Reading from Class: Persistence by Sharon Salzberg

“Often we can achieve an even better result when we stumble yet are willing to start over, when we don’t give up after a mistake, when something doesn’t come easily but we throw ourselves into trying, when we’re not afraid to appear less than perfectly polished.” – Sharon Salzberg

This reading is from a great article by Sharon Salzberg published in O Magazine in 2004 entitled “The Power of Intention”.

Practice gives us the space to get out of our comfort zone. The space is there to play, explore the hesitations and transcend pre-conceived limitations or expectations. The more we practice working in the present the more we can connect to our deeper truth and goodness despite any shadows of failure, fear, ego and doubt. The hope is that we will then be primed to make right effort…again and again.

Reading from Class: The Power of Freedom (Presence) by B. K. S. Iyengar

“If there is anxiety in the body, the brain contracts. When the brain relaxes and empties itself, it lets go of its fears and desires. It dwells neither on the past, nor the future, but inhabits the present. Freedom is about dropping the shackles of fear and desire. When freedom comes, there is no anxiety, no nervousness. That means there is no load on the nerves or, through them, on the unconscious mind. By removing tension from the inner layers of the nervous system, you convert them into a state of freedom…that freedom offers us choice — either to go on as before, driven by external forces and gratifications, or to turn inward and use our gentle powers to seek out the Self.”  – B.K.S. Iyengar from Light on Life

Playlist for Spring Equinox: Most of June 2014

One of my new favorites is Gino Paoli’s upbeat version of his beautiful “Il cielo in una stanza.”   I have re-played heavily for last few months, which inspired replay of Carla Bruni’s French and Italian cover.

 

Beginning of June 2014 Playlist

“Il cielo in una stanza” by Gino Paoli off The Starbucks Compilation “Arrivederci Italy”:

Reading from Class: Being Fully Present by Pema Chödrön

“It takes bravery to train in unconditional friendliness, it takes bravery to train in “suffering with,” it takes bravery to stay with pain when it arises, and not run or erect barriers… As we become intimate with these tendencies, they gradually become more transparent and we see that there’s actually space, there is unlimited, accommodating space. This does not mean that then you live in lasting happiness and comfort. That spaciousness includes pain.  We may still feel confused and sad.  Pleasant happens. Unpleasant happens. Neutral happens. What we gradually learn is not to move away from being fully present.”  – Pema Chödrön from Practicing Peace in Times of War

Reading from Class: Openness by Thomas Merton

From Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander:

“The things we really need come to us only as gifts, and in order to receive them as gifts we have to be open.  In order to be open we have to renounce ourselves, in a sense we have to die to our image of ourselves, our autonomy, our fixation upon our self-willed identity.  We have to be able to relax the psychic and spiritual cramp which knots us in the painful, vulnerable, helpless “I” that is all we know as ourselves.”  — Thomas Merton

I am grateful to Tias Little for his teachings and for sharing this reading while in Boston.   This is the practice.

 

Reading from Class: Happiness by Noah Levine

“We are addicted to pleasure, in part because we confuse pleasure with happiness.  We would all say that deep down, all we want is to be happy.  Yet we don’t have a realistic understanding of what happiness really is.  Happiness is closer to the experience of acceptance and contentment than it is to pleasure. True happiness exists as the spacious and compassionate heart’s willingness to feel whatever is present.” – Noah Levine, Against the Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries (taken from The Buddha is Still Teaching by Jack Kornfield)

Reading from Class: True Happiness by Seneca

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence on the future; not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach.”― Lucius Annaeus Seneca