Buddhist Romanticism

to all things. All are part of a sacred whole in which we exist and in
the deepest way they are completely trustworthy.”
* * *
10) (a) People have an innate desire and aptitude for the religious experience,
and can induce it by cultivating an attitude of open receptivity to the universe.
“Openness leads to intimacy with all things.”
“When the mind is allowed to rest in that sense of complete clarity
and choicelessness, we find that it is beyond dualism—no longer
making preferences or being biased towards this over that. It is
resting at the point of equipoise, where this and that and black and
white and where you and I all meet; the space where all dualities
arise from and where they dissolve.”
“This unity, this integration, comes from deeply accepting
darkness and light, and therefore being able to be in both
simultaneously. We must make a shift from one worldview to
another, moving from trying to control the uncontrollable and instead
learn how to connect, to open, to love no matter what is happening.”
“Just as a waiter attends to the needs of those at the table he serves,
so one waits with unknowing astonishment at the quixotic play of
life. In subordinating his own wants to those of the customer, a waiter
abandons any expectation of what he may be next called to do.
Constantly alert and ready to respond, the oddest request does not
faze him. He neither ignores those he serves nor appears at the wrong
time. He is invisible but always there when needed. Likewise, in
asking ‘What is this thing?’ one does not strain ahead of oneself in
anticipation of a result. One waits at ease for a response one cannot
foresee and that might never come. The most one can ‘do’ is remain
optimally receptive and alert.”
“As we open to what is actually happening in any given moment,
whatever it is or might be, rather than running away from it, we
become increasingly aware of our lives as one small part of a vast
fabric made of an evanescent, fleeting, shimmering pattern of
turnings. Letting go of the futile battle to control, we can find
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