Mini Mindfulness Break for November 10, 2018

Ahimsa is a comprehensive principle. We are helpless mortals caught in the conflagration of himsa. The saying that life lives on life has a deep meaning in it. Man cannot for a moment live without consciously or unconsciously committing outward himsa. The very fact of his living – eating, drinking and moving about – necessarily involves some himsa, destruction of life, be it ever so minute. A votary of ahimsa therefore remains true to his faith if the spring of all his actions is compassion, if he shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature, tries to save it, and thus incessantly strives to be free from the deadly coil of himsa. He will be constantly growing in self-restraint and compassion, but he can never become entirely free from outward himsa.

– ? Mahatma Gandhi

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 09, 2018

One Day

The life of one day is enough to rejoice. Even though you live for just one day, if you can be awakened, that one day is vastly superior to one endless life of sleep. . . . If this day in the lifetime of a hundred years is lost, will you ever touch it with your hands again?

– Zen Master Dogen, “Groundhog Day”

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 08, 2018

The Buddha Within You

There is a buddha in every one of us, and we should allow the buddha to walk. Even in the most difficult situation, you can walk like a buddha.

– Thich Nhat Hanh, “Walk Like a Buddha “

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 07, 2018

Not about Comfort

A central component of spiritual life is recognizing that practice is not about ensuring that we feel secure or comfortable. It’s not that we won’t feel these things when we practice; rather, it’s that we are also bound to sometimes feel very uncomfortable and insecure, particularly when exploring and working with our darker emotions and unhealed pain.

– Ezra Bayda, “The Three Things we Fear Most”

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 6, 2017

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 06, 2018

Who are these old women who now and again appear in koans? They are who we really are, that wild old grandmother’s heart of wisdom that does not engage in ideas of compassion but cuts to the quick of the moment.

  • Roshi Joan Halifax

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 05, 2018

Eliminating Suffering

The practice is to make the non-arising of grasping and clinging absolute, final, and eternally void, so that no grasping and clinging can ever return. Just that is enough. There is nothing else to do.

– Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, “A Single Handful”

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 04, 2018

I am this one
walking beside me whom I do not see,
whom at times I manage to visit,
and whom at other times I forget;
who remains calm and silent while I talk,
and forgives, gently, when I hate,
who walks where I am not,
who will remain standing when I die.

– Juan Ramon Jimenez

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 03, 2018

A poor man asked the Buddha,
“Why am I so poor?”
The Buddha said, “You did not learn to give.”
So the poor man said, “But, if I don’t have anything to give?”
The Buddha said, “You have a few things:
The Face, which can give a smile;
The Mouth, you can praise or comfort others;
The Heart, it can open up to others;
The Eyes, they can look at the other with the eyes of compassion;
The Body, which can be used to help others.”

– H.E. Tulku Yeshi Rinpoche, Bodhi Tree Leaf

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 02, 2018

Abandoning Futile Endeavors

To look for total satisfaction in oneself is a futile endeavor. Since everything changes from moment to moment, where can self and where can satisfaction be found? Yet these are two things that the whole world is looking for and it sounds quite reasonable, doesn’t it? But since these are impossible to find, everybody is unhappy. Not necessarily because of tragedies, poverty, sickness, or death: simply because of unfilled desire. Everybody is looking for something that isn’t available.

– Ayya Khema, “No Satisfaction”

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

Mini Mindfulness Break for November 01, 2018

The Moment of Inspiration

Once we see that nothing happens in a vacuum, that’s the exact moment when we are properly inspired to become accountable for our own mind.

– “Awake With Others”, Ethan Nichtern

May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering!

All my best,

Jerome Freedman, PhD
–Jerome

 

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