This accidental
meeting of possibilities
calls itself I.
I ask: what am I doing here?
And, at once, this I
becomes unreal.
- Dag Hammarskjöld
"Remembering not to identify with the story has been crucial - and very hard to do, because, in anger the story carries such obsessive power. But this for me really is, most fundamentally, what it means to be "religious." It means remembering, again and again, that the stories we tell ourselves - all those stories about loss, failure, shattered hope, betrayal, blame - are not what is most true about who we are. This is for me the true meaning of "taking refuge," this residing in the vast only don't know of practice."
- Noelle Oxenhandler
"A crucial first step in the process is to recognize that new forms of Buddhism, at their best, are based upon the creative ways of synthesizing meaning rather than on undermining the beliefs and practice of others. In other words, while it is not okay to say that others have got it wrong and this is the right way of looking at things, it is entirely appropriate (and natural) to say, "Here is an interesting new way of understanding things that I find particularly meaningful." Even if we get it wrong once in a while, better to be actively inquiring into the meaning of the dhamma at every opportunity than to passively accept tradition in a given form. We are not necessarily better at understanding these teachings because we are moderns or Westerners or humanists or typing on keyboards. We cannot assume the troubling bits, about miracles, rebirth, and hell realms, for example, must not be "true" and that we, of course, know better. It is possible to hold the greatest respect for all those who think differently from ourselves, for all those who construct their own meaning of these teachings differently than we do, and simply say at some point that we are not capable of seeing it that way."
- Andrew Olendzki
Meditation is old and honorable, so why should I
not sit, every morning of my life, on the hillside,
looking into the shining world? Because, properly
attended to, delight, as well as havoc, is suggestion.
Can one be passionate about the just, the
ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit
to no labor in its cause? I don't think so.
All summations have a beginning, all effect has a
story, all kindness begins with the sown seed.
Thought buds toward radiance. The gospel of
light is the crossroads of - indolence, or action.
Be ignited, or be gone.
- Mary Oliver
New and Selected Poems Volume Two
love is a place
If someone you didn't know
told you this,
as I am telling you this,
would you believe it?
Belief isn't always easy.
But this much I have learned -
if not enough else -
to live with my eyes open.
I know what everyone wants
is a miracle.
This wasn't a miracle.
Unless, of course, kindness -
as now and again
some rare person has suggested -
is a miracle.
As surely it is.
- Mary Oliver
from In The Storm
Thirst
growing orbits
love is a place
"I understand that everything I know and do is a product of imagination; and I can accept without difficulty that it is ultimately unreal; but I'm glad it exists, and will engage that existence with as much conscious awareness as I can possibly muster. This is plenty to work with, and it inspires me to make the very best of what is present for myself, those around me, and for the collective whole. The future well-being of us all, said the Buddha a long time ago, lies in the direction of less conceptual attachment to views and more mindful awareness of phenomena."
- Andrew Olendzki
"Since the entirety of our virtual world is being constructed in the present moment, it is crucial to learn to pay attention to this moment. Paying attention sounds simple; one might think we do it all the time, but we actually pay attention very little to what is going on in our present experience. The human mind is constantly swinging into the future and the past, and like a pendulum it passes through the present moment barely enough for us to keep our bearings. The Buddhists are not saying that we should cut off our sensitivity to the full range of experience and live ordinary life in some sort of eternal present. But in order to get beyond some of the embedded habits of the mind, in order to get free of some of the distortions and confusions to which we are subject, we need to train ourselves to attend very carefully and very deliberately to the process by which we construct past and future experience in the present moment. And this is largely what mindfulness practice is all about. It is accessing the present moment, and it involves cultivating the intention to attend to what is happening right now. Left to its own inclinations, the mind would much rather weave its way through some thought pattern that makes us feel good about ourselves, and lead us away from any kind of insight that might threaten our ideas about ourselves. The mind needs to be carefully and gently encouraged through constant practice to look carefully and deeply at what is unfolding in the immediately present moment."
- Andrew Olendzki
"You know what I believe? I remember in college I was taking this math class, this really great math class taught by this tiny old woman. She was talking about fast Fourier transforms and she stopped midsentence and said, 'Sometimes it seems the universe wants to be noticed.' That's what I believe. I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it - or my observation of it - is temporary?"
- John Green
quote book
"You have slept for millions and millions of years.
Why not wake up this morning?"
-Kabir
"Practice is allowing everything in your life to wake you up."
- Mirabai Bush
"We have to honestly ask ourselves what our priority is. Is it awakening? Or is dharma practice something I do simply to keep me cooled down?"
- Joseph Goldstein
a not unfamiliar phenomenon on the horizon of shimmering deserts."
- Vladimir Nabokov
