I'm so grateful that I can play and that I can execute what I hear in my head, because that's the tricky part.
You cannot avoid paradise. You can only avoid seeking it.
Life always gives us exactly the teacher we need at every moment. This includes every mosquito, every misfortune, every red light, every traffic jam, every obnoxious supervisor (or employee), every illness, every loss, every moment of joy or depression, every addiction, every piece of garbage, every breath. Every moment is the guru.
Most of our difficulties, our hopes, and our worries are empty fantasies. Nothing has ever existed except this moment. That's all there is. That's all we are. Yet most human beings spend 50 to 90 percent or more of their time in their imagination, living in fantasy. We think about what has happened to us, what might have happened, how we feel about it, how we should be different, how others should be different, how it's all a shame, and on and on; it's all fantasy, all imagination. Memory is imagination. Every memory that we stick to devastates our life.
In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice but compassion.
Meditation practice is simply moving from a life of hurting myself and others to a life of not hurting myself and others.
We have to face the pain we have been running from. In fact, we need to learn to rest in it and let its searing power transform us.
. . . what I'm saying is we're making product with chitlins. T-shirts! That's the most we can make.
In England, pop music seems now to be exclusively for children. If an artist is no good, why is it necessary to have that artist repeatedly rammed in our face?
Back in Australia, I did foster care for sick cats for years, and I was always most successful with the animals when I was given two - a brother and sister.
My spirits rose as I went deeper; into the forest; but I could not regain my former elasticity of mind. I found cheerfulness to be like life itself - not to be created by any argument. Afterwards I learned, that the best way to manage some kinds of pain fill thoughts, is to dare them to do their worst; to let them lie and gnaw at your heart till they are tired; and you find you still have a residue of life they cannot kill. So, better and worse, I went on, till I came to a little clearing in the forest.