Just know what is happening in your mind - not happy or sad about it, not attached. If you suffer see it, know it, and be empty. It's like a letter - you have to open it before you can know what's in it.
Interpretation
Awareness of one's thoughts and emotions leads to inner peace.
This quote emphasizes the importance of mindfulness and self-awareness regarding one's mental state. By observing our thoughts and feelings without judgment or attachment, we can better understand ourselves and alleviate suffering, much like reading a letter to comprehend its contents.
In practice
In a meditation group, sharing this quote can inspire members to focus on their internal experiences without judgment.
Once you understand non-self, then the burden of life is gone. You'll be at peace with the world. When we see beyond self, we no longer cling to happiness and we can truly be happy. Learn to let go without struggle, simply let go, to be just as you are - no holding on, no attachment, free.
When sitting in meditation, say, "That's not my business!" with every thought that comes by.
If you haven't wept deeply, you haven't begun to meditate.
To observe and watch one's own mind is something really interesting. The untrained mind will run and follow its old habit patterns. Because it has not been trained and taught, it will get lost in all kinds of stories and issues. Therefore we have to train our mind. The meditation practice in Buddhism is all about training one's own mind.
Meditation is like a single log of wood. Insight and investigation are one end of the log; calm and concentration are the other end. If you lift up the whole log, both sides come up at once. Which is concentration and which is insight? Just this mind.
The heart is just the heart; thoughts and feelings are just thoughts and feelings. Let things be just as they are.
Prudent is he who can keep silent that part of truth which may be untimely, and by not speaking it, does not spoil the truth of what he said.
From forty to fifty a man must move upward, or the natural falling off in the vigor of life will carry him rapidly downward.
The fact that the author thinks slowly is not serious, but the fact that he publishes faster than he thinks is inexcusable.
I sort of understood that when I first started: that you shouldn't repeat a success. Very often you're going to, and maybe the first time you do, it works. And you love it. But then you're trapped.
These possessions of a simpleton being the three I choose and cherish: to care, to be fair, to be humble.
It is much easier to ride a horse in the direction it is going.
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