Thanksgiving Thought - You Are Your Own Man or Woman

You are your own man or woman. You were not meant to be what your parents wanted you to be. You were not meant to be what society wanted you to be. You were meant to discover and be your unique and precious own self. Parents and society weren’t meant to make you in their image but to provide a safe, transitional space for your own self-development. Where this has not happened, we can and must re-parent ourselves, for we were always meant to be our own parents—that is, to know our own authority, to be self-responsible, and to able to take care of ourselves as autonomous, self-directed human beings.

Looking deep into the individual unfolding of being, one can find perhaps the greatest truth one can know: You were meant to be. You were meant to shine. You were meant to discover the All in the individual One, and in the individual One, the All.  All the philosophies, all the religions, all the spiritual beliefs systems are, at best, mere aides and guides, all pointing to the great truth in each of us.  In no egocentric sense, not getting stuck in any "self" story, the big story of the universe is you, if you know it.  But too often we are blind to the ineffable and deathless meaning within each of us.  The great joy of life is finding out this hidden yet open secret and exploring it to the end of all limitations.

Steven Goodheart

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit: METTA REFUGE

♡♡♡

How Mindfulness Brings Meaning to Our Lives

"When we rush in with...mental chatter, we are no longer being mindful. We are just thinking about being mindful. Mindfulness is not thinking about, it is being present and actually knowing in the moment without any mental commentary. If commentary begins to happen, we simply ignore it and return to being present in the moment.

Think about this. There are so many things happening in our lives that we never really experience. We experience only ideas, interpretations, and comparisons. We dwell on things that happened in the past or anticipate future events. But we almost never experience the moment itself. It is for this reason that we often find our lives boring and meaningless. What we need to realize is that this sense of meaninglessness does not come from our lives, but from the quality of awareness with which we live our lives."

Ani Tenzin Palmo - Reflections on a Mountain Lake: Teachings on Practical Buddhism

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit:  METTA REFUGE

♡♡♡

I Will Not Live an Unlived Life

I will not live an unlived life,

I will not go in fear

Of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

To allow my living to open to me,

To make me less afraid,

More accessible,

To loosen my heart

Until it becomes a wing,

A torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance:

To live.

So that which came to me as seed,

Goes to the next as blossom,

And that which came to me as a blossom,

Goes on as fruit.

David Marcova

For more in-depth dharma articles and instruction, visit:  METTA REFUGE

♡♡♡