Happiness

"A lot of people who are addicted are addicted to pleasure more than they are to happiness...People are looking for pleasure to fill some kind of need, or neediness...but pleasure is very different from happiness, and happiness is not found from chasing after pleasure, getting more and more of it. In Buddhism, we say that happiness arises, a very profound kind of happiness, when there is an openness to life's experiences...when we can let the pleasant and unpleasant experiences roll through us."

-Gil Frondsal from the Zencast Podcast on "Feelings"

I had to pause and take this down this morning when I was listening to the Zencast. Sometimes, I hear the most perfect things, and it really pisses me off when I lose them later. So now, I have it here, and you do, too.

God Stuff

I yearn to belong to something, to be contained
in an all-embacing mind that sees me
as a single thing.
I yearn to be held
in the great hands of your heart--
oh, let them take me now.
Into them I place these fragments, my life,
and you, God, spend them however you want.

-Rilke

I was listening to Tara Brach lecturing about Radical Acceptance this morning, and she quoted this bit from Rilke.

Rilke is one of those poets I sometimes turn into a fiend over...my entire being will be gripped by my profound need for a Rilke poem. Now I have a new one to add to my Rilke supply.

And once again, how funny to find these words when I'm in the midst of my own adventure with finding and defining my own Higher Power! I'm reading the Bhagavad Gita, practicing yoga like a god-thirsty madwoman, praying and looking and seeking the loving kindness and acceptance of something bigger than myself, something with answers better than the answers I've come to on my own.

My answers are bad answers, and I need help finding the right ones. I like it that everywhere I go, I find little sign posts indicating I'm on the right path.