If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

— Buddha

We should be able to enjoy the wonders of life in us and everywhere around us. The whispers of rustling pine boughs. Flowers blooming. The beautiful blue sky. Fluffy white clouds. The smile of a neighbor. Each of these is a small miracle of life that has the capacity to nourish and heal us. They’re there for us right now. The question is: are we there for them?

— Thich Nhat Hanh

Here is a video with absolutely beautiful pictures and wonderful thoughts!

Louie Schwartzberg on Gratitude and Happiness

Your effort to smile and laugh is making you cry and weep. You are doing the opposite. There is nothing you need to do. Just smile and laugh. Life has no purpose, no mission. It is a game. It’s a play. Life has no message. Life itself, is an expression of joy.

— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Happiness is not something that comes after acquiring an external object, happiness is not something that should be pursued, it’s not something that can be pursued.

Happiness is your natural state of being.

It’s not that you have to do something in order to be happy, it’s the other way around. When you are naturally happy, whatever you do is an expression of happiness, and your very presence radiates happiness.

Life itself, is an expression of happiness and joy. You are happy, now in this very moment

Photo by Camdiluv ♥

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

— William James

Photo by Bethan Phillips

“Prejudice of any kind implies that you are identified with the thinking mind. It means you don’t see the other human being anymore, but only your own concept of that human being. To reduce the aliveness of another human being to a concept is already a form of violence.”

— Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks, p. 20.

We all experience this. You listen to a piece of music or a song for the first time and think that it is the best music you’ve ever heard. You want to listen to it again and you make use of every opportunity to hear it again. You don’t mind spending some money to get a CD or a recording in order to listen to it whenever you want. You enjoy the music a few times, but as it always happens, after a while it becomes just another music. And after you listen to that music a number of times, you don’t want to listen to it anymore, you are bored, you start running away whenever that familiar tune comes up.

Why does this happen? Why does the music become boring? Isn’t that because you don’t flow with the music anymore? When you listen to the music the first time, you listen to it in anticipation, you relish the rhythm, you flow with the music in its highs and lows, you enjoy every single moment in the music. But as you listen to it a number of times, you know what to expect. Instead of flowing with the music, your mind looks towards the bit of tune or note that’s coming up or keeps humming the tune that’s gone by. Your mind keeps going back and forth, and you don’t enjoy the music anymore. It’s not the music that becomes boring, but it’s because you don’t flow with the rhythm when you listen to that old music.

You can try this for yourself. Take a piece of music or a song that you’ve enjoyed listening in the past, but you have played it so many times that it doesn’t interest you anymore. Now, you are going to listen to it again, but before you start playing the song, take a few deep breaths… and consciously intend that you are not going to predict the tune that’s coming up and you’ll just let go of the tune that’s gone by, you will only listen to the music as you are listening to it the first time. You will look for subtle rhythms that you have not experienced when you were listening to it so many times in the past. Now play the music and flow with the music. Do it now, and come back when you are done!

Tell me, did you enjoy the music? I have tried this and no music is boring to me anymore! No matter how many times you listen to a piece of music, no matter what kind of music that is, there’s always something subtle, something new you can pick up every time you listen to it.

Life, you know, is pretty much like that. Sometimes life does become boring. Why do we get bored? Why is it that life sometimes becomes so frustratingly monotonous? When tasks become repetitive, the mind always goes back and forth, it becomes difficult to stay in the present moment. We always compare our present with the past and from that comparison, try to predict the future.  Now, if you look closely, you will find that no two days are alike, no two minutes are alike, no two seconds are alike. However repetitive the task seems to be, there is always something unique each time. When you let go of intentions to compare and make predictions, when you simply watch yourself doing the task and flow with the task, when you live in the present moment, you will find that each moment is unique, each movement beautiful, each experience fresh and new. Then no task is boring, life becomes beautifully rhythmic, life becomes a music! In fact, when you live in ‘present moment awareness’, in that calm state of mind, even random sounds from the environment feels like music. But when the mind is agitated, even the best music feels like disturbing noise. So, it’s all a matter of choice… do you choose music, or noise?

~ J. Krishnamurti, 2 July 1944