Quotes from Joan Tollifson

Maybe that is the purest and most radical kind of religion – simple attention. Present-moment awareness. Instead of a belief system, awareness sees through all beliefs.

Meditation is a social and political act. Listening and not-doing are actions far more powerful than most of us have yet begun to realize.

During the last year she was alive, at age 95, my mother said many times, "It's so freeing to realize that nothing really matters." She said it joyously, with relief, as if a burden had been lifted. She also said over and over, "Love yourself". Tollifson, Joan. Nothing to Grasp (p. 174). New Harbinger Publications. Kindle Edition.

Habit has two parts, Toni [Packer] says. There is the habit itself (finger biting, smoking, drinking, whatever), and there is the observer who wants to stop, who is also a habit. And there is the conflict, the battle between the desire to indulge, which is an escape from what is, and the desire to stop, which is also a movement away from what is.

But this is my old game, isn't it? Comparing, judging, evaluating, liking and disliking, approving and disapproving. There are, I sense, inseparable strengths and weaknesses in whatever way you go, and the point ultimately is just to go.

Maybe that is the purest and most radical kind of religion – simple attention. Present-moment awareness. Instead of a belief system, awareness sees through all beliefs.

Presence is not an object. It is the openness that beholds it all.

So there are different experiences – every individual has a completely unique experience. But it is all one energy, one whole seeing, one whole being. Unicity is all there is, and unicity does not belong to me or you. We belong to it. It is what "we" are.

Basic awareness meditation is really nothing more or less than giving open, nonjudgmental attention to present-moment, non-conceptual experiencing. You don't have to be in the lotus position. This can happen on the city bus.

True freedom is the willingness for life to be as it is, no matter how it appears. This willingness is expressed in the Abrahamic religions as "Thy will be done." Paradoxically, in completely accepting everything just as it is, there is space for something truly new and creative to enter the picture. And this space is never not here.

Once people start identifying themselves or others as "permanently enlightened people," the bullshit begins.

Awareness by its very nature doesn't need anything to be other than exactly how it is. It doesn't go to war with the way things are, it simply exposes them to the light. It allows everything to undo itself. Awareness is unconditional love, absolute devotion. It accepts everything.

So I've held on to Catholicism or Zen, as practices, as fantasy futures, as possible identities. But when I actually dare to lower myself down into this emptiness—no, that sounds entirely too dualistic and willful and "courageous"—but when this seeing suddenly happens and thought relaxes, Zen drops completely away, and something much deeper is contacted, some entirely other way of being.

The trick is not to make an idea or a system out of this openness, a new dogma.

The concentration of a baby is alive wonderment. It is to that kind of organic interest, or passion, and awareness that Toni [Packer] seems to be pointing: listening that is not rote or methodical in any way. The baby has no sense yet of self-image, of itself as an object—a person—who needs to be improved, and Toni will question any meditation practice that contributes to such a picture.

we maintain awareness, whether we know it or not, healing is taking place… a door that has been shut begins to open…. As the door opens, we see that the present is absolute and that, in a sense, the whole universe begins right now, in each second. And the healing of life is in that second of simple awareness…. Healing is always just being here, with a simple mind. ?—?Charlotte Joko Beck

In simple presence with what is right here now, be it joyful or painful, an amazing freedom reveals itself. It cannot be described or explained in words. It is the freedom to be totally, effortlessly the way things are at this moment. ?—?Toni Packer

Waking up is the end of spirituality in the usual sense of that word. With that in mind, we can approach various nondual explorations (or practices, if you want to call them that) in a playful way, as natural and spontaneous activities of life. Like art, music or dancing, they are ways in which life is exploring, enjoying, revealing, loving and entertaining itself.

There is no one-size-fits-all spiritual practice or pointer. One person will gravitate to a highly structured approach, another to an approach that is more open and spontaneous. For some, meditating daily on a schedule or practicing with a group may be essential. For others, these activities just get in the way. What we need in one moment may be different from what we need in another moment. There is no one right way. This universe is magnificently diverse and playful.

As I realize more and more deeply, the greatest gift we can offer to ourselves and the world is to be awake and rooted in love.

One of the more sophisticated dramas that consciousness produces is "me" trying to step out of "my story," the character trying to free itself from itself. This is like a mirage trying to eliminate a mirage, or a phantom trying to pull itself up by its own imaginary bootstraps, or a dog chasing its own tail.

You may discover that when there is no resistance to totally being in hell, heaven opens up and samsara reveals its true nature as nirvana.

Every instant is a new universe.

To reveal what is obvious, unavoidable, and never-not-here requires an approach that is not result-oriented, an approach that goes nowhere, an approach that is utterly useless and without purpose.