Chase after money and security
And your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval
And you will be their prisoner.
Do you work, then step back
The only path to serenity.
—Lao Tzu
Trotting along on his donkey, Mulla Nasrudin was trying to eat some mulberry-flour. But each time he tried to empty some out of the bag into his mouth, the wind blew it away.
A passing farmer called out:
‘What are you doing, Mulla?’
‘At this rate,’ said Nasrudin, ‘I am not doing any thing at all.’
—Idries Shah, The subtleties of the inimitable Mulla Nasrudin
Concentration is a dual consciousness; that’s why concentration creates tiredness…Meditation does not tire, meditation does not exhaust…Meditation is in the present, pure present. Meditation is immediacy. You can not meditate, you can be in meditation. You cannot be in concentration, but you can concentrate. Concentration is human, meditation is divine.
—Osho, The Orange Book
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture.
—Rumi
