“When the Buddha sat down to meditate under the Bodhi Tree 2,600 years ago, he didn’t sit down to come up with a master plan to make himself different. He acknowledged that he was suffering and knew that he wanted to do something about that. He engaged in a simple meditation practice to begin to look at that suffering. The more he looked the more he realized that at his core, he wasn’t basically messed up, he was basically good. He was basically awake. And he was not alone. We are, too. Our wakefulness is indestructible. It is like a diamond in a heap of dust. It is always there. We just need to discover it.” Lodro Rinzler
As a seeker I fear I spend too much time looking at my faults and weaknesses as I try to improve myself. I notice the people around me, who I think are such incredible beings, picking themselves apart in a similar way. When we seek, we can get lost in the details, in the deconstruction. We may forget that the reason we started to seek in the first place is because we wanted to live happier lives. We don’t need to grab our internal jack hammer and sweat away as we break it all down, what a misery! We make it hard, when it is actually easy, because, as Rinzler says, we are basically good, not basically messed up.
I invite you to rediscover yourself in joy, in laughter, in time with friends, in blissful daydreaming. I invite you to discover your basic goodness.
Advice I Give Myself 