There was something important being overlooked, they argued, in the mainstreaming of meditation – a central plank in the Buddhist platform: compassion.
Make the present moment your friend rather than your enemy. Because many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment.
…didn’t need to waste so much time envisioning some vague horribleness awaiting me in my future.
All we can do is everything we can do. (David Axelrod)
If you don’t waste your energy on variables you cannot influence, you can focus much more effectively on those you can. (Mark Epstein)
If everything in this world was in constant decay, why expend so much energy gnashing my teeth over work?
Turns out, it’s pretty simple to win people over, especially in tense situations, if you’re able to take their perspective and validate their feelings.
In fact, when you’re mindful, you actually feel irritation more keenly. However, once you unburden yourself from the delusion that people are deliberately trying to screw you, it’s easier to stop getting carried away.
When you lurch from one thing to the next, constantly scheming, or reacting to incoming fire, the mind gets exhausted. You get sloppy and make bad decisions.
The brain is a pleasure seeking machine. Once you teach it, through meditation, that abiding calmly in the present moment feels better than our habitual state of clinging l, over time, the brain will want more and more mindfulness.