(via fuckyeahexistentialism)
Transforming Sadness and Depression: Decide First Thing
There was a Sufi mystic who remained happy his whole life- no one had ever seen him unhappy- who was always laughing, who was laughter, whose whole being was a perfume of celebration.
In his old age, when he was dying- on his deathbed and still enjoying, laughing hilariously- a disciple asked, “You puzzle us. You are still laughing; how are you managing it?”
The old man said, “It is simple. I asked my master. I went to my master as a young man; I was only seventeen and already miserable, and my master was old, seventy, and he was sitting under a tree, laughing for no reason at all. There was nobody there, nothing has happened, nobody had cracked a joke or anything, and he was simply laughing, holding his belly. I asked him, ‘What is the matter with you? Are you mad or something?’
“He said, ‘One day I was also as sad as you are. Then it dawned on me that it is my choice, it is my life.’ Since that day, every morning when I get up the first thing I decide is… before I open my eyes I say to myself, ‘Abdullah’”-that was his name-“‘what do you want? Misery? Blissfulness? what are you going to choose today?’ And it happens that I always choose blissfulness.”
— Osho, Emotional Wellness
(via terramantra)
We are not held back by the love we didn’t receive in the past, but by the love we’re not extending in the present.
Marianne Williamson
Meet Dogen
I adopted a pit bull/mix from an animal shelter in Harlem today. I named her Dogen, after Dogen Zenji. She’s beautiful and full of love. Everyone come over and play!
Genuine love is rarely an emotional space where needs are instantly gratified. To know love we have to invest time and commitment… dreaming that love will save us, solve all our problems or provide a steady state of bliss or security only keeps us stuck in wishful fantasy, undermining the real power of love — which is to transform us.
bell hooks
(via wordsandturds)
Tears are far more beautiful than anything that you have with you, because tears come from the overflow of your being. Tears are not necessarily of sadness; sometimes they come out of great joy and sometimes they come out of great peace and sometimes they come out of ecstasy and love. In fact they have nothing to do with sadness or happiness. Anything that stirs your heart too much, anything that takes possession of you, anything that is too much, that you cannot contain and it starts overflowing - that brings tears.
Accept them with great joy, relish them, nourish them, welcome them, and through tears you will know how to pray.
Through tears you will know how to see. Tear-filled eyes are capable of seeing truth. Tear-filled eyes are capable of seeing the beauty of life and the benediction of it.
Osho
(via nirvikalpa)
Mark Rothko, Green Over Blue, 1956
(via drum-taps)
#La primavera #Los cerezos
1 day ago on May 31, 2012 at 01:45am with 297 notes
Via crashinglybeautiful
1 day ago on May 31, 2012 at 01:45am with 297 notes
Via crashinglybeautiful
There are quite a few movies that hold special meaning for me but this still from this movie has the strongest pull. You know when you’re first falling in love and you want to tell everybody about how in love you are but are too shy/insecure to actually do it? This image was my cryptic shout from the mountaintop. Every time I see it, I think of how much courage it takes to love and let yourself be loved.
I think the best thing someone can say to another person when they breakdown is: “it’s okay to feel the way you’re feeling”. I don’t know how to describe what it felt like to hear those words. I understood at once that I had entered into a deeper state of loving and that I had been underestimating the depth of love held for me.
A lot of my problems and insecurities from the past have been showing up lately. I think it’s because I’m relatively stagnant right now and my subconscious is trying to get me to work on everything before I have to go into combat mode again. A big part of me is afraid that I am on the cusp of another depression or that maybe this period of stagnation is inevitably going to lead to depression. I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that this is probably going to be a lifelong thing, dealing with depression, making sure it doesn’t come back full force. I’m okay with that but right now I’m just kinda grasping at things that I think may keep me from going under this time.
I’m gonna do something hard but natural. I want to keep my head above water while I still have the willpower to swim. Thoughts of death and suicide have started popping up this past week. If I don’t actively start fight back right now, the depression is just going to hit full force in the next few days and I won’t have the energy anymore. I think the internet is an easy place to retreat to when depressed but in the long run it does more harm than good. Life still happens on the outside and I need to make myself feel part of it. I care about a lot of things, so much, too much and I want to genuinely care about myself too.
Life is really beautiful and really, really, really good. Even when it’s horrible and even when we’re tearing each other apart. I’ve never been able to articulate the reconciliation between these seemingly opposite poles but I’ve always felt it deep down where words don’t have a function. Sometimes when I have nightmares and I realize I’m dreaming but unable to wake up, I start chanting ‘Samsara is Nirvana’ over and over again until I do wake up.
I want to wake up now.
How about: Remember that at any given moment, you can love.
(via guerrillamamamedicine)
