A Delusional Species

"You see dear reader (speaking frankly, without any intention to offend), you are a ramshackle collection of coincidences held together by a desperate and irrational clinging..."

~ John Burdett

Daron LarsonApril 17, 2018John Burdett, coincidence, chance, chaos, humanity, vulnerability, pain, discomfort, suffering, illusion, fearComment

Why Meditate?

"Why meditate? As you suffer less, are more fulfilled, as you understand who you are, and as you have a handle on changing how you carry yourself, all of that sums up ultimately in how you contribute to making this world a better place."

~ Shinzen Young

Beginning, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonAugust 30, 2016Shinzen Young, happiness, meditation, habits, behavior, service, self-awareness, suffering, satisfactionComment

Things We Are Saying To Ourselves

"An inner voice always used to be an outer voice. We absorb the tone of others. A harassed or angry parent. The menacing threats of an elder sibling keen to put us down. The words of a schoolyard bully or teacher who seemed impossible to please. We internalize the unhelpful voices, because at certain key moments in the past, they sounded compelling. The authority figures repeated their messages over and over until they got lodge in our own way of thinking."

~ The School of Life

Watching the Clock

"As conscious human beings, we know we die, and we therefore know our clock ends on, some level. So time just seems foundational. And I think a lot of the gymnastics that we do as human beings has to do with our relationship to the clock, or lack of a relationship to the clock. We squander time until it’s too late, et cetera. I love looking at the building blocks, the raw material, the irreducibles."

~ B.J. Miller

Practice in Life, Clarity, Notice Flow, GoneDaron LarsonFebruary 2, 2016On Being, B.J. Miller, death, time, imagination, suffering, health care, past, future, sensesComment

Feel Your Feelings for a Few Seconds

Thinking your way through unpleasant emotions takes time while a single repetition of any mindfulness exercise only takes a few seconds. The skills of attention strengthened by mindfulness practice enhance both the resolving of unpleasant emotions and the acceptance of them.

180°

"When you feel the sting of separation inside, simply turn inwardly and intuitively around one hundred and eighty degrees and there will be your innocence, your beauty, your completeness. It may seem impossible, but give it a try until you reconnect with what in truth you never lost."

~ Adyashanti

If You Embrace It, It Will Teach You

"Healing comes in many guises. We're healed by just the touch of a friend. We're healed by the hug of a child. And healing does not imply that your life is suddenly going to lose all of the struggle, all of the challenge. What it does instead is it strengthens us for what is next. But to be open to healing means to be vulnerable. And I think if you look at me, you know I'm what they would call a vulnerable adult. The cat doesn't even listen to me here. I have no real sense of control anymore."

~ Bruce Kramer

Equanimity, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonApril 25, 2015Bruce Kramer, life, death, body, illness, medicine, On Being, frustration, struggle, suffering, yoga, relationshipsComment

Tired of Yourself

"A lot of the poetic discipline boils down to getting tired of yourself, and I really believe that. When you get tired of yourself, then you change."

~ David Whyte

Feel In, Clarity, Equanimity, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonApril 21, 2015David Whyte, freedom, poets, poetry, writing, thinking, feeling, suffering, confusion, Mark Levy, creativity, selfComment

The Only Calibration that Counts

"That's the paradox: the only time most people feel alive is when they're suffering, when something overwhelms their ordinary, careful armour, and the naked child is flung out onto the world. That's why the things that are worst to undergo are best to remember."

~ Ted Hughes

Magnanimity, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonApril 14, 2015Ted Hughes, childhood, self, identity, growing up, life, surprise, fear, suffering, emotion, connection, relationships, poetsComment

This Primal Commitment

What happens when, just for a moment, we stay with our pain, our fear, our doubt, our discomfort, our grief, our broken heart, even our numbness, without trying to change it, or fix it, or numb ourselves to it, or get rid of it in any way? What happens when, even when we feel like leaving, abandoning the moment for the promise of a future salvation, we stay, sitting with the raw, unfiltered, boundlessly alive life-energy that is simply trying to express right now?

~ Jeff Foster

Feel In, Clarity, Equanimity, Practice in LifeDaron LarsonNovember 18, 2014Jeff Foster, suffering, emotions, feeling, life, resistance, uncertainty, grief, death, doubt, discomfortComment

Sweet and Tart

"Bad things are going to happen."

EquanimityDaron LarsonOctober 31, 2014Ellen Bass, poetry, uncertainty, chaos, suffering, life, mundane, challenge, complexity, relationships, growing up, discomfort, confusion, home, struggle, griefComment

The Myth of Permanence

"Contemplating impermanence can be a liberating experience, one that brings both sobriety and joy."

~ Sakyong Mipham

A Vital Part of Aliveness

"One of the beautiful things about the early twilight at this time of year, as it fades into the dark of the long nights, is that you can just surrender yourself to it. Allow the twilight to remind you that it is a time of consideration and renewal. Know full well that in this world the darkness and the light are one. There is no new dawn without the night; their seeming separateness disguises a unity that reflects the unity of life, an unfathomable dance of opposites. This paradox is the very essence of what it is to be alive—joy and pain, sickness and health, light and dark, wonder and fear."

~ Phillip Moffitt