“Out of arrogance, anger, and pride, we may have a habitual pattern of pushing others away and refusing love. At the same time, on some level, we feel isolated and cut off, and deeply yearn for human connection, interchange, and mutual affection. Sometimes, in halting and inept ways, we reach out in some way to make contact with others. Yet, when they respond, particularly when they are inviting toward us and begin to come close, we find ourselves lashing out in self-protection. We drive them away, hurt them beyond their ability to forgive, and annihilate any possibility of closeness. Part of this is hatred toward ourselves, toward the tender parts of our being that yearn for connection. This state of mind is intensely hellish in its frozen isolation.”

—Reggie Ray, Indestructible Truth: the Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism

Monday Night in Ubud 🙌

'Do not ask your children to strive' by William Martin

Do not ask your children to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable, but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

Take a demon as a demon and it'll harm you; know a demon is in your mind and you'll be free of it... Once one understands that, even your demons will become deities. I fear no demons: I welcome them!

—Milarepa
(1052 - 1135)

"When we stop taking responsibility for how we feel, we project how we feel onto others. One of the fundamental insights about emotional maturity is that we are responsible for our own emotional lives. No one makes us feel any particular way. If ten people are subjected to the same emotional environment, they will all feel different about what was said to them. What happens is mostly on automatic pilot because we are not conscious of it."

—Adyashanti

I should dispel the pain of others

Because it hurts like my own

And I should be good to them

Because they feel just as I do

When both they and I

Are the same in wanting joy
and not desiring pain

What is so special about me?

—Shantideva

“In the Dzokchen tradition, laziness is defined as ‘being busy,’ being constantly preoccupied with various activities. This kind of laziness involves engaging in activity-based preconceptions. We have a concept of something that we want to get or achieve, and our desire, our hope and fear, provide the fuel to drive us forward. It is as if our lust for a ‘result’ provides the driving force behind our relentless activity. This model of the person who is constantly ‘on the run,’ who never has a free minute, who goes from dawn until dusk, is held up as the ideal in modern culture, the model that everyone should emulate. Why, in dzokchen, is this regarded as the ultimate form of laziness? Because for dzogchen, the ultimate laziness is dwelling in ignorance, simply repeating one's habitual patterns over and over, and refusing to relate to the challenge of reality beyond ego. It is lazy in the sense that it reflects a desire to dwell in the morass and confusion of one's own self-absorption rather than step into the bright light and fresh air of reality, where what we are and how we spend our time may be called into question. ‘Being busy’ in the modern sense, no matter how energetic it may appear on the surface, is ultimately lazy because it has no relationship to actual reality. It is based on mindless ‘cruising,’ attempting to impose our ego version of things on the world. In this, there is no respect for the other, no real communication, no opening, and no journey. This kind of energy has no staying power and leads to nothing but further suffering, sickness, and confusion.

On the other hand, every situation has its natural energy, intelligence, and inner imperative. The paramita of exertion involves trusting the energy presented in whatever occurs, opening oneself to it, and following its natural intelligence. Thus, because situations are always coming to us, we never miss an opportunity.”

—Reggie Ray, Indestructible Truth: the Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism

“Life experiences plant a type of seed inside your memory. These experiences are collected, their impressions recorded and stored away for future use. The Sanskrit term samskara is an imprint left on the mind. Your whole life you are collecting these imprints, though it's not something that you do consciously.
Imprints are simply the result of a life lived, of being in the world, having experiences, seeing things, and so forth. The imprints are placed inside you and stored as a seed in your memory waiting for future activation. These seeds can go unnoticed for a long time if your life conditions lack the triggers that normally activate them and bring them back to your awareness. If the tides turn, and the environment presents a trigger, the seed may become activated.

This same mechanism that happens in the mind also happens in the body.
The body becomes programmed. It has memory. It remembers pleasure and it remembers pain. It also gets physically wounded sometimes. When a tissue becomes wounded—due to either injury or a behavioral cause it is said to create a khavaigunya, or an injured, weak, or defective space in the body. When the doshas get out of balance and start traveling through a body, it's in these weak spots that they find the opportunity to slip in and create imbalance.
Healthy tissues, on the other hand, are better able to protect themselves.
Sometimes trouble spots are created before birth and other times afterward, but either way, they can be exacerbated when the body gets out of balance in the future. We all have them, and they are to be treated with care.”

—Heather Grzych, The Ayurvedic Guide to Fertility

Watch the short video at the bottom of this X post. I’m in the process of phasing out all clothes with synthetics and switching to 100% cotton, linen, bamboo, etc.

Your skin isn’t a barrier, it’s a sponge. Many of these polymers and plastics are considered ‘endocrine disrupters’ because your endocrine system will try to use these synthetic, petroleum-based fats to make hormones.

https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/2029338367943688702?s=46

My offerings this upcoming week in Ubud:

📍Monday, March 09 at 7pm:
Ayurveda's Daily Rituals: Dinacharya as Life at Usada (Usadabali.com).

📍Thursday, March 12 at 1pm at Radiantly Alive:
Ayurveda: Ancient Wisdom and Modern Science (Introduction to Ayurveda workshop).

https://momence.com/Radiantly-Alive/Workshop-%7C-Ayurveda%3A-Ancient-Wisdom%2C-Modern-Science/131248327?skipPreview=true

📍 Meditation at Radiantly Alive every Wednesday at 4pm and Thursday at 9am 🧘‍♂️