The Joy of Living — Eric Swanson, Yongey Rinpoche Mingyur

Kindle Highlights

“The funny thing about the mind is that if you ask a question and then listen quietly, the answer usually appears.”

“Whatever problems I was experiencing were habits of thought and perception ingrained in my own mind.”

“This fear isn’t so big and powerful at all. In fact, it’s pretty harmless. It’s just a bunch of transitory sensations that appear, hang around for a second or two, and then simply disappear.”

“If you walk with haste, you won’t reach Lhasa. Walk gently and you’ll reach your goal.”

“Becoming mindful is a gradual process of establishing new neuronal connections and inhibiting the gossip among old ones. It requires patiently taking one small step at a time, practicing in very short intervals.”

“To whatever degree a person commits himself or herself to the welfare of others, he or she is repaid a thousandfold by opportunities for learning and advancement. Every kind word, every smile you offer someone who might be having a bad day, comes back to you in ways you’d never expect.”

“Any attempt to capture the direct experience of the nature of mind in words is impossible. The best that can be said is that the experience is immeasurably peaceful, and, once stabilized through repeated experience, virtually unshakable. It’s an experience of absolute well-being that radiates through all physical, emotional, and mental states — even those that might be ordinarily labeled as unpleasant. This sense of well-being, regardless of the fluctuation of outer and inner experiences, is one of the clearest ways to understand what Buddhists mean by “happiness,” and I was fortunate to have caught a glimpse of it during my three days of isolation.”

“If I observed every thought, feeling, and sensation that passed through my mind, the illusion of a limited self would dissolve, to be replaced by a sense of awareness that is much more calm, spacious, and serene. And what I learned from other scientists was that because experience changes the neuronal structure of the brain, when we observe the mind this way, we can change the cellular gossip that perpetuates our experience of our “self.””

“Conceptual knowledge is not enough…you must have the conviction that comes from personal experience.”

“Experience follows intention. Wherever we are, whatever we do, all we need to do is recognize our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions as something natural. Neither rejecting nor accepting, we simply acknowledge the experience and let it pass. If we keep this up, we’ll eventually find ourselves becoming able to manage situations we once found painful, scary, or sad. We’ll discover a sense of confidence that isn’t rooted in arrogance or pride. We’ll realize that we’re always sheltered, always safe, and always home.”

“Confusion, I was taught, is the beginning of understanding, the first stage of letting go of the neuronal gossip that used to keep you chained to very specific ideas about who you are and what you’re capable of. Confusion, in other words, is the first step on the path to real well-being.”

“You’r not the limited, anxious person you think you are. Any trained Buddhist teacher can tell you with all the conviction of personal experience that, really, you’re the very heart of compassion, completely aware, and fully capable of achieving the greatest good, not only for yourself, but for everyone and everything you can imagine.”

“I followed your instructions, and after meditating on the subject for a long time, I realized that emptiness isn’t nothingness, bacause there must be something before there can be nothing. Emptiness is everything — all possibilities of existence and nonexistence imaginable, occurring simultaneously. So if our true nature is emptiness, then nobody can be said to truly die and no one can be said to be truly born, because the possibility of being in a certain way and not being in a certain way is present within us at every moment.” “Very good,” I told him. “Now forget everything you just said, because if you try to remember it exactly, you’ll turn everything you learned into a concept, and we’ll have to start all over again.”

“Whatever depends on conditions is explained to be empty…. — Sutra Requested by Madröpa, translated by Ari Goldfield”

“The Buddha intuitively understood the limitations of the ordinary human conception of time. In one of his teachings he explained that from a relative point of view the division of time into distinct periods of duration such as an hour, a day, a week, and so on, might have a certain degree of relevance. But from an absolute perspective, there’s really no difference between a single instant of time and an eon. Within an eon there can be an instant; within an instant there can be an eon. The relationship between the two periods would not make the instant any longer or the eon any shorter.”

“If we began to accept responsibility for our experience, our lives would become a kind of playground, offering innumerable possibilities for learning and invention. Our sense of personal limitation and vulnerability would gradually be replaced by a sense of openness and possibility. We would see those around us in an entirely new light — not as threats to our personal security or happiness, but as people simply ignorant of the infinite possibilities of their own nature. Because our own nature is unconstrained by arbitrary distinctions of being “this way” or “that way,” or having only certain capabilities and lacking others, then we would be able to meet the demands of any situation in which we might find ourselves.”

“All phenomena are expressions of the mind.”

“The mind is the source of all experience, and by changing the direction of the mind, we can change the quality of everything we experience.”

“The more clearly we see things as they are, the more willing and able we become to open our hearts toward other beings. When we recognize that others experience pain and unhappiness because they don’t recognize their real nature, we’re spontaneously moved by a profound wish for them to experience the same sense of peace and clarity that we’ve begun to know.”

“Compassion is the spontaneous wisdom of the heart. It’s always with us. It always has been, and always will be. When it arises in us, we’ve simply learned to see how strong and safe we really are.”

“An abundance of material items provides such a variety of external distractions that people lose the connection to their inner lives.”

“A more precise interpretation of nirvana is the adoption of a broad perspective that admits all experiences, pleasurable or painful, as aspects of awareness.”

“Aversion reinforces neuronal patterns that generate a mental construct of yourself as limited, weak, and incomplete.”

“A disciplined mind invites true joy.”

“Meditation is not about “blissing out,” “spacing out,” or “getting clear” — among the many terms I’ve heard from people in my travels around the world. Meditation is actually a very simple exercise in resting in the natural state of your present mind, and allowing yourself to be simply and clearly present to whatever thoughts, sensations, or emotions occur.”

“Meditation is really a process of nonjudgmental awareness. When we meditate, we adopt the objective perspective of a scientist toward our own subjective experience.”

“The Buddha taught that the body is the physical support for the mind.”

“Thinking is the natural activity of the mind. Meditation is not about stopping your thoughts. Meditation is simply a process of resting the mind in its natural state, which is open to and naturally aware of thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they occur.”

“Compassionate mind is a diligent mind.”

“If we were to make a list of people we don’t like…we would find a lot about those aspects of ourselves that we can’t face. — PEMA CHÖDRON”

“Thinking that someone or something you care for is in pain can break your heart. But a broken heart is an open heart. Every heartbreak is an opportunity for love and compassion to flow through you.”

“The point, as I was taught, is simply to remember that the universe is filled with an infinite number of beings, and to think, Just as I want happiness, all beings want happiness. Just as I wish to avoid suffering, all beings wish to avoid suffering. I am just one person, while the number of other beings is infinite. The well-being of this infinite number is more important than that of one. And as you allow these thoughts to roll around in your mind, you’ll actually begin to find yourself actively engaged in wishing for others’ freedom from suffering.”

“The practice of bodhicitta — the mind of awakening — may seem almost magical, in the sense that when you choose to deal with other people as if they were already fully enlightened, they tend to respond in a more positive, confident, and peaceful manner than they otherwise might. But really there is nothing magical about the process. You’re simply looking at and acting toward people on the level of their full potential, and they respond to the best of their ability in the same way.”

“Wish to attain complete awakening in order to help all sentient beings attain the same state.”

“There are many ways to practice application bodhicitta: for example, trying your best to refrain from stealing, lying, gossiping, and speaking or acting in ways that intentionally cause pain; acting generously toward others; patching up quarrels; speaking gently and calmly rather than “flying off the handle”; and rejoicing in the good things that happen to other people rather than allowing yourself to become overwhelmed by jealousy or envy. Conduct of this sort is a means of extending the experience of meditation into every aspect of daily life.”

“Meditation is not a competition. The fifteen minutes you spend lightly in meditation practice may in the end prove much more beneficial than the hours spent by people trying too hard by practicing for longer periods of time.”

“Let your own experience serve as your guide and inspiration. Let yourself enjoy the view as you travel along the path. The view is your own mind, and because your mind is already enlightened, if you take the opportunity to rest awhile along the journey, eventually you’ll realize that the place you want to reach is the place you already are.”

“Everything you think, everything you say, and everything you do is reflected back to you as your own experience. If you cause someone pain, you experience pain ten times worse. If you promote others’ happiness and well-being, you experience the same happiness ten times over. If your own mind is calm, then the people around you will experience a similar degree of calmness.”

“If you want to go further, if you want to explore and experience your full potential, you need a guide. You need a teacher.”

“Buddha nature is not a special quality available to a privileged few. The true mark of recognizing your Buddha nature is to realize how ordinary it really is — the ability to see that every living creature shares it, though not everyone recognizes it in themselves. So instead of closing your heart to people who yell at you or act in some other harmful way, you find yourself becoming more open. You recognize that they aren’t just jerks, but are people who, like you, want to be happy and peaceful; they’re only acting like jerks because they haven’t recognized their true nature and are overwhelmed by sensations of vulnerability and fear.”