Quotes About Clarity

I also know it`s true, that thing about how perception switches around and we come to realize that the things we thought we were holding are actually holding us.

It's like practicing pole vaulting your entire life, and then getting to the olympics and saying, 'what the hell did I want to jump over this stupid bar for?

what really makes for readability is not clarity but attitude: the attitude of your prose toward out elusive friend the Reader and the role you invent for that invented being in your invented world.

With continuing practice," Tarthang Tulku explains, ...we see less and less difference between the waking and the dream state. Our experiences in waking life become more vivid and varied, the result of a lighter and more refined awareness... This kind of awareness, based on dream practice, can help create an inner balance.[3]

Because noting states of mind as they arise keep us present, it allows us to meet difficulties at their inception – before they become more real than we are.

Often when we hear people speak about meditation, we hear about wisdom, we hear about knowledge. But what, actually, is the effect, what's the use, of wisdom or knowledge? Understanding. When you understand mind, you're not at its mercy. When you don't understand, you're lost in the midst of it.

Meditation is for many a foreign concept, somehow distant and foreboding, seemingly impossible to participate in. But another word for meditation is simply awareness. Meditation is awareness.

the third eye... our sacred Cyclops... our good eye, the only one that can see beyond our conditioned ways of seeing. It is, of course, a knowing eye, not a seeing one. It is the eye through which we look within to experience the universe unfolding. It is the single eye that concentrates duality into the One: the eye of insight, the locus of the point of remembrance on the ascent to death, as well as the point of forgetfulness on the descent into birth.

A counterfeit manifestation of clarifying expectations is to create "smoke and mirrors"—to give lip service to clarifying expectations, but to fail to pin down specifics like results, deadlines, or dollars that facilitate meaningful accountability.

he always tried to start off by "declaring himself." That meant he told them who he was, what mattered to him, and how he approached leadership and work. He told them about his goals for the company and for the relationship. He explained not only his what but especially his why.

Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

Can we get something out the way

The Great Way is not difficult if you do not make distinctions. Only throw away likes and dislikes, and everything will be perfectly clear. So

Just as the sun by itself illuminates the entire world, so the field owner illumines everything in the field.

So if you are thinking, words are very bad. But if you are not thinking, all words and all things that you can see or hear or smell or taste or touch will help you. So it is very important for you to cut off your thinking and your attachment to words.

be very careful about wanting enlightenment. This is a bad Zen sickness. When you keep a clear mind, the whole universe is you, you are the universe. So you have already attained enlightenment. Wanting enlightenment is only thinking. It is something extra, like painting legs on the picture of a snake. Already the snake is complete as it is. Already the truth is right before your eyes.

Zen teaching is like a window. At first, we look at it, and see only the dim reflection of our own face. But as we learn, and our vision becomes clear, the teaching becomes clear. Until at last it is perfectly transparent. We see through it. We see all things: our own face.

As unnecessary as a well is to a village on the banks of a river, so unnecessary are all scriptures to someone who has seen the truth.

If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster.

How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.

people are working harder than ever, but because they lack clarity and vision, they aren't getting very far. They, in essence, are pushing a rope...with all of their might.

Just as breathing exercises help integrate body and mind, writing is a kind of psycho-neural muscular activity which helps bridge and integrate the conscious and subconscious minds. Writing distills, crystallizes, and clarifies thought and helps break the whole into parts.

Leadership is communicating people's worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves." Is that not also the essence of good teaching?

It's incredibly easy to get caught up in the thick of thin things.