Monday, February 28, 2011

There's a richer way to live life than most of us actually do. Richer, tastier, more meaningful. A way to live so that we don't so much avoid life's pains as walk gently with them. The three short quotes from this week's lectio are from people who know this deeply and communicate it helpfully.
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I've spent many years learning how to fix life, only to discover at the end of the day that life is not broken. There is a hidden seed of greater wholeness in everyone and everything. We serve life best when we water it and befriend it. When we listen before we act. --Rachel Naomi Remen

...Dharma practice (embodying wise teaching) is concerned not with proving or disproving theories of self but with understanding and easing the grip of self-centeredness that constricts body, feelings, emotions, into a tight nugget of anguish. --Stephen Batchelor

Not causing harm requires staying awake. Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do. The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice. --Pema Chodron