Tightrope

Mind’s influence is subtle 

Consciousness is a filter

Deep attachment to the body

Deep aversion to aging, illness, death

Am I lovable?

When the bar is high

Deficit is default 

Scarcity mindset prevails

Confronting body changes

Confronting mortality

Anxiety cloud

Another layer to let go

I am enough 

I am worthy

I deserve it

Open up

Remain open

Broaden space between pleasure and pain

Stay in between resistance and clinging 

Middle way

Don’t resist the pain

Face and embrace 

Settle into the eye of the storm

Meditate from the inside out

The body breathes

Not all thoughts are created equal

Develop skillful fabrication

Kitchen body

Chef mind

Concentration food

Drink in the now

Walk the tightrope of a-tension 

No tension no growth

All it takes is pressure and time

Subtle

Starting again
It’s hard to detach

Indulging in thoughts
Why are you fabricating?

You’re not a robot
Life isn’t an optimization problem

Comparison is futile, illogical
Like waves in an ocean
We are all separate
We are all one

Trace the fear
Trigger the attachment
Observe the sensation
Train not to react

Immerse in the subtle energy currents
Raw, deconditioned life force
Carve a core space inside
For clarity, freedom, lightness

Let go of the rail
Drink in the discomfort
Dive into the deep end
Let it sheet off

Kick up the dust cloud of thought
Watch it dissipate
Get underneath
Get real

Indulge in life
Without addiction

Body

Walk the tightrope

Indulge in reality

Avoiding addiction

Consuming the finest food

Absent eating disorders 

Pride without ego

Conviction without craving

Comparing is distracting

Realit-y is realit-ive

Cut through the fog of unreal

Think the thoughts you want

Don’t think the thoughts you don’t want

Do the work

Leave the drama

Slacken the jaw

Feel full body energy 

Stay right here

No matter what

Short-circuit the round trip

Remain local

Feel the pristine life force

Observe how the body breathes

Chitta of an arahant is empty

Perform wholesome, skillful, pious actions

Abstain unwholesome, unskillful actions

Keep purifying the mind

Healthy Distance

Be relentless

Ambitious

Passionate

While free from addiction to reality

From fear, frustration, tension

For the reality-desire mismatch

To curiosity

For how it plays out 

Fly too close 

To the sun and you’ll get burnt

To the truth and you’ll get liberation 

Kick the unskillful habits

The truth shall set you free

Cause, effect

Skillful, unskillful

Noble truth

Cease fighting

Soften your approach

Each moment 

Not resisted

Is embraced

As a new, productive unfolding 

Leverage the opportunity

Unfiltered

Non-judgmental 

Objective

Observation

Not preaching to the choir

Is appealing to your best self

Maintain healthy distance from reality

Hit the brakes

Untangle

Remain backstage

The body is a mist of sensations

Sit back and let the thought storms carry away

Observe the negative atomic space

In the deep end, without rails

Swim in sensations

Unanchored

Annicca annicca annicca

This is all there is

Present

Head dominated identity
In your head
The head dominates

Habits can oppress
Robotic, consistent determinism can trap
False sense of control

Judgment of apparent self
Is habituated by judgment of apparent other

Suffering is universal
Because of universal addiction to reality
Addictive thoughts distract

Disaggregate external noise
Amplify the internal, local
A foot in both leads to weak concentration

Let your guard down
Discover contours
Open up narrow awareness
Unclench the sensational blinders
Take the cleansing breath

Deepen the refuge
Solidify the inner sanctum

Pleasure and pain
Pleasant and unpleasant
Clarity and delusion
Waves and layers

Love
Is connection
Is energy flow
Is change

There’s only energy exchange
Animate with awareness
Feel the life force

Break the shackles
Of expectations and perceptions
From self, others, others toward self
Redefine your identity
So they don’t matter

Shed
Shoulds
Supposed tos
Compared tos
Need tos

Success is not promised
I am enough

No reservation
In iron chain of causality
For doubt
Victimhood
Ego
(Primitive)

Complement causality
With curiosity
Virtue
Wonder
(Refined)

Present
Isn't adversarial
Nor an obstacle
Embrace it as
Opportune
Abundant
Inevitable

Rewire
Desire for control
To desire for liberation

Transform the present
With attention
Into perpetual heaven
Or perpetually experience hell

Every ending is a beginning
Evolve from tolerance to embrace
Enjoy the process
That’s all there is

Impermanence

Fear of failure 
Fear of perception of failure
Full of fear

Aversion to insecurity, uncertainty, discontinuity
Attachment to outcomes
Attachment to control 
Compensate through habits
Control is an illusion

Ego sustains attachment to control
Smaller the ego
Smaller the insecurity 
Smaller the delusion of control
Reduce the surface area of attachment
Annihilate the ego

No I
No me
No my

External perceptions as ephemeral as internal thought
You can’t have the baby
Without the labor pains
Ego's antidote is impermanence

Recognition starts with the gross, physical
Progresses to the subtle, mental

Trace the arising thought
Identify the physical sensation signature
Reveal the addiction

Anicca, anicca, anicca

Observe the fundamental self
As consciousness
In context of impermanence 
Dissolve the ego 
Dissolve the self

For peace and release
To the subtlest level
Immerse in

Surrender to
Take refuge in

Inhabitat
Impermanence

Detachment

Thought circles
Thought prisons

It’s not your leg
It’s your head
It’s not that
It’s you

Get out from under
Stand aside
Redirect tension from shoulders
To wheelbarrow
Tai chi for the mind

Widen awareness
Feel sensation through non-sensation
Deepen observation
Paint with a lighter brush

Finite yet porous
Local yet expansive

Gross to subtle
Subtle to gross
Solid to fluid
Permanence to impermanence

Happiness to peace
Peace to truth
Truth to liberation

Light a torch of sila
Cut through the fog of unfolding

Inoculate from fear
Identify its six sense signature
Awareness to cease aversive reaction
Equanimity to repeat patiently and persistently
Destroy attachment

Destroy addiction to apparent reality

Balance acceptance and creativity

Detachment
Is not cessation of care
It's cessation of stress

Detachment
Is not disengagement
It's productive participation

Untangle, and
Don’t, ever
Look away