“In building a path through the self to the far shore of awareness, we have to carefully pick our way through our own wilderness. If we can put our minds into a place of surrender, we will have an easier time feeling the contours of the land. We do not have to break our way through as much as we have to find our way around the major obstacles. We do not have to cure every neurosis, we just have to learn how not to be caught by them.”
“In building a path through the self to the far shore of awareness, we have to carefully pick our way through our own wilderness. If we can put our minds into a place of surrender, we will have an easier time feeling the contours of the land. We do not have to break our way through as much as we have to find our way around the major obstacles. We do not have to cure every neurosis, we just have to learn how not to be caught by them.”
Mark Epstein
“Enlightenment does not mean getting rid of anything. It means changing one's frame of reference so that all things become enlightening.”
Mark Epstein“We look to the accumulation of sensory pleasures to give our lives meaning. We have the ability now to consume anything we want and this capacity far exceeds our actual needs. With so much at our fingertips, a kind of gluttony pervades our mind-sets.”
Mark Epstein“If you don't waste your energy on variables you cannot influence, you can focus much more effectively on those you can. (Mark Epstein)”
Dan Harris, 10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works“Trauma, if it doesn't destroy us, wakes us up both to our own relational capacities and to the suffering of others. Not only does it makes us hurt, it makes us more human, caring, and wise.”
Mark Epstein, M.D.“The picture we present to ourselves of who we think we ought to be obscures who we really are.”
Mark Epstein, The Trauma of Everyday Life“[The Buddha] is not dividing himself into worthy and unworthy pieces; he is one being, indivisible, immune from the tendency to double back and beat up on himself. He has seen the worst in himself and not been taken down.”
Mark Epstein, The Trauma of Everyday Life“To be free, to come to terms with our lives, we have to have a direct experience of ourselves as we really are, warts and all.”
Mark Epstein, The Trauma of Everyday Life“When we stop distancing ourselves from the pain in the world, our own or others, we create the possibility of a new experience, one that often surprises because of how much joy, connection, or relief it yields. Destruction may continue, but humanity shines through.”
Mark Epstein, The Trauma of Everyday Life“Awakening does not mean a change in difficulty, it means a change in how those difficulties are met.”
Mark Epstein, The Trauma of Everyday Life“In building a path through the self to the far shore of awareness, we have to carefully pick our way through our own wilderness. If we can put our minds into a place of surrender, we will have an easier time feeling the contours of the land. We do not have to break our way through as much as we have to find our way around the major obstacles. We do not have to cure every neurosis, we just have to learn how not to be caught by them.”
Mark Epstein, Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on WholenessAll in One Creative & Marketing Platform to tell stories at scale
