You Cannot Avoid Paradise. You Can Only

We Have To Face The Pain We Have Been Running From. In Fact, We Need To Learn To Rest In It And Let Its Searing Power Transform Us.

There Is A Foundation For Our Lives, A Place In Which Our Life Rests. That Place Is Nothing But The Present Moment, As We See, Hear, Experience What Is. If We Do Not Return To That Place, We Live Our Lives Out Of Our Heads. We Blame Others; We Complain; We Feel Sorry For Ourselves. All Of These Symptoms Show That We're Stuck In Our Thoughts. We're Out Of Touch With The Open Space That Is Always Right Here.

There Are Many People In The World Who Feel That If Only They Had A Bigger Car, A Nicer House, Better Vacations, A More Understanding Boss, Or A More Interesting Partner, Then Their Life Would Work. We All Go Through That One. Slowly We Wear Out Most Of Our 'if Onlies.

If I Were To Tell You That Your Life Is Already Perfect, Whole, And Complete Just As It Is, You Would Think I Was Crazy. Nobody Believes His Or Her Life Is Perfect. And Yet There Is Something Within Each Of Us That Basically Knows We Are Boundless, Limitless.

Caught In The Self-centered Dream, Only Suffering; Holding To Self-centered Thoughts, Exactly The Dream; Each Moment, Life As It Is, The Only Teacher; Being Just This Moment, Compassion's Way.