You Are Not Alone

Mingyur Rinpoche on the Two Basic Kinds of Suffering
(only five minutes, but very powerful simple explanation, especially of self-suffering)

Underneath, most of us think we suck.
Most of us think we are an exception.
Meditation won't help us.
Yoga won't help us.
Medication won't help us.
Because we are beyond repair.
Beyond help.

Lately, I have come to realize how much of a drain this part of me is.
This part that takes tremendous energy to sustain - a lot of the energy I think I don't have to do things to help pull me out of the cycle. It's reiterative, a closed loop.
It's Samsara. 90% of our suffering is what Mingyur Rinpoche, in the video above, calls self-suffering.

Retire the Firefighter

This is my new mantra.


There's a head chief in my head.* A Head Honcho Who Wears the Waterproof Poncho. Big Chief in Charge of Charring. Master of all Burning Ceremonies. This Firefighter thinks that things are always going wrong, finding fires where there are none, or trying to put out someone else's fires. Enough.