All quotes from
Michael and Christie's book
Pain is real – yes – and it really hurts people. But we can only stop it if we can stop
misunderstanding where it comes from.
Stop seeing things the wrong way.
Most of our perceptions during the day are triggered by some outside
object: seeing an apple is set off by the apple --- in a sense the seeing
depends on, or hinges upon, the apple.
We begin
with a daily inner practice. It will
always include three essential elements: being careful never to hurt others;
learning to pray or meditate; and relentlessly exploring the question of where
things really come from.
We very
much come from how we treat others.
Meditation
is a serious tool. We need to use it to
fix ourselves and the world, forever.
Using meditation only to feel good for a while is like a surgeon taking
the anesthesia himself, leaving the patient to die on the operating table.
Awareness
is to be present: to be here now, not wrapped up in what’s happened or might
happen.
The
highest form of awareness is to keep our mind on where the things that happen
to us are really coming from.
If a
young child falls into a fire, her mother moves quickly. People having a normal life in this world are
in much more danger than the child.
The
things around us are a product of the seeds within our own minds and so are the
people.
True yoga
is the search for a worldview that actually works to bring people happiness.
Our world
is a product of the seeds within our own minds.
Just wanting to help a single other person alters these seeds
drastically.
Don’t be
naïve and believe that thoughts stop just because the body stops.
Money karma can be amazing. Money isn’t made at a federal facility
somewhere. The value of the world economy – every single
cent of it – is created by respecting other people’s things.
It’s no surprise that, karmically speaking (which is the only way
that works any way), we can get the kind of relationship we want with someone…
only by being very careful not to damage other people’s relationships.
The habit of watching out for
possible angels among us graduates into direct encounters with these beings.
It really
is true that there is no school like being put into difficult situations and
learning to excel because of them.
If we are
doing our yoga exercises correctly then, inside channels open up, which
actually causes us to think more clearly and kindly. If you’re not getting this effect with your
yoga, then you’re not doing it properly.
To make
meditation perfect, it’s not enough to simply mentally stare at something like
our breath for a long time. The mind
even then is making its constant, deadly error, and we must fix it or come to
the end of our life unfulfilled. As we meditate we need to strive to see that
one thing that is simply… missing, clear gone.
We need to realize that nothing is anything; that is, even the hotness
of a fire never belonged to it. It is I who make the fire hot.
