The point of training in higher knowledge is not to become a container of facts or a believer in any particular philosophical system. The whole point is to clearly see what is truth and what is illusion in how we live. It means we understand the relationship of cause and effect, and we see how it functions in our life. We see that suffering is the natural result of a certain cause and that ultimately that cause is our self-clinging. We see that happiness is the result of a certain cause and that ultimately that cause is transcending our self-clinging.
We never actually perceive what is there, only what is related back to us through our senses. The reality perceived by a fly, with its very differently structured eye and antennae, is very different from the reality we perceive, but it is equally valid from the fly’s point of view. We don’t see things better than the fly does, we just see our own version. Take this glass, for example. It’s very solid. If I were to hit somebody with it, he would feel it. But modem physics tells us that this glass is composed mostly of space, with just a few electrons, protons, and neutrons zooming around in it. Yet we don’t perceive it that way. And if I were an ant, or an elephant, or a dolphin, I would perceive something else again. Each of these perceptions is valid. Our version is no better than anyone else’s.
– Tenzin Palmo
from the book “Reflections On A Mountain Lake: Teachings On Practical Buddhism”
The presence of space makes it possible for the whole universe to be set out within it, and yet this does not alter or condition space in any way. Although rainbows appear in the sky, they do not make any difference to the sky; it is simply that the sky makes the appearance of rainbows possible. Phenomena adorn emptiness, but never corrupt it.
Most humans are never fully present in the now because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one. But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now.
When a journalist asked Eckhart Tolle to summarize his teaching, he said—Treat this moment as a Friend, not your enemy. How you treat life is how life will treat you back for Life is a Mirror.
Whenever you are immersed in compulsive thinking, you are avoiding what is. You don’t want to be where you are. Here and Now.
This one moment – Now – is the only thing you can never escape from, the one constant factor in your life. No matter what happens, no matter how much your life changes, one thing is certain: it’s always Now.
Since there is no escape from the Now, why not welcome it, and be friendly with it?
The division of life into past, present and future is mind-made and ultimately illusionary.
~ Eckhart Tolle
Go on dying to the past and never think of the future – and then try to be miserable. You will fail. You cannot be miserable.
We miss the reality between these waverings of past and future. Reality is here and now.
Past should be a learning experience and not an everlasting punishment. Just remember that the past is dead, and the future unborn, hence both are not, and both are illusions. One can remember the past or plan for the future, but at the same time, it should not eat our present moment.
Most humans are never fully present in the now because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one.
Zen Flash 
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