Openness and Compassion
The peace of the heart isn’t emotional resignation, but an openness that meets the ever-changing world with compassion.
Caring without Controlling
With equanimity we can care for all things without trying to control them.
The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace
Jack Kornfield
Background on Jack Kornfield
Being Ourself
We can be happy right now, just as we are, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. There’s nothing that needs to happen first for us to be happy. There’s nothing that needs to be added, subtracted or changed. We don’t need to be someone else.
Happiness isn’t something that’s only for other people. The capacity to be happy is in us already. It isn’t the sole right of special people with the right connections and right looks. Often, what blocks us most from being happy is the idea that we don’t deserve it. But deserving is only a concept. It’s not about deserving or not deserving. Happiness simply is!
Because happiness is always available, we can be happy right now. In fact, now is the only time we can be happy. The only time we can be alive is now. Now is when life is available. Happiness isn’t available in the past – the past is gone. The source of happiness is the good and nurturing things around us and within us right now.
Concept of Happiness
The chief obstacle to our happiness is our concept of happiness. Above all, we tend to think certain conditions must be met for us to be happy. We think we can’t be happy until we meet certain life goals. Yet, this future-oriented thinking, instead of making us happy, becomes a reason for us to be unhappy now. And, if we aren’t happy now, the postponement of our happiness regresses into an infinitely receding future. We chase the horizon in endless anticipation and and continual frustration. We never get there, because we always hope to arrive there someday.
Rather than being about fulfilling certain conditions, happiness is about being receptive, about opening to what’s good in the present moment – here, and now. When we are receptive, we know every moment that wonderful healing and nourishing things surround us.
Underlying Joy
Since happiness is always available, the real question is whether we are available to happiness – joy is the underlying nature of things. We don’t have to manufacture it. We need only to remove the obstacles, including our unexamined concepts about happiness. When we learn to be available to happiness, the obstacles vanish. We immediately see that there’s already enough, right here and right now, for us to be happy.
The Buddha’s Way of Happiness: Healing Sorrow, Transforming Negative Emotion, and Finding Well-Being in the Present Moment
Thomas Bien, Ph.D.
Look Within
Love and compassion are not the possession of any group or religious system. They are woven into our human spirit and our very cells. The only nourishment they require is our intimate and heartfelt attention.
Available to All
The emergence and blossoming of understanding, love, and intelligence has nothing to do with any tradition – no matter how ancient or impressive – it has nothing to do with time. It happens completely on its own when a human being questions, wonders, listens, and looks without getting stuck in fear. When self-concern is quiet, in abeyance, heaven and earth are open.
…..Toni Packer
The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace
Jack Kornfield
Background on Jack Kornfield
Connecting
Sitting on a cushion, I can meditate.
Kneeling in a church, I can pray.
Sharing a cup of coffee with a loved one in the kitchen, I can connect with the sacredness of life.
Breaking Through Formalities
We often think we can pray and meditate only if the conditions are right. Unless we are sitting in a church, sitting in a meditation hall, or taking directions from a guru, spiritual practices may seem pointless. Fortunately, we can break through these formalities and transform our lives into a spiritual conversation when we embrace the adage that prayer is speaking and meditation is listening.
Experiencing Truth
Blessings can come to us when we learn to informally pray and meditate as we communicate with those we love, for then we speak to what is universal in them even as we listen with focused attention to truth speaking through them to us.
Now! The Art of Being Truly Present
Jean Smith
Bounty of Gratitude
Blessings
As gratitude grows, it gives rise to joy. We experience the courage to rejoice in our own good fortune and in the good fortune of others. Gratitude receives in wonder the myriad offerings of the rain and the earth, the care that supports every single life.
The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness, and Peace
Jack Kornfield
Background on Jack Kornfield
Who Knows Anyhow? 