29 Quotes by Joan Tollifson

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

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.

Unlike some who claim that a line in the sand was forever crossed on a particular date in time, no such final event has happened in Joan’s story. And, in fact, true enlightenment is not concerned at all with “me” being enlightened.

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

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.

For some people, being a Zen monk is the perfect expression. For others, drinking beer and calling meditation hogwash is the perfect expression. Some teachers will tell you to sweep the floor mindfully, and others will tell you that your mindful sweeping is only a dream. Life is wonderfully playful and diverse.

We know in our deepest heart of hearts that unconditional love is somehow more true – more fundamental, more real, more radical (at the root) – than hate, which always seems to be confused, deluded, reactive, divisive and false. Love breeds love, and hate breeds hate. We all experience this.

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

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.