Sublime

Trust in things being as they are is the secret of life. But we don’t want to hear that. I can absolutely trust that in the next year my life is going to be changed, different, yet always just the way it is.

We ask ourselves, What do I have to let go of to move forward? I will act compassionately toward all. I will remember that my strength comes from the Eternal.

We work with what we have in each and every moment.

Han-shan.

Perhaps the koan “There is nothing I dislike,” which at first might seem unattainable, isn’t actually too much of a stretch. It might be just an observation of the natural state of the mind, the natural state of a man sitting on a bench, watching his children collecting Easter eggs, happy because he has given pleasure. In the Dhammapada, an ancient

we’re expecting something (in this case Zen practice) to give us satisfaction and safety.

We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are; not in fulfilling personal wants, but in fulfilling the needs of life; not in avoiding pain, but in being pain when it is necessary to do so. Too large an order? Too hard? On th