If we can keep at least a bit of the mind clear about temporality, we can mange complicated, even difficult, times with grace.
Sylvia BoorsteinIt is our own pain, and our own desire to be free of it, that alerts us to the suffering of the world. It is our personal discovery that pain can be acknowledged, even held lovingly, that enables us to look at the pain around us unflinchingly and feel compassion being born in us. We need to start with ourselves.
Sylvia BoorsteinSteadfast benevolence, sustained by the wisdom that anything other than benevolence is painful, protects the mind from all afflictions.
Sylvia BoorsteinMindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
Sylvia BoorsteinMy father . . . used to say, 'I need my anger. It obliges me to take action.' I think my father was partly right. Anger arises, naturally, to signal disturbing situations that might require action. But actions initiated in anger perpetuate suffering. The most effective actions are those conceived in the wisdom of clarity.
Sylvia Boorstein