More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between
January 5 - January 8, 2022
If we take care of the suffering inside us, we have more clarity, energy, and strength to help address the suffering violence, poverty, and inequity of our loved ones as well as the suffering in our community and the world.
If, however, we are preoccupied with the fear and despair in us, we can’t help remove the suffering of others. There is an art to suffering well. If we know how to take care of our suffering, we not only suffer much, much less, we also create more happiness around us and in the world.
We don’t say that we “hit the bell” or “strike the bell.” Rather, we say we “invite the bell” to sound, because the bell is a friend, an enlightened friend that helps us wake up and guides us home to ourselves. Gentleness and nonviolence are characteristics of the sound of the bell.
“How lucky I am right now. I’m not in that situation. I can be happy.”—that
Anything you can do to lessen suffering in your community and in the world is known in Buddhism as Right Action. When you go to the supermarket, you can make the choice whether to practice Right Action or not. There are items for sale that have been produced by children who have no chance to go to school. There are items that have been made with materials that can be harmful. We are part of the collective whole, and even these individual decisions about what to consume affect the collective consciousness.
The practitioner is an artist; she knows how to bring happiness into the here and the now, with her practice.
May I be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May she be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May he be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May they be peaceful, happy, and light in body and spirit. May I be safe and free from injury. May she be safe and free from injury. May he be safe and free from injury. May they be safe and free from injury. May I be free from anger, afflictions, fear, and anxiety. May she be free from anger, afflictions, fear, and anxiety. May he be free from anger,
...more
What do you do to nourish yourself?
“Did I live in the direction of my ideals today?” If you see that you took two or three steps in that direction, that is good enough. If you didn’t, say to yourself, “I’ll do better tomorrow.”
Attachment obstructs the flow of life. And without mindfulness, attachment always becomes aversion. Both attachment and aversion lead to suffering.
When we fall down, we have physical pain. When we’re sad, we call it emotional pain. But mind and body are not separate, and suffering is not just an emotion. We hold suffering in our body. The practice of deep relaxation is a way to acknowledge and soothe the suffering in the body and the suffering in the mind.
If you have mindfulness, concentration, and insight then every step you make on this Earth is performing a miracle.
