#664 Awareness & Love

     "How few understand what love really is, and how it arises in the human heart. It is so frequently equated with good feelings toward others, with benevolence or nonviolence or service. But these things in themselves are not love.
     Love springs from awareness. It is only inasmuch as you see someone as he or she really is here and now, and not as they are in your memory or your desire or in your imagination or projection, that you can truly love them, otherwise it is not the person that you love but the idea that you have formed of this person, or this person as the object of your desire not as he or she is in themselves.
    The first act of love is to see this person or this object, this reality as it truly is. And this involves the enormous discipline of dropping your desires, your prejudices, your memories, your projections, your selective way of looking ...a discipline so great that most people would rather plunge headlong into good actions and service than submit to the burning fire of this asceticism.
     When you set out to serve someone whom you have not taken the trouble to see, are you meeting that person's need or your own?"                                                          Father Anthony de Mello

#648 Just This, Right Now

"You must live in the present,

launch yourself on every wave,
find your eternity in each moment."

Henry David Thoreau


"I awoke only to find
that the rest of the world was still asleep."

Leonardo da Vinci

 

WisdomAtWork.com

#524 Life - As Is

     There's a deep (desperate?) drive in all of us towards perfection - having perfect stuff, experiences, relationships, and even wanting ourselves to be perfect. Haven't we all imagined or at least dreamed of being able to fly? Or having other "super-powers"? "And how's that working for you?"

     Real life sure is a big fat humility pill compared to our daydreams! Mindfulness practice helps us embrace real life, exactly as it is, so much easier.

     See also: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2012/05/dealing-with-trauma-adversity.html

Lerky - Devin & Natalie's guest of honour

#502 Self-improvement?

     Don't we all want to become better in some way? We may have recurrent daydreams of performing various actions better, looking better, becoming more likeable, more valued & appreciated, and thus feeling much better about ourselves. Essentially, we'd like to start from scratch & create a whole new "ideal" person.
     Letting go of self-judgment, and adopting self-acceptance & gentle kindness toward ourselves - as we are - is infinitely more beneficial AND practical than making ourselves feel sickeningly inadequate by constantly comparing ourselves to (our & society's) ideal, unreachable standards. This does NOT mean we succumb to the other extreme - failing to actively care for ourselves, others & the environment. There is a sane, practical middle way between obsessive perfectionism & giving up.
     Most importantly, we might be surprised to find that the quality of life we seek has little to do with our ideas of self-improvement, and almost everything to do with the state of being or level of consciousness which naturally manifests gentle, kind awareness.

Watatsumi Temple, Japan - by Xu Xiaolin - http://travel.nationalgeographic.com