Besides the hidden emotions running on constantly beneath the
surface of your awareness, there’s a stream of fleeting thoughts that runs
right along with them.
You have to let it come to let it go.
How many of the qualities I see in a person really belong to the
person and how many are just my projections?
When you’re in risky emotional territory, there’s nothing more
important than being kind to yourself.
Your baggage is not better or worse, it’s just yours.
Your emotions – freed from your anxieties, fears, and labels—are the
energetic expression of your vast human potential for happiness, creativity,
and compassion.
Compassion is not a mild, generalized feeling of, Gosh, isn’t that a
shame? It’s a powerful and compelling response to the suffering of others that
wants to ease the suffering.
You’re asked to pay attention, to observe, to see. What are you asked to see? Yourself, your
habits, what you’re feeling.
The mind can never just settle down and feel at ease.
If you limit your compassionate activities to people who are easy,
attractive, and full of fun, then whatever you do, whatever actions you
perform, may not necessarily be genuine compassion.
When we’re present in our life, we have an opportunity to discover
who we are with all our confusions and suffering, and who we are beyond the confusion and pain. The alternative is to avoid direct contact
with our experience to hang out in a buffered world that doesn’t quite soothe
or inspire. As human beings, we seem to
want both – we long for what’s real, for adventure and meaning but we also want
to be comfortable.
This is not about recognizing what kind of thoughts we’re
having. It’s about discovering what our
emotions are at their very core.
Emotions get their power from a simple but deep-seated source: our
lack of self-knowledge.
Gradually, you discover that your emotions themselves
are the doorway to the freedom you’re looking for – they open the way for you
(instead of holding you back).
All emotions – whether we view them as good or bad – have a single
essence that’s beyond good or bad. No
matter what they look like on the surface or how you judge them, emotions – at
their core – are basically positive…. Before an emotion escalates to a fever
pitch or you’ve managed to chill it out, there’s a basic energy that gives rise
to it. This energy runs through all your
emotions – good, bad, or neutral. It’s
simply an upsurge that’s been stimulated by something in your environment.
Learn to recognize the moment when you’ve tripped mentally and are
knocked off balance….. Then watch how, in your very next moment, all of the
habitual reactions kick in.
You can make a commitment to being awake and engage with your life,
or you can just close your eyes and hope for the best.
To discover your basic attitude, your starting point, try looking at
what you instinctively do when an emotion pops up.
You have to be willing to feel, even when you want to shut down.