Awakening Loving-Kindness

The moment when you label your thoughts “thinking” is probably the key place in the technique where you cultivate gentleness, sympathy, and loving-kindness.

Our wisdom is all mixed up with what we call our neurosis.

One of the main discoveries of meditation is seeing how we continually run away from the present moment, how we avoid being here just as we are.

The key is to wake up, to become more alert, more inquisitive and curious about ourselves.

In the same way, if we see our so-called limitations with clarity, precision, gentleness, goodheartedness, and kindness and, having seen them fully, then let go, open further, we begin to find that our world is more vast and more refreshing and fascinating than we had realized before.

Suzuki Roshi says that meditation and the whole process of finding your own true nature is one continuous mistake, and that rather than that being a reason for depression or discouragement, it’s actually the motivation.

Being satisfied with what we already have is a magical golden key to being alive in a full, unrestricted, and inspired way.

the instruction is that there is only twenty-five percent awareness on the out-breath, which is really very little.

So he encouraged me by saying that as long as you have these kinds of doubts, your practice will be good.