If you take a deep breath and look around, 'Look what's happening to me!' can become 'Look what's happening!' And what's happening? The incredible drama of life is happening. And we're in it!
Interpretation
The quote encourages us to appreciate the present moment and the unfolding drama of life, rather than focusing solely on our personal struggles.
Sylvia Boorstein's quote emphasizes the importance of perspective in our experiences. By shifting our focus from a self-centered viewpoint of our problems to a broader appreciation of life itself, we can recognize the beauty and drama that surrounds us. Instead of lamenting our challenges, we are invited to observe and celebrate the richness of life unfolding around us.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a mindfulness workshop to encourage participants to live in the moment.
Heir to your own karma doesn't mean 'You get what you deserve.' I think it means 'You get what you get.' Bad things happen to good people. My happiness depending on my action means, to me, that it depends on my action of choosing compassion--for myself as well as for everyone else--rather than contention. [p.61]
Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn't more complicated that that. It is opening to or recieving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.
The path of compassion leads to the development of insight. But it doesn't work to say, "Ready, set, go! Be compassionate!" Beginning any practice depends on intention. Intention depends on intuiting-at least a little bit-the suffering inherent in the human condition and the pain we feel, and cause, when we act out of confusion. It also depends on trusting-at least a little bit-in the possibility of a contented, satisfied mind.
Mindfulness is attentiveness, moment to moment. What's happening right now and what's coming up in me in response to what's happening right now. Importantly, this is in the service of being able to choose wisely so that I avoid complicating my own life and the lives of others.
Suffering is the demand that experience be different from what it is.
If we can keep at least a bit of the mind clear about temporality, we can mange complicated, even difficult, times with grace.
I'm blessed to be living this dream of writing and singing, but that's not the real dream I had. The real dream was to make enough money to take care of all the pain and suffering that my mother has been through.
There is only one person responsible for the quality of life you live and that person is you.
It is the most powerful creation to have life growing inside of you. There is no bigger gift.
As young people we want something to slow us down and keep us trapped in one place long enough to look below the surface of the world. That disaster is a car crash or a war. To make us sit still. It can be getting cancer or getting pregnant. The important part is how it seems to catch us by surprise. That disaster stops us from living the life we'd planned as children - a life of constant dashing around.
You're not really ready to live unless you know what you're willing to die for.
Welcome ever smiles, and farewell goes out sighing.
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