“No matter how bad a state of mind you may get into, if you keep strong and hold out, eventually the floating clouds must vanish and the withering wind must cease.” Al Paca
Advice from a Zen Master
Category: Acceptance
61 Candles
“Don’t think of this as your first step or last step. Just be here as a piece of life. That is the best way to be. You are not a young man; you are not an old man. You are just a piece of life.” Sadhguru, Life and Death in One Breath
Equine Advice
After watching a very small goat fight a very large pig I got bored and walked over to this horse. He was all alone and as calm as a virgin who never told a lie. I started taking pictures but had trouble finding the right composition.
I was getting more and more frustrated and I guess he could see it in my eyes. Then he looked right at me and said: “Listen, slow the **** down, equanimity arises when we accept the way things are.”
It turns out he was right, not everything has to be the way I want it to be, even a photo of a horse that quotes Jack Kornfield. I did end up cutting off his nose a bit but definitely not to spite his face.
What Flies?
“To accept, really to accept a situation, is to think and feel with the whole of one’s being that, even if one had the faculty of modifying it, one would not do it, and would have no reason to do it.” The Supreme Doctrine, Hubert Benoit
A Picture of Contentment
“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” Lao Tzu
Pictures of Lily
“A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is.” Jiddu Krishnamurti
Darkness Visible
“Enlightenment consists not in the seeing of luminous shapes and visions, but in making the darkness visible.” Carl Jung
Monkey Mind
The Buddha said that we all have monkey minds, with dozens of monkeys all clamoring for attention. Fear and anxiety are very loud monkeys, pointing out all the things we should be wary of and everything that could go wrong.
Daniel B. Smith, author of the book Monkey Mind writes: “Admit the anxiety as an essential part of yourself and in exchange that anxiety will be converted into energy, unstable but manageable. Stop with the self-flagellating and become yourself, with scars and tics.”
In other words, everybody’s got something to hide, except for me and my monkeys.
Letting Go
“How do you let go of attachment to things? Don’t even try. It’s impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them.” Eckhart Tolle
Note: this is mostly true for living room chairs but also applies to couches, especially if you have pets.
Calming the Storm
“You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” Timber Hawkeye
