All I can be is who I am right now; I can experience that and work with it. That's all I can do. The rest is the dream of the ego.
Joko BeckAwareness is our true self; it's what we are. So we don't have to try to develop awareness; we simply need to notice how we block awareness with our thoughts, our fantasies, our opinions, and our judgments. We're either in awareness, which is our natural state, or we're doing something else.
Joko BeckWe have to face the pain we have been running from. In fact, we need to learn to rest in it and let its searing power transform us.
Joko BeckWhat does open us is sharing our vulnerabilities. Sometimes we see a couple who has done this difficult work over a lifetime. In the process, they have grown old together. We can sense the enormous comfort, the shared quality of ease between these people. It is beautiful, and very rare. Without this quality of openness and vulnerability, partners don't really know each other; they are one image living with another image.
Joko Beck