Jeff Foster Quotes

Tomorrow's integration is not my job. The story of yesterday's awakening is irrelevant. Here and now is where life is. And there is only here and now.

And how easy this mechanism is to see in others! Can we see it in ourselves? That is the question. Who are your scapegoats? What do you reject in others that you secretly reject in yourself? Weakness? Failure? Fear? Homosexuality? Violence? What thoughts and feelings do you not admit in yourself, in order to hold up to the world an image of who you are?

For so long there had been a deadness. For so long I’d sat back and watched the world go by without me. The world had become the enemy, because it wasn’t essentially real. Everyday human

Admit is a beautiful word — it means both “tell the truth” and “allow in.” To admit present experience — to tell the truth about what is actually present — is to recognize that what’s present has already been admitted into life. The waves appearing at present have already been admitted into the ocean, and admitting that they exist is at the absolute core of this teaching. Waking up is all about admitting who you really are!

Love is the answer. The question is unimportant.

Feelings that have been pushed away do not actually disappear; they live on in the darkness of the Unconscious, pulling the strings in our relationships, our work, self-expression, causing us to become reactive, compulsive, obsessive, depressed, anxious, and deteriorate our physical health until one day, we remember, all feelings have a right to exist in us. So, we stop numbing ourselves, and feed them love, attention, curiosity and Presence. Now, they can finally come to rest.

A CELEBRATION OF WEIRD Don’t become a spiritual zombie, devoid of passion and deep human feeling. Let spirituality become a celebration of your uniqueness rather than a repression of it. Never lose your quirkiness, your strangeness, your weirdness – your unique and irreplaceable flavour. Don’t try or pretend to be ‘no-one’ or ‘nothing’ or some transcendent and impersonal non-entity with ‘no self’ or ‘no ego’, ‘beyond the human’ – that’s just another conceptual fixation and nobody’s buying it any more. Be a celebration of what your unique expression is and stop apologising. Fall in love with this perfectly divine, very human mess that you are. There is no authority here, and no way to get life wrong. So get it all wrong. Fail, gloriously.

Since everything is only an illusion, perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one might as well burst out laughing! – Longchenpa

The word “depressed” is spoken phonetically as “deep rest”. We can view depression not as a mental illness, but on a deeper level, as a profound, and very misunderstood, state of deep rest, entered into when we are completely exhausted by the weight of our own identity.

hay prisa. La vida no tiene prisa. Sé como las estaciones. El invierno no intenta ser el verano. La primavera no corre hacia el otoño. La hierba crece a su ritmo. La lluvia tampoco se apresura para llegar antes al suelo. Las elecciones que se llevarán a cabo serán llevadas a cabo, y no tienes elección al respecto en este momento. Las decisiones que se tomen se tomarán, los acontecimientos se desplegarán en el tiempo, pero justo ahora tal vez no necesitas saber las soluciones o los resultados, o cómo es mejor proceder. Tal vez el no saber es un invitado bienvenido al banquete de la vida. Tal vez la apertura a la posibilidad es una querida amiga. Acaso incluso la confusión puede venir a descansar aquí, donde tú estás. Así pues, en vez de intentar «arreglar» nuestras vidas, en vez de intentar resolver totalmente lo que no puede ser resuelto y completar con rapidez la historia épica de un «yo» ficticio, sencillamente relajémonos en un profundo no saber y permitamos que todo esté «fuera de control», confiando en el orden que hay dentro del caos salvaje, desempeñándonos dentro del cálido abrazo del misterio, sumergiéndonos profundamente en el momento, saboreándolo plenamente, en toda su singularidad y maravilla.

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on this earth. – Thich Nhat Hanh

Stop thinking your way through life, always trying to work it out before living it. Life is to be lived, not analyzed to death.

TO YOUR KNEES Life will eventually bring you to your knees. Either you’ll be on your knees cursing the universe and begging for a different life, or you’ll be brought to your knees by gratitude and awe, deeply embracing the life that you have, too overwhelmed by the beauty of it all to stand or even speak. Either way, they’re the same knees.

Abundance is not the money you have in your bank account, the trophies on your shelf, the letters after your name, the list of goals reached, the number of people you know, your perfect, healthy body, your adoring fans. Abundance is your connection to each breath, how sensitive you are to every flicker of sensation and emotion in the body. It is the delight with which you savor each unique moment, the joy with which you greet each new day. It is knowing yourself as presence, the power that creates and moves worlds. It is your open heart, how deeply moved you are by love every day, your willingness to embrace, to hold what needs to be held. It is the freshness of each morning unencumbered by memory or false hope. Abundance is the feeling of the afternoon breeze on your cheeks, the sun warming your face. It is meeting others in the field of honesty and vulnerability, connecting beyond the story, sharing what is alive. It is your rootedness in the present moment, knowing that you are always Home, no matter what happens, no matter what is gained or lost. It is touching life at the point of creation, never looking back, feeling the belly rise and fall, thanking each breath, giving praise to each breath. It is falling to your knees in awe, laughing at the stories they tell about you, sinking more deeply into rest. Abundance is simplicity. It is kindness. It is you, before every sunrise: fresh, open, and awake. You are rich, friend! You are rich!

Knowing yourself as the presence, the power that creates and moves worlds - This is Abundance. It exists in your open heart, your willingness to hold a space, to allow everything to unfold, to be. It feels like freshness of a morning and of the afternoon breeze. Like the sun warming your face.

Abundance is meeting others in the sunny field of honesty and vulnerability. It is feeling like you are always Home - in yourself - no matter what happens. Abundance is simplicity. It is kindness. It is you, before every sunrise: fresh, open, and awake. You are rich, friend! You are rich!