“As free human beings we can use our unique intelligence to try to understand ourselves and our world. But if we are presented from using our creative potential, we are deprived of one of the basic characteristics of a human being”. Dalai Lama

Address to NGOs at the UN World Conference on Human Rights, Vienna, June 1993. 

“The First Step in this process of mindful awareness is radical self-acceptence”

This is a quote by Stephen Batchelor. It’s the opening quote for Day 13 of my daily mediation book, “Meditations from the Mat”, by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison. I picked this book up one afternoon during my lunch break at work. I’ve found the meditations are meaningful and relate to the sometimes difficult struggles that life brings to us each day. I think the authors help us embrace the reality of the yogic lifestyle. Peace doesn’t just come from doing a few asanas on the mat. It takes thoughtfulness and constant seeking. This book has been my companion in the mornings before I bike to work, before it’s even light outside I’ll be reading a meditation while drinking my coffee. It helps bring intention and mindfulness into my day. This morning the reflection was about how what we resist persists, according to Buddhist teachings. I’ve found this to so true in my own life. Ironically it was brought to my attention by a sound healer this past weekend during a yoga teacher gathering in town. The healer finished the hour session with about fifteen of us in the room. She ended it by addressing me in front of everyone else, saying she had something specific she wanted to tell me. She said I should start listening to my heart instead of my mind, that I think too often with my mind and not my heart. Perhaps it’s pretty simple, but I think it was also very perceptive. I resist what my heart tells me, instead listening to what my practical mind says. But buying this ticket to Thailand and India is listening to my heart, and I think it’s a start of a new direction. 

…and the day came

when the risk to

remain tight in a bud

was more painful

than the risk

it took to blossom.

– Anais Nin