He lets all things come and go
effortlessly, without desire.
He never expects results;
thus he is never disappointed.
He is never disappointed;
thus his spirit never grows old.

Nothing is gained by forcing an issue. If you want to survive you must be crystal clear and deadly sure of yourself.

If You Don't Dismiss Thougths

Slowly you become engulfed by thoughts, which are not dismissed at the right time, lose perspective and become overwhelmed. While overwhelmed you are unpredictable. Thoughts become more and more negative and insecure. You are not “yourself”. Life speeds up, days become mundane. You become angry at yourself for being “weak” and stop cutting yourself any slack for anything. Everything is exaggerated and blown out of proportion. Perspective is lost and you lose self-esteem and self-worth.

When you have a thought -- any thought -- that's all it is, a thought! It can't hurt you without your consent.

If the thought comes I see that as a thought -- right here and now. If, when I'm meditating that thought comes, I see that it has a beginning ... and that that thought has an end; and noticing that when that thought ends, there's peace in the mind. When I can see that the thought is just a thought which comes and goes, I can see it as a changing condition in the mind. I don't have to make a problem out of it any more. I don't have to wait for the time when there are no more doubting thoughts. I just know it's a doubting thought and I can offer what I'm able to. This brings forth patience and equanimity. And this is what we can do in an immediate sense.

Stop Searching And See

There is no such thing as peace of mind. Mind means disturbance; restlessness itself is mind. Examine closely and you will see that the mind is seething with thoughts. It may go blank occasionally, but it does it for a time and reverts to its usual restlessness. A becalmed mind is not a peaceful mind. For many years you sought your peace of mind. You could not find it, for a thing essentially restless cannot be at peace. The peace you claim to have found is very brittle any little thing can crack it. What you call peace is only absence of disturbance. It is hardly worth the name. The real peace cannot be disturbed. The self does not need to be put to rest. It is peace itself, not at peace. Only the mind is restless. All it knows is restlessness, with its many modes and grades. The pleasant are considered superior and the painful are discounted. What we call progress is merely a change over from the unpleasant to the pleasant. But changes by themselves cannot bring us to the changeless, for whatever has a beginning must have an end. You can find what you have lost. But you cannot find what you have not lost. The true knowledge of the self is not a knowledge. Knowledge is but a memory, a pattern of thought, and a mental habit. All these are motivated by pleasure and pain. It is because you are goaded by pleasure and pain that you are in search of knowledge. You got yourself into your present state through verbal thinking; you must get out of it the same way. Only when you realize the true peace, the peace you have never lost, that peace will remain with you, for it was never away. Instead of searching for what you do not have, find out what is it that you have never lost? The obstacles to the clear perception of one’s true being are desire for pleasure and fear of pain. It is the pleasure-pain motivation that stands in the way. The very freedom from all motivation, the state in which no desire arises is the natural state. Giving up desire after desire is a lengthy process with the end never in sight. Leave alone your desires and fears, give your entire attention to the subject, to him who is behind the experience of desire and fear. Ask: ‘who desires?’ Let each desire bring you back to yourself. The happiness you can think of and long for is mere physical or mental satisfaction. Such sensory or mental pleasure is not the real, the absolute happiness. They have their roots in imagination. A man who is given a stone and assured that it is a priceless diamond will be mightily pleased until he realizes his mistake; in the same way pleasures lose their tang and pain their barb when the self is known. Both are seen as they are — conditional responses, mere reactions, plain attractions and repulsions, based on memories or pre-conceptions. Usually pleasure and pain are experienced when expected. It is all a matter of acquired habits and convictions. Desires and fears- Where are they but in your memory? Realize that their root is in expectation born of memory and they will cease to obsess you. How restless people are, how constantly on the move! It is because they are in pain that they seek relief in pleasure. All the happiness they can imagine is in the assurance of repeated pleasure. The end of pain lies not in pleasure. When you realize that you are beyond pain and pleasure, aloof and unassailable, then the pursuit of happiness ceases and the resultant sorrow too. For pain aims at pleasure and pleasure ends in pain relentlessly. In the ultimate state there can be neither happiness nor sorrow. Only freedom. Happiness depends on something or other and can be lost; freedom from everything depends on nothing and cannot be lost. Momentary relief from pain we call pleasure — and we build castles in the air hoping for endless pleasure which we call happiness. It is all misunderstanding and misuse. Wake up, go beyond, and live really. When the seeker said that the condition that one must have freedom from desires and inclinations is impossible of fulfillment, N told him that there are no conditions to fulfill. There is nothing to be done, nothing to be given up. Just look and remember, whatever you perceive is not you, nor yours. It is there in the field of consciousness, but you are not the field and its contents, nor even the knower of the field. It is your idea that you have to do things that entangle you in the results of your efforts — the motive, the desire, the failure to achieve, the sense of frustration — all this holds you back. Simply look at whatever happens and know that you are beyond it. To look for it on the mental level is futile. Stop searching, and see — it is here and now — it is that ‘I am’ you know so well. All you need to do is to cease taking yourself to be within the field of consciousness The greatest Guru is your inner self. Truly, he is the supreme teacher. He alone can take you to your goal and he alone meets you at the end of the road. Confide in him and you need no outer Guru.

Doing Your Best

We often come into contact with the idea that our best isn’t good enough, as if this were actually possible. If you examine this notion, you will begin to see that it doesn’t make much sense. Your best is always good enough, because it comes from you, and you are always good enough. You may not be able to deliver someone else’s idea of the best, but the good news is that’s not your burden. You only need to fulfill your own potential, and as long as you remain true to that calling, and always do your best to fulfill your purpose, you don’t need to expect anything more from yourself.

It’s easy to get tangled up with the idea of trying to be the best—the best parent, the best employee, the best child, or best friend. If we try to be the best, we run the risk of short-circuiting our originality because we are striving to fit into someone else’s vision of success. In addition, if everyone is striving for the same outcome, we lose out on creativity, diversity, and visionary alternatives to the way things are done. On another note, there is nothing wrong with wanting to improve, but examining where this feeling comes from is important because wanting to be better than others is our ego coming into play.

Letting go of the tendency to hold ourselves up to other people’s standards, and letting go of the belief that we need to compete and win, doesn’t mean we don’t believe in doing the best job we can. We always strive to do our best, because when we do we create a life free of regret, knowing we have performed to the best of our ability. This allows us to feel great personal satisfaction in all of our efforts, regardless of how others perceive the outcome.

Ego

Ego wants to be satisfied all the time. As long as everything is all right our ego is content and tries to keep this state. Our "self" clings to this contentment and our mind is distressed with desire - the poison of attachment. When nice circumstances are gone, ego still clings to them because it wants to be content. More attachment and desire appear in our mind. In the cases of unpleasant situations the ego reacts with anger and hatred. It tries to avoid them and replace them with pleasant experiences. In this way our mind is anxious and unhappy. We can recognize the continuous influence of ego in every situation. It ceaselessly categorizes experiences as pleasant or unpleasant. If we follow our ego we accumulate karma which will sooner or later ripen as different kinds of suffering.

Right Practice

Through right practice, you allow your old kamma to wear itself out. Knowing how things arise and pass away, you can just be aware and let them run their course. It is like having two trees: if you fertilize and water one and do not take care of the other, there is no question which one will grow and which one will die.

~Ajahn Chah

The best solution to worry of any kind is retrospective analysis. Think about something similar that you have worried about (and solved) in the past. Then, imagine yourself looking back on today from a time in the future. Find a way to utilize the same strategies that have worked in the past to solve today's worry, but think about it as if you were in the future, way after the problem has been solved...This provides a realistic mental goal.

If constant worry is your thing, eliminate reinforcement schedules. Chronic anxiety is often self-serving. You may feel bad/guilty for NOT worrying. Find a way to reinforce every thing that you do that involves trust, initiative, risk-taking (the smart kind, like approaching a potential date), and the like. You will soon realize your own potential for self-determination. Also, you'll develop coping strategies for situations that don't go as you planned.

• There are two kinds of suffering: the suffering, which leads to more suffering, and the suffering, which leads to the end of suffering. The first is the pain of grasping after fleeting pleasures and aversion for the unpleasant, the continued struggle of most people day after day. The second is the suffering, which comes when you allow yourself to feel fully the constant change of experience - pleasure, pain, joy, and anger - without fear or withdrawal. The suffering of our experience leads to inner fearlessness and peace
• People who suffer will accordingly gain wisdom. If we don’t suffer, we don’t contemplate. If we don’t contemplate, no wisdom is born. Without wisdom, we don’t know. Not knowing, we can’t get free of suffering - that’s just the way it is. Therefore we must train and endure in our practice. When we then reflect on the world, we won’t be afraid like before.
  
• It is so easy once you understand. It is so simple and direct. When pleasant things arise, understand that they are empty. When unpleasant things arise, see that they are not yours. They pass away. Don’t relate to them as being you, or see yourself as the owner of them. You think that papaya tree is yours, then why don’t you feel hurt when it is cut down?
• 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.
• Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.
• The forest is peaceful, why aren’t you? You hold on to things causing your confusion. Let nature teach you. Hear the bird’s song then let go. If you know nature, you’ll know Dhamma. If you know Dhamma, you’ll know nature.
• Looking for peace is like looking for a turtle with a mustache. You won’t be able to find it. But when your heart is ready, peace will come looking for you.
  
• Be careful! When happiness arises, don’t be overjoyed, and don’t get carried away. When suffering comes, don’t despair, don’t lose yourself in it. See that they have the same equal value.
  

Thoughts / Thinking

Today, as we live our life, that event is merely a thought carried through time, via our own thinking As long as you see it, not as a reality to contend with, but as a simple thought, you are free to live right now, in this moment. Because thoughts are just thoughts (all of them) you have the power to drop any thought, at any time. You are absolutely in charge and have the last say! This is the ultimate in taking responsibility for your own thoughts and feelings.

Here’s a little more food for thought. Let me ask you a funny question. Would you ever, even for a moment, consider writing yourself a nasty, mean-spirited letter and then mailing that letter to yourself? Then, when you get the letter you open it and you’re immediately offended by the mean and obnoxious content! You storm around the room and act all out of sorts!

Of course this would never happen in a million years, but why? The reason is that you would be aware that it was you who wrote the letter. How silly would it be to write a letter and then become upset by that very letter?

Well that’s the exact same logic we can apply to our thinking. Think about it carefully. Why would you ever have a thought—any thought, no matter how negative or scary—and then become nervous, reactive, angry or in some other way bothered by it? Remember, it’s just a thought you’re having, just like all the others. And what’s more important, you’re the one who produced the thought to begin with.

Being upset by your own thoughts is a little like smashing your head against a wall and wondering why your head hurts. Remember, you wouldn’t act on a scary thought like killing another driver, no matter how bad he or she was—why? Because it was just a thought. The secret to a happy life is to realize that all of our thoughts are just thoughts. True things happen all the time, but once they are over---or if they haven’t happened yet, they are just thoughts.

~Richard Carlson