Thursday, August 04, 2011

Careful about those"goals"!

Today I found myself picking up a book again that I've valued very highly over the years. It's called Breath by Breath by Larry Rosenberg.

Here's a brief passage that reminds us not to get attached with the results from meditative practice that we imagine ought to happen:
Most of the time that people get discouraged with practice, they do it to themselves. They've heard time and time again that the practice is being nobody and going nowhere, then they sit down and try to be somebody getting somewhere. Thoughts arise around that wish and they suffer.
Isn't that an intriguing paradox?

I think this is why the Zen folks say we need to have perpetual "beginner's mind".
~~~

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