Our power comes not from suppressing others but from uplifting them.
Our root fantasy is that “I” am real and that it’s possible for “me” to be happy.
Your life and your practice should not be separate. You bring your practice into experience. You bring it about.
This is bravery: using the challenge of daily life to sharpen our mind and open our heart.
Movement is good for the body. Stillness is good for the mind.
Even when we speak of selflessness, the mind goes to “me.” We think, “I’m selfless,” but everything is selfless.
I write about whatever is timely – whatever is happening at the time for me – with what the expressive feeling is.
If we do not appreciate the sensitivity and subtlety of the human heart, how can we appreciate the sensitivity and subtlety of the natural world?
When the mind is totally present, it is relaxed, nimble, and sensitive. It feels lighter and clearer. It notices everything, but it is not distracted by anything. It is the feeling of knowing exactly where you are and what you are doing.
For a lot of us, the opposite of auspicious coincidence is obstacles. Life usually is a mixture of both, but as we begin to exhibit exertion, more and more auspiciousness happens.
The self-assured strength that grows from knowing that we already have what we need makes us gentle, because we are no longer desperate.
The most outrageous thing we can do in this world is to accept what happens and fly with it.
True happiness is always available to us, but first we have to create the environment for it to flourish.
The notion of auspiciousness is something positive, something with forward momentum, coming out of our actions.
What distinguishes Shambhala is its intention of trying to create a society based upon certain principles. So, Shambhala’s focus is not just on the individual, but on society as a whole.
If the mind is flexible, the world is flexible.
In meditation we are continuously discovering who and what we are.
We want to infuse our day with good habits so that we can turn seemingly mundane situations into a ceremony of goodness.
Meditation practice is relevant because in meditation our conceptual mind relaxes and we can feel who we are at heart.
It’s one thing to have the attitude of enlightenment and another thing to act in an enlightened way, which is conduct or activity...