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Saturday, November 19, 2005

the wondrous path of difficulties

sorry there is no link for this quote found in an old-fashioned hard copy of buddhadharma (winter 2005). it is from a discussion between jack kornfield and pema chodron about life's difficulties.

"if you can sit quietly after difficult news, if in financial downturns you remain perfectly calm, if you can see your neighbors travel to fantastic places without a twinge of jealousy, if you can happily eat whatever is put on your plate and fall asleep after a day of running around without a drink or a pill, if you can always find contentment just where you are, you are probably a dog."

not that there's anything wrong with being a dog...

but in my zen practice i so often get caught up in how i think i should be feeling rather than how i am feeling. and it is nice to remember that i am human, and these things are inevitable. it's a great article, by the way.

4 Comments:

Blogger woundedduck said...

Woof woof, woof, woof woof woof. Woof woof; woof woof. Woof woof?

Namaste,
Woof

9:44 AM  
Blogger Pirate said...

so true. its hard not to have human feelings when you're a human. Do suppose dogs never get jealous?

1:36 AM  
Blogger shyloh's poetry said...

I think they have feelings. So it seems to me.

10:24 PM  
Blogger ghat-tak said...

Well, it reminds me of the poem written by R. Kipling "If" - but his conclusion was different! Actually he said that if we manage to behave like that, than we could call ourselves "man".
Different perspectives... :-)
(you can read it here: http://www.evoluzioni.info/Remember.htm#If)

1:13 AM  

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