From Riddle to Roadmap

There are so MANY wise advices! They sound tantalizingly true: "Just this"; "Only have no preferences"; "All shall be well"; "Let go of judgement"; "Open the front door, open the back door, but don't serve tea"; "Just don't take it personally" ... All ring true YET feel just barely out of reach!

And when it's time to show what we're made of, we tend to forget everything we learned. When a strongly aversive OR strongly attractive situation arises, we tend to get sucked in don't we? Until we grow sufficiently tired of this annoyingly repetitive pattern, we'll just keep repeating it over and over and over... Then at some point, we recall some of the wisdom advice, and for the first time see not a riddle but practical guidance on how to exit life's maze of unsatisfactoriness, stress & suffering.

“We stay with the awareness of our physical-emotional reactions as long as it takes to reside in them. That means relaxing into them, as painful as they are. At some point we no longer need to push them away.” Ezra Bayda

"The emergence and blossoming of understanding, love and intelligence has nothing to do with any tradition, no matter how ancient or impressive - it has nothing to do with time. It happens completely on its own when a human being questions, wonders, listens and looks without getting stuck in fear, pleasure and pain. When self concern is quiet, in abeyance, heaven and earth are open. The mystery, the essence of life is not separate from the silent openness of simple listening." Toni Packer