Traversing Through The Arctic Cold We Search For

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Too lazy to be ambitious,

I let the world take care of itself.

Ten days' worth of rice in my bag;

a bundle of twigs by the fireplace.

Why chatter about delusion and enlightenment?

Listening to the night rain on my roof,

I sit comfortably, with both legs stretched out.

Ryokan

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You, and you alone, decide what anything means to you. You get to choose what matters and doesn't matter. Your emotions are entirely under your control. Your feelings are what you want them to be.

… the mind creates our experience of reality. While we cannot control external conditions, we possess the power to choose our reactions, interpretations, and attachments, which determines our level of suffering or peace.

Key insights regarding this view:

Mind-Created Reality: The world we experience is a reflection of our internal thoughts and perceptions, not an objective, immutable truth.

Freedom from Suffering: Suffering is not caused by events themselves, but by our clinging to desires or resistance to reality. By controlling our internal reactions (like anger or attachment), we choose peace.

The Power of Perception: We can choose to view challenges as opportunities for growth rather than personal failures, transforming our emotional reality.

The "Let Them" Concept: A modern interpretation of Buddhist detachment, often called "Let Them," encourages releasing the need to control others or situations, thus reclaiming personal power over one's own emotional state.

This approach emphasizes that by cultivating mindfulness, we can observe thoughts without automatically believing them, shifting our experience from one of being a victim of circumstance to an empowered creator of our own contentment.

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Get out of the construction business. Stop building bridges across the raging waters of samsaric existence, attempting to reach the 'far shore,' nirvana. Better to simply relax, at ease and carefree, in total naturalness, and just go with the primordial flow, however it occurs and happens. And remember this: whether or not you go with the flow, it always goes with you.

- Nyoshul Khenpo

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"Everything is preparing to disappear."

—Ajahn Chah in AWAKE AT THE BEDSIDE

* the moment things arise, they are moving toward cessation.

This perspective helps practitioners stop seeking permanence, reduces clinging to experiences as "self," and fosters peace by accepting the natural flow of life and death.

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1. Your thoughts are loud, but they aren't always true.

2. Most of your stress comes from living in your head.

3. Stop replaying the past—it's done.

4. Stop fast-forwarding the future it hasn't happened.

5. Peace is found in this one moment.

6. Take a deep breath. That's presence.

7. You don't have to fix everything right now.

8. Let life be what it is, not what you expect.

9. Not every thought needs your attention.

10. You can feel things without reacting to them.

11. The now is the only place you can actually live.

12. You miss life when you're always in your head.

13. Being present doesn't mean perfect—it means aware.

14. No moment is ever wrong. It just is.

15. You don't need all the answers. Just awareness.

16. The more still you become, the clearer life feels.

17. Let go of the need to control everything.

18. What you resist will only grow louder.

19. Just be here. That's more than enough.

20. Sometimes the best thing you can do... is nothing at all.

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"Definition of a Poet" by Jack Kerouac (1941, nineteen years old)

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Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - Chapter 20

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Do not take life's experiences too seriously. Above all, do not let them hurt you, for in reality they are nothing but dream experiences....If circumstances are bad and you have to bear them, do not make them a part of yourself. Play your part in life, but never forget it is only a role. What you lose in the world will not be a loss to your soul. (…) destroy fear, which paralyzes all efforts to succeed and attracts the very thing you fear.

Paramahansa Yogananda

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Samsara is simply perceiving your reality through the lens of the self. When that lens is removed we experience everything as luminous awareness. It's not complicated.

- Togden Amtrin

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[activeoblivion]

between the pain and the way you look I'm stuck in a time where the mountains shook