"When you label yourself or anyone else as bad, wrong, inferior, unworthy, and so on, you are looking through a narrow lens. Expand your vision and you will be aware that everyone, however flawed, is complete and whole at the deepest level. . . . This is how a figure like Jesus or Buddha could have compassion for anyone. By seeing the wholeness behind the play of light and dark, they found nothing to blame."
-- Deepak Chopra, The Shadow Effect
"As the Jewish Talmud observes, we do not see things simply as they are, but also as we are. Everything we experience comes to us molded by our minds...What we perceive is selected by our desires, colored by our emotions, and fragmented by our wandering attention. What we see outside us reflects what is inside us. The result: we do not see ourselves or the world clearly or accurately."
-- Roger Walsh, Essential Spirituality
Here's another mindfulness practice for you: Just for a day, watch closely to see what sparks a negative reaction in you -- situations or people that annoy or infuriate you. And then see if you can halt the flow of projection: ask yourself, "What is it in me that is coloring my response to this event or individual? What can I learn from this, and how can I -- in noticing my response and what drives it -- become a more compassionate being?"
We leave today for our daughter's graduation, so I'll be offline tomorrow. See you Tuesday!
2 comments:
Yours and Louise's posts today complement each other.
Have a wonderful time at graduation. (I watched my only walk across the stage this past Monday. Now's he's out on that bigger stage and. . . .)
Have a joyous occassion with your daughter! How exciting.
and yes, our posts complement each other -- how lovely!
Louise
Post a Comment