Ahh, the value of being empty

A rare morning:  practiced Big Mind/Heart, EFT and Self-Identity Ho’oponopono.  I rarely take the opportunity to have such a coordinated mindful practice before breakfast(but I was awake earlier than usual and not groggy); it was  quite relief to walk out the door feeling so emptied out – like a Big Kosmic Piss.
Here are a couple of quotes I came across today that express how I was feeling:

I genuinely feel I know a lot less now than I did 20 years ago.  It feels wonderful!  lt’s like letting go of mental constructs.
~ J. Goldstein

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.
~Pema Chodron

We don’t need to be particularly saintly in order to be compassionate

Seeing the suffering in the world around us and in our own bodies and minds, we begin to understand suffering not only as an individual problem, but as a universal experience.

It is one of the aspects of being alive. The question that then comes to mind is: If compassion arises from the awareness of suffering, why isn’t the world a more compassionate place?

The problem is that often our hearts are not open to feel the pain. We move away from it, close off, and become defended. By closing ourselves off from suffering, however, we also close ourselves to our own wellspring of compassion.

We don’t need to be particularly saintly in order to be compassionate. Compassion is the natural response of an open heart, but that wellspring of compassion remains capped as long as we turn away from or deny or resist the truth of what is there.

When we deny our experience of suffering, we move away from what is genuine to what is fabricated, deceptive and confusing.

–Joseph Goldstein, Seeking the Heart of Wisdom

man, how often I act as an 8 yr old!

Well, not as often as I used to – but I do it enough anyway.  This sorta follows Frizz’s answer to yesterdays blog

So Joseph Goldstein has given me a few wake up calls over the years; the latest is no different.  Just another facet, another post, another mention of letting go . . .

Munindra-ji is used to say that in spiritual practice, time is not a factor.  Practice cannot be measured in time, so let go of the whole notion of when and how long.

The practice is a process unfolding, and it unfolds in its own time.

It is like the flowers that grow in the spring.  Do you pull them up to make them grow faster?  I once tried to do that with carrots in my first garden when I was eight years old.  It does not work.

We do not need any particular length of time for this process of letting things be.

                                                                                                                                  –Joseph Goldstein, Insight Meditation