Training the mind.

May I be gladdened when someone belittles me, and may I not take pleasure when someone praises me. If I do take pleasure in praise then it immediately increases my arrogance, pride, and conceit; whereas if I take pleasure in criticism, then at least it will open my eyes to my own shortcomings. And may I, recognizing all things as illusion,Devoid of clinging, be released from bondage.

Take One Step Every Day Towards A Pleasant Life | Sadhguru

Natalie Merchant - Equestrienne

Fruitillar

The circle ....

There is a beautiful circle in humanity. As much as we need to be loved, we have a need to be loving. Only when there is an uninterrupted flow of give and take can love gain the strength and momentum required for it to reach us all.

What is a loving heart?

A loving heart is sensitive to the whole of life, to all persons; a loving heart doesn't harden itself to any person or thing. But the moment you become attached in the sense of the word, then you're blocking out many other things. You've got eyes only for the object of your attachment; you've got ears only for the drums; the heart has hardened. Moreover, it's blinded, because it no longer sees the object of its attachment objectively. Love entails clarity of perception, objectivity; there is nothing so clear-sighted as love.

Friendship

A ruddy drop of manly blood The surging sea outweighs, The world uncertain comes and goes, The lover rooted stays. I fancied he was fled, And, after many a year, Glowed unexhausted kindliness Like daily sunrise there. My careful heart was free again, — O friend, my bosom said, Through thee alone the sky is arched, Through thee the rose is red, All things through thee take nobler form, And look beyond the earth, And is the mill-round of our fate A sun-path in thy worth. Me too thy nobleness has taught To master my despair; The fountains of my hidden life Are through thy friendship fair.

Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no matter what form it takes — you are still, you are at peace.

Most of us have an idea that the "I" is a separate being, divine, something that is enduring, becoming more and more perfect. I do not hold with any of this. Consciousness itself is the "I". You cannot separate the "I" process from consciousness. There is no "I" that is accumulating experience, which is apart creating its own limitations, through its own self-sustained wants. When you discern that there is no "I" apart from action, that the actor is action itself, then gradually there comes a completeness, an unfathomable bliss.

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”

— (via naturaekos)

“What causes us such distress is not the memory itself but the emotions that surround it—like regret, disappointment, anger, and frustration.”

Haemin Sunim, Love for Imperfect Things

Meditation

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. A man becomes calm in the measure that he understands himself as a thought-evolved being. . . and he as he develops a right understanding, and sees more and more clearly the internal relations of things by the action of cause and effect, he ceases to fret and fume, and worry and grieve, and remains poised, steadfast, serene.

David Whyte: “Sometimes”

Leonard Cohen - Recitation w/ N.L. (Live in London)

Where We Start