we are like the things under stones

our lives are filled with unfinished business, unmet commitments, broken promises and unlived dreams; and yet, behold the diligence and care with which we fondle and stroke our habitual patterns.

we are unable to find the time to play with our children, and yet we have all the time in the world, it seems, to indulge in a thousand little rituals that differ from play only in that they are not fun.

bring your entire attention to something you view as an obligation - listening to the complaints of an aging parent, or writing a letter by hand to an old school acquaintance - from beginning to end, and a new consciousness, a new power emerges.

if you are fully present, with all of your faculties and all of your will, for any pursuit that is unselfish, it is like being filled with a clear light.

we are, however, like the things that live under stones, and usually find the clear light too frightening to endure.