...

@suzianne said
This is wisdom.

Patience coupled with courage.


I've been engaged twice. The first time, to a man with bipolar disorder who ended up blowing his brains out all over our bedroom wall, the second time, to a man I found in bed with another woman one week before the wedding. I am not confident I will ever find "the one". I know several couples with what seems to me to ...[text shortened]... looks like.

My first yardstick was my parents' relationship. I may be setting the bar too high.

I'm sorry Suzianne. I can't even begin to imagine your pain. 😢

@hakima said
Have you ever felt that you really didn’t like being here very much and that you wanted some wonderful eternal experience? That’s what is often thought but not said when the teacher says, "Be here right now." Inside you are feeling, "I am here, and I don’t like being here. I want to be there, where enlightenment is." If you have a really true teacher, you will be told that you ...[text shortened]... zero. Emptiness that is awake. Emptiness that is full. Emptiness that is everything.

~Adyashanti

On the one hand, it's all about mindfulness. But on the other hand, you're not who you think you are. Westerners especially tend to over-rationalize and over-explain things. At some level you have to stop thinking and just experience who you are. J. Krishnamurti's "Commentaries on Living" (3 vols.) offer good insights into this.

@moonbus said
On the one hand, it's all about mindfulness. But on the other hand, you're not who you think you are. Westerners especially tend to over-rationalize and over-explain things. At some level you have to stop thinking and just experience who you are. J. Krishnamurti's "Commentaries on Living" (3 vols.) offer good insights into this.

upon the idea of stop thinking
difficult for me to do, so i read about the action...

In Contemplation of Mount T'ai

Mountain of Mountains it's called. Why so?
The green of Ch'i and Lu is lost to view.
Here Creation crystalizes grace.
With north and southern slopes
Defining dusk and dawn.
Chest straining, where thick clouds grow.
Eyes bursting to see returning birds.
Shall I, one day, attain that final summit?
All other mountains, at a glance, grown small?
- Tu Fu

@rookie54 said
upon the idea of stop thinking
difficult for me to do, so i read about the action...

In Contemplation of Mount T'ai

Mountain of Mountains it's called. Why so?
The green of Ch'i and Lu is lost to view.
Here Creation crystalizes grace.
With north and southern slopes
Defining dusk and dawn.
Chest straining, where thick clouds grow.
Eyes bursting to see retur ...[text shortened]... Shall I, one day, attain that final summit?
All other mountains, at a glance, grown small?
- Tu Fu

Yes, it is extraordinarily difficult. As Gandhi said, it is easier to control the wind than the mind.

EDIT: the poets are much better at expressing this sort of thing. I'm too much of a nerd to write poetry and smart enough to know I shouldn't even try to.

@moonbus said
Yes, it is extraordinarily difficult. As Gandhi said, it is easier to control the wind than the mind.

EDIT: the poets are much better at expressing this sort of thing. I'm too much of a nerd to write poetry and smart enough to know I shouldn't even try to.

lol...
intelligence has naught to do with poetic revelations...

@wolfe63 said
I'm sorry Suzianne. I can't even begin to imagine your pain. 😢

Eh, we experience, we learn, we move on and we grow. It is the way of the world.

The only other option is to 'check out' and stop feeling, stop growing, stop learning. Not really an option for most.

@suzianne said
Eh, we experience, we learn, we move on and we grow. It is the way of the world.

The only other option is to 'check out' and stop feeling, stop growing, stop learning. Not really an option for most.

(((ms suzianne)))

The master said,
“With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink,
and my bent arm for a pillow;
I have still joy in the midst
Of these things.
Riches and honors acquired by
Unrighteousness to me as a floating cloud.
- Confucius (551-479)

Let Love Live

The host of thieves who are my own disturbing conceptions
Will search for a good opportunity,
Having found it they will steal my virtue
And destroy the attainment of life in a happy realm.
--Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva

@rookie54 said
lol...
intelligence has naught to do with poetic revelations...

Quite so. Poetry refreshes the parts that machine code cannot reach.

The seed of mystery lies in muddy water.
How can I perceive this mystery?
Water becomes clear through stillness.
How can I become still?
By flowing with the stream.
- Lao-tze

@rookie54 said
The seed of mystery lies in muddy water.
How can I perceive this mystery?
Water becomes clear through stillness.
How can I become still?
By flowing with the stream.
- Lao-tze

We'll see what happens...

@hakima

removed by poster

Hmmm, was that the emptiness which is full of itself? The Tao which can be spoken is not the Tao, etc.?

Countless words
count less
than the silent balance
between yin and yang
― Lao Tzu

The truth of Zen,
Just a little of it,
Is what turns one’s
Life of monotonous,
Commonplace actions,
Into one of art,
Full of genuine inner creativity.
- D.T. Suzuki