No Mud, No Lotus

According to the creation story in the biblical book of Genesis, God said, “Let there be light.” I like to imagine that light replied, saying, “God, I have to wait for my twin brother, darkness, to be with me. I can’t be there without the darkness.” God asked, “Why do you need to wait? Darkness is there.” Light answered, “In that case, then I am also already there.” (Location 44)

Electronic distractions not only fail to help heal the underlying suffering, they may contain stories or images that feed our craving, jealousy, anger, or despair. Instead of making us feel better, they numb us only briefly, then make us feel worse. To consume in order to cover up our suffering doesn’t work. We need a spiritual practice to have the strength and skill to look deeply into our suffering, to get insight into it and make a breakthrough. (Location 178)

Each of us has a body, but we aren’t always in touch with it. Maybe our body needs us, our body is calling us, but we don’t hear it. We’re so caught up in our job, our computer, our phone, or in our conversation, we can forget we even have a body. (Location 192)

Note: Reading this after doing sensory depravation and it's interesting how he floating experience disconnects mind and body to make you appreciate how connected they really are

One unnecessary suffering that we can let go of is the suffering of fear. So many of us walk around with the pain and agitation of useless fear, whether that is the fear of dying, fear of hunger, injury or loss, fear of what might happen if we do the wrong thing, or fear of being hurt by or of hurting someone we care about. Many people suffer due to the fear of dying. We want to live forever. We fear annihilation. We don’t want to pass from being into nonbeing. This is understandable. If you believe that one day you will cease to exist altogether, it can be very scary. But if you take the time to still the activities of body and mind and look deeply, you may see that you are dying right this very moment. You think that you will die in a few years, or twenty years, or thirty years. That’s not true. You are dying now. You have been dying all the time. It’s actually very pleasant to die, which is also to live. (Location 306)

I wouldn’t want to be in a world without any suffering, because then there would be no compassion and understanding either. If you haven’t suffered hunger, you can’t appreciate having something to eat. If you haven’t gone through a war, you don’t know the value of peace. That is why we should not try to run away from one unpleasant thing after another. Holding our suffering, looking deeply into it, and transforming it into compassion, we find a way to happiness. (Location 371)

Part of the art of suffering well is learning not to magnify our pain by getting carried away in fear, anger, and despair. (Location 434)

We can condition our bodies and minds to happiness with the five practices of letting go, inviting positive seeds, mindfulness, concentration, and insight. (Location 535)

The first four are to take care of our body. The second set of four exercises takes care of our feelings. The third set of four focuses on the mind, and the fourth set focuses on objects of the mind. (Location 829)