Quotes from Steve Hagen

The Buddha encouraged people to "know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong. And when you do, then give them up. And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good, then accept them and follow them.

Pat tells you something about Jolene. What do you hear as a listener? What information have you actually received? You've received information about Pat – not Jolene. We may walk away believing we have solid information about Jolene. But we don't. All we have are Pat's words about her. Perhaps you haven't even met Jolene. If you're wise, you'll withhold judgements about her. Nothing put into speech is ever completely reliable.

When we cease to be bound by our concepts, our paradigms, our grasping, our inclinations of mind, our doubt ceases as well, because our knowledge is no longer dependent on anything beyond immediate, direct experience.

The problem is our ignorance. We have to own up to it. We're the species that, in the New Mexican desert in 1945, wondered if our new experiment might ignite the atmosphere and incinerate the Earth. We discussed it and thought it unlikely, but we could not be certain. Yet we went ahead and exploded the first atomic bomb anyway.

W]e rely on what we think (conception), rather than on what we see (perception), … [T]here's unrest in our mind.

In fixing] on the idea of a universe full of separate, unchanging, persistent things … [w]e also necessarily conceive that each thing must die, must one day come to an end. … [W]hen that thing is the imagined 'I', this prospect naturally terrifies us.

Real Buddhism is not really an "ism." It's a process, an awareness, an openness, a spirit of inquiry—not a belief system, or even (as we normally understand it) a religion. It is more accurate to call it "the teaching of the awakened," or the buddha-dharma. Since the

When we latch on to an identity, it's easy to take offense. But we offend ourselves. We lock ourselves into very rigid ways of seeing and thinking and feeling and reacting.

Mindfulness of the body is awareness of... the taste and smell of this moment.

What makes human life--which is inseparable from this moment--so precious is its fleeting nature. And not that it doesn't last but that it never returns again.

See confusion as confusion. Acknowledge suffering as suffering. Feel pain and sorrow and divisiveness. Experience anger or fear or shock for what they are. But you don't have to think of them as evil - as intrinsically bad, as needing to be destroyed or driven from our midst. On the contrary, they need to be absorbed, healed, made whole. (15)

This will never come again

We're never called on to do what hurts. We just do what hurts out of ignorance and habit. Once we see what we're doing, we can stop.

We often think we know things when in fact it's only our imagination taking us further and further away from what is actually happening. What we imagine then seems very real to us. Soon we're caught up in our imaginary longings and loathings. But if you're here - truly present - you realize there's nothing to run from or to go after. You can stay calm...Just be with this moment and see what's going on. (9)

We have to realize what we are. The range of what is human is vast, ranging from the saintly to the monstrous. When we speak of other human beings as if they somehow do not belong to our species, we ignore the reality of our very nature.

If it's Truth we're after, we'll find that we cannot start with any assumptions or concepts whatsoever. Instead, we must approach the world with bare, naked attention, seeing it without any mental bias - without concepts, beliefs, preconceptions, presumptions, or expectations. (6)

The Buddha encouraged people to "know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong. And when you do, then give them up. And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good, then accept them and follow them." The message is always to examine and see for yourself. When you see for yourself what is true-and that's really the only way that you can genuinely know anything-then embrace it. Until then, just suspend judgment and criticism.

As we live out of such a mind, we become generous, with no sense of tolerance. We become patient, with no sense of putting up with anything. We become compassionate, with no sense of separation. And we become wise, with no sense of having to straighten anyone out.

When we latch on to an identity, it is easy to take offense. But we offend ourselves. We lock ourselves into very rigid ways of seeing and thinking and feeling and reacting. It doesn't have to be this way. The fact is, I'm not anything in particular. Nor are you. Nor is anyone.

Buddha is not someone you pray to, or try to get something from. Nor is a buddha someone you bow down to. A buddha is simply a person who is awake—nothing more or less.

We can only be here. We can't leave. We are always here.

T]here is really nothing 'out there' to get because, already, within this moment, everything is whole and complete.

Our problem is that we don't pay attention to what we actually know. We give our attention to what we think—to what we have ideas or beliefs about—and we discard what we actually see.

I]mpermanence [is] the very thing that makes [life] vibrant, wonderful, and alive.