Opening Up to Life

     Be still, be quiet, and pay attention. This practice sets up the conditions for revelation. What you have been longing for reveals itself, and you know that it has been there the whole time. 
     This practice is simple, but it’s so easy to get distracted by all the busyness of our lives and of our minds. Stopping and being still doesn’t always seem possible. 
     So we might decide that it’s a good idea to go somewhere and sit still with a bunch of other people. Silent, teacher-led meditation retreats are available in many places these days, and if you have ever attended one, you already know how powerful and challenging they can be. And you know how they can contribute to your own realization of the brilliant offerings of the world.
     Melissa Myozen Blacker http://www.lionsroar.com/dharma-gates-are-everywhere-says-melissa-blacker/?utm_source=Lion%27s+Roar+Newsletter&utm_campaign=6a8c7ff133-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1988ee44b2-6a8c7ff133-21110717&goal=0_1988ee44b2-6a8c7ff133-21110717&mc_cid=6a8c7ff133&mc_eid=9d27166e2a

Freedom to Choose One's State of Being

     “A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes – within the limits of endowment and environment – he has made out of himself. In the concentration camps, for example, in this living laboratory and on this testing ground, we watched and witnessed some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.”
     Viktor E. Frankl. “Man’s Search for Meaning. An Introduction to Logotherapy.” ed 3, Simon & Schuster, 1984.

     "Moral transgression," above and beyond all other dangers & hardships, is considered by another psychiatrist to be the most important cause of combat PTSD.
       Jonathan Shay. “Achilles in Vietnam. Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character.” Scribner, 1994.