All we must do is constantly create a little
shift from
the spinning world we've got in our heads
to right-here-now.
That's our practice.
The intensity and ability to be right-here-now is what we have to develop.

We suffer because life is constantly changing. We know we can't hold onto the pleasant things, and we know that even if unpleasantness disappears it can come again. Life presents us with no guarantees; and because we know that we are uneasy and anxious. If we truly examine our situation from the usual point of view, life is suffering, like an affliction.

If we persistently label any thought, the emotional overlay begins to drop out and we are left with an impersonal energy fragment to which we need not attach.

We have to be willing to be on the cutting edge, just being there with whatever comes up in each moment. Pride, greed, arrogance, pain, joy -- don't try to manipulate what comes up in meditation. By sitting with as much awareness as we can muster, attachments in time just wither away.

ENLIGHTENMENT IS NOT SOMETHING YOU ACHIEVE. IT IS THE ABSENCE OF SOMETHING. ALL YOUR LIFE YOU HAVE BEEN GOING FORWARD AFTER SOMETHING, PURSUING SOME GOAL. ENLIGHTENMENT IS DROPPING ALL THAT. BUT TO TALK ABOUT IT IS OF LITTLE USE. THE PRACTICE HAS TO BE DONE BY EACH INDIVIDUAL. THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE.