Ordinary Wonder Quotes

“In this book, you will find one of her favorite quotes, “Rest on that icy couch.” She explained this practice as resting bodily in the physical sensations, thoughts, and emotions. If you return to that icy couch, hour after hour, day after day, it becomes a gateway to freedom and contentment with whatever life brings forward.”
― Charlotte Joko Beck, Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice

“The film showed the work she had done that had enabled her to care for him as he was. Some people are not easy. We don’t want to care for people as they are. We want to care for them after they’ve made a few changes. You know, just a few. Then we might consider it.”
― Charlotte Joko Beck, Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice

“There is a film called Dead Man Walking about a Catholic nun who’s working with a man on death row. At the end of the film, someone says to her, “I wish I had your faith.” And she says, “It’s not faith really; it’s work.”
― Charlotte Joko Beck, Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice

“This in turn would begin to untangle the tangle of thoughts and emotions that lay at the heart of the suffering of the person’s “false, self-centered life,” a life that she called the “consolation prize.” She was clear that this process was not easy—was often painful—but led ultimately to complete transformation.”
― Charlotte Joko Beck, Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice

“She felt that five days of sitting still, silent, and experiencing everything that was happening in body and mind, internally and externally, would gradually open a person’s awareness of their core belief.”
― Charlotte Joko Beck, Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice

“Our thoughts are not to be relied on. They just come and go. Are they important? No, they’re not important. But until we know our thoughts a little bit, we believe them.”
― Charlotte Joko Beck, Ordinary Wonder: Zen Life and Practice