Random Ramblings

“When you are facing a great challenge or difficulty in your life, it may not be easy to get in touch with these simple joys. You may find yourself wandering, what is the meaning of it all? You may ask this when you are sick, or when a loved one is sick or passing away, or when you are overwhelmed by despair and life seems to have lost all its meaning.

"There is always something we can do to nourish our happiness and take care of ourselves. Even if in a given moment we cannot touch deep well-being, perhaps we can increase our happiness by just 5 or 10%. That is already something period to meditate is not only to discover the meaning of life, but also to heal and nourish ourselves. As we do so, we have a chance to keep releasing our ideas about what the meaning of life is or isn't....

There is a positive mental formation called ease-- a relaxed state of peacefulness and tranquility, like the still water of a calm mountain lake. We cannot be happy, we cannot nourish and heal ourselves, unless we are at ease. The peace of feeling at ease is the most precious thing there is, more precious than any other pursuit. We all have the capacity to be calm and at ease. But if we haven't been cultivating it, our energy of ease may not yet be very strong….

"You do have the capacity to experience stillness; You do have the capacity to touch peace. Each one of us has a Buddha body; we just need to give the Buddha a chance. For many of us, when we sit still, we're so restless that it feels as though we're sitting on burning coals. But with some practice, we'll be able to skillfully tame our breathless body and mind and sit in peace. As soon as there is ease and relaxation, there is healing and well-being... Why do I practice sitting meditation? Because I like it. There's no point doing it if you don't enjoy it. It's not hard labor. Every breath can bring peace, happiness, and freedom. Just sitting down and doing nothing as an art. It's the part of non doing. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to struggle with yourself in order to sit. You don't have to make an effort to be peaceful. Paying attention to the breathing going on is like the sun shining on a flower. The sunshine doesn't try to impose itself on the flower or try to alter the flower in any way. The warmth and energy of the sun penetrates the flower naturally. You can just sit there and enjoy breathing in and out….You simply sit there, not doing anything. You are happy to be aware that you are sitting on a very beautiful planet, revolving in a Galaxy of stars. You are sitting in the lap of the earth and over your head there are trillions of stars. If you can sit and see that, what else do you need to sit for? You were in touch with the universe, and your happiness is immense."

Even more bodies today.

We have a cosmic body. “We are also the cosmos, which is the foundation of our body. Without the cosmos, the body could not be here. With the inside of enter being we can see that there are clouds inside us. There are mountains and rivers, fields and trees. There is sunshine. We are children of light. We are sons and daughters of the sun and stars. The whole cosmos is coming together to support our body in this very moment. Our little human body contains the entire realm of all phenomena.... We are made of Stardust. We are children of the earth, made of all the same elements and minerals. We contain mountains, rivers, stars, and black holes. In every moment of our life the cosmos is going through us, renewing us, and we are returning ourselves to the cosmos. We are breathing the atmosphere, eating the earth's food, creating new ideas, and experiencing new feelings. And we are emitting energy back into the cosmos, in our thinking, speech, and actions, in our out breath, in our bodies warmth and in releasing everything we have consumed and digested. In this very moment many parts of us are returning to the earth.

“Our eighth body is the deepest level of the cosmic: the nature of reality itself, beyond all perceptions, forms, signs, and ideas.... We are a wave appearing on the surface of the ocean. The body of a wave does not last very long-- perhaps only 10 to 20 seconds. The wave is subject to beginning and ending, to going up and coming down. The wave may be caught in the idea that “I am here now and I won't be here later” and the wave may feel afraid or even angry. But the wave also has her ocean body. She has come from the ocean, and she will go back to the ocean. She has both her wave body and her ocean body. She is not only a wave; which is also the ocean. The wave does not need to look for a separate ocean body, because she is in this very moment both her wave body and her ocean body. As soon as the wave can go back to herself and touch her true nature, which is water, then all fear and anxiety disappear.

“The deepest level of our consciousness, which we call store consciousness, has the capacity to directly touch the ultimate-- the realm of reality itself. Our mind consciousness may not be able to do that right now, but our store consciousness is touching the true nature of the cosmos in this very moment. As you get in touch with your cosmic body, it's as though you stop being a block of ice floating on the ocean and you become the water.”

This chapter talks about the four different types of bodies we have, but I'm going to limit myself to two today because there's a lot in both that I want to record.

“Thanks to our human body, we can feel, we can heal, and we can transform. We can experience life in all its wonders. We can reach out to take care of someone we love. We can reconcile with a family member. We can speak for others. We can see something beautiful. We can hear the song of the bird and the voice of the rising tide. And we can act to make our world a healthier more peaceful and more compassionate place. Thanks to our body, everything is possible.

“And yet a lot of the time many of us completely forget we have a body. Our body is there, but our mind is somewhere else, not with the body.... Most of us still need to learn how to take care of our physical body.... if we listen carefully, we can hear our body telling us all the time what it does and does not need.... we've pushed our body too hard, and so tension and pain have accumulated. We've been neglecting our bodies so long, it may be lonely. Our body has wisdom, and we need to give ourselves a chance to hear it.

“In this very moment you may like to pause and reconnect with your body. Simply bring your awareness to your breathing, and recognize and acknowledge the presence of your whole body. You may like to say to yourself, “my dear body, I know you are there.” Coming home to your body like this allows some of the tension to be gently released. This is an act of reconciliation period it is an act of love.new line “Our body is a masterpiece of the cosmos. Our body carries within it the stars, the moon, the universe, and the presence of all our ancestors. How many millions of years of evolution has it taken to give rise to these wondrous 2 eyes, legs, feet, and hands? Countless life forms are supporting our existence in this moment. Reconnecting with our physical body takes only a few moments of stopping and breathing with awareness. We all have time for this, and yet we do not do it. It is strange that we are scared of what happens to our physical body when we die, and yet we are not truly enjoying our physical body while we are alive....

“But we should not be caught up in thinking that our body is ourself. Our body is made entirely of non body elements,... the four elements in us are one with the four elements outside us.... In this very moment we are receiving and releasing water, warmth, and breath; And we can see countless cells and atoms from our bodies being nourished by and returning to the earth. When we are sick or dying, it can be very helpful to contemplate this. But we don't need to wait until then to do so. We don't return to the earth only when our entire body disintegrates. We return to the earth and we are renewed by the earth at every moment.

“Having a human body means you also have a Buddha body. The word Buddha means someone who is awakened and who's working for the awakening of other beings. “Buddha body” is just a shorthand way of describing our capacity to be awake and fully present, to be understanding compassionate and loving.... every human being can become a Buddha. This is good news. We all have the seeds of mindfulness, love, understanding, and compassion, and whether these good seeds have a chance to grow depends on our environment and our experiences. Don't doubt that you have a Buddha body. There have been times in the past when you've had the capacity to understand, to forgive, and to love. These are the seeds of your Buddha body. You have to give the Buddha and you a chance.

“Allowing the Buddha in you to grow doesn't require special effort. If you wake up to the beauties of nature, you are already a Buddha. And if you know how to maintain that spirit of being awake all day, you are a full time Buddha. It's not so difficult to be a Buddha; Just keep your awakening alive all day long period we're all capable of drinking our tea and mindfulness. Every one of us can breathe, walk, shower, and eat in mindfulness.... everyone can speak and listen with compassion. The more you water the seeds of mindfulness, concentration, insight, and love in you, the more your Buddha body will grow, and the happier and freer you'll become....

“To be a Buddha--to wake up--also means to wake up to the suffering in the world and find ways to bring relief and transformation period this requires A tremendous source of energy. Your strong aspiration-- your mind of love-- is that immense source of energy that helps wake you up to the nourishing and healing beauties of nature and to the suffering of the world. It gives you a lot of energy to help. That is the career of a Buddha. And if you have that source of strength in you, if you have the mind of love, you are a Buddha in action.”