I’m glad the damned horse fell on me. It made me lie still in one place… – Andre Dubus

shit happens

When shit happens, it’s Life offering us a gift. It’s our opportunity to become still and know what’s true. To know what the gift is and what we might do with it. It’s an invitation to come back Home.

The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them. – Alfred Hitchcock

afraid

Whether we admit it or not we’re afraid. We’re afraid of many things including death, or extinguishment. Alfred Hitchcock was indeed a master, he knew how to process his fears. And thus he points to how we can do the same. We must face our fears, we must allow them to come up and allow them to take us over. We just let it happen without resistance. When we do that we realize that all fear is really a damp squib, it’s non-existent. And unless we face our fears they’ll always lie waiting to pounce, attack us again and again…

There are no present moment thoughts. All thoughts are about the past and future, even ones about now. – Sandy Newbigging

isn’t

The present moment is. But it isn’t to us when we’re thinking, any thoughts. It’s not thoughts about what’s going on. It’s just what’s going on. To enjoy it, actually to be it, we must just be, and be as though we’re not.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. – Dante, Divine Comedy

this is it

We experience what could be hell when we suffer. What can we do to escape? Sometimes it takes the ‘dark night’, the very depths of hell itself before we give up all semblance of control and plunge into the blackness. And then the very first ray of the dawn Sun arrives without much aplomb. That’s the beginning of the end of despair…

You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. – Steve Jobs

left naked

Here Steve’s talking about everything in Life being very temporary, to the point that nothing’s certain, certainly not our bodies. Therefore he suggests, go for it, do what your heart urges you to do, life’s too short!

God is trying to sell you something

But you don’t want to buy.

That is what your suffering is:

Your fantastic haggling,

Your manic screaming over price.

– Hafez

the end of suffering…

We cause most of our own suffering if not all of it. It’s our way to justify being small and cowardly. Directly or indirectly we blame God for it all. But God has no part in our suffering, his hand is always extended towards us while we insist on looking away. When will we turn our head back towards God and grasp his hand to safety and peace?

You can’t get away from yourself by going to a boozebar. – Elbert Hubbard

can’t hide

Whenever we distract ourselves we’re running away from self. Distractions include booze, food, sex, TV, even reading, our phones of course, just about every action or thought activity we engage in. Agreed it’s a very strict definition for ‘distraction’ but that’s necessary if we want to get to the crux, the very center, of who we are.