Wisdom is recognising the difference between: “I was unhappy but now I am happy.” and “there is unhappiness and there is happiness.”
Archives
2025
Solemnity and earnestness are the enemies of revelation, transformation, insight and wisdom.
““The ego is the workshop where the self is made.”” — Carl Jung
Experience is a spectrum not a hierarchy.
Recognising what is needed is more important than imagining you know what you want.
““When the mind recognizes itself, there is no thing to see there. It’s just wide open.”” — Tsoknyi Rinpoche
Just received my copy. Very excited to get stuck in…
““If the universe is meaningless, so is the statement that it is so… The meaning and purpose of dancing is the dance.”” — Alan Watts
Every word is too much and yet not enough.
Nothings needs to be done for everything to happen.
Preparation (forethought) is making up a small, finite, limited, fixed story and attempting to force the infinite, unknown energy of the universe to fit into...
Will you be and live your life directly or will you be entertained and tortured by stories about it.
Pure objectivity is impossible. There is only a spectrum of subjectivity.
““There is nowhere from the universe that direct experience can be felt except from the experience itself.”” — Annaka Harris
Everything that we don’t experience directly is entertainment.
The Truth requires belief. Your own truths are self evident and need no support or validation.
““So much has been given to me I have not the time to ponder that which has been denied.”” — Helen Keller
Having an idea about what is happening is not what is happening yet it is an aspect of what is happening.
Today, it’s as if seeing the world through an entirely new frame. Everything has changed yet remains the same. Some things appear more important, others...
Our world is made of language. Change the language and so does the world.
Humanity’s single greatest triumph and folly is our ability to make stuff up.
The irrational is where it’s at.
““As something, I am merely that thing. As no-thing, I am all things.”” — Douglas Harding
The paralysing tyranny of ‘should’...
How much can we actually know, as a matter of direct experience, and not indirect information?
““I'm sitting here looking at the mushrooms coming up through the rotting leaves, and thinking about how much grief and loss are required for growth...
You know it’s right when you can’t explain it. The truth lies beyond words.
Every moment of existence has value. It all counts. You can’t edit life. You’re either all in or all out.
““Only the human species is afflicted with the idea that just being alive is not enough, and that enlightenment is required, in addition.” — Judy...
Never mind the specific latest apparent technological and political threat, the greatest problem we face, as has always been the case, is ourselves.
It interests me that I seem to have listened and taken some heed of the voice inside me that directed me towards volunteering and ultimately...
““Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.”” — Anthony De Mello
““It is by no means certain that the man with good intentions is under all circumstances a good man. If he is not, then his...
““When a man lacks self-knowledge, he can do the most astonishing or terrible things without calling himself to account and without ever suspecting what he...
Understanding who one is has nothing to do with identity or images of selfhood. Knowing who you are means accepting your wholeness, embracing every aspect...
““If I know what I shall find, I do not want to find it. Uncertainty is the salt of life.”” — Erwin Chargaff
The infinite variation and uniqueness of minds ensures there is no single, common experience of any sort. We are deluded by the similarities and remain...
““We hear men say they are really motivated. Which is, of course, their misfortune. Where peace, truth, love and beauty are concerned, no effort is...
““I suppose that when it comes down to it, what I am trying to say is that the path of inward solitude, or whatever it...
What matters? Different things at different times. Answers come and answers go revealing that there are no answers and eventually the question simply dissolves leaving,...
1. Recognition 2. Acceptance 3. Gratitude
Direct experiencing – that which requires no learning or belief, meaning or reason. Everything we feel, taste , see, hear or think requires no understanding...
A simple, gentle contemplation on my drive to work at the hospital this morning. A sense of the ‘little me’ falling away to reveal the...
““Don’t try to create and analyse at the same time, they’re different processes.”” — Corita Kent
““Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.”” — Mary...
The glory of a beautiful Spring day would not exist if not for all the bleak, grey winter ones that preceded it.
Investigate, question, examine, interrogate anything for long enough and sooner or later it disappears.
Everything is always it. Illusions, delusions, fantasies, hallucinations, confusion… Everything is included, nothing left out.
