life is available only in the present moment

"We’re afraid all the time of what the future will bring—afraid we’ll lose our jobs, our possessions, the people around us whom we love. So we wait and hope for that magical moment—always sometime in the future—when everything will be as we want it to be. We forget that life is available only in the present moment."

- Thich Nhat Hanh, "Free From Fear", tricycle.com

life is trial and error

"Life is trial and error. Those who succeed are those who survive their failures and keep trying."

- L. E. Modesitt, Jr. “Fall of Angels.” Tom Doherty Associates, 1996

the pilgrimage into our own heart

“Be Here Now opened doors to our deeper selves, clarifying and calming the tumult of insight and upheaval and helping many of us take the first step on the pilgrimage into our own heart.”

- Ram Dass & Rameshwar Das. “Polishing the Mirror.” Sounds True.

a life lived in betrayal of what one is

"...a life lived in betrayal of what one is cannot be considered a life lived."

- L. E. Modesitt, Jr. “Scion of Cyador.” Tom Doherty Associates, 2000

be willing to experiment with our time and attention

“The point is not to hate the stuff we’ve bought, or berate ourselves for being a news junkie, or withdraw from modern life, but to be willing to experiment with our time and attention, connecting more fully with our life as it happens”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Real Happiness - Enhanced Ebook Edition.” Workman Publishing, 2010.

if we could let go

"The very act of clinging causes mental distress—have you ever noticed that longing hurts? Moreover, the exertions are futile since grasping cannot extend the life of pleasure, not even by a nanosecond. As for unpleasant sensations—in truth, they disappear in a moment, too. But when you feel averse to them, the pain doubles. It’s like trying to remove a thorn in your foot by piercing the skin with a second thorn. If we could let go, the mind wouldn't suffer."

- Cynthia Hatcher, "What's So Great About Now?"

our unique expression of the truth

“The spiritual path does not present us with a prescribed, pat formula for everyone to follow. It is not a matter of imitation. We cannot be Mother Teresa or Gandhi or the Buddha. We have to be ourselves. We must discover and connect with our unique expression of the truth. We must learn to listen to and trust ourselves.”

- Jack Kornfield. “Bringing Home the Dharma.” Shambhala Publications.

sometimes you don’t

“Sometimes you have the power to make things happen. Sometimes you don’t.”

- Judith Orloff, M.D. “The Ecstasy of Surrender.” Harmony Books, 2014-04-01.

an attitude of the soul

“True contentment is not just existential. It is an attitude of the soul rather than of the ego or personality. It is a view of life from the soul plane.”

- Ram Dass & Rameshwar Das. “Polishing the Mirror.” Sounds True.

aim our mind toward something bigger

“Knowing that we can make different choices, decide on new paths, aim our mind toward something bigger, and sustain our vision no matter what comes up, reminds us that we always have a source of light, whatever dark room we may enter.”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

gentleness is more helpful than anger

“According to psychologist Kristin Neff, self-compassion has three main components. The first is self-kindness, which means cutting ourselves some slack when we fall short of our own expectations. Rather than berating ourselves, we acknowledge that imperfection, failure, and painful difficulties are inevitable in life. Self-compassionate people understand that gentleness is more helpful than anger when we cannot meet our own ideals.”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

look how holy you’re becoming

“you’ve really been working on yourself

and you’re very pure and something very

high happens to you: You feel liberated.

And then: your ego walks around and pats you

on the shoulder: “pretty good!

look how holy you’re becoming.”

and you fall. . . . . .again. . .”

- Ram Dass. “Be Here Now (Enhanced Edition).” HarperCollins, 2010-10-26.

the quality of how we live now

“It is like Nietzsche’s concept of “eternal recurrence”: everything we do, he said, we should be willing to redo for eternity. Everything we do reverberates for eternity, so our ultimate concern should be the quality of how we live now.”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

self-imposed suffering

“Getting caught up in memories of the past or worrying about the future is a form of self-imposed suffering.”

- Ram Dass & Rameshwar Das. “Polishing the Mirror.” Sounds True.

knowledge gives way to wisdom

“As I became more absorbed in the heart, I found it to be a place where separation disappears and knowledge gives way to wisdom.”

- Ram Dass & Rameshwar Das. “Polishing the Mirror.” Sounds True.

true wealth

“True wealth is contentment, and happiness is forgetting to worry how you are and how much you have.”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

enough room to breathe

"One thing I have learned about this method, contemplative cooking, is that if you want to make anything from scratch, including your own peace of mind, you must, as Sagan advised, first invent a universe where that is possible for yourself. Where there is enough room to breathe into a more peaceful, easy, loving, and potentially wise version of yourself."

- Stacia Trask. "Strawberry-Rhubarb Being, From Scratch-That." www.peacefoodlove.com.

the reasons we judge ourselves

“One of the reasons we judge ourselves harshly is our belief that we ought to have far greater control over outcomes in life than we do.”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

counting on a changeable world

“If we are counting on a changeable world, outside of our dominion or control, to give us a feeling of self-worth, we’re in trouble.”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

being right or being happy

“When you find yourself in conflict, do you care more about being right or being happy? Can you step down off your pedestal long enough to acknowledge that being right might not matter if it only prolongs suffering?”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

the energy of tolerance

“Your anger at anger effectively becomes the energy of tolerance.”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

love is so sacred

"To commit to love is fundamentally to commit to a life beyond dualism. That’s why love is so sacred in a culture of domination, because it simply begins to erode your dualisms: dualisms of black and white, male and female, right and wrong."

- bell hooks, "Agent of Change", tricycle.com

the grace of letting go

“the grace of letting go at the right moment—the ability to accept what is, to exhale, and to flow downstream with the cycles of life instead of battling them”

- Judith Orloff, M.D. “The Ecstasy of Surrender.” Harmony Books, 2014-04-01.

the group imperative takes precedence

“They will have to expand their minds and embrace a vision in which the group imperative takes precedence over individual glory, and success comes from being awake, aware, and in tune with others.”

- Phil Jackson. “Sacred Hoops.” Hyperion.

get out of our own way

"We are born with all the wisdom, playfulness, and imagination we need; we just sometimes need a reminder to return to our senses and get out of our own way. Let go of whatever fears, assumptions, distractions, resistance, and busyness may be hampering you. Allow yourself to think and feel and live that way."

- Marc Lesser, "Do Less, Accomplish More", tricycle.com

a clear mind and open heart

“The trick is to experience each moment with a clear mind and open heart. When you do that, the game—and life—will take care of itself.”

- Phil Jackson. “Sacred Hoops.” Hyperion.

true joy comes from being fully present

“In basketball—as in life—true joy comes from being fully present in each and every moment, not just when things are going your way.”

- Phil Jackson. “Sacred Hoops.” Hyperion.

patience is peaceful awareness

“Patience is peaceful awareness in the midst of weathering life’s storms, giving us the ability to go on in the face of adversity.”

- Sharon Salzberg. “Love Your Enemies.” Hay House, 2013-09-11.

the ego is a bottomless pit of suckiness

"Spiritual change is precisely a process that is bigger than you. You don’t control it. You surrender to it. You don’t reinvent yourself through spiritual work. You face yourself, and then you must let go of all the ghastly things you find. But there is no end to these ghastly things. They keep coming. The ego is a bottomless pit of suckiness. And so you finally let go of the self that clings to itself (one definition of ego). True freedom comes when ego goes."

- Shozan Jack Haubner, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Enlightenment", tricycle.com

part of the truth

"There are times, when part of the truth, so long as that part is not a lie in and of itself, is better than the whole truth...But, if you do not tell the entire truth, you must always remember that you did not tell the entire truth, and each time you are tempted not to, you should ask whether you do so to make your path easier, or to aid others...or whether you do so for your own interests. If you find you are too often 'helping' others in that fashion, then you are deceiving yourself."

- L. E. Modesitt, Jr. “Princeps: A Novel in the Imager Portfolio.” Tom Doherty Associates.

our engagement with discord

"We made need to relinquish the hopeful images of ourselves as remaining serene under all circumstances, like sitting buddhas carved from wood or stone. We have to expect our composure to be compromised as we learn about the possibilities and creative solutions of working directly with the conflict in our relationships. Even, and maybe especially, when things don't turn out as we want, our engagement with discord refines and teaches us something, altering our life's very course."

- Diane Musho Hamilton, "Transforming Conflict," Tricycle Magazine, Winter 2013

there would be peace

"Peace is possible, here and now. If peace were as much a priority as, say, economic expansion, there would be peace. There’s no lofty Buddhist philosophy that’s necessary to explain it. It’s very simple. Peace is absolutely possible if you stop listening to people who would have you believe otherwise, and if we truly wish it."

- Samdhong Rinpoche, “Democracy in Exile”, tricycle.com

you can’t imitate someone else’s trip

“Each of us has our own path to follow, our own karma. You have to honor your own unique path. You can’t imitate someone else’s trip. Listen to your heart to hear what you yourself need, take what you can use from these practices, and leave the rest.”

- Ram Dass & Rameshwar Das. “Polishing the Mirror.” Sounds True.