Another reason to pause to see things clearly.

From Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana. One of those books you can read again and again. Much gratitude to Tammy Dyer of Insight Meditation Fort Wayne for reminding me of this quote.

“You can’t make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes will flow naturally. You don’t have to force anything, struggle, or obey rules dictated to you by some authority. It is automatic; you just change.

“But arriving at that initial insight is quite a task. You have to see who you are and how you are without illusion, judgment, or resistance of any kind. You have to see your place in society and your function as a social being. You have to see your duties and obligations to your fellow human beings, and above all, your responsibility to yourself as an individual living with other individuals.

“And finally, you have to see all of that clearly as a single unit, an irreducible whole of interrelationship…Mental cultivation through meditation is without rival in helping you achieve this sort of understanding and serene happiness.”

Photo by Jacky Zhao on Unsplash