Month: September 2010

For the rest of ….

/ Debra

For the rest of your life to be as meaningful as possible, engage in spiritual practice if you can. It is nothing more than acting out of concern for others. If you practice sincerely and with persistence, little by little, step by step you will gradually reorder your habits and attitudes so as to think less about your own narrow concerns and more about others and thereby find peace and happiness yourself. ~ His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama

our teachers

/ Debra
“In India, I was living in a little hut, about six feet by seven feet. It had a canvas flap instead of a door. I was sitting on my bed meditating, and a cat wandered in and plopped down on my lap. I took the cat and tossed it out the door. Ten seconds later it was back on my lap.
We got into a sort of dance, this cat and I…I tossed it out because I was trying to meditate, to get enlightened. But the cat kept returning. I was getting more and more irritated, more and more annoyed with the persistence of the cat.
Finally, after about a half-hour of this coming in and tossing out, I had to surrender. There was nothing else to do. There was no way to block off the door. I sat there, the cat came back in, and it got on my lap. But I did not do anything. I just let go.
Thirty seconds later the cat got up and walked out. So, you see, our teachers come in many forms.” ~ Joseph Goldstein

when a feeling of strong anger…

/ Debra

“When a strong feeling of anger arises in the mind, with such force that you want to fight and to destroy someone, is the angry thought holding a weapon in its hand? Could it lead and army? Might it burn anyone like fire, crush them like a stone, or carrying them away like a raging river? No. Anger, like any other thought or feeling, has no true existence.”

~ Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

Befriend Who You Are

/ Debra

Lovingkindness—maitri—toward ourselves doesn’t mean getting rid of anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy, we can still be angry. We can still be timid or jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest. ~ Pema Chodron