Sharing a quote I bumped into today:

"Love is an expression of the willingness to create space in which something is allowed to change."

~ Harry Palmer

This makes me think about my willingness to accept and allow the people, places and things in my life to change (as they always will). I’m not always willing, and when I’m not, may I see these times as opportunities for me to practice being a more loving person.

Another quote from "Breath Sweeps Mind" that I would like to share:

This is from the Diamond Sutra: "Do not dwell on, or entertain anything that arises in the mind."

When you are practicing not dwelling, you are actually turning from the delusion of your dualistic thinking. You are aware of your dualistic thinking, you are returning to your sourceless source, which is the bright radiance and self nature of your mind.

These words are especially poignant for me right now as my company has just announced today that significant layoffs are to occur in the next 6 weeks or so. At this point no one knows who or exactly when, so of course my mind immediately jumps to the worst case scenario that I’m going to loose my job by the end of the year These things are out of my hands. And even though the thoughts my mind is manufacturing right now evoke real feelings of fear, they are not based on reality and I can practice just letting them go, not dwelling on them, not feeding them.

Here is a quote that just jumped out at me while listening to "Breath Sweeps Mind" this morning on the way to work and I wanted to share it:

"All sentient beings are allowed to live, and are from the beginning, forgiven for living their lives in this world. Everything, whatever it is, has some reason why it exists. Evil, good, even something neither evil nor good. You cannot destroy devils just because you don’t like them. Even though you don’t like monsters, still there is some reason why they exist. Everything is entitled to live in this world in peace and harmony beyond our judgment and evaluation. This is the first condition that we have to realize, because everything is Buddha."

~ Dainin Katagiri Roshi

The sentence that really hit home for me was "Everything is entitled to live in this world in peace and harmony beyond our judgment and evaluation." Everything and EVERYBODY. I have such strong habit energies around judging and evaluating. People, places, things, even my own experiences. I practice so that I may transform these unwholesome habit energies into wholesome ones. Thich Nhat Hanh teaches in this manner, as does Jakusho Kwong-roshi. I am honored to have their teachings as an example to follow. Gassho.

Thanks for the welcome PaperFrog.com.

Just wanted to pass on this nice site on the Dhammapada:
The Dhammapada: Verses and Stories

Wanted to share something from this audio learning program that I'm listening to. This is from "Breath Sweeps Mind" by Jakusho Kwong-roshi (dharma successor to the late Shunryu Suzuki-roshi):

"We just have to let the self go, stay in that place, experiencing our anger, despair, sadness and just feel or sense the texture of that place.

Feel the texture of what it's like to be in that place. That place of anger, despair, no hope, hopelessness, sadness. Just feel the texture of that place. Just feel and experience the texture of that place as it is."

The first time I heard this it just sounded so difficult to actually put into practice. It wasn't until last night that I actually tried it and was able to experience this. The key for me was to just let go. Let go of the resistance to sitting still with my anger. There were several times during my sitting that I wanted to just get up and end it. But with gentleness, I simply brought myself back to my breath and continued to sit. Now that I know this isn't something to be fearful of, maybe I will have less resistance the next time a strong emotion overwhelms me.