Refrain from One Thing

"For one day, or for one day for a week, refrain from something you habitually do to run away, to escape. Pick something concrete, such as overeating or excessive sleeping or overworking or spending too much time texting or checking e-mails. Make a commitment to yourself to gently and compassionately work with refraining from this habit for this one day. Really commit to it. Do this with the intention that it will put you in touch with the underlying anxiety or uncertainty that you've been avoiding. Do it and see what you discover."
-  Pema Chodron, Living Beautifully with Uncertainty and Change, p. 36

So, this past week, I gave up reading Google News each day and read books on Vajrayana Buddhism instead.  In October, I will not drink any alcohol.  I will spend no more than 10 minutes a day on blogging.  I will not watch any Raiders football games.   

"Desired substance, things, patterns, or sequences of experience that are in some sense "good" for the organism - items of diet, conditions of life, temperature, entertainment, sex, and so forth - are never such that more of the something is always better than less of the something.  Rather, for all objects and experiences, there is a quantity that has optimum value.  Above that quantity, the variable becomes toxic.  To fall below that value is to be deprived."
-  Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature   

"I have come to terms with the future.  From this day onward I will walk easy on the earth.  Plant trees.  Kill no living things.  Live in harmony with all creatures.  I will restore the earth where I am.  Use no more of its resources than I need.  And listen, listen to what it is telling me."
-  M.J. Slim Hooey   

Simplicity: Quotes, Sayings  

Ten Paramitas