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The meditation orientation is not about fixing pain or making it better. It’s about looking deeply into the nature of pain—making use of it in certain ways that might allow us to grow. In that growing, things will change, and we have the potential to make choices that will move us toward greater wisdom and compassion, including self-compassion, and thus toward freedom from suffering.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, “At Home In Our Bodies”Posted on January 8, 2013 with 11 notes
Source: tricycle.com
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“If you want to see the essence of a lotus flower, you must see the lotus present in all the dharmas normally thought of as non-lotus, such as the sun, pond water, clouds, mud, and heat. Only by looking in this way can we tear asunder the web of narrow views, the web of mental discrimination which creates the prisons of birth, death, here, there, existence, non-existence, defiled, immaculate, increasing and decreasing … reality in itself cannot be expressed by conceptual knowledge or by written and spoken language. Only the understanding which meditation brings can help us recognize the essence of reality.”
Pages 466-467, Thich Nhat Hanh Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the BuddhaPhoto by Myth Girl
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When we learn to calm our minds in order to look deeply at the true nature of things, we can arrive at full understanding which dissolves every sorrow and anxiety and gives rise to acceptance and love … which in turn give rise to correct action … This is the secret treasure of mindfulness-it leads to the realization of liberation and enlightenment.
pages 120-121, Thich Nhat Hanh Old Path White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha -
Beautiful virtues for all to aspire. From Keown’s “Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction.”
Mindfulness is a beautiful path, regardless of your religion or belief system. I've been studying mindfulness and the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh and created this Tumblr when I was enrolled in a graduate course in Buddhist Traditions in 2012.
Blog: mythgirl.org
Twitter: @myth_girl
