Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something. All your life you have been going forward after something, pursuing some goal. Enlightenment is dropping all that.
Joko BeckRead
We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are; not in fulfilling personal wants, but in fulfilling the needs of life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True joy comes from accepting life as it is rather than constantly seeking personal happiness.
Joko Beck's quote emphasizes that genuine joy is derived from fully experiencing life in its present state, rather than pursuing happiness through personal desires. It suggests that by acknowledging and embracing the circumstances we find ourselves in, and focusing on fulfilling the essential needs of life rather than fleeting wants, we can find a deeper and more meaningful sense of happiness.
Themes
JoyAcceptanceHappinessLifeExperienceNeeds
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a mindfulness workshop to emphasize acceptance of the present.
More from Joko Beck
All quotes βWhat does open us is sharing our vulnerabilities. Sometimes we see a couple who has done this difficult work over a lifetime. In the process, they have grown old together. We can sense the enormous comfort, the shared quality of ease between these people. It is beautiful, and very rare. Without this quality of openness and vulnerability, partners don't really know each other; they are one image living with another image.
Joko BeckRead
There is a foundation for our lives, a place in which our life rests. That place is nothing but the present moment, as we see, hear, experience what is. If we do not return to that place, we live our lives out of our heads. We blame others; we complain; we feel sorry for ourselves. All of these symptoms show that we're stuck in our thoughts. We're out of touch with the open space that is always right here.
Joko BeckRead
How do we know if our practice is a real practice? Only by one thing: more and more, we just see the wonder. What is the wonder? I don't know. We can't know such things through thinking. But we always know it when it's there.
Joko BeckRead
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