just be it It’s about the work involved in establishing a dedicated practice to feelings of a bigger belonging through practices aimed at increasing feelings of compassion, gratitude and forgiveness

A Few Recent Insights

Published on 04/11/11
by randy

Cultivating deep abiding in:

Just here.

Just this.

As opposed to the suffering in:

Just there.

Just that.

We need to express what we feel we are, our beauty.

And, yet, we don’t know who we are.  Ahhh, the mystery.

Love is what’s found in the space between generosity and gratitude.

People ask, “So why meditate?”

One answer is, “To cultivate the influence of the Ultimate.”  It’s in contrast to our continual focus on the material.

Meditation is not trying to get away from thought, but aiming to enter thoughtlessness.

Meditation is letting go the thought we’re separate, cultivating the deeper feeling we’re connected, we belong, and we’re never alone.

The paradox in practicing mindfulness is that the mind aims to be mind empty rather than mind full.

Thinking still happens after liberation, but there’s no one listening.  It’s simple, ordinary, and stunning.  Everything arises as new.

Under the influence of greed, fear and ignorance or compassion, forgiveness and gratitude?  In the later, winning is nothing,  but being your best is everything.  Just aim to be your best expression with harm to none.

We’re pushed hard to be good competitors and good consumers.  Yet, we’re ultimately damaged by the spirit of competition when it’s the extreme grasping at another’s loss.  This precious moment is all there is.  We may temporarily feel better for winning over another, but it’s not long lasting.

“Best” as defined by 100% attention is a moment to moment thing.  This takes a lot of pressure off.

We’ve been trained from fear to meet basic survival needs often at the expense and harm to others.  Whether in family, school, work, religion, community, state, nation or planet, the notion of ‘win’ is illusion costing us real lasting peace.

A strong desire to be “better” may be the comparative that prevents you from full attention, from being your best.

If you want to be your best, surround yourself with others who want to be their best.

When the mind leaves awareness (the Ground of Being), obstacles appear.

“If your mind leaves the sound of the horn, obstacles appear”  Trumpet teacher,  William Adam

When the mind leaves the posture, obstacles appear.

When the mind leaves the breath, obstacles appear.

When the mind leaves the tone, obstacles appear.

Conformity is overrated.  Precision and education is underrated.  In conformity, depth sacrifices to approval.

In the end, all we really want (and need) is one another’s awareness.  So let’s ‘wake up’ to one another.

I have my experience and you have yours.  Mine can never be yours and yours can never be mine.  The illusion/delusion is that I can make mine yours.

I can never have your experience, but deep listening and empathy helps me approach it.

The greatest addiction of all (intoxicant) is the notion of ‘me’.

Resonance happens.  The idea of ‘me’ drops away.  The illusion of the individual is exposed.  Nothing’s pushed and boundlessness happens.

The art of wholehearted aging, living and dying doesn’t know thought, words or the intellect.  The heart abides in the feeling of the Ultimate.

Settle the mind into silence and then you’ll experience Reality.

Good music may come from the subconscious or unconscious, but definitely not from the self conscious.

Graceful aging involves a soft approach where we let the eyes surrender the details of entropy and we go deeper meeting the surprise of each arising moment.  ‘

Deeper doesn’t mean more.  More doesn’t mean deeper.  More is not necessary.  Deeper is.

Not taking things for granted moves us to appreciation, awareness, and gratitude, eventually landing in joy.

Let’s drop the notion of political party.   Can we just have a conversation about the stewardship of family, community, nation and planet outside notions of being ‘right’?

Do you want to feel all right?  Then give up the thought that you’re right.

Be humbled by the notion that we’re entitled to nothing.  Be joyful in gratitude for the gift of what’s given.

In pursuit of answering just where you belong, how far will you go?  And what are you a member of?  How do you belong?

The illusion (delusion) is that things stop.

I’ve arrived!  Now what?  Everything is still moving (changing).  Nothing stopped.

Beware (fear, greed and ignorance) or Be Aware (love, forgiveness, gratitude)

Come on Peace.  Grab a piece of me.

The antidote to the pain of greed is generosity and simplicity.  So where do we find sustaining joy?  It comes from the felt sense of fullness, never from the felt sense of lack-ness.

To really appreciate full, it helps to know empty.  To really appreciate life, it helps to face and know death.

The is no audience, just the fear of judgment.  So be played to your fullest.

Judgment is an obstacle to love.  The brain can’t create and criticize at the same time.

Don’t become obedient to the child.  Become obedient to dedicated stewardship of the child’s welfare, health and education.

Not this moment? Yes, this moment.

From the intellectual development of the illusion of object permanence, we start our training in desiring a different moment.

Rockets of desire seldom launch when there’s a sense of yearning (restlessness).  We must first carry our gratitude and depth of awareness for what is so we can open and make space for the new.

That's it. What Next?

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