Our mind is like a puppy.

I love Tricycle, the buddhist magazine. Here are some of my favorite daily dharmas.

Coming Back
For some, [the] task of coming back a thousand or ten thousand times in meditation may seem boring or even of questionable importance. But how many times have we gone away from the reality of our life?–perhaps a million or ten million times! If we wish to awaken, we have to find our way back here with our full being, our full attention. . . In this way, meditation is very much like training a puppy. You put the puppy down and say, “Stay.” Does the puppy listen? It gets up and runs away. You sit the puppy back down again. “Stay.” And the puppy runs away over and over again. Sometimes the puppy jumps up, runs over and pees in the corner, or makes some other mess. Our minds are much the same as the puppy, only they create even bigger messes. In training the mind, or the puppy, we have to start over and over again.

–Jack Kornfield, A Path with Heart

from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

Isn’t it so true? I find my mind trying to fit every random thought into every second of my day. When I started practicing meditation and mindfulness, it is such a relief to understand our own mind. I didn’t even realize how distracting I was to myself!

Journey to Wisdom and Happiness
The Buddha’s maps for the journey to wisdom and happiness are attractive to many people because they are so simple. Essentially, he taught that it doesn’t make sense to upset ourselves about what is beyond our control. We don’t get a choice about what hand we are dealt in this life. The only choice we have is our attitude about the cards we hold and the finesse with which we play our hand.

When the Buddha taught his ideas twenty-five hundred years ago, many people understood him so well as soon as they heard him that they were happy ever after. The people who didn’t understand him immediately needed to practice meditation, and then they understood.

–Sylvia Boorstein, It’s Easier Than You Think

from Everyday Mind, edited by Jean Smith, a Tricycle book

I believe very deeply in Buddha’s teachings. I love the metaphor of life and cards. You only live once, so why not make the most of it- bruises and all.

Not Searching for Happiness.

Peace. Join the movement.

I’ve been a consistent visitor of the Sky Creek Dharma Center in Chico, CA on Thursday nights. It’s a night for us young minds (20 something year olds) to meditate and learn about Buddhism. I fell in love with the Center the first time I stepped in the serene atmosphere. I wouldn’t miss my Thursday nights  with my meditation group for anything. It allows me to relax and tone down my week.

One thing that really stood out to me this past Thursday was a talk about Happiness. Now, we all think that if we search for happiness, we will find it. I don’t believe that to be true. You can’t find happiness, it comes and goes when it pleases. I just found this to be true most recently. I’ve been trying so hard to find my right path. Where I should go after college, where I should work…etc. I’ve been so stressed searching for the path that will make me happy and in the mist of it all, it made me not happy. It made me miserable. So I gave up. I truely don’t know exactly what I will be doing, but it doesn’t bother me anymore.

So when I’m not searching for happiness, I now find myself happy. I’m relaxed. It’s as simple as that. I can really enjoy myself and what’s going on around me. I’m so tired of trying to plan my future, when what I really need to think about is RIGHT NOW. There is no future. There is only right now. Right now. RIGHT NOW. I might say in the future I will move home to Monterey, but once I get there I won’t be in the future. It will be right then, that present time. I will never be in the future. So why do we worry so much about what is to come? I have had that state of mind since I was little. I was always planning and looking ahead, only to miss what was happening in the present moment. I feel like I missed a lot and I’m not going to let that happen to me anymore. So I’m not searching for happiness and I’m not planning my future. I’m just going to be me, right here, right now. And whatever that looks like, sounds like, or feels like…that’s just it.