Handling this Very Moment

The present moment
contains past and future.
The secret of transformation,
is in the way we handle this very moment.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Understanding Our Mind

A perception, sudden as blinking,
that subject and object are one,
will lead to a deeply mysterious understanding;
and by this understanding you will awaken to the truth.

Huangbo Xiyun, The Wan Ling Record of Xiu Pei

If you awaken from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death — or shall I say, death implies life — you can conceive yourself. Not conceive, but feel yourself, not as a stranger in the world, not as someone here on sufferance, on probation, not as something that has arrived here by fluke, but you can begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental. What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself. So, say in Hindu mythology, they say that the world is the drama of God. God is not something in Hindu mythology with a white beard that sits on a throne, that has royal perogatives. God in Indian mythology is the self, Satcitananda. Which means sat, that which is, chit, that which is consciousness; that which is ananda is bliss. In other words, what exists, reality itself is gorgeous, it is the fullness of total joy.

Alan Watts, The Nature of Consciousness

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