Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self. – Sharon Salzberg
Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to “die before you die” – and find that there is no death. – Eckhart Tolle
We spend a lot of time looking for happiness when the world right around us is full of wonder. To be alive and walk on the Earth is a miracle, and yet most of us are running as if there were some better place to get to. – Thich Nhat Hanh
The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other; as has been said: “Everything breathes together.” – Plotinus
While our art cannot, as we wish it could save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all. Writing is survival. Not to write, for many of us, is to die. I have learned, on my journeys, that if I let a day go by without writing, I grow uneasy. Two… Read more »
The self is made of consciousness and mind. It is made of life and vision. It is made of the earth and the waters. It is made of air and space. It is made of light and darkness. It is made of desire and peace. It is made of anger and love. It is made of virtue and vice. It… Read more »
When we live superficially, when we are always outside ourselves, never quite “with” ourselves, always divided and pulled in many directions, we find ourselves doing many things that we do not really want to do, saying things we do not really mean, needing things we do not really need, exhausting ourselves for what we secretly realize to be worthless and… Read more »
When I walk out into the world, I take no thoughts with me. That’s not easy, but you can learn to do it. An empty mind is hungry so that you can look at everything longer and closer. Don’t hum! When you listen with empty ears, you hear more. And this is the core of the secret: Attention is the… Read more »
We need to take an in-depth look at our past. It never was the “good old days,” we just want to have that freedom and joy that we encountered when we were younger, and life seemed more manageable. The 1950s has been recast in the popular imagination as a bland, balmy era of simplicity and innocence—of sock hops and going… Read more »
If nothing else, 2020 is showing us that life is short and only getting shorter, and there is no time like the present. When I look back on my past and think how much time I wasted on nothing, how much time has been lost in futilities, errors, laziness, incapacity to live; how little I appreciated it, how many times… Read more »