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meditation cuts through the illusion

Meditation cuts through all the illusion, all the projection, all the confusion we have about others and mostly about ourselves. It is coming face-to-face with the mind and with what the mind is really about. Understanding leads to penetrating insight into the illusion we have created for ourselves. This leads to liberation from suffering and a coemergent manifestation of compassion and wisdom. But we do not see it as a goal. We let go of goals and we focus on the act of meditation.

~  Rob Nairn, from What is Meditation?: Buddhism for Everyone (Shambhala Publications)

finding the right balance

It seems as though we have no choice but to act as though the world is permanent, solid, and predictable, and, at the same time, we must realize that everything around us is impermanent, fluid, and unpredictable. If we go too far toward believing in permanence, we will be thrown when something unexpected happens. If we lean too far toward a belief in impermanence, we may fall into the trap of not setting clear goals, not achieving what is within our potential, and living irresponsibly. This can be a way of preventing ourselves from failure or sometimes protecting ourselves from success.

~ Marc Lesser

our thoughts - like waves on the water

It’s only when we examine the mind correctly that we discover how many false assumptions we have - assumptions that, for the moment, are completely unnoticed. We cling to things as though they were permanent and will last forever. This is the measure of our delusion, tightly fettered as we are by this so-called “I” of ours - this “I,” in the interests of which, our mind enslaves our body and our speech, and creates all sorts of difficulties and hardships.
 
When we arrive at a correct understanding of the mind, we can see that our present thoughts are just like waves on the water. At one moment they arise; at another they dissolve. And that’s all there is to it: the mind is nothing but thoughts.
 

 ~ Dudjom Rinpoche, from Counsels from My Heart (Shambhala)

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck ~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

pema chödrön explains maitri

pema chödrön explains maitri

different kinds of love

Dharmavidya writes:

Buddha taught us to live in the "unconditioned". What is the unconditioned? The unconditioned, also called nirvana, is love. It is the love that Buddha talks about when he speaks of love, compassion, sympathy and equanimity. In Buddhism there are different ways of practising love. There is the love of the renunciant who loves all equally but with detachment and there is the love of the bhakti practitioner who loves passionately and devotedly. There is love for the Buddha and love for one another.

The problem for a great many Western practitioners, however, is the question whether the ordinary love of lovers has any place in Buddhism. Does being a Buddhist mean detaching oneself from one's nearest and dearest? Is it a matter of avoiding grief by never caring sufficiently about one person to be vulnerable? Undoubtedly some people do interpret Buddhism that way.

However, intimate relationship can also be a demanding spiritual path. In the midst of a close intimate relationship one is likely to be challenged at a greater psychological depth than in almost any other situation. Issues of power, commitment, willingness, self and selflessness, vulnerability, the management of emotional vicissitudes, the translation of sentiment into action, the challenges of conflicting loyalties - in fact all the stuff of real life, appears here often in magnified form. In an intimate relationship that remains alive one's habitual scripts and old karmic patterns are exposed. One's bluff is called. One goes through a process that changes one deeply and goes on being an ever unfolding mysterious process of discovery.

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Dharmavidya writes:

Buddha taught us to live in the "unconditioned". What is the unconditioned? The unconditioned, also called nirvana, is love. It is the love that Buddha talks about when he speaks of love, compassion, sympathy and equanimity. In Buddhism there are different ways of practising love. There is the love of the renunciant who loves all equally but with detachment and there is the love of the bhakti practitioner who loves passionately and devotedly. There is love for the Buddha and love for one another.

The problem for a great many Western practitioners, however, is the question whether the ordinary love of lovers has any place in Buddhism. Does being a Buddhist mean detaching oneself from one's nearest and dearest? Is it a matter of avoiding grief by never caring sufficiently about one person to be vulnerable? Undoubtedly some people do interpret Buddhism that way.

However, intimate relationship can also be a demanding spiritual path. In the midst of a close intimate relationship one is likely to be challenged at a greater psychological depth than in almost any other situation. Issues of power, commitment, willingness, self and selflessness, vulnerability, the management of emotional vicissitudes, the translation of sentiment into action, the challenges of conflicting loyalties - in fact all the stuff of real life, appears here often in magnified form. In an intimate relationship that remains alive one's habitual scripts and old karmic patterns are exposed. One's bluff is called. One goes through a process that changes one deeply and goes on being an ever unfolding mysterious process of discovery.

different kinds of love

Dharmavidya writes:

Buddha taught us to live in the "unconditioned". What is the unconditioned? The unconditioned, also called nirvana, is love. It is the love that Buddha talks about when he speaks of love, compassion, sympathy and equanimity. In Buddhism there are different ways of practising love. There is the love of the renunciant who loves all equally but with detachment and there is the love of the bhakti practitioner who loves passionately and devotedly. There is love for the Buddha and love for one another.

The problem for a great many Western practitioners, however, is the question whether the ordinary love of lovers has any place in Buddhism. Does being a Buddhist mean detaching oneself from one's nearest and dearest? Is it a matter of avoiding grief by never caring sufficiently about one person to be vulnerable? Undoubtedly some people do interpret Buddhism that way.

However, intimate relationship can also be a demanding spiritual path. In the midst of a close intimate relationship one is likely to be challenged at a greater psychological depth than in almost any other situation. Issues of power, commitment, willingness, self and selflessness, vulnerability, the management of emotional vicissitudes, the translation of sentiment into action, the challenges of conflicting loyalties - in fact all the stuff of real life, appears here often in magnified form. In an intimate relationship that remains alive one's habitual scripts and old karmic patterns are exposed. One's bluff is called. One goes through a process that changes one deeply and goes on being an ever unfolding mysterious process of discovery.