I Think Of Desire As The Essence

The Renowned Seventh-century Zen Master Seng-tsan Taught That True Freedom Is Being "without Anxiety About Imperfection.

Unless We're Completely Awake, Have A Degree Of That. We Tense Against Love And Hold On In A Way That Doesn't Let It Flow. When That's Really Strong, The Key Piece To Freeing Our Hearts Is Self-compassion.

The Emotion Of Fear Often Works Overtime. Even When There Is No Immediate Threat, Our Body May Remain Tight And On Guard, Our Mind Narrowed To Focus On What Might Go Wrong. When This Happens, Fear Is No Longer Functioning To Secure Our Survival. We Are Caught In The Trance Of Fear And Our Moment-to-moment Experience Becomes Bound In Reactivity. We Spend Our Time And Energy Defending Our Life Rather Than Living It Fully.

Pain Is Not Wrong. Reacting To Pain As Wrong Initiates The Trance Of Unworthiness. The Moment We Believe Something Is Wrong, Our World Shrinks And We Lose Ourselves In The Effort To Combat The Pain.

We Can Find True Refuge Within Our Own Hearts And Minds-right Here, Right Now, In The Midst Of Our Moment-to-momen T Lives. We Find True Refuge Whenever We Recognize The Silent Space Of Awareness Behind All Our Busy Doing And Striving. We Find Refuge Whenever Our Hearts Open With Tenderness And Love. We Find Refuge Whenever We Connect With The Innate Clarity And Intelligence Of Our True Nature.