Love yourself. This is the essence. Then take your very human imperfections and make beauty anyway.

~Jack Kornfield

there’s a sweet spot in the higher view…

inquiry for today~ how are you like Buddha in your search?

you can’t really forget

In darkness in a forest, the Buddha discovered that there is no such thing as a truly separate self, that we are all inextricably interconnected with each other and with the rest of life. 

The way we talk and act and live sends out ripples, and we cannot know in advance what consequence they might ultimately have. But we can speak and act and live in a more conscious way, understanding that the smallest gesture has impact. A smile or a piece of bread might save a life, a momentary meanness might cause lasting harm. The Buddha’s enlightenment was not to be a single blinding flash that lit up the skies, but a series of illuminations in the midst of darkness. His quest came down to opening his heart and mind in the dark, seeking a truth that was deeper than karma, under the myriad ways over myriad lifetimes he tried to deal with his pain. He waited as patiently as the trees that sheltered him, refusing to try to speed up the process, consenting to open fully to the life that presented itself. And a new light dawned, building on the insights that came before. Enlightenment may not have been a flash of lightning but a great lightening: certainty about how to lift the burden of our ignorance and fear.

~Trach Cochran