šæ
Thich Nhat Hanh is one of my favorite teachers and this is the book that introduced me to his teachings.
Thay teaches that freedom comes from living your life in this moment, right now, with awareness. Not multi-tasking. Not thinking about what might have been different, or what you plan to do in the future. Just being here, right now, in your body.
āMaybe we too are living like dead people. We move about life in our own corpse because we are not touching life in depth. We live a kind of artificial life, with lots of plans, lots of worries and anger. Never are we able to establish ourselves in the here and now and live our lives deeply. We have to wake up! We have to make it possible for the moment of awareness to manifest. This is the practice that will save usāthis is the revolution.ā
Feb 3, 2025
Related Recs
šŖ·
read the book. trust me.
Sep 28, 2024
this is the best book on mindfulness I have ever come across. it is very simple, funny and insightful.
Dec 12, 2024
You may be familiar with his first book "Be Here Now" considered a seminal work of the hippie/eastern spiritualism movement in the US. Personally, that book doesn't do much for me.
This follow up however, is sublime. Ram Dass made a career out of communicating and teaching and this book depicts his life post-stroke which left him unable to speak. As this was quite a stark transition from his previous path and abilities the book is a great insight into the way aging/illness changes us. It's about life and change and death and I can't recommend it enough.
Jan 16, 2025
Top Recs from @zenlikeme
š¦
Iām not a parent and do not plan to be. Kids can wear me out fast with their high energy and noise level; it leaves me very over-stimulated. But itās pretty extreme when people say they āhate kidsā and I often feel itās a reflection of their childhood and beliefs around how kids āshould be.ā That they were expected to be quiet, obedient, and out of the way by their parents when they were little.
Itās fucking hard to be a kid. Youāre dealing with a rapidly-changing body and underdeveloped brain, managed by flawed adults who are enforcing boundaries that you do not understand. Itās confusing and hard to manage your feelings and honestly just a lot.
People are impatient with kids when theyāre brand new to the world and figuring it all out, and this is a time kids need a friend the most. Children can also be teachers to adults with how they are less habituated to the world. They teach us how to be free and open-hearted and silly and imaginative.
A good practice is to be kinder and gentler with kids. If that feels difficult, start with gentleness toward your inner child. Maybe thatās the child in your life that needs your attention and kindness most.
Apr 16, 2025
I meant to post this yesterday. Absolutely beautiful morning for walk.
This morning is also beautiful but in a spring rain kind of way.
Mar 23, 2025
ā§ļø
Prescriptive gender is a prison. Rather than gender being a form of self-expression, gender is treated as a pass/fail test for how well you can conform to cultural expectations.
Since I was young, I remember feeling a great deal of pressure to conform to these expectations around what āmenā are meant to be. You like sports, cars, womanizing, aggression, and not having feelings. I felt so distant from this ideal. I was sensitive and shy, and I preferred spending my time being creative in some way
For a long time, I felt like I was failing at ābeing a man.ā In many ways I was! Because I didnāt need toĀ bea man. All I needed to be was myself.
Itās taken me a long time to separate myself from prescriptive gender, sharpening in on which aspects of masculine energy I identify with and which I donāt. Iām not done yet. Maybe I will never fully be. The self continues to evolve over time, and I suspect aspects of my gender will too.
Mar 15, 2025