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before you are fully conscious, you shift back and forth for a while between consciousness and unconsciousness, between the state of presence and the state of mind identification. You lose the Now, and you return to it, again and again. Eventually, presence becomes your predominant state.
darkness cannot survive in the presence of light.
the root of suffering is to be found in our constant wanting and craving.
You have an idea in your mind that “everything is okay,” but deep down you don’t really believe it, and so the old mental-emotional patterns of resistance are still in place. That’s what makes you feel bad.
To complain is always nonacceptance of what is.
Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.
Through surrender, you will be free internally of the situation.
Are you stressed? Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there? Stress is caused by being “here” but wanting to be “there,” or being in the present but wanting to be in the future.
As you move, work, run — do it totally. Enjoy the flow of energy, the high energy of that moment. Now you are no longer stressed, no longer splitting yourself in two. Just moving, running, working — and enjoying it. Or you can drop the whole thing and sit on a park bench. But when you do, watch your mind. It may say: “You should be working. You are wasting time.” Observe the mind. Smile at it.
Waiting is a state of mind. Basically, it means that you want the future; you don’t want the present. You don’t want what you’ve got, and you want what you haven’t got.
So give up waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slipping into waiting . . . snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be, and enjoy being.
It knows that the present moment is its own death and so feels very threatened by it. It will do all it can to take you out of it. It will try to keep you trapped in time.
if your destination, or the steps you are going to take in the future, take up so much of your attention that they become more important to you than the step you are taking now, then you completely miss the journey’s inner purpose, which has nothing to do with where you are going or what you are doing, but everything to do with how
Your outer journey may contain a million steps; your inner journey only has one: the step you are taking right now.
The sooner you realize that your outer purpose cannot give you lasting fulfillment, the better.
More time cannot free you of time.
Try a little experiment. Close your eyes and say to yourself: “I wonder what my next thought is going to be.” Then become very alert and wait for the next thought. Be like a cat watching a mouse hole.
As long as you are in a state of intense presence, you are free of thought.
if he were hit, that would mean he was immersed in thought, which is to say absent, unconscious.
Something could happen at any moment, and if you are not absolutely awake, absolutely still, you will miss it. This is the kind of waiting Jesus talks about. In that state, all your attention is in the Now. There is none left for daydreaming, thinking, remembering, anticipating. There is no tension in it, no fear, just alert presence.
don’t make an effort to understand this. There is nothing that you need to understand before you can become present.
Darkness cannot recognize light. Only light can recognize light.
focus on what you are doing, but feel the inner body at the same time whenever possible. Stay rooted within.
Whenever you are waiting, wherever it may be, use that time to feel the inner body. In this way, traffic jams and lines become very enjoyable. Instead of mentally projecting yourself away from the Now, go more deeply into the Now by going more deeply into the body.
Just as the sun is infinitely brighter than a candle flame, there is infinitely more intelligence in Being than in your mind.
The moment you truly forgive, you have reclaimed your power from the mind.
Feeling will get you closer to the truth of who you are than thinking.
Most illnesses creep in when you are not present in the body.
Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field. Become aware of the stillness. When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative.
When the mind is running your life, conflict, strife, and problems are inevitable.
Make it into a meditation. It needn’t take long. Ten to fifteen minutes of clock time should be sufficient.
during a conversation, become conscious of the gaps between words, the brief silent intervals between sentences.
become aware of the space that is all around you. Don’t think about it. Feel it, as it were. Pay attention to “nothing.”
Most people carry too much residual resistance, too much fear, too much attachment to sensory experience, too much identification with the manifested world. So they see the portal, turn away in fear, and then lose consciousness.
The end of illusion — that’s all that death is. It is painful only as long as you cling to illusion.
Most people pursue physical pleasures or various forms of psychological gratification because they believe that those things will make them happy or free them from a feeling of fear or lack.
You see time as the means to salvation, whereas in truth it is the greatest obstacle to salvation.
You “get” there by realizing that you are there already. You find God the moment you realize that you don’t need to seek God.
Their drama makes them feel alive.
Every addiction arises from an unconscious refusal to face and move through your own pain. Every addiction starts with pain and ends with pain.
Every addiction reaches a point where it does not work for you anymore, and then you feel the pain more intensely than ever.
If they only knew how easy it is to access in the Now the power of presence that dissolves the past and its pain,
First you stop judging yourself; then you stop judging your partner. The greatest catalyst for change in a relationship is complete acceptance of your partner as he or she is, without needing to judge or change them in any way.
As soon as the mind and mind identification return, you are no longer yourself but a mental image of yourself, and you start playing games and roles again to get your ego needs met.
If you react at all to your partner’s unconsciousness, you become unconscious yourself.
Do not accuse each other of being unconscious. The moment you start to argue, you have identified with a mental position and are now defending not only that position but also your sense of self. The ego is in charge. You have become unconscious.
“being the knowing” rather than “being the reaction” and the judge. You will then either be totally free
If you practice this, your partner cannot stay with you and remain unconscious.
Learn to listen to your partner in an open, nondefensive way.
Accusing, defending, attacking — all those patterns that are designed to strengthen or protect the ego
