Acceptance

Avoidance

If you try to avoid something, it’s still affecting you.
The problem with our emotions is that we don’t relate to them as states.
When we learn to acknowledge, embrace, and understand of our suffering, we suffer much less.
The function of mindfulness is to recognise the suffering, then take care of it, embrace it, cradle it with tenderness.
When a painful emotion comes up, stop whatever you’re doing and take care of it.

It is a rare gift to simply meet with openness and clarity what life brings our way… We have the very mistaken belief that it’s simply not enough.
We meet the conditions of our work, our relationships, our politics, and our finances not as they are but wrapped up with glitzy ideas about the way they should be.
Fear and shame inside push critical words outside.
We risk missing the precious unfolding of life as it is right now in the pursuit of an imagined future outcome or destination.
Question our beliefs about what we think our life should be and to turn our effort toward full presence of how it is.
Our idea of happiness can be the main obstacle keeping us from happiness.
Not let go of reality. Let go our of wrong ideas and perceptions about reality.

Be free in the midst of it all.
The things that are most difficult for us almost always have the most to teach us.
Being well integrated with any matter or thing, we will naturally come to be liberated from our attachment to them.
The way to be liberated from suffering is to be quickly absorbed into it.
Sameness brings peace, difference brings energy.
Notice that your heart is big enough to include things that get you down and what inspires you, lifts you up, or gives you hope.
If you can recognise and accept your pain without running away from it, you will discover that joy can be there at the same time.
Don’t ignore your suffering. Just allow the positive seeds already there to get attention and nourishment.

The answering is in the questioning.
This is what practice teaches us—always question, and never look for the answers. Just let them come forth and reveal themselves to us.
Don’t demand an answer. Just invite it.
As in all inquiry, you’re not demanding or measuring. You are just inviting by purposely bringing awareness to your point of inquiry. The power of this exercise is in the posing of questions that seek no answer.

The truth can’t be comprehended intellectually.
As barriers arise, one learns to acknowledge them, to understand them intimately, to let them go.
Each step, each action that brings us closer to the goal, is the goal itself.
When we don’t hold on to some idea of ourselves and a particular way we have to react, then we are free to respond openly, with reverence and consideration for all the life involved.
Continue training long and steadily.
Think of it as having come to Hell in order to inspect its facilities for the purpose of improving them.
Nothing special, just using what is at hand and putting it to good use.
Meditation is not about getting somewhere but about being where we are.
Over time, as we ripen, we are more and more able to meet situations that we might have considered a burden as opportunities to engage.
The practitioner does not let doubt or fear get in the way of the successful completion of an objective.

The liturgy of everyday life.
In the midst of the fire of greed, anger, and ignorance of the world, the lotus blooms. That is your practice.
Our everyday life, filled with noise and lively activities of people, must be the most convenient dojo to practice Zen in movement.
It is the custom of Zen to make use of anything at any time as material for training.

Jar the mind out of its self-limiting, routine outlook, and thinking patterns.
Don’t overthink. Take yourself by surprise.
Thoroughness of commitment, uncompromising honesty.
Koans are a good way to … harness the energy of inquisitiveness and activate intuition.

Added 2024-03-09.