Nothing To It: Ten Ways to Be at Home with Yourself
our life is our practice; whatever presents itself to us in this moment is our opportunity to awaken. The point of our practice is to discover how we can make this thing in front of us something that’s nourishing and healing, something that’s life-giving.
Brother Phap Hai • Nothing To It: Ten Ways to Be at Home with Yourself
The concept that we hold of an absolute beginning of something that can be pinpointed in time, “birth,” and an absolute ending, a time when it is all over, “death” or “annihilation,” is a big root of many of our most deeply held fears.
Brother Phap Hai • Nothing To It: Ten Ways to Be at Home with Yourself
Suggested Practice Stopping One of the core practices of the Plum Village tradition is the practice of stopping. If you visit one of our monasteries, you will discover that every time a bell chimes, whether it is a clock, a monastery bell, or the telephone, we physically stop whatever it is we are doing, gently close our eyes, and enjoy breathing i
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the biggest waste of our time is comparing our practice to that of others. Our authentic spiritual lives begin when we give ourselves permission to embrace the particular journeys that we need to make. Each of us has our own unique struggles and strengths.
Brother Phap Hai • Nothing To It: Ten Ways to Be at Home with Yourself
We are always growing and changing from moment to moment. In the same way, we need to cultivate an attitude of allowing our practice to grow, to change, and to evolve over time; otherwise our practice becomes simply a set of techniques rather than a pathway of understanding. We can get stuck on the form, the technique, rather than the transformatio
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Our seeking mind is very subtle and we’re always running after one thing or another. The mantra “I have enough” that we explored in Chapter one is a really powerful practice for us, to recognize the conditions of happiness, the many ways that we’re supported by so many living beings in our lives.
Brother Phap Hai • Nothing To It: Ten Ways to Be at Home with Yourself
The Dharma is deep and lovely. We now have a chance to see, study, and practice it. We vow to realize its true meaning.
Brother Phap Hai • Nothing To It: Ten Ways to Be at Home with Yourself
Delusion in Buddhist psychology means not seeing things as they really are, being caught by the appearance and not going any deeper than that: you are you, I am I, happiness is happiness, sadness is sadness and never the twain shall meet. This is the kind of attitude that delusion gives rise to. The delusion that we suffer most from is the delusion
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we need to bloom where we’re planted, so there’s no reason why we can’t become a bodhisattva right in the middle of where we are right now.