacher presented to his class of Western students.

Holding this idea in our minds, he told us, would help us to generate a sense of connectedness and all-encompassing compassion.

- Kate Brandt, “When the World Is Perfect”

[winston]

Sitting Is Freedom

When I look for freedom today, I find it not in fantasy or in dreams but in my sitting practice.

What kind of freedom is it that exists in doing nothing?

It is the freedom not to interfere or react.

It is the freedom to merely observe.

- Ananda Baltrunas, “A Prison of Desire”