Start with Not Knowing

Any form of conclusion, opinion, prevents
the free flow of energy. So you start with
not knowing. Then you are able to learn.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Be the Fool You Are

It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous.
Resign yourself to be the fool you are.

T.S. Eliot

Whatever You're Given

Whatever you're given
can wake you up or
put you to sleep.

Pema Chodron

Just as They Are

Things are always
just as they are.

Charlotte Joko Beck

Just to Live

Zen is not some fancy, special art of living.
Our teaching is just to live, always in reality,
in its exact sense.

Shunryu Suzuki

Everything is Music

When I am silent, I fall
into that place where
everything is music.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crown of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

One Cannot Make Mistakes

The newborn fish does not
learn to swim. It swims.
The swimming arises from
the natural state of things.
Abiding in what is natural,
one cannot make mistakes.

Wu Hsin

The One True Practice

All practices require doing something.
As such, they reinforce the cage that
holds you, the notion of a doer.
Any method, no matter how promising,
fortifies the structure of the ego,
further increasing the chaos.
It is like tasking a cat to guard a bowl of milk.
Only being requires no doing.
This is the one true practice.

Wu Hsin

Bring the Treat

Maybe this time,
my pushing the lever
will bring the treat.

Pavlov's Dog (Allegedly)

As You Perceive It

The world exists as you perceive it.
It is not what you see but how you see it.
It is not what you hear but how you hear it.
It is not what you feel but how you feel it.

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Ordinary Details

The key is to be here, fully connected
with the moment, paying attention
to the ordinary details of life.

Pema Chodron

The Secret Knows

We dance around a ring and suppose, but
the Secret lies in the middle and knows.

Robert Frost

They Think It's Hell

I don't give them hell.
I just tell the truth and
they think it's hell.

Harry S Truman

Doing Your Best

Is it possible that every human being is doing
the best that they can do at any moment, just like you?

Byron Katie

What We Believe

We are only as limited as
what we believe in the moment.

Byron Katie

The Body is Affected

Vitiant artus aegrae contagia mentis.
(When the mind is ill at ease,
the body is affected.)

Ovid

Off Your Pedestal

Let life kick you off your pedestal time and time again,
until you lose all interest in being on pedestals.

Jeff Foster

The Body Will Rebel

Ultimately the body will rebel. Even if it can be temporarily pacified with the help of drugs, cigarettes, or medicine, it usually has the last word because it is quicker to see through self-deception than the mind. We may ignore or deride the messages of the body, but its rebellion demands to be heeded because its language is the authentic expression of our true selves and of the strength of our vitality.

Alice Miller

Without Condition

The paper itself is not affected
by the story that is being told -
it is only there to hold the words,
without condition.

Jeff Foster

What Sort of Person

It is more important to know what
sort of person has the disease than
what kind of disease the person has.

Hippocrates

Rituals for Healing

Our culture has its peculiar set of rituals for healing.
Anything from outside that ritual system will be
rejected as heresy.

Charles Eisenstein

Great Healing is Possible

When we break the mold, interrupt the outdated pattern,
and make the unexpected commitment to dignify our
present experience by radically connecting with what's
really here, without judging it or pushing it away,
perhaps great healing is possible.

Jeff Foster

The Road is the Goal

Once you realize that the road is the goal,
and that you are always on the road,
not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty
and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task,
and becomes natural and simple,
in itself an ecstasy.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Exactly As It Is

It is so precious, just to be able to sit in this open space together, where nothing needs to be resolved or solved; where we don't need to fix ourselves or be fixed; where our burning questions don't need to be answered; where, finally, our questions are allowed to just be questions; where our uncertainty doesn't need to be transformed into certainty; where our doubts are finally given permission to just be doubts. Here, in this warm embrace that we are, in this place of true meditation without a meditator, without a destination, without a controller, we don't need to find the answers, we don't need to come to any mental conclusions about life, we don't need to work everything out, we don't need to "know," because finally, all our wondering and our wandering, our trying-to-work-it-all-out and our trying-to-make-it-all-work, our exhausting seeking and searching and our desperation to find answers, is all just allowed to be here, exactly as it is.

Jeff Foster

Spread Love

Spread love,
not germs.

Patty Oneal

Trying to Find You

Ever since happiness heard your name,
it has been running through the streets
trying to find you.

Hafiz

I Have Held You

I will not forget you.
I have held you
in the palm of my hand.

Isaiah 49:15-16

My Philosophy

My philosophy?
No pain,
no pain.

George Carlin

Only Life

There is no authority on life, only Life,
exploding as all there is and is not.

Jeff Foster

Unpleasant Results

People don't like to have their version of reality
f*cked with. Try it if you need to get it out of
your system, but prepare for unpleasant results.

Jed McKenna

Polishing Your Mirror

If you are irritated by every rub,
how will your mirror be polished?

Jalāl al-Dīn Rumi

Seeing the Moon

My barn having burned to the ground,
I can now see the moon.

Misuta Masahide

Life is the Authority

Life is the Authority, and
all belief systems crumble
before life in the end.

Jeff Foster

A Touch of Rascality

You have to have
a touch of rascality
to be human.

Alan Watts

Life As It Is

Life as it is, is totally beyond comprehension
in the same way that the wave will never understand
the ocean because it already IS the ocean.

Jeff Foster

Why I Can Love Them

Govinda said: "what you call a thing, is it something real and intrinsic? Is it not simply an illusion of Maya, merely image and appearance? Your stone, your tree, are they real?

"This does not trouble me much," said Siddhartha. "If they are illusion, then I too am illusion, and so they are of the same nature as myself. That is why I can love them.

Herman Hesse ("Siddhartha")

We Forgot

Human beings are amazing creatures.
We think we have found objective truth,
when in fact we have just come to rest
on a subjective belief, and forgotten this.

Jeff Foster

More Trapped Than Ever

Often when you think you are free
you are more trapped than ever.

Jeff Foster