The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have

by Mark Nepo

This is a deep paradox at work in us. For though we aspire to self-mastery and peace of mind, we are only momentarily whole.

As conscious beings living in bodies, we are worn down

by the days until we flash open t...

These are ...

enlightenment, when the clarity and compassion of centuries rise in us, and we are sudde...

to trip on the garbage the very next day or to say something hurtful the very next minut...

I used to think of these

come-downs as failures, as evidence that I wasn't trying hard enough, and they would prick me with

slivers of inadequacy. I often felt discouraged, as if there were something essential I just couldn't learn. For a while, I felt deeply flawed. But I have come to understand that this is only the earthiness of our human condition. It is not to be corrected or eliminated or transcended. Just accepted. We are in moments pure and ageless as light, and with the very next breath, we drop things or bruise the treasures of a lifetime. We need to soothe ourselves, not blame ourselves. We are rare, not perfect, and se...

espec...

c...

to...

r...

in

loved one and feel the result of you...

Wi...

ju...

your...

ea...

rem...

huma...

right me