Open Mind Needed

If we truly don't want to hurt,
we need to do something different
and that requires an open mind.
Otherwise, we're locked into
what we've always been doing
and there's no option but pain.

Judy Cohen

Quite the Opposite

Following others will not lead

to seeing myself and the world

as the mystery they are.
Quite the opposite.

Awakening is when you don't follow.

Robert Saltzman

No Need to Know

Awakening means the end of "spirituality" in the face
of the undeniable understanding that all conjecture
on the subject of "myself" falls short - must fall short -
of actually explaining anything. In each moment,
I find myself here as an apparent focus of awareness
without ever having chosen to be here, without knowing
what I "really" am, and without needing to know.

Robert Saltzman

Whatever the Moment Brings

The adept gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and he has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
He doesn't think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day's work.

Lao-Tsu

Your Best Season

Spring comes with its flowers, autumn with the moon,

summer with breezes, winter with snow;

when useless things don't stick in the mind,

that is your best season.

Wu-men Huai-kai

Doorway In

I am of the school that suffering comes
from the reification of self, the making this 
sense of self solid, and so anything that
holds it in place hurts on one level or another
and that's essentially one of my doorways in.

Judy Cohen

Stubbornly Persistent Illusion

People like us who believe in physics know that
the distinction between past, present, and future,
is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

Albert Einstein

Much Too Soon

Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering
and it's all over much too soon.

Woody Allen

It's Kind

If there is no self, then what is there?
If I feel into that a little bit, it's kind.
That's my experience. That doesn't
mean that's your experience.

Judy Cohen

Life Doesn't Need Your Trust

Whether you trust it or not, 
is life happening?
It doesn't need your trust.

Judy Cohen

A Sense of Existence

The mind creates a sense of existence
with this "something is wrong" business.

Judy Cohen

The Ultimate Question?

Is it true?

Byron Katie

Just One of the Symptoms

What if you're a zombie

right now and
believing you're not is

just one of the symptoms?

Jed McKenna

No Other Species

The mind is crazy. Thought is nuts
and the idea that we are a self,
we start from a premise that
no other species is afflicted with.

Judy Cohen

It Stops Being Necessary

It is much more peaceful for me to see those times
when I really crave being acknowledged as a self,
when I put myself out there and once I see that that's
really a verification of this "Judy" thing, it really
generally stops being necessary to say anything.

Judy Cohen

I Don't Need to ...

I don't need to change their minds and
I don't need them to understand me either and
I also don't need them to know my point of view
or whether it's correct or not. If you find your fingers

start moving, type your answer as long as you know

you're not likely to change any minds.

You're not likely to be heard or even understood

because people are hearing and seeing the world

through their own filters. Anything that

doesn't fit is excluded.

Judy Cohen

Happiness as a Requirement

We have made a god of happiness as if it is a requirement
and as if we're doing something wrong if we don't get it
and as if what we have instead of happiness is not okay
or good enough. We've made happiness a requirement
and that has made us unhappy with what we've got.

Judy Cohen

As Simple As That

There's eight billion people on this planet right now
and what happens to Robert one way or another
doesn't really amount to much in the face of that.

If we could only see that. If I could only see that

for one moment, a lot of this striving would come

to an end immediately and we'd just be grateful

for what we have. I'm grateful for what I have.

It's as simple as that.

Robert Saltzman

This is It, Whatever I Think

I would never call myself enlightened
but I do call myself awake and
what I mean by awake is that
I realized this is it, whatever I think.
Whatever I think is part of this moment
but it can't replace this moment.

This moment is a lot more than

what I think about it, a lot more.

Robert Saltzman

Why Pray at All?

They pray to God
and finish with
"Thy Will be done!"
If His Will be done,
why do they pray at all?

Ramana Maharshi

What Are the Odds?

What are the odds that the mind
wants to be transcended?
Why would it want that?
Doesn't it like things
just the way they are?

Judy Cohen

What's Not Okay?

How do you know you have a problem 

and what's not okay with you as you are?

Judy Cohen

Pain and Perfection

The idea that pain is 

not part of perfection,
that makes life small.

Judy Cohen

Just An Is

It's just
an "is."

Kelly (Client's Friend)

Why They Want It

I think also with a lot of enlightenment seekers
or seekers of awakening, whatever that means to them,
they never really ask themselves why they want it
because most of the time it boils down to
one or two reasons. The main one is that they hurt
and they don't want to and they think that if they
are enlightened or they achieve this state or
they reach that level, whatever the word is,
whatever the wording is that works for them,
that then they will be blissful all the time,
they will be calm all the time. They won't mind
what happens. They will feel better in the end.

Judy Cohen

Where Would It Go?

If she is all of it. Again maybe she is, maybe she isn't.
We're not bothering with that right now. But if she is
everything, every feeling, every thought, every color
that lands on that eyeball, everything, every sound.
If she's all of it, first of all, what needs to go away
and second of all, where would it go?

Judy Cohen

If I'm Both

A case can be made in physics and science,
in all kinds of ways, a case can be made
that we are literally everything we experience.
This is literal. This isn't even just woo-woo.
This is science. Then, is a crappy feeling worse

than a good one, if I'm both?

Judy Cohen

If I Am Everything

If I am everything, that includes crappy feelings
and that includes lack of understanding 
and that includes the broken tire and
the practice that never yields the desired result
and that includes the practice that appears
to yield the desired result.

Judy Cohen

Boring!

Why would Existence

want everyone

to do anything?

Judy Cohen

Faulty Thinking

This idea that if we do things right,
we can set things up so that we experience
only enlightenment, bliss, contentment -
this is, in my opinion, faulty thinking.

Judy Cohen

Knock Yourself Out

In the end, if Existence doesn't want you to have
whatever it is, you ain't gettin' it no matter
how you hone, no matter how you practice,
no matter how many books you read.
You can do all that, knock yourself out.
It's a perfectly good way to live your life.

Judy Cohen

All You, Being That

Consciousness is not a watcher.
Consciousness is an experiencer.
Or, more accurately, experience.
Which means, so are you.
Because what is not consciousness?
So you are experience.
Every thought, every feeling, every sound,
every sight, every sensation. All you.
Shifting constantly, moving, in milliseconds,
to BE this sound and that color
and that thought. BEING that.

Judy Cohen

Actually Peaceful

It's odd that we also haven't noticed that acknowledging
the reality of helplessness, surrendering to the possibility
that there's nothing we can do and that relentless
good cheer is not going to save us ... actually is peaceful.

Judy Cohen

The Possibility of Being

So just for fun, we might try on the possibility of

BEING every sensation, being every sound,

being every thought, and laughter, and fear.

Being experience itself, rather than the one

with all the preferences for nice feelings.
Rather than the one all this happens to,

or even the one who notices.
We might begin to notice our usual sense of self,

our everyday, I'm-right-here sense, disappear.

We might begin to notice the typical demands

of the mind go quieter. Since we are those too.

As the sense of ME dissolves into everything.

Judy Cohen

Is It Possible?

Is it possible that this, as it is, is good enough?
Is it possible that I, as I am, am good enough?
This isn't asking if you like it, or if you're where
you want to be, or if you're good, or if you've "got it."
This is asking, is it good enough?
Can you make do with less-than-perfect?
If not, why not? Is yourself too special
to be imperfect like everything else?

Judy Cohen

Someone Else's

If answers are not found by you,
they can never be yours.
They're someone else's.
All you can do is borrow them

Judy Cohen

Because, Isn't There

Focus on any lack, and you're focusing on what isn't there.
As opposed to focusing on what is.
So, of course, you don't find. Because, isn't there.

Judy Cohen

Show Me

Show me where you end and awareness begins.
Show me where sounds ends and hearing begins.
Show me where the great wisdom stops,

holding itself away, from wherever it is

that lacking-you starts.

Judy Cohen

Not Possible Without You

Wouldn't it be something
if we could get truly personal
and notice that without us,
without our sensing apparatuses
such as our eyes, our ears,
noticing and being aware of awareness
and consciousness is not possible.
It is not possible without us.
Without these persons. Without you.
Without you, there is no one to be aware,
no one to be conscious, no one to be enlightened.
Awareness depends on you to be known.

Judy Cohen

Quiet Mind

Only a quiet mind
hears it all.

Ram Dass

Just Being Everything

We don't have to know anything;
that's what's so funny about it.
We get so simple. We're empty.
We know nothing. We simply are wisdom.
Not becoming anything,
just being everything.

Ram Dass

Hey, Where'd You Go?

Forget that "strong sense" of being you for just a minute.
It may be there, but it simply doesn't matter.
Instead, try on BEING the things that are happening,
as opposed to The One Who feels them or
The One Who is aware of them.
You don't have to believe this to try it on.
Try on being, as in literally it's what you are - 
every word, every thought, every feeling, every memory,
every story, every color, every sound. Being all that.

Non-stop fluid, changeable, infinitely varied.
Unable to be held and kept. Being the happenings.
Not the happening-to. No the watching or watchER, either.
What then? What would that be...
Hey, where'd you go?

Judy Cohen

One Touch

One touch of nature
makes the whole world kin.

William Shakespeare

All There Is

I am all
there is.

Richard Grant

This is the Fun

This is the fun for Existence, Consciousness.
We are the fun. How interesting would this life be
if everything was all one color or all one feeling
or all one thought. I mean, talk about boredom.

Judy Cohen

It Wouldn't Be Here

If Existence didn't want all of it,
it wouldn't be here. If God
didn't want anger and bad feelings,
they wouldn't be here. Otherwise,
it ain't much of a God.

Judy Cohen

Crazy Humans

Humans
are crazy.

Judy Cohen

The Basic Message

Come back to square one,

just the minimum bare bones.
Relaxing with the present moment,

relaxing with hopelessness,
relaxing with death,

not resisting the fact that things end,
that things pass,

that things have no lasting substance,
that everything is changing all the time.

That is the basic message.

Pema Chodron

I Am a Soul

I don't have a soul.
I am a soul.
I have a body.

C.S. Lewis

What Percentage of Your Day?

Including sleep and setting aside whether

you like or don't like what's happening,

what percentage of your day are you okay?

Judy Cohen

Notice What I've Got

If I'm seeking okayness,
doesn't it make sense
to notice what I've got?

Judy Cohen

It Doesn't Matter

There's such liberation in realizing
it doesn't matter whether you
like a feeling or not.

Judy Cohen

Pretty Fierce

Beyond even conceiving of a place
Beyond which you can go beyond
Who's adventurous enough to want to go on that journey?
Do you realize when you go on that journey

in order to get to the destination YOU can never get to the destination?
In the process YOU (the ego, who you think you are) must die MUST die.
Pretty fierce journey. Pretty fierce requirement.
We want volunteers.

Ram Dass

It's All Inside You

Once a student asked: 
"If it's all inside you,
what do you need a guru for?"

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche answered:
"You need a guru to show you
that it's all inside you."

Second Choice

Death was
Patrick Henry's
second choice.

Wavy Gravy

Why Silence at Mealtime

You cannot eat and
talk at the same time.

Shunryu Suzuki

Even the Bugs

If you're not a Buddhist, you think
there are Buddhists and non-Buddhists,
but if you're a Buddhist, you realize
everyone's a Buddhist, even the bugs.

Shunryu Suzuki

The Way the Mind Goes

Things go the way the mind goes.
If you think you're a monk, you're a monk.
If you don't think you're a monk, you're not a monk.

Shunryu Suzuki

Not True

If it's not paradoxical,
it's not true.

Shunryu Suzuki

One Power of the Buddha

To see what someone needs
and give it to them.

Shunryu Suzuki

Buddhism in One Phrase

Everything changes.

Shunryu Suzuki

Never Lost

You can never
get lost.

Shunryu Suzuki

Until You Open Your Mouth

I think you're all enlightened
until you open your mouth.

Shunryu Suzuki

It's Training

Hell is not punishment,
it's training.

Shunryu Suzuki

No Mistake

Things as it is.

Shunryu Suzuki

The Meaning of Life and Death

There is no end
to that kind of search.

Shunryu Suzuki

No Reason

Question:
Why is there so much suffering?

"No reason."

Shunryu Suzuki

No Place to Go

You may leave, of course,
but there's no place to go.

Shunryu Suzuki

Seeing Virtue

If you want to see virtue,
you have to have a calm mind.

Shunryu Suzuki

It Doesn't Matter

Question:

If a tree falls in the forest
and no one hears it,
does it make a sound?

"It doesn't matter."

Shunryu Suzuki

How You Made Them Feel

They may forget what you said, but they
will never forget how you made them feel.

Carl W. Buechner

Be Yourself

Be yourself.
No one can say
you're doing it wrong.

Charles Schulz

Respect That Tuning In

We have to start out from somewhere, we can't start out being nobody. The force of "somebody-ness" that develops the survival mechanisms is our starting point. It is the freedom of non-clinging to models about self and other that you begin to tune to and hear the way of thing, called the Tao or the Divine Law. When you respect that tuning in yourself, actions that flow from you start to become dharmic. They are acts that release beings from suffering and do not perpetuate the illusion of separate self.

Ram Dass

All Just Thoughts

Only this moment is real,
this moment of loving awareness.
The past and future are all just thoughts.

Ram Dass

The Best Way to Prepare

If I'm going to die, the best way to prepare
is to quiet my mind and open my heart.
If I'm going to live, the best way to prepare
is to quiet my mind and open my heart.

Ram Dass

This Path of Love

Welcome to the path of the heart! Believe it or not,
this can be your reality, to be loved unconditionally,
and to begin to become that love. This path of love
doesn't go anywhere. It just brings you more here, into
the present moment, into the reality of who you really are.

Ram Dass

Dare to Wear

Dare to wear
the foolish clown face.

Frank Sinatra

Forgive Yourself

Forgive yourself
for not knowing
what you didn't know
before you learned it.

Maya Angelou

No External Refuge

Be a lamp unto yourself,
be a refuge to yourself.
Take yourself to
no external refuge.

The Buddha

Too Old for This

I'm too old
for this shit.

Detective Roger Murtaugh
("Lethal Weapon")

How to Remain an Artist

Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to
remain an artist
once we grow up.

Pablo Picasso

You May Contribute a Verse

O me, O life of the questions of these recurring.
Of the endless trains of the faithless.
Of cities fille with the foolish.
What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer: that you are here.
That life exists and identity.
That the powerful play goes on,
and you may contribute a verse.

Walt Whitman

Live Quite Freely

Once your reputation is ruined,
you can live quite freely.

Anthony Bourdain

Becoming Wise

The fool who persists
in his folly will
become wise.

William Blake

Change vs. Same

The more things change,
the more the stay the same.

French Proverb