We were out wandering in the rice paddies on the way to a village to collect alms food one day with my teacher, Ajahn Chah, and some monks. And out across the rice paddies was this great big rock, a boulder. Ajahn Chah said, 'Is that boulder heavy?' ... We said, 'Yes, it is, master.' He smiled and said, 'Not if you don't pick it up.'
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You Don't Have to Carry Your Fears & Worries
For anyone who is considering any type of psychedelic experience, it is incredibly valuable to put on a little bit of mileage with a regular meditation practice and to practice—even in a somewhat volume-turned-down sense—sitting with emotions that may be difficult or thoughts that may be unpleasant for, say, a consecutive 30-day period.
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Recommended Preparations & Precautions Before Your First Psychedelic Experience
We have all these capacities... Thich Nhat Hanh used to talk about it as seeds in consciousness. Depending which ones we water and tend, those are what blossom. If we water and tend our anger, it will grow. If we water and tend and spend time on our fears or our conflict, they will grow. If we water the seeds of peace in us, they'll grow. If we water the seeds of compassion in consciousness and tend to it, it will blossom.
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Guan Yin, a Buddhist Bodhisattva, Is the Consciousness of Universal Compassion
When people feel that they want to commit suicide, they're right that something needs to die; they're mistaken in thinking that it's their body that has to die.
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According to Stan Grof, What Does the Urge to Commit Suicide Indicate?
Many of us have some significant trauma in our past. And if we're not aware of it or don't have a way to manage it, then we can... unconsciously manage it through addictions—by drinking or drugging... So, to understand trauma is really important.
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Addictive Behaviors Develop When You Don't Understand Your Trauma
Wisdom tells me I am nothing; love tells me I am everything. Between these two, my life flows.
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The Fourth Dimension of Meditative Freedom: Recognizing That You're the Witness
We're in this complex of cultural anxiety [with] the spread of the virus... You can either give in to or get lost in your fear and anxiety, or you can take this as a time to begin to train yourself in steadiness, in trust, in the ability to have a vaster and broader perspective, and perhaps more than anything... to develop your sense of care and connection more deeply for everyone else.
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Jack Held a Virtual Meditation Class for People in China Under Coronavirus Quarantine
The Ojibwa Indian Native Americans have this amazing, I find, poetic way of putting it: They say 'Sometimes, I go about pitying myself when all the while I'm being carried by great winds across the sky.'
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During the Coronavirus Pandemic, Remember 'We're Being Carried By Vastness'
When you face your own loneliness or longing or the way that you've been mistreated, all of a sudden, you realize loneliness and longing comes with being human; praise and blame come with being human; joy and sorrow come with being human.
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The Second Dimension of Meditative Freedom: Our Common Humanity
I think as we mature [and] become wiser, we become comfortable with paradox. The way to put it most simply is you need to remember your Buddha nature and your Social Security number.
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Balancing Western Developmental & Eastern Fruitional Frameworks to Contend With COVID-19
Trauma, in the simplest way, it speaks of an experience of suffering of some kind—physical or emotional pain of some kind or other that's happened in which our body goes into [survival mode]. And then, that gets locked into our bodies and hearts and minds.
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Unrecognized or Unreleased Trauma Affects Us Subconsciously
Who you are is bigger than the thoughts and the fears or worries. And when you remember who you really are, which is awareness itself—a vast, loving awareness, then you can look at the circumstances, hold them with great compassion, and say 'How do I want to live now? How do I want to follow this?'
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You Don't Have to Carry Your Fears & Worries
There's this long, beautiful human tradition of using sacred medicines to help us remember who we are. And because they're so powerful, they're also scary to people because they take apart our conventional reality.
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Throughout Human History, Psychedelics Were Used as Sacred Medicines
Who you really are is consciousness itself, manifesting in the different forms that are experienced. But consciousness itself is timeless and pure and open, vast like the sky, containing all things but not limited by them.
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The Third Dimension of Meditative Freedom: Awareness Itself
I use the image that is so powerful from the Vietnamese Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh. He said, 'When the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats are met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked, all would be lost. But, if even one person on the boat remained calm and centered, it was enough; it showed the way for everyone to survive.'
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Jack Held a Virtual Meditation Class for People in China Under Coronavirus Quarantine
The poet, I believe it's Hafiz, says 'Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly; let it cut more deeply. Let it season you as few ingredients can.'
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The First Dimension of Meditative Freedom: Expanding the Window of Tolerance
What you take so personally is just what life is. Zorba the Greek says Trouble? Life is trouble; only death is nice.'
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The Second Dimension of Meditative Freedom: Our Common Humanity
It's not about perfecting yourself; it's about perfecting your love.
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Spirituality Is About Perfecting Your Love, Not Yourself
