Journey To Nowhere

I am that stranger who has nothing to give you and is telling you to look inside. - Tolle

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When we get caught up in wanting things to be other than they are is when we start to experience suffering.

- Noah Rasheta

Secular Buddhism Podcast

Jan 5, 2016

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contentment is the ultimate wealth

--Dhammapada 204

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So the single, most vital step on your journey toward enlightenment is this: learn to disidentify from your mind. Every time you create a gap in the stream of mind, the light of your consciousness grows stronger.

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BREAKTHROUGH

On the other hand, sometimes stagnation comes from our own laziness or incompetence. In this case, then it is, we must show initiative and stimulate a breakthrough and difficult circumstances.

As soon as we see a chance, we must act. Unless we engage ourselves and events fully, we cannot expect to act sufficiently.

- 365 Tao, Breakthrough 257, Deng Ming-Dao

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There are three principles of bodhisattva life I teach: keep your mind clear, be patient, and when you see an opportunity to act, do so without hesitation. Now I am thinking about adding a fourth principal: live a quiet life. Don’t be distracted by things. When the insanities of the world become too noisy and preposterous, remain inwardly calm.

- The Power of a Quiet Life: sometimes the best way to help the world is to move slow slowly through it; Lewis Richmond, Tricycle Magazine, Summer 2025

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Feelings depend on our mental state; objects by themselves do not have pleasantness or unpleasantness. It is the mind that labels them pleasant or unpleasant. If the object is pleasant, a mental state of craving develops. The wish to sense again and again, the same object that led to a pleasant feeling ensues. This pattern, reinforced by desire and strengthened by repetition, results in clinging.

- Dharma Talk, Tricycle Magazine, Clinging: Untangling the habits that keep us in the loop. (By Bhante Henepola Gunaratana) Winter 2024

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Our culture conditions us to think that we are not whole until we find our person.

- Bunny Michael

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A fixation on happiness inevitably amounts to a never-ending pursuit of “something else”-a new house, a new relationship, another child, another pay raise. And despite all of our sweat and strain, we end up feeling eerily similar to how we started: inadequate.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A counter intuitive approach to living a good life. / Mark Manson

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You may salivate at the thought of a problem-free life full of everlasting happiness and eternal compassion, but back here on earth the problems never cease. Seriously, problems don’t end. Disappointment Panda just dropped by. We had margaritas, and he told me all about it: problems never fucking go away, he said - they just improve.

- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A counter intuitive approach to living a good life. / Mark Manson

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The desire for a more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxical, acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience.

- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A counter intuitive approach to living a good life. / Mark Manson 

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Our crisis is no longer a material; it’s existential, it’s spiritual. We have so much fucking stuff and so many opportunities that we don’t even know what to give a fuck about anymore.

- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach To Living A Good Life / Mark Manson

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The quiet, empty space of zazen reveals the mind’s addiction to imagining the future and reminiscing about the past. It helps us understand how dwelling in a time other than the present starts to churn the ego: anxieties arise, desires become distractions, and to do things well is nearly impossible. But when there is no idea of time, there are no expectations, and desires do not become a problem.

- The Time Is Now: Select wisdom from sources old and new

By Les Kaye - SUMMER 2011 -Tricycle.org

From Joyously Through the Days by Les Kaye,

Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

We are the leading independent Buddhist journal in the West dedicated to making Buddhist teachings and practices broadly available.

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If our mind is somewhere else, it means we are trying to be someone else, not who we are in the present moment. However, by practicing awareness, we can train ourselves to respond to distractions in a positive way and increase our capacity to give full attention to the task or relationship before us.

- The Time Is Now: Select wisdom from sources old and new

By Les Kaye - SUMMER 2011 -Tricycle.org

From Joyously Through the Days by Les Kaye,

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Anicca; - impermanence

a compound word consisting of "a" meaning non-, and "nicca" meaning "constant, continuous, permanent

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At first, grieving for something or someone we’ve lost may look like clinging, but it’s actually a process of acknowledging our loss, which allows us to heal from the pain and loosen our grip on the past.

Bhante Sumano

One Thing For Sure, Lessons in grief from a rescue chicken.

Tricycle.org, summer 2022

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But to be overly busy cannot possibly bring peacefulness. It cannot bring contentment. It cannot bring a heart full of love; it cannot bring a heart that can actually bring the mind to meditation.

- There’s No Need to be Busy

Ayya Khema on making time to do nothing

Ayya Khema Fall 2022

Tricycle.org

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