In Love with the World: A Monk's Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying

Every instance that brings attention to change helps us stabilize the understanding of impermanence as the immutable condition of our lives.

night after night we actually undergo a mini-death. We get into bed each night with a solid sense of self. As our consciousness diminishes, the bonds that hold the conventional mind in place become unglued.

Short moments, many times.

Once we accept the fundamental transitory nature of our minds and bodies, then we can develop the confidence to dismantle our most entrenched patterns.

It is this death that allows our limited time in this impermanent body to flourish, and that enables us to live intimately with ourselves and with one another.

In the conventional view, life comes before death. In the wisdom view, ego-grasping death comes before life.

If it is better for me to be ill, Give me the energy to be ill. If it is better for me to recover, Give me the energy to recover. If it is better for me to die, Give me the energy to die.

All of life is a magic display of light and form, a universe of infinite blessings that invites us to turn our hearts inside out, and to love completely, to love until the inexhaustible end of dreams.

We inherently have free will, yet this only arises from an examined mind. Our future is influenced, but not determined or destined, by past conditioning. Until we learn how to examine our minds and direct our behavior, our karmic tendencies will compel habits to reseed themselves.