#meditation

One evening Milarepa returned to his cave after gathering firewood, only to find it filled with demons. They were cooking his food, reading his books, sleeping in his bed. They had taken over the joint. He knew about nonduality of self and other, but he still didn’t quite know how to get these guys out of his cave. Even though he had the sense that they were just a projection of his own mind—all the unwanted parts of himself—he didn’t know how to get rid of them. So first he taught them the dharma. He sat on this seat that was higher than they were and said things to them about how we are all one. He talked about compassion and shunyata and how poison is medicine. Nothing happened. The demons were still there. Then he lost his patience and got angry and ran at them. They just laughed at him. Finally, he gave up and just sat down on the floor, saying, “I’m not going away and it looks like you’re not either, so let’s just live here together.” At that point, all of them left except one. Milarepa said, “Oh, this one is particularly vicious.” (We all know that one. Sometimes we have lots of them like that. Sometimes we feel that’s all we’ve got.) He didn’t know what to do, so he surrendered himself even further. He walked over and put himself right into the mouth of the demon and said, “Just eat me up if you want to.” Then that demon left too. ↗

— Pema Chödrön

#compassion #meditation #tonglen #food

Our path, our sense of spirituality demands great earnestness, dedication, sincerity & continuity. ↗

— Sharon Salzberg

#meditation #religion #spirituality #religion

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. ↗

— Jean Arp

#after #back #contemplation #day #devices

No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation. ↗

— Walter Bagehot

#been #ever #except #great #great work

Self-observation is the first step of inner unfolding. ↗

— Amit Ray

#meditation #religion #self-discovery #life

when we look up, it widens our horizons. we see what a little speck we are in the universe, so insignificant, and we all take ourselves so seriously, but in the sky, there are no boundaries. No differences of caste or religion or race. ↗

— Julia Gregson

#horizon #meditation #religion #sky #thinking

Unless you are silent, you will not know your urgent heart, how it beats between the thin skin of yes and no. ↗

— Drew Myron

#poetry-love-spirituality #poetry-quotes-life #reflection #thoughtful #life

The Glory of this life is in viewing it as eternal. ↗

— Beth Johnson

#meditation #releasing #sacredness #soul #spiritual

Meditation is the glue that holds our mind, body, and spirit together ↗

— Tambré Bryant

#life

-I have to admit that ever since I started to rip-up the lawns of rich people I have felt a lot calmer! ↗

— Andrew James Pritchard

#meditation #nonconformity #life