When we deny our experience, we are always moving away from something real to something fabricated. To live by this web of legend will always harm us. The truth may be difficult to open to, but it will never hurt us. What a tremendous relief to have the actual truth openly spoken: “There is suffering in this world.” Everything is up-front. There are no games, no pretense, no denial. To acknowledge the truth of suffering allows us to feel our unity with others. The goal of our spiritual practice is to be able to understand, to be able to look without illusion at what is natural in this life, at what is actually happening for others and for ourselves. This willingness to see what is true is the first step in developing compassion.

~Sharon Salzberg

when all the predictable distractions fail us….

inquiry for today~ when the new day reminds us we can be more awake, what then?

hiding under psyche

When we practice, we are really acknowledging that in this moment, we are on the road of life The path unfolds in this moment and in every moment while we are alive. Meditation is more rightly thought of as a “Way” than as a technique. It is a Way of being, a Way of living , a Way of listening, a Way of walking along the path of life and being in harmony with things as they are. This means in part acknowledging that sometimes, often at very crucial times, you really have no idea where you are going or even where the path lies. At the same time, you can vey well know something about where you are now (even if it is knowing that you are lost, confused, enraged, or without hope). On the other hand it often happens that we can become trapped into believing too strongly that we do know where we are going, especially if we are driven by self-serving ambition and we want certain things very badly.

All events, whether we see them on the surface as good or bad, are fundamentally in harmony with the Tao. Tao and Dharma also mean the way things are, the law that governs all of existence and non-existence. It is our job to learn to perceive this underlying harmony, and to live and make decisions in accord with it. Yet, frequently, it is not exactly clear what the right way is which leaves plenty of room for free will and principled actions, and also for tension and controversy, to say nothing of getting lost entirely.

~Jon Kabat-Zinn