morning practice

Insights

A living collection from my morning practice. Words, teachings, and reflections gathered along the way, and returned to often.

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Tao Te Ching page 28 — Don't chase after people's approval. The Master's mind is like a mirror.

Mindfulness is the awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

To remember the present moment — that this is happening right now, that this is it, this is all there is. The practice to keep in mind that I am here right now, and this is the whole thing.

Sati, traditional definition

Mindfulness is the sense of here-ing. Present moment awareness without a storyline attached, or being aware of the storyline as an observer. When my mind is truly here, there is no room for self-consciousness or fear or worry or regret. Because this is all there is.

Charles Freligh

Resist and suffer or accept and adapt.

Genuine change is only available in the context of uncertainty.

Can you drop into vertical awareness (here & now), as opposed to horizontal (then & there) grasping?

When I have right understanding, someone else's judgment becomes meaningless.

The Buddha's Eightfold Path

When my fundamental identity is the universe, there is no fear. Fear is a symptom of the self.

If you don't realize the source, you stumble in confusion and sorrow. When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused… Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you.

Tao Te Ching

Practice not doing, and everything will fall into place.

Tao Te Ching

Layman P'ang (c. 740–808) — When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace. Nothing real, nothing absent. Not holding on to reality, not getting stuck in the void, you are neither holy nor wise, just an ordinary fellow who has completed his work.

The best chance to be whole is to love whatever gets in the way, until it ceases to be an obstacle.

Mark Nepo

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself? The master doesn't seek fulfillment. Not seeking, not expecting, she is present, and can welcome all things.

Tao Te Ching

All this tells us that no amount of thinking can eliminate the wonder and pain of living. No wall or avoidance or denial — no cause or excuse — can keep the awareness of life from running through us.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

When we stop resisting reality, we create so much more space to respond from real presence.

If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.

Tao Te Ching

Having without possessing. Acting with no expectations.

Tao Te Ching

Humility means trusting the Tao, thus never needing to be defensive.

Tao Te Ching

If everything has a point, then there's merely endless pointing… away from here.

Tao Te Ching — The Master does his job and then stops. He understands that the universe is forever out of control.

Dropping all we have constructed as imperative allows us to be born again into the simplicity of the spirit that arises from unencumbered being.

Because she competes with no one, no one can compete with her.

Tao Te Ching

The stuff of our lives doesn't change. It is we who change in relation to it.

Being what you are is the simplest; what is difficult is to stop being what you are not.

Mooji

Happiness is when what we think, what we say, and what we do are in harmony — in harmony with the here & now, with reality.

The greatest struggle of all is the struggle not to struggle.

Sources