What you believe is the heart of all your suffering and, sadly, you cannot think or educate your way out of it. You can, however, unthink your way to freedom by not thinking at all. Let yourself lose control of all your mind has convinced you it has under control, and you will discover you never had any, regardless of what your mind convinced you of otherwise. Surprisingly, that’s when you will feel the most in control. It just doesn’t get any easier – but hard.
Bozebits
Your thoughts, no matter how pure or grandiose, are the vehicles that carry you away from the present and, over time, distance you from something you knew long before you were able to think. Knowing before thinking is awareness, and you once stood alone knowing that everything in existence emanated from you. YOU are the creative center of the universe, but creation is not thought-driven. It is “knowing,” and YOU are the “Knower.” Your thoughts transport you far away from that. It shouldn’t take a lot of thinking about what needs to be done.
Bozebits
The past is where your judgments and reasoning were formed. It is the worst place to spend any time, yet your mind will work tirelessly to keep you there. Get present and simply be with the newness of each crystal-clear moment. The clearer your head, the clearer your experience.
Bozebits
Do you know what greed is? “Dear God, Universe, Great Giver of all that is, karma, etc.; I want.” Yes, greed is, “I want.” Don’t confuse your noble intentions with reality, and think that because you describe another version of something you believe is better, that greed is not the base of it. “I want” ties you to an imaginary reality, and the “good” you imagine is better than “what is” is judgment. YOU not only “have” it all, YOU are ALL. Don’t allow yourself to be divided by mind-based trivialities, e.g., what “I want.”
Look beyond your thoughts by silencing them. Peace and plenty, mystery and wondrousness beyond anything you could possibly want, lie within that silence!
Bozebits
It has been said, “We’re all bad in someone’s story.” I’ll add, “Perhaps even in our own.” The solution to “badness” is to transform your story into no story and let others be the tellers of whatever they want. What they tell is not “what you are,” and what you speak is interpretive, e.g., embellished, jaded, and maybe even untrue. You cannot “tell” a lie if you are busy living a life, as living quietly in the moment is free of interpretation. That is a life that cannot be shaped by stories you or others tell. So, go live; quietly!
Bozebits
Regardless of whose teachings you believe, you cannot know that they know anything more than you. Thus, your beliefs keep you from the experience of something few will ever encounter. That is, innocence or newness, unencumbered by ready-made beliefs, dogma, and how-tos that mask the real and blind your mind. The only clear thought is no thought, and as for beliefs? They’re the most blinding thoughts of all! Innocence is clarity, not clutter. Take this time, this moment, and clean your house. It will surprise you how spacious it is.
Bozebits
There is a Zen saying: “Only out of the mud can the Lotus grow.” All of the things you consider messed up in the world are the mud from which you, the most beautiful of all flowers, emerge, and the “mud” is never, not there, just as YOU have never not been! The world is perfect, as are YOU. Worry not and judge not the mud from which all life takes form. Sow seeds of goodness, gratitude, and kindness so that your life, regardless of its murkiness and mystery, flowers with beauty.
Bozebits
View the world and all its goings-on without your rules, regulations, reasoning, beliefs, judgments, and even resolutions. All those things obscure reality and imprison you with invisible walls that few ever climb over. Only your mind judges life, and life takes on misery because of it. Creation is pure, and all that it brings forth, including you, is born of that purity. Additionally, YOU are the Creator, and nothing you think will alter that. So why think at all? Don’t “think” about it; drop the reasons you think you must think. You’re going to love what you see beyond those walls when you do.
Bozebits
Taking responsibility for your life means giving up everything you believe has gotten you to where you are now. In other words, there is nothing to credit or blame for where you are. You’re here now, and that is all that ever matters in this pristine newness, unencumbered by a nonexistent past or future. You’re not in school or training, nor are you being tested and tried for some made-up purpose; most have deluded themselves into believing it is a necessary stepping stone to another delusion that takes you out of the miracle of this moment. You only have now, and it is what it is, and you are what you are, and no judgment or speculation will alter it or you. So why not embrace this moment with enthusiasm, zest, and a completely clear mind? It’s just more exhilarating if you do!
Bozebits
Let your life be an expression of “what” you truly are, not the chest-pounding assertions made in brash, bold statements, as so many do now. You have nothing to prove in life, no measure to reach, and certainly no need to be extraordinary in egoic terms. All of that was taken care of with your first life-giving breath. There is nothing like YOU in all the universe, nor will there ever be in all the infinities; no competition whatsoever, no greater or lesser. YOUR extraordinariness goes without saying, but only when you embrace your ordinary self. Just BE; no assertion will ever outdo such an expression as YOU.