An Old Zen Rule Of Thumb Is

You Cannot Avoid Paradise. You Can Only Avoid Seeking It.

Meditation Practice Is Simply Moving From A Life Of Hurting Myself And Others To A Life Of Not Hurting Myself And Others.

What Does Open Us Is Sharing Our Vulnerabilities. Sometimes We See A Couple Who Has Done This Difficult Work Over A Lifetime. In The Process, They Have Grown Old Together. We Can Sense The Enormous Comfort, The Shared Quality Of Ease Between These People. It Is Beautiful, And Very Rare. Without This Quality Of Openness And Vulnerability, Partners Don't Really Know Each Other; They Are One Image Living With Another Image.

There Is A Foundation For Our Lives, A Place In Which Our Life Rests. That Place Is Nothing But The Present Moment, As We See, Hear, Experience What Is. If We Do Not Return To That Place, We Live Our Lives Out Of Our Heads. We Blame Others; We Complain; We Feel Sorry For Ourselves. All Of These Symptoms Show That We're Stuck In Our Thoughts. We're Out Of Touch With The Open Space That Is Always Right Here.

Underneath Our Nice, Friendly Facades There Is Great Unease. If I Were To Scratch Below The Surface Of Anyone I Would Find Fear, Pain, And Anxiety Running Amok. We All Have Ways To Cover Them Up. We Overeat, Over-drink, Overwork; We Watch Too Much Television.